Yeah wait for Big Band...he definitely isn't about fanservice. I think Beowulf will also bring in people.
Oh yeah that too. A couple beefy man dude men will, strangely, bring all the boys to the yard.
It's weird, but I feel like I can actually directly point to both Filia and Parasoul as to why this game turns off people who are bothered by fanservice. Sure you got Valentine, Bella, and I guess Fortune, but Valentine is BLATANTLY supposed to be sex on two legs, so it's like in her case she couldn't NOT be fanservicy. Bella is a flashy performer person so in her case it's like, sure whatever. She's supposed to show off. Fortune is like... all acrobatic and sporty in an Elena sort of way, so her look actually feels fairly sensible. Plus she comes apart so clothing would get in the way anyway. Eliza, I feel, will be in the same league as Valentine and/or Bella as far as justifications go.
But Filia and Parasoul, it's like... what's their excuse? They rock these short skirts but I don't feel like they OWN it personality-wise. It especially doesn't help that Filia is one of the two poster girls. If Filia wasn't slam-you-in-the-face schoolgirl fetish bait maybe people would consider looking more at the other characters after a first glance. And then if Parasoul also maybe wore a longer skirt or some pants or SOMEthing (I'd kill for her original eyepatch-nazi design), the rest of the cast wouldn't look like it was overwhelmed by fanservice when they did so, even if there were still some "offending" characters.
Looking at the full possible roster during voting, I feel like there's actually plenty of characters that fall far enough out of the "blatant fanservice" category that, had the initial cast been just a little different, the game would have caught a lot less flack on this issue. Which is good in a way, since it means this "issue" could get smoothed out as the game ages, but it would have been nice to have avoided it in the first place.
Because damn, regardless of how you personally feel about it, it makes it a bit of a hard sell at times.