The line I first saw it in is:
大げさなジェスチャーは小さいころからのクセだ。見てるぶんには面白いので俺はあえて注意しない。
A few other examples I've found:
"遠目で見ている分にはいいけれど"
"見てるぶんには可愛いけど…こびとづかんになりたくはない。"
"Paris Photo [caption on photo of antiques on display]: 見てる分にはかわいい"
What does this construction (見ている分には) mean exactly? In a dictionary I've read, 分 has as one of its meanings "just as much as" and "in proportion to". So would 見ている分には mean "as much as (I'm) seeing" or something along those lines? Would "見てるぶんには面白いので" mean "It's interesting as much as I'm seeing it,so..."? That doesn't make much sense, though. Can someone enlighten me? [Edit:On second thought, maybe it's more something like: "To the degree that I'm watching, because it's interesting, I don't go so far as to pay attention" or "I don't at all pay attention to the degree that I'm watching because it's amusing."]
Answer
This [分]{ぶん} expresses "one's intended or hypothetical partial involvement with something" in my own words.
見てる分にはいいけれど = (something) is good to look at but ~~
見てる分にはかわいいけど = (something) looks cute and all that but ~~
What these phrases imply is that the speaker is not willing to take further actions other than just watching the object. A must word for natural Japanese, really.
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