| Hey everyone! I'm looking for anime or manga that has character design which is very visually iconic. What I mean by this is that the characters don't look similar to each other, and they all have their own, unique style. A few examples would be the characters from Lupin the III, Space Dandy, Dr. Slump, Future Boy Conan, FLCL, Dragon Ball, maybe also One Piece? (even though I like One Piece's artstyle less and less the further I get into the series) I hesitate to say Detective Conan as a whole, since there's lots of similar character design in the supporting cast, but Dr. Agasa would be a good example of what I'm talking about, and also Mouri Kogoro to an extent. I tend to prefer character design like this, even if they're not cartoony (though cartoony is fine as well). As long as the designs mix things up and bring new & interesting things to the table, instead of keeping the status-quo. Oh, and please, if you do suggest something, be sure it doesn't include any of that cookie cutter "moe" art style (I've never liked it to begin with, and it's been vastly overdone at this point, anyhow.) |
vigorousjammerSep 18, 2015 8:09 AM
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galimx said: Ninja Scroll Wicked City Cowboy Bebop Ping Pong These four are great suggestions! However... I've already seen them all. galimx said: Berserk Monster Hmm... I've only seen a little bit of Berserk and Monster, I should probably go back and restart both and work my way through them. [quote-galimx]Master Keaton[/quote] I've heard of this series before, in passing. It looks pretty interesting! I might have to check it out at some point. Not sure if I'll go with the anime or the manga first. In any case, I've added it to my PTW list. |
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| Maybe Katanagatari? The eye designs alone are some of the most unique I've seen in anime, for example: |
| +1 Ghost in the Shell Dragon Ball Naruto the Monogatari series |
galimx said: Baccano Jin-Roh:The Wolf Brigade Perfect Blue and all other Satoshi Kon works Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex Seen all of these already. It's funny, I've recently just got finished watching all of Satoshi Kon's major anime works. The only thing I have left to watch is his work on the old Jojo OVAs and Master Keaton, which he apparently did some Key animation for (this makes me even more excited to watch it.) I still have all of his manga to read, however, so at least there's that. Still, it makes me kind of sad that I've almost run out of material to watch from one of my favorite animators & directors. I really hope MAPPA does well for Masao Maruyama, if for nothing else, simply to see The Dreaming Machine finally be completed. galimx said: Legend of Galactic Heroes This is one of those series I plan to eventually watch, but I've been so busy trying to catch up on Gundam that I haven't yet. :P galimx said: Ashita no Joe Ah, this looks great! Added! galimx said: Ie Naki Ko Akage no Anne Having just recently finished Future Boy Conan, I've been looking for another series from that era in a similar vein. Both of these look like they might do the trick, I'll have to check them out. galimx said: Kaiji Ah, yes! I've seen this guy around. Really like the character design in this series. I've had the anime on my PTW list for quite a while now, perhaps I should finally get around to watching it. Thanks again for the suggestions! ^_^ Edit: galimx said: Oh, I forgot Planetes and Space Brothers and Moonlight Mile. All 3 good space animes with nice realistic characters. I took out the first volume of Planetes from my library and it was absolutely incredible. I really need to read more of it... but haven't found it anywhere... maybe I should just watch the anime. Space Brothers has been on my brain from time to time. It looks interesting, but, it's quite long, so I've been holding off on starting it. I probably will one of these days, though. Moonlight Mile looks great! I've never heard of it before, either. Added it to my PTW. |
vigorousjammerSep 18, 2015 7:40 AM
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Crashmatt said: +1 Ghost in the Shell Dragon Ball Naruto Seen GitS already... Though I never actually finished S.A.C. Perhaps I should. I absolutely love Dragon Ball and even used it as one of the examples in my opening post, lol. xD Naruto has some pretty decent character design. I have already watched a lot of it, though... and, well... I only have fond memories of the first 50 episodes or so. Thus, I probably won't get back into it. Crashmatt said: the Monogatari series Feaor said: Maybe Katanagatari? The eye designs alone are some of the most unique I've seen in anime, for example: The character design in the Monogatari series looks like it takes that "moe" character design and just builds on top of it. Which... isn't really what I'm looking for... The show gets a bunch of praise, so I might check it out eventually... but I don't really have any... desire to. It's more along the lines of... I'd reluctantly check it out as a curiosity. |
vigorousjammerSep 18, 2015 8:12 AM
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Oh! Edo Rocket |
SeijiSensei said: Oh! Edo Rocket Hmm, looks like it might be kinda fun. Added! |
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vigorousjammer said: Katanagatari is completely unrelated to Bakemonogatari and such, its just written by the same guy and he loves to make puns out of his titles.The character design in the Monogatari series looks like it takes that "moe" character design and just builds on top of it... The show gets a bunch of praise, so I might check it out eventually... but I don't really have any... desire to. It's more along the lines of... I'd reluctantly check it out as a curiosity. There is one, maybe two characters in Katanagatari that are 'moe' but everyone else has wildly different designs. Here is a sample of the actual characters and not just the eyes: |
Feaor said: vigorousjammer said: Katanagatari is completely unrelated to Bakemonogatari and such, its just written by the same guy and he loves to make puns out of his titles.The character design in the Monogatari series looks like it takes that "moe" character design and just builds on top of it... The show gets a bunch of praise, so I might check it out eventually... but I don't really have any... desire to. It's more along the lines of... I'd reluctantly check it out as a curiosity. There is one, maybe two characters in Katanagatari that are 'moe' but everyone else has wildly different designs. Here is a sample of the actual characters and not just the eyes: Ah, hmm... that does look somewhat more interesting. It's unique, at least... although I'm not sure I'm actually a fan of the eyes. Ehhh, maybe I'll check it out someday. |
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| The character designs aren't all that special but I figure I should also mention the show in my forum set, Uchouten Kazoku. Its based off of a novel written by Tomihiko Morimi who is probably most famous for writing the novel that The Tatami Galaxy is based off of. |
| +1 Katangatari Hunter x Hunter and Gintama have some very iconic character designs, imo. Maybe the Eccentric Family as well: Edit: Guy above me beat me to it. I'd recommend Kuuchuu Buranko as well, if you can get over how weird it is. You have Paranoia Agent in your faves though, and the two shows have always felt somewhat similar to each for me. Not sure how the anime adaptation is, but the characters in Danganronpa all look fairly unique as well. There are some "moe" design girls though. |
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| Ergo Proxy You can't unsee Re-l Mayer. |
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Feaor said: The character designs aren't all that special but I figure I should also mention the show in my forum set, Uchouten Kazoku. Its based off of a novel written by Tomihiko Morimi who is probably most famous for writing the novel that The Tatami Galaxy is based off of. Ah, The Tatami Galaxy was incredible. Uchouten Kazoku doesn't immediately look like my cup of tea, but... doesn't immediately look bad, either. At a glance, the art style is giving me some similar vibes to Katanagatari SnugglyWhuggly said: Hunter x Hunter and Gintama have some very iconic character designs, imo. Ah, Hunter x Hunter is one of those shounen fighting series that I've never gotten into that I feel like I should... especially since I thought Yu Yu Hakusho was so cool. I might try and pick it up one of these days, but I just keep comparing the new series to the old series, and I'm still undecided about which I want to watch first (I love the look & feel of CEL animation, but the new one has some really impressive looking shots, so it's a difficult choice for me). Gintama, on the other hand, is another one of those series that I have a reluctant curiosity about... not because it looks like something I might enjoy, but simply because of all of the praise it receives. SnugglyWhuggly said: I'd recommend Kuuchuu Buranko as well, if you can get over how weird it is. You have Paranoia Agent in your faves though, and the two shows have always felt somewhat similar to each for me. Hmm... Kuuchuu Buranko definitely looks weird, and kind of interesting. It doesn't appear to be quite as dark as Paranoia Agent. Still, seems like something I might like. SnugglyWhuggly said: Not sure how the anime adaptation is, but the characters in Danganronpa all look fairly unique as well. There are some "moe" design girls though. I remember hearing about one of the Danganronpa games when Patrick Klepeck started playing it. I've heard a bit of the soundtrack, though... and that immediately put me off of checking it out, since it sounded like a mess of instruments clashing together to give me some kind of massive headache. I do think some of the character design looks kind of iconic, though. Such as that fat guy with the backpack who wears a tie with an arrow on it, or the two-tone bear creatures. Tenshi_Shura said: Ergo Proxy You can't unsee Re-l Mayer. Seen it already. Character designs were good, even though Re-l reminded me of the lead singer of Evanescence. :P Also, I should mention... Pino > Re-l The series had potential, but it was bogged down by a bunch of pointless, obscure story threads... which eventually resulted in a pretentious finale. But, I digress. The character designs were good. Kind of reminded me of Witch Hunter Robin. Another show with good character design and a flawed story. Kenchiin said: It seems you haven't watched Shiki yet. Go for it! The designs are REALLY unique lol, and not your moe cliche, for sure. Yeah, the art isn't moe... but... Bishounen doesn't really do it for me, either. I suppose I should have mentioned that, too. Anyway, just doesn't seem like my cup of tea. ^_^; |
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vigorousjammer said: Ah, Hunter x Hunter is one of those shounen fighting series that I've never gotten into that I feel like I should... especially since I thought Yu Yu Hakusho was so cool. I might try and pick it up one of these days, but I just keep comparing the new series to the old series, and I'm still undecided about which I want to watch first (I love the look & feel of CEL animation, but the new one has some really impressive looking shots, so it's a difficult choice for me). Gintama, on the other hand, is another one of those series that I have a reluctant curiosity about... not because it looks like something I might enjoy, but simply because of all of the praise it receives. I watched the 2011 version before the original. I'd say the remake is definitely a lot better, but the 90s series is great as well. It's also shorter at 62 episodes, so you might want to watch it first before getting stuck into 148 eps. I love Gintama, it's one of those feel-good shows that never fails to cheer me up. It has a trashy sense of humour though, I'd say it's basically the Japanese equivalent of Family Guy or the Simpsons. So if you don't like that style of humour, you probably won't enjoy it too much. vigorousjammer said: Hmm... Kuuchuu Buranko definitely looks weird, and kind of interesting. It doesn't appear to be quite as dark as Paranoia Agent. Still, seems like something I might like. Yeah, it's no where near as dark, it's much more of a comedy than Paranoia Agent. But it deals with mental health issues surprisingly well. vigorousjammer said: I remember hearing about one of the Danganronpa games when Patrick Klepeck started playing it. I've heard a bit of the soundtrack, though... and that immediately put me off of checking it out, since it sounded like a mess of instruments clashing together to give me some kind of massive headache. I do think some of the character design looks kind of iconic, though. Such as that fat guy with the backpack who wears a tie with an arrow on it, or the two-tone bear creatures. I enjoyed the Danganronpa soundtrack, but if you're talking about the song I think you're talking about, it isn't played that often, only during some of the "punishment" scenes, at least in the visual novel anyway. It has its flaws, a lot of the characters are based on archetypes, but I still thoroughly enjoyed the VNs, mostly for the story and plot twists. No idea how well the anime adaptation pulls it off though. By the way, I forgot to mention it before, but you might also want to check out Hoozuki no Reitetsu. One of the more unique comedy series I've seen, and it has some nice character designs. There's also Shirokuma Cafe, if you don't mind animals as the main protagonists. |
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SnugglyWhuggly said: I enjoyed the Danganronpa soundtrack, but if you're talking about the song I think you're talking about, it isn't played that often, only during some of the "punishment" scenes, at least in the visual novel anyway. Found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6l3e1QHIVk Not sure if that's the one you were thinking of as well, but... that's actually the only song I've heard off of the OST. In any case, I'm still kind of conflicted about the overall style of the series. It's somewhat similar to Shirobako, where some of the character designs look good while others look super lame. SnugglyWhuggly said: By the way, I forgot to mention it before, but you might also want to check out Hoozuki no Reitetsu. One of the more unique comedy series I've seen, and it has some nice character designs. Hmm, this looks kind of interesting. Art is mostly reminding me of Gintama, but perhaps with a bit more style to it... maybe just a pinch of xxxHolic's style mixed in there? SnugglyWhuggly said: There's also Shirokuma Cafe, if you don't mind animals as the main protagonists. Polar Bear Cafe looks like just the kind of ridiculous shit I can get behind. I have my doubts about the novelty of animals running a cafe holding up for 50 episodes... but I have been meaning to watch it for a while. |
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| Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Some iconic characters from an iconic series (remade for 2012) like Capt. Okita, Dr. Sado). Some of the females and younger males in Yamato's crew might be cookie cutter (ages varying 17-26 so not all typical JStaff high-schoolers) and all have unique hair or different colored uniforms (Science, Medical, Operations, etc.) The older males of Yamato and all the antagonist guys are pretty varied most being alien (albeit fairly human looking if not for the blue-skin color (except Celestella who is pretty unique)). But, you can scroll through this and decide for yourself: http://ourstarblazers.com/vault/696/ |
8oomerSep 18, 2015 11:39 AM
| Avatar: Anzu Kadotani from Girls und Panzer. Sig by MissIntrovert.  |
vigorousjammer said: Found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6l3e1QHIVk Not sure if that's the one you were thinking of as well, but... that's actually the only song I've heard off of the OST. In any case, I'm still kind of conflicted about the overall style of the series. It's somewhat similar to Shirobako, where some of the character designs look good while others look super lame. I don't even remember that song, lol. I think it may have played during the opening credits on the first game, but it definitely wasn't one of those songs that was played continuously throughout the VN, I would have remembered it otherwise. Yeah, there's plenty of very bizarre looking characters in Danganronpa, and not in the good way. A lot of them have interesting personalities to match their appearances though. I have a lot of favourites in that series. vigorousjammer said: Polar Bear Cafe looks like just the kind of ridiculous shit I can get behind. I have my doubts about the novelty of animals running a cafe holding up for 50 episodes... but I have been meaning to watch it for a while. I had to put the series on-hold halfway through for a while, because it does get a bit repetitive. It has a lot of running gags that have charm to them, but they also get old. Still a lot of fun though, gave me plenty of laughs throughout. |
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8oomer said: Space Battleship Yamato 2199 Some iconic characters from an iconic series (remade for 2012) like Capt. Okita, Dr. Sado). Some of the females and younger males in Yamato's crew might be cookie cutter (ages varying 17-26 so not all typical JStaff high-schoolers) and all have unique hair or different colored uniforms (Science, Medical, Operations, etc.) The older males of Yamato and all the antagonist guys are pretty varied most being alien (albeit fairly human looking if not for the blue-skin color (except Celestella who is pretty unique)). But, you can scroll through this and decide for yourself: http://ourstarblazers.com/vault/696/ Ah, yes! Space Battleship Yamato. :) This is another space-opera series I really need to get around to watching... and I'll likely get around to it after I make my way through Gundam. Although, the original Yamato pre-dates Gundam, doesn't it? Maybe I should put Zeta Gundam on hold and watch it instead. I'd watch both simultaneously... but... that can get a bit dicey with these space-operas. The plot in them tend to blend together for me much of the time... Anyway, the re-make looks like it's probably pretty good, but I'd likely start with the originals instead. Thanks for the suggestion! ^_^ SnugglyWhuggly said: Yeah, there's plenty of very bizarre looking characters in Danganronpa, and not in the good way. Ehhh, it seems like it might be in the good way. Then again, I haven't watched it or played any of the games. :P |
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| Romeo's Blue Skies Paradise Kiss Oban Star-Racers |
SalxerSep 18, 2015 1:42 PM
| kill la kill samurai champloo attack on titan no game no life |
Salxer said: Romeo's Blue Skies Paradise Kiss Oban Star-Racers These all look promising, Romeo's Blue Skies being the most promising looking. Oban Star-Racers is giving me a Star Wars podracer vibe, which is probably the best part of the Star Wars prequels, so it'd be cool to see a series that was just a bunch of that. :) Paradise Kiss doesn't look bad, but also doesn't look immediately appealing... and reading the show synopsis also doesn't make me very intrigued about it... however, it's definitely got a style to it which I'm semi-intrigued by. I might check it out at some point. I watched one episode of this back when it first started airing. It didn't do anything for me back then and I dropped it... I did the same thing with Monster at the time. However, I was pretty immature back then, and mostly watching stuff like Naruto and Gantz and whatnot. Probably the most serious thing I was watching back then was Paranoia Agent, which still had other aspects to it that made it interesting for a dumb teenager like me. I really have to wonder if I just couldn't appreciate Gankutsuou or Monster at that age. They're both series I've been thinking about going back to now that I'm older, but that I still haven't actually taken the plunge on. symbiotic said: kill la kill samurai champloo attack on titan no game no life Seen all four already. NGNL had a lot of that loli aesthetic, a bunch of fanservice, and a story that started off alright but that they failed to capitalize on... the character design and the art style also left a lot to be desired... all of this made me regret watching it in the first place... but, hey... at least the color palette was kinda nice. *shrug* Kill la Kill started off really good, and it's got some great character design... but eventually the story just went up it's own ass when it started to take itself too seriously. I'd say Attack on Titan is... probably one of the best shounen action anime on TV today... well, even though it hasn't been on TV for a few years now. :( In any case, I'd probably only put Jojo above it in terms of quality. Samurai Champloo is incredible. I need to finish it some day, though. I completely missed the second season when I was younger and never went back to it since... but damn, what a great series! |
vigorousjammerSep 18, 2015 2:22 PM
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| I notice you don't have the Apothecary stories by Nakamura Kenji in your list. The first story is a three-episode arc that concludes Ayakashi Samurai Horror Tales. It spawned a sequel called Mononoke. Here's a sample of the artwork from the first episode of Mononoke: The main character is a travelling medicine seller who also slays demons:  |
SeijiSensei said: I notice you don't have the Apothecary stories by Nakamura Kenji in your list. The first story is a three-episode arc that concludes Ayakashi Samurai Horror Tales. It spawned a sequel called Mononoke. Here's a sample of the artwork from the first episode of Mononoke: Ah, I have heard of Mononoke before and I've always thought it had a super intriguing art style. It's another one that's been in my PTW list for a while now. I never knew there was something that came before it, though. Definitely adding Ayakashi to my list. Also, I had never heard of Nakamura Kenji before, but it seems he's worked on some really good anime, including ep 10 of my second-favorite Masaaki Yuasa series, Kemonozume. I'll have to check out more of his work. :) |
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vigorousjammer said: Ah, hmm... that does look somewhat more interesting. It's unique, at least... although I'm not sure I'm actually a fan of the eyes. Ehhh, maybe I'll check it out someday. Trust me, you'll find the standard eye design weird after watching all episodes of Katanagatari. Try these: - Aldnoah Zero - Psycho Pass - THE UNLIMITED Hyobu Kyosuke (1 "moe" character, but that's not the focus) - Ushio to Tora - C: The Money Of Soul And Possibility Control |
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