I need to understand what's wrong with the art

Fakkun8 said:
It's definetely thw line-work for me. Mappa's just feel very messy using more lines, and them being thicker and darker. Wit's was smoother. Also I'm not a big fan of the character designs from Mappa, they make the eyes smaller from the manga and the noses bigger, they look kinda uglier in general. Like Thorfinn is like 19 and looks 35, I won't say that's the case in the manga. Another problem is the lack of detail in drawings in certain scenes, specially during the first cour. At least in the second cour the animation got significantly better and there are some really fucking good scenes. But overall the art in the manga is just unmatched, and Mappa didn't get even closer to its quality

truth999 said:
it has the mappa style where it looks more gritty or almost more boring not saying it bad but yeah definitely a change I for one preferred season 1 style more

ishinashi296 said:
Garbage opinion not even reading your trash post. better art season 2.cry

Apolygon2 said:

ok, I'm pretty sure at least some of these are from the ed, but whatever.
the 4th one is the only one that I would consider on part with the best of s1.
the thing is, not all the backgrounds are done by the same team. the specially breath taking backgrounds of season 1, were done by a team that is no longer working on season 2. I forgot what their name was but I looked into it a while back due to wanting to watch more of the series they worked on.
I remember not finding any other series that they had a big role in, BUT I did find out that they did the backgrounds for attack on titan final season part 2 ed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZmAcmUSMHM

and honestly after knowing that, it's pretty noticeable. their art is just on a completely different level.

In general I don't think s2 backgrounds are bad at all. I just think vinland s1 has some of the best backgrounds in tv anime with only a handful of series being comparable to it.

Litbae said:
no lmao those are all shots taken directly out of the episodes

are you talking about studio bamboo? if so then they're credited for working atleast on the 1st ep of the season. they most likely did the rest of the season too because i don't know why they'd just do 1 episode and then just leave it be with no mention of who filled their position for the rest of the season. reckon it just needs to be updated. also another thing, you're overlooking a prominent figure of the industry, yuusuke takeda who's credited for the bg's for both whole seasons of vinland saga, the whole 1st season of csm and the aot s4 p2 ed you linked: https://www.animenewsnetwork.com/encyclopedia/people.php?id=311 a reference link for his other works. i think he has ties or even works for studio bamboo considering how he's been credited for almost all the shows studio bamboo has worked for.

if i had any complaints for the artwork of the season, i'd say atleast some eps from the 1st cour and a few lesser eps from the 2nd cour had character linings that were too bold and noticeable for my liking. some character bits in those episodes were off-model and the animation quality just wasn't quite up there. but its pretty clear that they were saving up the resources and the budget for the more important parts of the story so i cant really say much since it all did pay off.

when i read the manga for the current arc, i remember thinking how i never appreciated storytelling as a medium as much as i did before with some of the most fluid artworks i've seen (on par with vagabond and more consistently better than berserk. opm manga art still untouchable tho). i was imagining something like csm's acting animation as i was reading the manga, yup the artwork was that much fluid. so kinda wished that not only the more important eps, but every ep lived up to its source material's artwork. it's still a pretty faithful adaptation tho. i have other complaints about the show but that's not because its ruining the show, but just that it doesn't reach the perfection i think it can.

Apolygon2 said:
but I know for a fact that at least one of these shots is from the ed: https://youtu.be/IitqEiDZ0PM?t=40

Apolygon2 said:

you bring up a number of interesting points...


but I think the backgrounds are 100% worse without a question.

you will not find a single background even close to as good looking as these:

JesseBoi said:
You people always go back and pick the same 3 pictures from like 1 or 2 episodes and pretend like that was the norm for S1 when in reality the average backgrounds were not any different compared to S2. Vinland has always had some of the best art direction in modern TV anime and S2 is literally no different (also yes the other guy already responded with a ton of images that match the ones you posted)

Litbae said:
its also the last scene of episode 9 oath. you can confirm it yourself lol

Apolygon2 said:
something about the character art of season 2 has been bothering me since the start, and I can't for the life of me understand what it is specifically, so help me out here, to make this easier:

here's some generic shots from season 1:












and here's some similar generic shots from season 2:












Here's the thing, I know the backgrounds are not nearly as detailed this season, that part is just factually true. if you don't think the backgrounds are worse you have probably just forgotten how good the backgrounds were in season 1....


but that's not the problem.

there is something about the characters.

for some reason they look more ""flat"". like they stick out of the screen more and have a harder time blending in the background... but the thing is... I sound like a crazy person to myself when I say it, cause when I look at the seasons side to side, I can not understand why it's like that.

My best guess is that it's a mix of worse lighting, and making the character outlines thinner, but I'm talking out of my ass here.

maybe it's the colouring, maybe it's the backgrounds... maybe maybe maybe i don't know.

and I need your help to understand what is problem.

CreepHazard said:
I think WIT had less line-work and more shadows, while MAPPA did the opposite. Backgrounds were pretty much the same both seasons, but since S1 involved more travelling it had a whole lot of Landscapes and Situations to shine. Season 2 was just as good imo.
Art direction wise I definitely prefer Season 2, WIT had a few standout cuts throughout the season, but other times there were quite a few off-model characters and very stiff animation the majority of the season. MAPPA did have a sort of stuff animation overall but the consistency was amazing. Technically Season 2 is more impressive imo.
As for exactly what it is that you were searching for, maybe the first line of my answer helped? I got carried away and I don't feel like deleting what I just said lol. But yeah I think it's the Shadows and Line-work.
ALSO WIT studios character designs look less... geometrical? The lines are more flowy compared to MAPPA except the hair.

Lawrencw said:

That’s correct. Unfortunately, I already wrote the same thing before seeing this post

Gavinyeet said:
bro watched a 12 episode show with non stop character acting and said it wasn’t their best work ok bud, also how can you say a show (jjk) that has horrible backgrounds and the composting always being bad is better animated then csm?

APolygons2 said:
jjk didn't even attempt to have even close to have detailed character acting.

amazing animation with minor mistakes >>>> no animation