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When is an anime's artstyle objectively bad?

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Sep 21, 2017 3:48 PM
#1
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Mar 2017
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For the most part I guess art is subjective.
Chibis, while easier to draw, are understood to exist to contribute to the mood of a scene.
And there plenty of other reasons why art downgrades can occur, but when does an anime's art become bad?
Like it shows that they put little effort into animation.
So where's that line?
Sep 21, 2017 3:55 PM
#2

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Feb 2013
17572
it''s a bit hard to put in words.. but if it looks like this it failed

Sep 21, 2017 3:55 PM
#3
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Sep 2017
66
I think one piece has the most ugly character design ive seen. But its popular like hell so damn.

Ive even watched an episode of dragon ball super and man that was badly animated. Toiei studio suck ass it seems
Sep 21, 2017 4:05 PM
#4

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Sep 2012
587
Plenty of ways to tell. Disproportionate characters, inconsistency, bad perspective, clash between foreground & background, etc., etc. However, most of these are tied to the technicalities rather than the artstyle itself, but hey, may as well bundle them up. There isn't any "bad" artstyle objectively, just ways its portrayed that make it good or bad.
Sep 21, 2017 4:05 PM
#5
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Jul 2018
564089
I would say if it is inconsistent throughout the show, that is the closest to objectively bad art you will get I think... Just like someone mentioned above, NHK is guilty of that.
Sep 21, 2017 4:17 PM
#6

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11968


This is and its sad because the girl they traced over acutcaly looks better then this

If your going to do live action do live action don't stop between live action and anime.
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Sep 21, 2017 4:26 PM
#7

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May 2016
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I think some of you have missed the point, like that Welcome to the NHK example. That would be an animation problem, not an art style or character design flaw.

Anyway, I don't think there is such thing as objectively bad, since at least one person will always find something to appreciate about a style. However, I do believe in objectively good, and that is when you can clearly see the level of work and detail put into something. For example, no one will look at the Berserk manga and say anything negative about the art.
Sep 21, 2017 6:00 PM
#8

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Mar 2017
852
When this kind of thing happened?


I laughed out loud when my friend, who is a naruto lover, showed me this. The art was really bad, yet it was hilarious at the same time, so i got mixed opinion.
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Sep 21, 2017 7:40 PM
#9

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Feb 2016
1315
Art is not objective. You can dislike an art style, but that's it.

@rvbrick That's an animation problem

@Paul_Levesque ^
Sep 21, 2017 7:50 PM

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47060
iscum said:
Art is not objective. You can dislike an art style, but that's it.

@rvbrick That's an animation problem

@Paul_Levesque ^


it's in betweening to be exact... the key animation it self is LIT AF... pain vs naruto is one of best animation ever made, if not because in-between animation suck soo much...
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Sep 21, 2017 7:51 PM

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iscum said:
Art is not objective. You can dislike an art style, but that's it.

@rvbrick That's an animation problem

@Paul_Levesque ^


^ This

(Screw the 30 character limit)
Sep 21, 2017 8:00 PM

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Apr 2016
4861
Answer: when you get stuff like the loom of Gundam SEED

Usually, it's less bad art and more bad animation though. At that point, even pretty art can't save that at all (looking at you, Hand Shakers, you simultaneously overproduced and underproduced piece of SHIT!!!)
Sep 21, 2017 8:07 PM
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Jul 2018
564089
when it looks like junjou romantica, sekaiichi hatsukoi, eiken, skelter heaven, or any of those abortions of animation
Sep 21, 2017 8:09 PM
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Nov 2013
4321
It's funny because no matter how ugly and poorly drawn an anime's art style and animation are, there are still some out there that may like it. It could literally be a 23 minute-long blank screen and there will still be people out there calling it a masterpiece.
Sep 21, 2017 8:22 PM
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Jun 2016
356
when the art on the characters have no proportions, then u now the artstyle is bad.
Sep 21, 2017 8:32 PM

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Jun 2014
22512
When the iris is larger than the pupil.

This is why I'm not into most newer Anime.

Sep 21, 2017 8:33 PM

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Mar 2017
1925
I would say an artstyle is bad when its starting to affect animation and it's clear that they badly want to keep the artstyle but cannot animate with it well enough.

Artstyle and animation are full of compromises. Sometimes, the artstyle needs to be simplified and details cut to allow smoother animation ala Pokemon Sun and Moon or Kono2Suba. Sometimes, the artstyle is whimsical and stylistic and there would be movements clearly animated to be stylistic and it doesn't look awkward but instead it looks awesome because the artstyle enables it ala Doukyuusei. Sometimes, they just want to keep the character models consistent that when they move the motion looks stilted and awkward as f*ck ala Quanzhi Gaoshou (by my definition above, its my nomination for worst arstyle). And sometimes, you just run out of budget and you film goats.
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Sep 21, 2017 8:42 PM

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Oct 2015
16761
when it looks like ping pong
when its sao
when it's CGI

So embarrased with Tensura fans and the fandom, how have we degraded
Sep 21, 2017 8:59 PM
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Feb 2014
4236
When it looks like this:
Worst anime artstyle EVER.




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Sep 21, 2017 9:15 PM

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This is clearly the worst style ever.
Sep 22, 2017 1:20 AM

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Apr 2015
3109
I don't think art style can be objectively bad. Even stick figures can work if used right. But no matter what your art style is, if you don't know fundamentals it shows. That's why seeing mistakes in manga is more easier than in anime because there are many people working on anime compared to manga. So I would say only way for art style to be objectively bad is if it breaks fundamentals (anatomy, color theory, perspective etc.) too much. Of course people also do it consciously, but to do that one needs to know what they're doing. Imo NGNL colors don't work and are irritating for eyes but quite many disagrees with me.
Sep 22, 2017 1:32 AM

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Apr 2017
4724
The art style will be bad if the animation is bad , just take a look to rokudenashi


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Sep 22, 2017 1:37 AM

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2999
Oh yes I wouldnt watch this because the art is bad. This is a very good decision.
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Sep 22, 2017 2:12 AM

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le_halfhand_easy said:
I would say an artstyle is bad when its starting to affect animation and it's clear that they badly want to keep the artstyle but cannot animate with it well enough.

I was going to say that there's no such thing as a bad artstyle in an objective sense when coming into this thread, but this is actually a pretty good point. If the character designs, costume designs, background art, etc. is all so detailed that it holds back the animation and leads to a lot of derpy moments when given to less skilled animators or when heavy time constraints start bearing down, yeah, I'd say the artstyle is open to more weighty criticism then.

Most people don't criticize the art in that context though. They just see Ping Pong and think it looks ugly, then write it off as inferior, but the way the "action" is animated is actually pretty interesting.

There's some really cool stuff that can be done with surrealistic animation styles given enough time and money. Take this cut from The Animatrix (Kid's Story), for example.
TripleSRankSep 22, 2017 2:21 AM
Sep 22, 2017 2:17 AM
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Sep 22, 2017 2:17 AM

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I don't think any values can be objective, but an art style that has nothing interesting going on, neither complexity nor simplicity and even nothing beautiful in an ordinary way will most likely be considered ugly by everyone.
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Sep 22, 2017 2:21 AM

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ChibiHugz said:
I think one piece has the most ugly character design ive seen. But its popular like hell so damn.

Out of all the replies, I agree with this the most. One Piece's characters look pretty horrible and ugly most of the time, at least in my opinion.
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Sep 22, 2017 10:26 AM

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Sep 22, 2017 10:29 AM

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5602
when the design are inconsistent. especially when the fingernails color changes on moving.
Sep 22, 2017 10:36 AM
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I don't know, I have it on the tip of my tongue.....
Sep 22, 2017 10:42 AM

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You said:
when the design are inconsistent. especially when the fingernails color changes on moving.
That's animation inconsistency, not design.
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Sep 22, 2017 10:44 AM

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ChibiHugz said:
I think one piece has the most ugly character design ive seen. But its popular like hell so damn.


I personally really like One Piece's character design! They're pretty unique and you can tell apart the characters really easily! The villains are ugly and not all the MCs are bishies or anything. What I call lazy character style would probably be Detective where other than a few characters, all the cases involve people who just look like they switched hairstyles with the people from the previous case.

or well... this anime lol
Sep 22, 2017 10:47 AM

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zal said:
You said:
when the design are inconsistent. especially when the fingernails color changes on moving.
That's animation inconsistency, not design.
I'm actually thinking about Idolm@ster cinderella girls when typing this but then you posted that anime lol.
Sep 22, 2017 10:53 AM

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Dec 2012
9597
I'd say when it looks like ass and it was specifically designed to look that way, and everyone agrees on it looking like ass, so never becausethat's not going to happen since art is subjective.
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Sep 22, 2017 10:56 AM
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Jul 2018
564089
Never. You can't objectively judge art styles.
Sep 22, 2017 11:10 AM

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May 2015
4449
You said:
zal said:
That's animation inconsistency, not design.
I'm actually thinking about Idolm@ster cinderella girls when typing this but then you posted that anime lol.
I remember when you posted the gif of evergreen (I think) in that thread about animation and brought up a gif of the fingernails in Mononoke when I said I prefer style over that type of animation.
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Sep 22, 2017 11:14 AM
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Dauphine said:
When it looks like this:

Worst anime artstyle EVER.


What anime is that? I actually like that style, lol.
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Sep 22, 2017 11:15 AM

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Aslt said:
I don't know, I have it on the tip of my tongue.....


You should [spoil] this picture otherwise people will get seizures.
Sep 22, 2017 11:18 AM

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Anyone who say ping pongs art is bad can fight me irl
Sep 22, 2017 11:18 AM
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Hey_Taka-tin_Hey said:
Dauphine said:
When it looks like this:

Worst anime artstyle EVER.


What anime is that? I actually like that style, lol.


Fuujin Monogatari(Windy Tales), i remembered i stumbled upon this years ago but couldn't even be bothered to finish the first episode, i completly forgot about it untill i randomly found it on MAL again.


My Shoujo, Josei and Female targeted anime adaptations starting from 2017+ stacks:

Part 1: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9181
Part 2: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9195
Part 3: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9225
Part 4: https://myanimelist.net/stacks/9280
Sep 22, 2017 11:21 AM
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564089
@Dauphine

Thanks, I might give it a go. I love SoL and that one looks... interesting.
Sep 22, 2017 1:07 PM

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Hmm, there's no such thing as "objectively bad" when it's subjective in the first place?





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