| When you watch an anime generally the first thing you'll notice is the visuals or art style. Usually they're pretty normal looking, maybe with extra good fight scenes or extra focus on mood using colours but what do you do with weird or different art styles/animation? I don't wanna say I'm one of those people who doesn't watch old anime because of the art but I kind of am and I really dislike that about me. I don't know, they're just kind of ugly and as good as they might be, I don't wanna watch them. I feel like art and animation can be that thing that really brings anime to another level. For example, I only recently started watching the Monogatari series but I'm having so much fun watching it because the animation keeps me engaged with the zooms, contrasting colours and use of words flashing on the screen. Another example is the really cute art style of Made in Abyss that totally contrasts with the dark themes and story because it just worked in adding that extra element of shock and fucked-up-ness when stuff happens. I get that for some people it doesn't matter but I'm curious about the people it does matter to and why it matters to them. |
| if the character design is ugly, I will have second thoughts in watching it. That's the reason i don't wanna watch ping pong, just not my thing. and some old anime have great animation/character design, you just have to find it. |
was the animator drunk when he made this scene?    |
marinara-sauce said: I don't wanna say I'm one of those people who doesn't watch old anime because of the art but I kind of am and I really dislike that about me. I don't know, they're just kind of ugly and as good as they might be, I don't wanna watch them. It depends on what you consider old anime. There are some shows from the nineties with better art style and character design than the actual shows (FLCL, Evangelion). I havent seen yet anime from the 80's so I cant comment on it. Catalano said: if the character design is ugly, I will have second thoughts in watching it. That's the reason i don't wanna watch ping pong, just not my thing. and some old anime have great animation/character design, you just have to find it. When I first read your comment I thought you were a Yuaasa hater, but you have seen a lot of his jobs. Why dont you give ping pong a try? At first glance it may seem bad or ugly, but as the show goes on, the grat story and perfect characters captivate you, so you wont give a fuck about the art style (I got used to it and now I even like it). |
Eventually, you'll fall into death's embrace anyway, so it's stupid to be bound by useless ideals.  |
| @Yabetil true, if a story is good, the art style just doesn't matter, but I got my hands full of other stuff, PPA is not a priority. Kaiba, Kemonozume and Mind Game were pretty good, I gave them a chance because one is a movie (short watch), one is a psychological SF (the art style was on par with the story's essence for there weren't many human characters) and Kemonozume had older than your average 15 year olds. I talked from my pov. |
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Catalano said: if the character design is ugly, I will have second thoughts in watching it. That's the reason i don't wanna watch ping pong, just not my thing. and some old anime have great animation/character design, you just have to find it. Same as me. But there are also art styles super-good for me eyes, but the story is crap or the plot/settings are not my preference. |
| I frown at recent installments of Persona and Trails of Cold Steel that introduce harem-like elements in the story. We need more JRPGs like the past Lunar series, where there are multiple romantic pairings in the party other than for the protagonist and main heroine. |
| Ofcourse it does. Im not going to watch a moviemaker slideshow no matter how good the story is |
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| The great thing about art in general and art styles is that there is an endless amount of variation to them. there's never two that look quite the same even with ones that look 'similar' and at the extreme ends of the spectrum you can find hyper-stylized animation and hyper-realistic animation and both are fantastic to look at when in the hands of talented animators and directors. To label one style as 'better' than another is just closed-minded to me, that's now how art works. It's the most subjective part of an anime. Style is independent of age or genre and I could never relate to narrow-minded people who can only enjoy a certain type of style or a certain range of styles. I just accept what an anime throws at me and judge more based on whether it functional, whether it supports what the anime is trying to do or be. I love art in general and style in art = variety and the personal way of the artist expressing himself and if you inherently like that idea and don't approach art like something where you have very strict expectations and refuse anything that doesn't cater to your narrow definition of acceptable art, the whole question of which style you like and which you hate becomes mute. It's the stylistic variation in and of itself that is the appeal. I'd much rather be able to watch 1 million shows with a million different styles, some of which speak to me more than others, than to have everything be in one style of my choosing. There could never be an artstyle that is unwatchable for me, I can't even wrap my head around the concept. And I'm like 95% sure that that's not because I'm exceptional and my brain works differently than that of others, but because most people just stick with what they are used to and mistake 'unfamiliar' or 'something I'm not used to yet' with 'ugly' and 'unwatchable', never thinking about it twice. Humans are creatures of habit and everything unusual, unfamiliar will be met with heavy skepticism at first. And that's where most people, most anime fans stop. They just intuitively buy into the crap their brain is telling them about everything looking ugly except the stuff that they already know and are familiar with. I used to be like that too, but luckily my plot-based interest for shows outweighed my artstyle-based skepticism to give them a try and I realized that it's 100% a matter of what you are and aren't used to. Styles that didn't appeal to me on a first look quickly stop being an issue when you actually start watching the show and get hooked by the characters and plot. And once you're used to them, you can actually start appreciating the art for what it is instead of just tolerating it. The majority of my favorite artstyles, background art and designs now are probably stuff I would have avoided as being 'ugly' 10 or 15 years ago when I was relatively new to anime and had only watched contemporary mainstream stuff. And it's not that my taste radically changed, it's just that my prejudices (and I mean that in a cognitive sense, your eyes and brain will tell you something looks 'ugly' just because it's unfamiliar, not because it's actually ugly) disappeared and I gained the ability to appreciate every type of art on its own merit. Now I know better than to call something ugly just because it looks atypical, unusual or uses a different color palette. In fact I'm always excited when something looks different because new experiences are stimulating and the more variety in styles the better for anime as a medium, as a form of artistic expression. I will probably never understand why people who worship Shinkai and hate on people like Yuasa or Imaishi choose to watch anime in the first place if they only care about hyperrealism and hate stylization. The whole reason animation and art exist is because they aren't bound by the shackles of realism, because stylizations can be used for great effect to create looks and effects that could not exist in reality, in live-action. If you lose interest in the visuals as soon as they stop try-hardedly imitating reality, imitating live-action (like Shinkai does with his pasted background art) then I'm not sure what anime/animation can offer you that live-action can't. It's just a mystery to me why people who don't like variety in styles or stylization in general claim to love animation when they reject what is its defining factor and biggest strength. |
| I probably regret this post by now. |
| Basically; artstyle << animation < story. Artstyle is not important to me, I can enjoy any style as long as the story is compelling and the animation is at least decent. In rarer case, I don't even mind low grade animation if the story can hook me to watch it. |
"The Slave is the have-not, the oppressed one with nothing to spare. But because the Slave is in that despairing situation, having nothing, it can kill the Emperor !" |
| Art style is one of the most important aspects of an anime. It enhances the atmosphere. I don't watch anime if the art is badly done or it turns me off. |
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marinara-sauce said: When you watch an anime generally the first thing you'll notice is the visuals or art style. Usually they're pretty normal looking, maybe with extra good fight scenes or extra focus on mood using colours but what do you do with weird or different art styles/animation? I don't wanna say I'm one of those people who doesn't watch old anime because of the art but I kind of am and I really dislike that about me. I don't know, they're just kind of ugly and as good as they might be, I don't wanna watch them. I feel like art and animation can be that thing that really brings anime to another level. For example, I only recently started watching the Monogatari series but I'm having so much fun watching it because the animation keeps me engaged with the zooms, contrasting colours and use of words flashing on the screen. Another example is the really cute art style of Made in Abyss that totally contrasts with the dark themes and story because it just worked in adding that extra element of shock and fucked-up-ness when stuff happens. I get that for some people it doesn't matter but I'm curious about the people it does matter to and why it matters to them. An example of old show that has bad art style? I know there are some directors that take art style to extremities to convey emotions. Ping Pong the animation is made by Masaaki Yuasa. He tends to do that in a lot of series but I think his art style enhances the experience and conveys stronger emotions. A lot of old anime are power point slideshow because cell animation is hard to make. Digital animation seems to have an easier learning curve. If used correctly can be amazing. To me art style < animation < story |
| Don't be a self pretentious that is the most gayest thing ever English Dubs are better than subs You all have anime profile pic so you opinion doesn't count Your Waifu is trash Cory in the house is the best anime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFQQALduhzA Japanese are one of the most xenophobic nations My Anime List looks like a website from 1990s |
Catalano said: if the character design is ugly, I will have second thoughts in watching it. That's the reason i don't wanna watch ping pong, just not my thing. and some old anime have great animation/character design, you just have to find it. Nope. That is just Masaaki Yuasa style. If you are going to screenshot his works and post it here they would definitely look ugly but in context they aren't that distracting. Think of it like pain vs naruto fight. Since it was the biggest fight in at that point the animators had to go an extra mile to convey that this fight is biggest fight until now. Thus the art style is like nothing before. But people screen shot still images and chalk it off to bad animation which is hilarious. |
| Don't be a self pretentious that is the most gayest thing ever English Dubs are better than subs You all have anime profile pic so you opinion doesn't count Your Waifu is trash Cory in the house is the best anime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFQQALduhzA Japanese are one of the most xenophobic nations My Anime List looks like a website from 1990s |
| Art style influences whether I pick up something. I'm not sure to what extent it affects my overall opinion of a thing after I finish watching it though. It might. Or maybe it might affect my fondness for the characters long after I've finished watching it, since my post-watching interactions with the show are more likely to involve looking at (static) character art than rewatching clips of the show. I have no objection to something just because it looks "90s" or otherwise old though; there are some 90s styles I like. And some 90s styles I dislike. And some modern styles I like and some modern styles I dislike. |
GlennMagusHarveyNov 21, 2019 9:54 AM
| Avatar character is Gabriel from Gabriel DropOut. |
| 1.Character design - Young Black Jack 2.Quality - Violet EverGarden 3.Fight choreography - Rokka no Yuusha, Saiyuuki reload blast, Princess Principal. 4.Animation and movement - Dororo 5.Background - Shingeki no Kyoujin, Nagi no Asu kara Its the cover art (Quality) by which I pick which anime to watch, and its the character design by which I decide to continue watching. Its the animation and background that keep me compelled to finish the anime. Finally art is my first criteria for rating an anime, not the most important, but still a necessary one. |
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| I don't mind about the animation of 99.99% of the anime. I do mind if all look the same (more apply to manga though) and I have a hard time to know who is who. Other than... I think there were only two animes I totally rejected for their animation and they were... well, it looked like a kid drew them (and one them was so idiotic anyway) |
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| your attachment to the art surely matters in a visual medium though funny enough, i found the 2 episodes of monogatari i watched to be ugly. Look like it haphazardly meshed real textures and images with 2D animation which often looked quickly drawn i mean... its the kind of series that forgets to give their characters shadows a bunch of times |
| https://combosmooth.itch.io/ - I make free-to-play browser games for PC and I sell pixel art animation here |
| Yes it definitely matters even more so than animation. Catalano said: if the character design is ugly, I will have second thoughts in watching it. That's the reason i don't wanna watch ping pong, just not my thing. I bet their favorite hentai tag is ugly bastard LoL |
XstasyNov 21, 2019 12:25 PM
| ofc it matters, anime/manga is a visual medium after all. That being said if the premise is good I still might check out an anime even if it looks like shit. Shiki is a good example. The character designer was high as a kite when he made the designs and I still enjoyed the shit out of it. Also maybe it's just me but I tend to get used to art styles pretty quickly so even if something looks really jarring at first chances are I'll grow to like it as times go on (looking at you Kill la Kill). |
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| Artstyle actually matters more than I think tbh. A bad show like Isekai Cheat Magician can still be somewhat enjoyable to watch because it has a really good artstyle/character design. But then something like Dr.Stone with eyes that are longer than the legs in xxxHolic really makes it a bother to watch sometimes |
 'On-Hold' is another way for a completionist to say 'Dropped' |
| It matters and at the same time it doesn't. I don't consider anime art styles besides the norm as "ugly" or something like that. Most of the time I appreciate them. Why should anime always look the same? I bet most of our parents or grandparents consider the typical anime art style as ugly or alien or something like that. Why? Cause normal people don't look like that. But most anime fans are so used to the typical anime art style that they consider it as "normal" (in the anime world). ...And anything different looks alien. That's just the same mindset. The only difference is that the younger generation is used to anime art style and the older isn't. But anyone can get used to anything. It's also possible to enjoy things you were not used to in the past. This open-mindedness is part of most children while as an adult people tend to prefer things they know. If we like fictional animation... why do we appreciate just one form of it? There are endless possibilities to show something. Most of the time I really like these different forms of expression. It looks good in different ways. I love unique drawing styles, cause they look interesting and exciting. Of course this doesn't work for every show. Some styles are more appealing while others are less. For me, there was just one case where the art style itself looked really ugly to me and that was with Kaiji. If I look at it alone I still don't like it. But while watching the show it didn't matter. The story was just that good. And after a while I got used to it. More, it really fit to the mood. So yes, I appreciate different art style forms most of the time. A unique good looking art style can even be a plus. But my first priority while watching a show is still the story. So if I don't like the art style itself at first glance, I will still give the anime a chance. Cause most of the time I will get used to it and I can enjoy the story anyway. Pullman said: And I'm like 95% sure that that's not because I'm exceptional and my brain works differently than that of others, but because most people just stick with what they are used to and mistake 'unfamiliar' or 'something I'm not used to yet' with 'ugly' and 'unwatchable' Ah, yes. This. So basically I wanted to say the same. |
penmelNov 22, 2019 12:49 PM
| For some reason, I get more excited to watch anime with weird character design, I have noticed that they tend to have good plots. |
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| It used to matter a lot to me when I first started watching anime. I would actively avoid shows like Katanagatari and Panty & Stocking because I just couldn't look past the art styles. In fact, that's the main reason I took so long getting into Jojo. But then the more I thought about the more I realized I didn't have this problem when watching western cartoons, so why should it bother me with anime. Now I can watch something like Dead Leaves and not be bothered by the weird art style as much as I used to be. |
| Well, first, it's pretty easy to find old shows with better animation then nowadays... I really mean easy. Second, the art, I can get why someone wouldn't like it... they are more realistic compared to now, so they have ugly characters (something that is really hard to find now). For example, I've seen a lot of complains about Blade of the immortal, Babylon or Ahiru no sora's artstyles because they look "ugly". For me, the most important things are the characters and the story. Animation only matters in action focused shows, but that alone can make a show just watchable, not more than that in my case. |
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| Art style is VERY important in any visual medium, of course there will be preferences, but art plays a very important role in the medium, both anime and manga. |
DaCraziGuy said: Well, first, it's pretty easy to find old shows with better animation then nowadays... I really mean easy. Second, the art, I can get why someone wouldn't like it... they are more realistic compared to now, so they have ugly characters (something that is really hard to find now). For example, I've seen a lot of complains about Blade of the immortal, Babylon or Ahiru no sora's artstyles because they look "ugly". For me, the most important things are the characters and the story. Animation only matters in action focused shows, but that alone can make a show just watchable, not more than that in my case. People think Blade of the Immortal and Babylon look ugly? Really? I haven't started either yet but I've skimmed through some episodes and they look perfectly fine to me. Especially when compared to something like Dead Leaves. |
| It could have the greatest story ever written, and I wouldn't be able to pay attention to it if I don't like the art. To this day I have no idea whether One Piece has a decent story or not, because I can't get past the art style. |
| Art style doesn't matter at all in anime in fact it can make more interested in what the anime has to give than all those animes that conform themselves to the narrow minded norm a lot of people have like Pullman says. Though in manga it can feel annoying, of course I wouldn't drop a manga for that reason but sometimes it just makes me grin to look at some of the drawings, I usually get used to it eventually but the beginning can feel really annoying. A recent example I read would be SaiKano which uses a lot of lines to do shades and another example would be Banana Fish that feels like blank cases with characters on it for basically the whole manga (i'm exaggerating of course but I'd be confident to say that 5/8th of it is like that) with bland character design. |
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| In beginning,it also ocuurs with me,without watching/reading I select them on their graphics whether they top ranked or not.But now I'm okay.Any design for manga/anime,I can watch/read if storyline is good. |
| "When they're alive, you can enjoy watching them struggle. When they're dead, you can enjoy tearing out their guts. Tales are things you get to enjoy twice." |
obvious_troll said: It's more about staying true to Matsumoto Taiyou's artstyle, even keeping the rough lines.Nope. That is just Masaaki Yuasa style.  |
| gone bai bai |
Mkim said: obvious_troll said: It's more about staying true to Matsumoto Taiyou's artstyle, even keeping the rough lines.Nope. That is just Masaaki Yuasa style. hory shit. This is actually amazing. |
| Don't be a self pretentious that is the most gayest thing ever English Dubs are better than subs You all have anime profile pic so you opinion doesn't count Your Waifu is trash Cory in the house is the best anime https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFQQALduhzA Japanese are one of the most xenophobic nations My Anime List looks like a website from 1990s |
obvious_troll said: Mkim said: It's more about staying true to Matsumoto Taiyou's artstyle, even keeping the rough lines. hory shit. This is actually amazing. Wow, I didn't know about this, so yuasa stayed true to the art style. Well, still, my eyes can't take it. I'm more of a Hanebado style when talking about sports anime. |
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| They matter a lot to me. Especially the character designs. I still haven't watched Hunter x Hunter solely because of Gon's hideous design. I will definitely watch it one day. But I just can't take that character seriously :( That's also one of the many reasons why I hate Meliodas. |
| If you read Eleceed you're automatically my friend. |
| If the artistic choices add to the story it can up the whole thingy by a whole fucking lot if not it does not matter that much. I never for once didnt watch something because of the artstyle but it could cut some points from a otherwise good experience, for example Onanie Master Kurosawa is kinda shitty in the art department but still great overall but with a more fitting art style it couldve been much much more. Inio Asano for Manga and Studio Shaft for anime are probably the most obvious when it comes to tying artstyle with cinematography and themes of the work.I mean depicting Punpun as this bird thingy in Oyasumi Punpun is probably one of the imo best artistic choices across fiction. So yea they matter pretty fucking much not as important as cinematography imo but still pretty important when you want a 9 or 10/10 story. I dont care that much about Character designs, as long as its well written its i am gud with it. |
-Mullerio-Nov 22, 2019 10:54 AM
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| To put it simply, the art style is VERY important for me in both in anime and manga, character design come right after that. If it's not my taste, I won't watch or read it regardless the story. Or to phrase it differently, the story must be VERY good to make me watch/read it regardless. That's why I haven't bothered to watch Death Note or Jojo's Bizarre Adventure - yes, those shows might be really good, but sorry that it's just not my taste art-wise. |
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Setsuei said: Sadly yes, if all te characters aren't kawaii that means that art = shit (even though all the characters share the same face). That is a pretty common issue most newer people have, but don't get me wrong, not everyone is like that. DaCraziGuy said: Well, first, it's pretty easy to find old shows with better animation then nowadays... I really mean easy. Second, the art, I can get why someone wouldn't like it... they are more realistic compared to now, so they have ugly characters (something that is really hard to find now). For example, I've seen a lot of complains about Blade of the immortal, Babylon or Ahiru no sora's artstyles because they look "ugly". For me, the most important things are the characters and the story. Animation only matters in action focused shows, but that alone can make a show just watchable, not more than that in my case. People think Blade of the Immortal and Babylon look ugly? Really? I haven't started either yet but I've skimmed through some episodes and they look perfectly fine to me. Especially when compared to something like Dead Leaves. |
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Catalano said: @Yabetil true, if a story is good, the art style just doesn't matter, but I got my hands full of other stuff, PPA is not a priority. Kaiba, Kemonozume and Mind Game were pretty good, I gave them a chance because one is a movie (short watch), one is a psychological SF (the art style was on par with the story's essence for there weren't many human characters) and Kemonozume had older than your average 15 year olds. I talked from my pov. None of those are as good as ping pong... Coming of age at its finest |
| The world is not beautiful. Therefore, it is. |
| It's a completely valid concern. Who wants to watch hours of something they dislike looking at? |
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DaCraziGuy said: Setsuei said: Sadly yes, if all te characters aren't kawaii that means that art = shit (even though all the characters share the same face). That is a pretty common issue most newer people have, but don't get me wrong, not everyone is like that. People think Blade of the Immortal and Babylon look ugly? Really? I haven't started either yet but I've skimmed through some episodes and they look perfectly fine to me. Especially when compared to something like Dead Leaves. Feel sorry for the people who feel that way since they're missing out on some potential favorites. |
| It definitely matters to me. If I really despise the way something looks, I won't watch it, even if the story is supposed to be good. Despite many people recommending it to me, I'll never watch "Doukyuusei," because of how ugly the character designs are. |
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| Art style definitely determines if I'm every interested enough to try a series. This one's not anime, but I never want to watch Bob's Burgers because of its art style. It just isn't fun to look at, no matter how good the jokes might be. That said, there aren't many anime I've encountered with art styles that are off putting to me. Most of the time I appreciate unique art styles in anime that stand out from the bland styles that dominate most of anime of the last couple decades. Oh shit, and @nanimeanswhat reminded me that I'm not interested in HxH because of the weird character designs. |
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| To me that's matter very much, i dropped fews anime because the art is not good enough for me. for example. owari no seraph and soul eater i did drop it not because the story but the art seems not intersting to me. |
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| I can be bothered when an artstyle doesn't fit the anime I'm watching but otherwise it's not something to be bothered at. |
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