Favorite and Least Favorite Anime Art Styles

[Haibane Shadsie]

This was inspired by the little tangent my topic about "Animes you are avoiding for stupid reasons" got off on in regards to "Reign".

I'm comfortable with most animation styles in all kinds of animation (not just anime). I can say that I really don't like "gross-out" style, ala "Ren and Stimpy" and "The Ripping Friends", but... sometimes I can stand to watch those, too.

Anyway, specifically in anime... do you have any favorite and/or least favorite art styles?

My favorites are the art styles of "Cowboy Bebop" and "Petshop of Horrors" - massively detailed, realistic but not overly so, very slick and very cool. I also ABSOLUTELY ADORE the art style of "Haibane Renmei" (obviously). The use of subdued colors gives it an "old art" feel. It is drawn rather slick like the previous animes... the characters have big expressive eyes, but not terribly huge, and the most of the backgrounds have the look of beautiful old paintings... It's just very artistic and beautiful. Those are probably my three favorite animes for art-style.

I also rather like Trigun's art style. It straddles a line between being somewhat "realistic" and goofily cartoonish. The character's expressions can get very cartoony, and I think it fits well with the drama/comedy feel of the anime, and is just... overall, fun.


My least favorite anime-specific style is probably... things that are overly CGed. I mean, not animation that is all CG, but anime that combines CG and traditional BUT DOESN'T BLEND THEM WELL. Cowboy Bebop blends its CG sequences (the gates and such) well, I think. What I am talking about here are things like "Dinozaurs", which, I watched an episode once and thought it was really dumb for story, but... the CG and the traditional animation just did not blend well at all, making it quite ugly.

[Ashley]

Mm, favorite art style would definately be Tanemura Arina, author of Kamekaze Kaitou Jeanne and Time Stranger Kyoto. Anime wise, mm, Bebop stands out in my mind too. Gundam wing was great in my opinion, too.
As we go further down the list to the "mediocre" titles, we get Fruits Basket (loved the story, not the art style) and Trigun (didn't like the cartoony feel). Also Ronin Warriors--loved the story, but the style was very 80s. Clamp...eh, clamp's mediocre too.

As for styles I abhor, Ghibli comes to mind. I'll watch them because I love the story and animation, but like Ami, I hate the style itself. I also dislike the Jhonney Velasquez/"gross" style. (dirge's gonna jump on me) and Initial D. Edit: oh, nor do I really care for Akira Toriyama's style, or the ALL CG'ed things, like the show I can't think of at the moment...you all know what I'm talking about. Bob the green guy, and it was inside a computer, with Hexidecimal and...yeah, you know. The canadian one.

[Shinja]

fav style_ kenshin, bebop, renmei

least fav_ reign. and anything thats totally cg.

and even though i really dont like the reign style i did like the animatrix one done by the same guy

Don't... get up!

[inkhana]

Let's see...my most favorite would be I guess Inuyasha and Kenshin, since a great deal of my own style elements come from these titles. I also studied Tenshi ni Narumon a lot (I think that was the title; frankly I know nothing about it, but I like the art style).

Least favorite: didn't much care for Reign myself, and ANYTHING that's that fake cg cel stuff...I -tolerate- SD Gundam's cel style, but that's as far as it goes. Also, I didn't like the way cg was blended into Queen Emeraldas. I'm not a huge fan of Leiji Matsumoto's (again, I -think- that's the name) style. I also don't care much for DBZ style.

[Technomancer]

Hmmm. I'd probably say that my favourite is the sort of style in Monoke or Akira. I also really liked what was done in "Cannon Town" and the finale in Wings of Honneamise. In terms of North American work, I also really like a lot of what's done in a lot of NFB shorts (esp. Lucretia)

My least favourites..I really didn't like how Blue Submarine no. 6 was done, and I'm not a big fan of the sort of style in King of Bandit Jing (although I like the stories). I also don't like a lot of the current styles that have been influenced by Ren and Stimpy.

[ShiroiHikari]

Shadsie, you start cool topics :]

Hmm...I used to really love the cover art of the Sailor Moon manga. I liked Naoko Takeuchi's art style and her coloring. Also, I really loved the art style in CLAMP's X manga, but...let's just say I don't read it anymore. I've seen some art from the Rayearth manga, and it's pretty too. Also, the art style of the Evangelion manga is pretty nice too (although I can't draw it...). Also, the Trigun anime art style is really cool. And I like some of the art from Weiss Kreuz. Oh, and I like Jhonen Vasquez's art at times. Oh! Also, there's this online manga called 10k Commotion that has the -coolest- art... http://www.10kcommotion.com

...can you tell I like manga art?

Some styles I don't care for...I like the Kare Kano manga, but something about the art style kinda bugs me. I also didn't like the art of Angelic Layer. The FLCL anime looked okay at times, but most of the time I didn't like the art. Also, I don't like the twitchy, cartoony Ed Edd and Eddy thing. And I can't stand CG cartoons. If yer gonna do a whole animation in CG, please let Square do it...^^; And I absolutely loathed that Reign art style. Bleh.

Edit: How many more times do you think I can use the word "also"?

[true_noir_chloe]

I really love the style of Yashotori ABe. He's the one who does Haibane Renmai and he is my favorite. I just am in awe when I watch his style. I really liked CLAMP's Cardcaptor Sakura and Rayearth, also. And, I really like Ken Akamatsu's style - a lot. He walks a thin line, nearing hentai, but I don't consider him that at all. I can't believe he fits all those panels in one page with all that writing. He must live, eat and breathe his manga. Oh, I almost forgot, I love the art work on Raxhephon. It's probably my second favorite anime artwise from Haibane Renmai.

Shiroi, I really liked the style of the 10kcommotion when I just took a look at it. It kind of reminded me of Yashotori ABE. Thanks for sharing that site; I'm going to go back and read it when I get off from here.

The ones I absolutely can't stand, definitely Reign. I feel sick to my stomach when I see it and anything like Ed, Edd and Eddy, Ren and Stimpy, Rippin' friends, they all make me physically sick when I watch them.

[Gypsy]

10k is awesome! It's one of my favs too.

As for anime styles, as much of and otaku I am, I don't know many of creator's names ... and to be honest, not many Japanese names stick in my head anyway.

My favorite style would be that of Masato Natsumoto, artist for the Record of the Lodoss War: Chronicles of the Heroic Knight. I've done lots of studies on his work, and I love the way he utilizes screen tones in unique ways. Sakurano Minene wrote and drew Guardian Angel Getten. I like that art style as well. I like the anime form of Ah! My Goddess, but not really the manga. And just as a random test to see if people actually read the middle of posts not broken up by paragraphs, would the next person to respond to this thread name two fruits in alphabetical order please? Only a test. I love Super Gals! animation style. I've never seen a manga and don't know if they exist. Brocolli (sp?), the team that does A Little Snow Fairy Sugar and Di Gi Charat are also on my list of favs. And then there's the St Tail anime. I don't like the manga art so much, but it's not horrible. Like I said before, I'm not a Ghibli fan really. The only style I really hate was Reign. Oh, and I abhor the original artwork for the FF games. I'd rather look at pictures of cosplayers who were on a $5.50 costume budget.

[Kagan]

My fave would be Masakazu Katsura (I''s, DNA).. manga style. Athough his storylines aren't all that great, the way he draws eyes and hair makes his characters unique.

As for my least favorite anime art style, it has to be Amano, the Final Fantasy art guy. No doubt he's a good artist, but his style just seems too strange for me.

[ShiroiHikari]

I just remembered...I really hated the art for one of those Final Fantasy games...I think it was 9, the one where they all looked like little kids and the main character looked like a girl...

(BTW Kagan, your av is really nice :])

[true_noir_chloe]

Gypsy reminded me when I just read her post about Super Gals. I love how colorful the outfits are and the way the artist does the eyes on Super Gals. They're probably my favorite anime eyes.0-0

[inkhana]

Oh yeah...O.o I forgot about that FF art. That...*sigh* I don't wanna be mean but it just could have been better...

[Haibane Shadsie]

I forgot to mention in my first post, but...

Something in regards to art styles in anime that I really, really like are...

Well-drawn animals.

Most animes have "cutesy-fied" animals... I don't like that nearly as much as realistic-style animals in anime... It probably comes from animals being my art specialty all my life... they are what I draw pretty well, and I appreciate well-drawn animals in art. What I am talking about here are characters like Ein of Cowboy Bebop (a VERY well-drawn corgi), and the crows in Haibane Renmei - the dog looks like a real dog, the crows look like real crows... very cool.

[inkhana]

That's true; I noticed right off how well-drawn the animals in CB were. Especially Ein. Of the shows I've watched, it's kinda unusual to see it where they're really well-drawn.

[Spiritsword]

CLAMP is mediocre?! Ashley, Ashley, Ashley...

CLAMP (especially CCS and MKR) would be my favorite art style. I also agree that Broccoli's very cute syle is up there on my list, and I think GONZO has done a pretty decent job with their CG. I tend to like styles that are a bit more along the SD lines, but not overly so, as well as styles with a lot of detail, clean, sharp lines, etc.

I won't mention specific series, but I generally don't care for most 80's animes with the softer lines, not as SD, etc. The storylines might be great, but the animation just doesn't appeal to me.

[The Silence]

on the subject of cute animals vs. real animals, while i mostly agree that realistic ones are much cooler, the animals in fruitsbasket are soooo cute i have to deviate from my usual policies and affirm them....

[Little T-chan]

I like clean, neat, cute styles!! Like Marmalade Boy. The anime art isn't as cute as the manga. But the line art is just cute! And the body is all in proportion....well actually, if you compare them to real bodies, not really...but at least they look it! Ooh! And I like the art in the Gundam Wing and Ronin Warriors OAVs!!!! Soooo mucha better than in the series.

My least fave art styles would be like American animation, I'm not racist or anything, but they're just not my type. And I thought SD Gundam was really weird.....just weird.....

[inkhana]

It's that fake computer cel-stuff... Not real fond of that...but I actually get a kick out of SD Gundam itself... LOL

[Bobtheduck]

I like "toon shading" 3d...

I like takahashi's style, even though it's very simple...

I hate Reign/Aeon Flux/ whatever else that guy made... Nasty...

The 80's was a good and bad time in anime... Good because it got anime over here, bad because most of it looked really bad... I like Project A-ko, but that hair... I hated the big hair...

I like Cowboy Bebop and macross plus, but MP's characters were a bit too... I don't know, they weren't my faves...

I don't like Samurai Jack's art style, but I tolerate it...

I don't like Ren & Stimpy or the ripping friends, but I DID like Rocko's modern life which had the gross out stuff in it too, though not as much...

I like the style in pokemon...

I was ok with digimon's style

I like Nadesico's anime style, but not the manga (and because of that I didn't like Silent Mobius' style, since it was the same style)

I like the SM anime, but the manga, with it's stick arms and legs, and elongated everything... I'm not that fond of that...

I like Clamp's newer stuff, but I hate the stuff like X and MKR...

I like the good art in Gainax's work, but the "cartoony" stuff, such as in FLCL and a little bit in kare kano, bugs me... Like how Haruko's lips kind of stretched out and stuck out to the side, I don't like that...

I like Ghibli, but sometimes the blushing cheeks can get old... Get those kids some medicine for that condition!

That's about all I can think of right now... Time for me to leave

[Mithrandir]

I like Ghibli, but sometimes the blushing cheeks can get old... Get those kids some medicine for that condition!

OK. Spoken truely!

[The Silence]

haha. one of my friends has a baby (well almost toddler now i suppose) whose cheeks as of late have always been this brilliant scarlet color... of course he's also on various exciting medications so that could have something to do with it....

[Mithrandir]

Or it could be that he falls off the couch when no one is watching him...

[The Silence]

that too.

[shooraijin]

That isn't poor R&S's kid, is it? (Names abbreviated to protect the, uh, innocent.)

[Lochaber Axe]

Personally, I like the cg'd work on Blue Sub. I tolerate Gundam SD's cg'd work, that is too... much. I can live without anime from the 80's, the art style has an odd archaic feel to it. I don't know how to explain it.

I hate animation like R&S with a passion. I wish to kill everyone on South Park, not just Kenny.

[Little T-chan]

Wow, you're really violent mister! We don't have to kill anybody, just flip the channel!!

Anywayz, I don't the Zoids Fuzors art...I can't pinpoint WHY but it just bothers me. yeah, tis weird, but I don't always know why I feel some way. But I love Zoids Zero. Mainly because Bit Cloud is sucha cutie!! I'm gonna MARRY him!!

[The Silence]

That isn't poor R&S's kid, is it? (Names abbreviated to protect the, uh, innocent.)

if you are referring to the same r and s that i am then yes, it is.

[Bobtheduck]

Not talking about the plot, what did people think of "Final Fantasy: The Spirits within"? I've heard several people say they hated completely CG... There is a BIG difference between "Reboot" and "The spirits within" (and, then, "final flight of the Osirus" which was done by the same team and reused some of the models, I believe...)

I am in love with computer animation... I think most of you know that by now... I love CG and I love people who take it seriously... Oh, and I love cinematic games, which is why I want to work for either Square-enix or Konami.

I just found out that Square USA is now owned by EA games... I don't know when that happened, but I was NOT told this... Hmm... EA hires right out of Full Sail, I want to join Square-Enix... 2+2=?

[Bobtheduck]

Um...

Fave style is the smooth, almost realistic unisex style...it's kinda hard to explain. It's almost hentai-looking, but it's much classier...kinda like in I"s, which has awesome art put horrible perversion and plot.

My least fave is the overly-shoujo kind of style that Tanemura Arina uses. I love her stories and stuff, but the huge, shimmery eyes and frail, flowerly bodies just don't suit me. Plus everyone looks the same.

Pretty weird, huh? How much I like a series seems to be adversely proportionate (is that how you say it? it probably isn't) to what I think of the art style...

-Hana Kiran

After a certain troll, I've gotten to reading the first letters of all newcomer's posts paragraphs to see if we are going to get him or a copycat back... I noticed "FMP" as in full metal panic in your post... Hehehe... Do you like the art style in Full Metal Panic (I've never even seen it, I just thought that was funny... I know it probably was just a coincidence, but that sorta fit though...)

[inkhana]

>Not talking about the plot, what did people think of "Final Fantasy: The Spirits within"?

IMHO, the graphics were wonderful. There were a few scenes (usually just for brief moments) where it didn't even register that I was watching CG...O.o Too bad the plot wasn't better...no sense beating a dead horse though...