By Rachel on February 23, 2007
Anime is an art form and like most art forms, there are different styles and techniques within it. Take for example Gantz: No huge, anime eyes and sparkling stars in that anime. Big boobs, sure, but everything in Gantz is drawn fairly realisticly aside from the bust measurements.
Then you have DiGi Charat, where everything is cutesy and shiny as if everything in the series dropped acid that grew on a gum drop tree in Candy-Lace-Fun-Land. Then there are the in-betweeny anime that have the stereotypical anime eyes on the kids yet other characters and backgrounds are drawn in a “realistic” style. On top of that you have shojo style anime that’s all dewy and romantic and shonen style, which is a style used in shows like Bleach and Dragonball Z.
Which style do you prefer in your anime watching? Will you turn down a cutesy-styled anime for a more realistic one or does the shininess of shojo win you over every time?
Posted in Polls
I was exposed to anime as a child while living in Germany after watching the Japanese version of Hans Christian Anderson’s the Little Mermaid. In high school, a classmate in art brought in Akira as an example of Japanese art. I wasn’t very impressed with anime at the time, but my re-exposure to it in 2000 thanks to Escaflowne had me hooked for life.After sorting out what I liked about anime (great stories, beautiful animation and epic battles) and disliked about anime (big boobs, angst-y 15 year-old kids, most mecha, sports stories and style-over-substance), I got into it with a vengeance.I do love almost all aspects of Japanese culture and try to be involved with it as much as possible. I have no problem admitting that I incorporate a lot of Japanese trends and traditions into my life as I modify them and make them my own. Anime is a big part of that, along with all the sub-cultures, past and present.
I found myself a lot in the second option. I’m a big fan of cute and realistic shows, while the usual shounen-stuff and harem-series usually turn me off.
Realistic, like Inoue Takhiko style. Or Gunslinger Girl’s Aida Yu’s detail to guns and buildings. And Urazawa Naoki’s 20th Century boys/monster.. that kind of style. And Harold whatever who did Beck.
All 3 styles can be good as long as it is congruent with the theme/tone of the series. To quote an anti-example, it took me a while to get used to Higurashi’s character designs given its dark theme.
I guess the style I like is one that is compatible and accentuates the strengths of the anime.
Realistic is the best, like in Gantz or BECK.
But still I sometime like to see something unrealistic
Story and art are what make a good anime or manga. When the 2 compliment each other the product becomes something great.
When I first heard this poll i was eager to push realistic because my favorite anime and manga are Gantz and Berserk but i remembered my all time favorite GaoGaiGar which has the most simplistic anime style but that is one reason i love it so much. i truth i never voted because i don’t know the answer myself.
I went with the third option, of course that’s pretty subjective too.. for instance, I rarely find the classic shoujo design to be “good” as such, while others would disagree.
Although, with that said, I think the shoujo effect is probably stronger in manga than it is in their anime counterparts, as far as I can tell
Realistic’s fine, but at the same time I’ll take an anime which isn’t realistic in its art style but good (Azumanga Daioh) over one that’s drawn well but bores me half to death or has little plot to talk about (Ergo Proxy).
I’d have to say I’m with Stripey regarding styles – if it complements the series type, then that’ll do well (Manabi Straight, for example), but the opposite argument also exists… although Black Lagoon was an example of a series which I found had a good art style that was fairly ‘realistic’ while having their occasional bouts of oddness (the occasional ‘Higurashi moment that Revy or others displayed was priceless).
@tj: Harold Sakuishi… *haha* I used to be a really, really big Beck fan.
Anyways, I ‘voted’ for the second option but honestly I find the categories a little bit weird. There are lots of overlappings (are shonen and realism or shojo and dish plate eyes mutually exclusive?) and quite a few imho important genres aren’t really covered, such as slice of life and moe stuff which I would not call shonen but also not “super-cutesy-shiny-big-eyes”.
All in all, I enjoy many kinds of anime so I think the genre itself isn’t really relevant for the question whether I’d like it or not. (With one exception: If it’s a josei, then there’s a 99% chance I’ll like it.)
Sasa: I suspect Rachel meant art styles, rather than ANIME types – realistic art versus the ‘traditional’ big eyes/small mouth stuff. And even then, as you’ve pointed out, there can be overlap. Example: Nana’s art style has (fairly) realistic looks; not everyone’s ultra-busty or extremely handsome… and at times they go SD in ways that would make the best Big Eye Cutesy Style look… ‘real’ in comparison.
I also like a hybrid style in my anime, -psgels. Although I also like realism quite a bit, it’s good to mix it up and have a tad of classic in the anime. But I think the bulk of anime is either “classic” or a composite these days.
Gunslinger Girl’s art style was an attractive one -tj han. It really enhanced an already good story, IMO.
-Stripey, you have an excellent point about the style matching the tone and subject matter of the anime. Tetsujin 28 put me off at first with it’s Astro Boy likeness. It shocked me how the style didn’t quite synch up with the depth and maturity of the series.
The series would have scored a perfect four gummies if it hadn’t been for the animation but it still was a great story. So the style only cost it half a mark. Overall, though, if the style doesn’t match the story it can be distracting.
-41 nano, since there is such an abundance of classic-style anime it’s impossible to avoid it completely. I think it’s good to get back to anime’s roots, so to speak, now and again.
Story and art are what make a good anime or manga. When the 2 compliment each other the product becomes something great.
Yep. A good point -Carey and one which I suspect a number of fans are in agreement with.
…I think the shoujo effect is probably stronger in manga than it is in their anime counterparts, as far as I can tell. Agreed -Crayotic Rockwell but I’d thought I’d throw it there since I wanted to cover all the bases.
-Haesslich, I’m of the opinion that many fans feel as you, Carey, -Stripey, and myself do and don’t mind the style of anime as long as it fits the story and maturity level of the anime.
I finished Elfen Lied last night and was blown away by the massive amounts of violence in the series. What a stark contrast to it’s rather classic style! Time after time I was taken aback by the schizo contrasts in the anime. It was a great series and maybe they did that on purpose to create a greater sense of unease. If they did, it worked, I felt on edge the entire series…
-Sasa, I was referring to art style of the anime rather than the genre ^^. Genre stylings are for another day.