I want to know what is the kind of style of Anime and Manga that you prefer over anything else? I'm not asking about the story or characters, i 'm asking about the artwork and design of the art that would draw you to a particular anime or manga. I particularly like anime and manga that are very defined and detailed and an ample use of shading and the use of the colour black. This i'd say is partly because i've read everything by Nihei Tsumuto and i feel that he uses black alot to represent the emptiness in the dystopian worlds he creates.
It has to be decent looking. I've seen many a manga where it was either so detailed it burned my eyes, or such horribly drawn I can't look at it. I really love Ai Yazawa's work. It looks realistic, and it's not detailed too much.
I had a feeling you would mention him, and I couldn't agree more. He definitely deserves a spot in my favourites as well. His grim and obscure style don't merely illustrate a manga, it actually contributes to the overall tone.
So true. If you noticed that you'll also notice that in BLAME! he incorperates old style manga in the design of his characters i.e. Killy.
[highlight]I like simplicity. I really dislike scenery porn in manga. It makes it so difficult to concentrate on the actual events. So if the majority of the panel is white, that's fine. I'm in it for the plot and characters, not the art.[/highlight]
I like it when it's easy to differentiate between characters, objects and just being able to see in general. That's probably why I don't like manga, I think it's really hard to what's what when there's no colour. xD
I shall concur with a handful of the above posts - I prefer an art style that is able to successfully set the tone of the entire work very well, yet is simple and quite fluid in execution, as, indeed, though manga and anime can be focused primarily on character development and plot, to be successful with the former two a proper setting must be achieved. Characters - or rather their personalities - should be unique among each other to achieve a more interesting work of fiction, and though this does not always have to be reflected upon their visual aesthetic it would be quite easier and a great deal more pleasing if done so, even in minuscule detail - as long as it is acknowledgeable. In general, however, I would simply say it must be quite visually pleasing without excessive extravagance and acceptable to the work's implied themes.
I've always been a fan of Hiro Mashima's style. Who is turn is quite obviously influenced by One Piece.
I don't really focus much on the art, but I do like it to be slightly detailed. One artist that I rencently saw:Mayumi Azuma, has I style that I like.
For manga, I love details too much. So I'm not into simplicity that much. I really like an art style that pulls you in. Take the manga "Dogs: Bullets and Carnage" and "Air Gear" for example. Dogs: BnC barely had any backgrounds after a while. It did have a better detail on its characters, but it was too monochromed for my taste. Air Gear had a much more detail in its art after a while. Don't get me wrong, I love Miwa Shirow's art, but "Oh! Great" really pulled with his art. I don't consider it the best, but it was at least decent. There are cons on judging by it's art. Oh! Great was never good at his stories whatsoever. Reading his mangas is actually a waste of time in my opinion, since it's only what you call, "pretty". Dogs had a really good story, and I actually like it's art in a way. It makes you focus more on the characters and get a more development to them in a way. It's definitely not good to judge it by it's looks. Though it would be too bad for me to try to read something with such a bad art. Take some shojo mangas. I'm sorry but looking at them like that really distracts me on everything. In manga, the first thing you look at is the art, isn't that right? Well, I'm sure some of you do look at summaries first. So basically, it would be the best to actually have everything to be on par together. Great art and story. I'm sure what I just said is kind of nonsense, but it's just something I wanted to keep that off my chest. For anime, I would say Mitsuo Iso's style would have to be the best. His overall flow and detail really achieves high levels. Yutaka Nakamura is also a great animator that needs to be mentioned.
