[Triple_R]

Originally Posted by acejem

In terms of practice, I'm not going to disagree as it could very well that the two studios have similar practices as both result in high budget animes. I still can't however agree that P.A. Works artstyle was heavily influenced by KyoAni.

I never said that PA Works artstyle was influenced by KyoAni. I wrote that it was similar to that of KyoAni.

Now, I'm getting the impression that you thought I was saying that PA Works was ripping off KyoAni's art style, and if so, let me be very clear that this is not the intent behind what I said at all. So if you took that implicit argument from what I wrote, then I apologize for it. Keep in mind that I don't see anything wrong with Yurippe from Angel Beats! looking a fair bit like Haruhi. If a particular character design base is appealing, I don't see the problem with it being re-used for different characters, as long as you add enough distinguishing touches to each new use of it (and I definitely think Yurippe has this, to the credit of PA Works). A lot of prominent western animation shows are famous for making extensive use of the same character bases.

I definitely think that PA Works does have a certain distinctiveness to its art style, to be sure, and you have done an excellent job of pointing that out. What I was mainly saying is that it shares certain general artistic strengths (strengths from my perspective and taste in artwork, anyway) with Kyoto Animation (and some other animation studios as well).

To really simplify it, and to put it in a nutshell, both animation studios notably excel at artwork that has attention to detail, character designs that look fairly realistic (making exceptions for the big eyes/small nose predominant style of anime), and tend to have artwork that is appealing to moe fans, including myself.

That's pretty much all I meant. Maybe the similarities I noticed aren't that big of a deal, and are more common than what I think, but they do tend to be important to me.

What I'm trying to say is that a lot of studios draw like this (some before KyoAni did) and hence it's artstyle is not exclusive nor originate from KyoAni.

Certainly not. This artstyle dates back to the 90s, at least. Possibly farther.

Attention to background detail is not exclusive to KyoAni either, a lot of studios have done this prior to KyoAni, though KyoAni does do it well. In addition, KyoAni is far from having the best background art (not saying you said KyoAni had the best background art, just trying to illustrate a point). In my opinion, if you want the "King" of background art, look no further than Comix Wave (most famously known for Makoto Shinkai works).

This is an aside, but I really don't think it's fair to compare anime movie artwork to anime TV Show artwork. One tends to have a much larger budget per minute of content than the other.

I mean, you wouldn't expect the special effects of sci-fi TV shows to match up to the special effects of sci-fi movies. And generally speaking, they don't.

That being said, thanks for sharing those gorgeous pics.

Aside from background comparisons, which I find are usually similar in high budget animes, the character designs in KyoAni vs P.A. Works differ significantly - particularly Key adaptations. Example:

Spoiler for Clannad vs True Tears comparison:

With Key adaptations, I agree. That's why my comparison choices focused on Haruhi 2006 and True Tears.

Like I said before, the only series that P.A. Works looks similar to KyoAni is Angel Beats. That I will not deny.

I still think that True Tears looks fairly similar to Haruhi 2006. Sorry, but that's how it looks to my eyes.

Also, this new PA Works anime, Hanasaku Iroha, makes me think a bit of K-On!!, to be completely honest. But the differences are significant enough that I wouldn't say that K-On!! influenced it, necessarily.

Originally Posted by OceanBlue

What? Just because they aim for realistic body proportions doesn't mean they have similar styles.

1. This is something every anime has in common.

No it doesn't. I've seen animes that don't draw smiles like that. Ga-rei Zero, for example, doesn't draw smiles like that.

2. Not really. Haruhi has the more pronounced separation between the bangs and the rest of the hair that's more characteristic of older anime [in my opinion].

I never said completely identical. What you're mentioning here is a very small difference.

3. Not really. True Tears has thicker eyebrows.

That's an optical illusion due to how the True Tears characters are "closer to the camera" than the Haruhi characters are.

4. Many anime have the sharp, pronounced nose.

Not from what I've seen.

6. Not necessarily. Again, Haruhi demonstrates what was more popular earlier on: a large, solid line for hair highlights. True Tears demonstrates what's more popular now: broken highlights for the clumps of hair.

But they both use highlights. IIRC, some animes use entirely solid coloring for the hair with no highlights whatsoever.

Plus, if your "many animes" amount to, say, 20-to-25% of all animes, that's still a small enough group relative to all animes that similarities can stand out to me.


Falkor - You raise some good points. Your appreciation and understanding of art appears to be at a certain level of true expertise, whereas I am seeing it with an untrained eye. I'm not an artist myself. Perhaps I'm seeing more similarity here than what is really there.