Anime with the worst art styles

[Marisa Kirisame]

Ever find yourself looking up certain anime and the first thing you thought was: "Ugh, it looks hideous!"? I usually try not to let myself get too distracted with the art style of anime but are there instances when some of them just gets way too distracting? Personally, I have some rants saved up regarding those series. (Be warned that this is a rather subjective topic to discuss on)


Air Kanon Clannad This is probably a very controversial statement since my impression is that most people out there consider the Key style to be gorgeous, but I'm not one of them. Those bug-eyes turn me off like nothing else, and with the distance between the two eyes it just make all the girls look like they're mentally deformed (which, might not be that far from their real personality but that's another subject altogether).

Fruits Basket Again, Tohru look like a kindergartner because of her wide open eyes and opened mouth. I understand that she's supposed to be cheerful and innocent, but there's got to be a better way to show that. Also, the artist's work always make me feel like that the characters are missing a forehead or the top part of their skull.

Zero no Tsukaima Maybe it's because I preferred the novel illustration's softer approach, but the anime character design looked kind of cheap to me.

Seitokai no Ichizon The hair are flat/one-dimentional, and the body in general is very disproportionate.

Hayate no Gotoku A very obvious case of same face syndrome. Especially in the early parts of the manga.

[xKeen]

The first kanon was horrible,a bit for Air too.But clannad was good enough to keep someone watching.I don't see the problem on ZnT and HnG too.
DEEN art style is usually unnecessary imo,especially when the characters get mad.

[-KarumA-]

I actually don't mind the Key style, nor the Fruits Basket (it fits better with the manga but you don't want to change the style for the anime cause then it loses the artists touch)
I think it says something of the artist and makes a recognition point, you can recognize the artist very quickly by style and I don't remember all the names but instead remember the style of drawing etc.

What I did not like were the noses in Escaflowne, they get on my nerves

[roriconfan]

Crayon Shin Chan

What was that thing????

And it is supposed to be famous and funny. I was disgusted.

And although it is not a bad artstyle, I dislike all anime that look like Clannad. The girls look like aliens.

[Oppius]

1. Mononoke(not to be confused with Princess Mononoke)

Some people may like its art but it just too exotic to me.

2. Bakemonogatari

Another Mononoke wannabe. Some live-acted 3d objects just don't fit on 2d animations.

3 & 4. Ebichu & Shin-chan

Putting both of them together will confuse most people which one is better or worse.

[Sheba]

Slayers.

When you get out of Lodoss and Berserk, and see this. Well, yeah.

[Demi.]

Hanoka - Anime are just not meant to be made on Flash.

[SeijiSensei]

I can handle a pretty broad range of animation if the story and characters are compelling enough. However Studio DEEN's work on Shion no Ou just annoyed me no end. It appeared as if they had a couple of teams of animators and would occasionally bring in the "B" team (or perhaps even the "C" or "D") team after their best staff members had been reassigned to new shows. Noses seemed an especially difficult problem for DEEN in Shion.

[chikorita157]

Toei Animation productions on Kanon, Air and Clannad. The problem with Toei in the Air movie (which will be watching and reviewing later on) and Clannad is the use of way too much light making things way too bright. Also, the animation style Toei used looks inferior to the original source or even Kyoto Animation's versions of Kanon, Air and Clannad which looked alot better than the Toei versions.

[Aimingan12]

Monster. I just started watching it but the anime character design isn't exactly good

[Kaioshin Sama]

Hmmmm artstyles I flat out dislike....I'm thinking something like those pornoviolence OVA's like Kite and Mezzo Forte that somehow ended up on IFC's anime week that one time 7 or so years ago.

[GreatTeacherKen]

I like the series, but I always found Initial D's artwork to be rather ugly, especially in the 1st season.

And well, there's Musashi Gundoh, which epitomizes QUALITY.

[Fome]

Initial D. Girls were just plain fugly

[Noe]

I would say..Kemeko DX. Dropped it immediately.

[james0246]

Originally Posted by SeijiSensei

I can handle a pretty broad range of animation if the story and characters are compelling enough. However Studio DEEN's work on Shion no Ou just annoyed me no end. It appeared as if they had a couple of teams of animators and would occasionally bring in the "B" team (or perhaps even the "C" or "D") team after their best staff members had been reassigned to new shows. Noses seemed an especially difficult problem for DEEN in Shion.

Along similar lines, Argento Soma's constantly disappearing noses annoyed me...until, while watching the series with some friends, we turned it into a drinking game. Every time a nose disappears, take a shot...suffice to say, after one or two discs, we were relatively drunk.

[Chiibi]

Reign the Conqueror and anything by Peter Chung. His style. Seriously. GAG. I've never seen a style more unappealing than his.

Initial D. Girls were just plain fugly Initial D.

Everyone is fugly in that.

I'll probably get flamed for this but I don't like Akira Toriyama's style at ALL. His men and women alike are too buff, his children are way too chubby...and WHY OH WHY do some characters have dots for eyes while others have normal eyes!?

Chibi Maruko-chan. How does a manga that look like it's drawn by a three-year-old make it to FIFTEEN volumes, let alone get animated? People argue "The bad drawings make it charming" but please....Maruko's mouth isn't even drawn in the middle of her face! It just looks sloppy and crappy and lazy.

Toei Animation productions on Kanon, Air and Clannad.

Agreed. While not terrible, the characters just don't look very nice in Toei's style.

Speaking of which, I hate hate hate HATE the style of the Air TV MANGA. EW. Everyone's all pudgy!! Misuzu is no longer cute and Yukito is no longer hot and...*me cries* horrible....

[Theowne]

Originally Posted by Marisa Kirisame

Air Kanon Clannad This is probably a very controversial statement since my impression is that most people out there consider the Key style to be gorgeous, but I'm not one of them. Those bug-eyes turn me off like nothing else, and with the distance between the two eyes it just make all the girls look like they're mentally deformed (which, might not be that far from their real personality but that's another subject altogether).

I agree. Art styles usually don't bother me too much, but this is one case where it even sticks out negatively for me.

[Envy]

Originally Posted by Marisa Kirisame

Air Kanon Clannad This is probably a very controversial statement since my impression is that most people out there consider the Key style to be gorgeous, but I'm not one of them. Those bug-eyes turn me off like nothing else, and with the distance between the two eyes it just make all the girls look like they're mentally deformed (which, might not be that far from their real personality but that's another subject altogether).

I have to say I love you forever for standing up and saying that!

The coloring in the one I've seen some of (Clannad) was very nice, but the character designs... Meh. I just can't stand the way the females look in that anime and their personalities didn't help much to make me think that they weren't mentally retarded. lol (Please note I have only seen a few episodes.)

Otherwise, I don't really like Katekyo Hitman REBORN!'s style. Plus the coloring in the anime has a rather dull tint to it, as well. =/

[aquamarineAngel]

.hack//Roots
I got through it because I'm a .hack fan, but my goodness...
Most of the time the characters looked retarded.

[Jaden]

Gilgamesh...ew, awful.