Anime with the worst art styles

[Melpomene]

Well if we started a new topic about this someone would nag us about the search function and how there is a topic already. Yet again someone has quams with necroing an old topic, so then I beg the question- what then?

[Jan-Poo]

necro is fine in animesuki. This causes some confusion because in almost every other forums necro is heavily frowned upon. But the admins and mods here are pretty clear on this issue: necro is the way you do things in animesuki, what is really frowned upon here is making different threads about the same argument.

Sometimes a necroed threads gets revived because it's actually a mod who merged a newely created thread with it.

[Kotohono]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

necro is fine in animesuki. This causes some confusion because in almost every other forums necro is heavily frowned upon. But the admins and mods here are pretty clear on this issue: necro is the way you do things in animesuki, what is really frowned upon here is making different threads about the same argument.

Sometimes a necroed threads gets revived because it's actually a mod who merged a newely created thread with it.

Yup nercoing topics is fine... Except for the suggestion forum, please don't necro there some poster from 4 years ago and hasn't visited for 2 years is unlikely to care or even see what series you're suggesting .

[Jan-Poo]

Ah right, those are an exception.

[SilverSyko]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

I haven't read this whole topic so maybe someone said it already but you know... bad art doesn't really mean bad anime. I could name a few shows that have pretty much certainly a bad art but they are still considered great.

THIS. Some folks don't seem to realize this a lot of the time and it really peeves me when conclusions are made with this attribute alone.

I wouldn't say "bad art style" is proper though, I think a more appropriate term would be "undesirable art style". You might not like the way it's drawn, but does that mean that it's drawn badly?


There isn't really any art styles I hate as long as nothing is drawn in a half-assed way. Though I doubt a manga would be serialized with half-assed drawings.

If I had to nitpick though, I find lot of the more modern bishounen/bishoujo/moe character styles extremely overrated/overused, but like I said that doesn't really stop me from reading/watching those series'. I have enjoyed quite a lot of series' with character styles like that.

In the end, it's not something I consider incredibly important. The visuals are really only there to help tell the story.

[Irisiel]

I can't believe no one has mentioned Dragonaut yet. Seriously, breasts should not look like lumps are growing on top and on the sides of a larger lump underneath the skin when viewed from a low angle (among other bad art decisions).

Oh, and Final Fantasy: Unlimited, had a really simplistic and at times to the point of ugly style when compared to official anime artwork of the same serious (seriously, look at the Drama CDs covers and then at screenshots of the series; on the Drama CDs they actually bother to portray shadows!).

I didn't really like Higurashi's style (it came as kind of a shock directly after viewing Umineko in my case).

Oh and Junjou Romantica and Sekaiichi Hatsukoi! While the style can be attractive enough, it does not make up for the fact that I have a hard time telling one seme from another. Once I watched one of the side couples' seme monologue and thought I was watching the main couple, and this is much worse in the manga when I don't even have colours to guide me.

[Melpomene]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

necro is fine in animesuki. This causes some confusion because in almost every other forums necro is heavily frowned upon. But the admins and mods here are pretty clear on this issue: necro is the way you do things in animesuki, what is really frowned upon here is making different threads about the same argument.

Sometimes a necroed threads gets revived because it's actually a mod who merged a newely created thread with it.

Originally Posted by Konakaga

Yup nercoing topics is fine... Except for the suggestion forum, please don't necro there some poster from 4 years ago and hasn't visited for 2 years is unlikely to care or even see what series you're suggesting .

Ah, and with that light has been shed on this rather awkward situation. I felt this topic was one commonly spoken about amongst anime fans and thus has merit. At least clubs I actually attended seemed to mention something of the art work. I didn't think things were such an illogical catch 22. Thank you for informing myself and others the both of you~

[Kitsune]

One Piece, it's just one piece of crap

[Melpomene]

Originally Posted by Kitsune

One Piece, it's just one piece of crap

Care to elaborate? Making a claim is empty without reasons to back it up. Is it the art? Is it the mood/tone of the show. Is it the story? It is widely popular and well recieved so this simple sentence might be ignored, or possibly even annoying to some members. I'd like to hear your reasons.

[Kyuu]

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

necro is fine in animesuki. This causes some confusion because in almost every other forums necro is heavily frowned upon.

Necroing threads outright pisses me off - especially those linked with news threads (bringing the assumption of recency). Though, for generalized topics like this one, I may not actually care and respond to the topic accordingly.

Originally Posted by Jan-Poo

what is really frowned upon here is making different threads about the same argument.

Yet, the side consequence of that policy stems on longer lasting threads on page 1... making this forum appear to be... "dead".

[RWBladewing]

Originally Posted by Melpomene

Shiki, I just couldn't get over the whacky hair and strange art style. I really really liked the series though, and enjoyed it from each episode to the amazing conclusion. I'd say it's only real weakness for me is the art style. I got used to it when I stopped watching anything else and just focused on Shiki, but the second I see the characters next to something else I giggle.

Wait, wait...are you implying that Tatsumi's animal ear hairstyle and one-piece hoodie with micro short shorts are NOT the epitome of style and high fashion?

[Melpomene]

Originally Posted by RWBladewing

Wait, wait...are you implying that Tatsumi's animal ear hairstyle and one-piece hoodie with micro short shorts are NOT the epitome of style and high fashion?

Hahaha, I am indeed~ I can't think of any time where that fashion would work. Maybe at a pride parade? I don't know T.T

[Random32]

I would say undesirable art style possibly is not undesirable anime.

It really depends what genre. I personally like Key's character designs, but it isn't that important compared to how the characters think/act/feel or the story. K-On really needs cute characters imho. For more series in between, it also really depends on what you are looking for, an in between series imho, Nichijyou, I think the character designs are fine since I like the jokes/etc, but a friend dropped it due to character designs since he was looking for cute girls doing cute things.

[Kotohono]

On topic... as for now I'd say Kuchu Buranko/Trapeze the art style tries to be more bizarre and surreal visual than majority of shows by Shaft which just resulted in something awful, so to me it has the worst art style I've seen so far.

[Mad Pierrot]

While I like One Piece, the art really tends to ruin the mood sometimes like Luffy's reaction to Ace's.... you know.

Also, Production I.G. and Sunrise barely cared about the limbs from the xxxHolic and Code Geass characters. I like both series but it's ridiculous.

[SeijiSensei]

It only took seven years for this thread to be revived a second time

You did see the rather extensive discussion of the art in One Piece a few pages back, right?

[0cean]

I don't know an actual anime with 11eps or longer with a worse art style than Aku no Hana. The manga was fine, too, but they raped the "anime".

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Well,... there's always the eye cancer that is Ping Pong, I guess.

[Tanuki.]

I think both Aku no Hana and Ping Pong's art styles are great. The push anime as a medium beyond the boundary of what is considered "pretty".

I usually appreciate all art styles that try to do something differently, especially if there is serious artistic ambition behind them.

What I don't like are the styles of shows that look like iterations of the same old formula (there are exceptions, though), especially those that try to appeal to the typical otaku crowd which includes most fantasy LN adaptions. I also dislike overly ridiculous designs in shows that take themselves seriously.

My favorite art styles this season:
- Mitsuboshi Colors
- After the Rain
- Hakumei and Mikochi

It's a bit sad that due to reduced line counts, anime often can't match the expressiveness and uniqueness of their manga source material when it comes to drawings alone.

[0cean]

I'd make the claim, that they push the medium beyond the boundary of what anime should be.

It's okay to be different. Though, that mostly means to look like shit - think Kaiba (2008). Turns out norms are there because they work and being way different for difference sake really is just striking your own ego. It's easy to differentiate oneself by choosing an unusual style, but hard to accomplish the same without visually sticking out too much.

[Tanuki.]

I think Kaiba looks great. I also think Ping Pong looks awesome. And so does Aku no Hana. Neither of those shows are "different for difference sake" – their art styles are very effective for what these shows try to do (especially Aku no Hana – without the rotoscoping and non-pretty characters it would feel completely different and much more boring) and an integral part of their identity. I also understand that other might find these types of aesthetics off-putting. That's okay. However, I will never make a claim what "anime should be" aesthetically because that's not for me to decide.

What I find more interesting is the correlation between unusual artstyles and unusual themes. Are anime that look different also explore themes different from the norm? Do they have a different presentation? I think that's true more often than not. It's certainly true for Kaiba, Ping Pong and Aku no Hana.