Do you prefer 80s chara designs over current ones?

[FaiEatsRainbows]

I don't think characters from the 80's were attractive at all, really. Some of the art was really pretty in the way it was drawn, but I didn't find them necessarily attractive. They usually had very pointy, elongated faces, smaller eyes, and really bulky/thick hair. I perfer the characters today with the bigger eyes, chubbier (but cuter!) looking faces, and thin and flowing hair. <3

[Liddo-kun]

In reply to the first post.

I'd always go for the newer ones.
Sure, the 80's had a classic look to them but for me it's only for nostalgia purposes. I can't imagine my current favourite series Idolm@ster and Madoka Magica having those "classic" character designs.

[anime4ev3r]

Current as in the most recent animes? Then yes. I personally cannot stand this trend of anime looking like eroge, visual novels etc with the character designs. I also can't stand the ones with so many female characters and as far as character designs are concerned the only way to differentiate with them is hairstyle. Also not into the trend of loli and super moe character designs. But I must say I hate mullets but that's not attributable to all 80s anime as are the trends I mentioned regarding current anime
http://anichart.net/summer

[solomon]

80s easily, rounded and more naturally cute and handsome.

Design templates are rehashed althroughout the eras but those older designs are just easier to empathise with than the excessively stylized and unnatural shapes that characters are now.

Mainly in terms of faces.

Tons of exceptions though, depends on the artist.

[Okay_Bruh]

The thing is, without all the huge eyes from way back in the 60s-70s and developed style in the 80s anime wouldn't have all the 'moe' eyes we like today.

par exemple:

Ignore the captions and look at those eyes and the coloring. Doesn't it look slightly similar to this:

Take for example Rumiko Takahashi 's Rinne, I know it also depends on the artists artists style. But look at the classic face shape the main character Sakura Mamiya has:

I have no problem the anime from back then (minus the animation), but I have a few things to say about the anime nowadays.
Nowadays I can't even tell what the plot is [Ikki Tousen], all I know is that you have to be careful what you choose to watch SOMETIMES or you could get a buttload of fan-service thrown in your face. Anime is not for kids, but that doesn't mean kids 13+ have to see the main character's chest being groped by a perverted friend. Mind you if you're fine with certain things go ahead, but it seems every anime has it's fair amount of fan-service or suggestive implications

Needless to say, back in the day you knew where you could find anime with excessive amounts of ecchi if you needed to. But now its everywhere; not that I don't like it in anime, I just don't want to see the same basic panty shots and typical character designs-I'm an artist myself-over and over again.
Give me something new.
As for the character designs, to each his/her own.

[aohige]

I grew up in the 80s in Japan as preteen and teen, and no, I don't prefer character designs of a certain "era".

More in question is which INDIVIDUAL artist I prefer over another.
I would prefer Yoshikazu Yasuhiko and Haruhiko Mikimoto's design over say, "generic galge artist A", absolutely yes.

On another note.... why did this thread suddenly get Necro'd?

[Yui Is My Wife]

The "teenager" designs of 1970's and 1980's Anime fell into the pitfall of trying to emulate the American Movies of the era. (IE. Fully developed and grown 25 year olds playing 16 year olds), and hence "children" characters never really quite capture their childlike natures, particularly if they are supposed to be innocent and vulnerable.

Heck, much as I LOVE Yuyu Hakusho and Slam Dunk, comparing the cast to Classroom Photos from my 14 year old and 16 year old days, I cannot help but shout "Hey, what are these 30 year olds doing in School Uniform!"

Takahashi Rumiko started to break that trend with the warm innocence of her "Ranma 1/2" Designs, and eventually came a gentleman called Akamatsu Ken with his Buxom yet adorable residents of one "Hinata Hotel"....

Anime these days? As a rule rather than exception you can easily be convinced of the vulnerability and innocence of the cast because they actually look like kids rather than adults playing kids (Kyoto Animation's Haruhi and K-ON! is exceptionally good at this). JC Staff is also very good at conveying athletic, attractive yet still genuinely sweet and endearing kids (think Index, Railgun and Strike The Blood

Not that I hate the 1980's; it was a product of its Era, where Mega Blockbuster John Hughes American Films where adults played kids; Japan merely emulated the trends of the times.

But for lovable designs that conveyed genuine warmth and emotion? Bring on the 21st Century of Kyoto Animation and Akamatsu Ken, baby!

[judasmartel]

IMO the 80's designs look cooler and hippier to me, I like Rumiko Takahashi's designs best.

But of course, nothing beats the modern designs in my book. Sure, they still have those huge eyes, impossible hair colors (though I usually treat that as personality hair colors and nothing else) ridiculously cute faces and unbelievable curves (even on supposedly average beauties), but faces and body structures are getting more and more realistic as time passes by.

That sexy female anime body sure is cool and all, but it's actually pretty rare in real life. But somehow, just by looking at any anime character, I could easily imagine how they would look like IRL thanks to cosplay. They will be much LESS cuter IRL, but it's close enough

EDIT: I agree about characters looking younger and younger. Probably the reason why Older Than They Look is the current trend nowadays.

[aohige]

Originally Posted by Yui Is My Wife

The "teenager" designs of 1970's and 1980's Anime fell into the pitfall of trying to emulate the American Movies of the era. (IE. Fully developed and grown 25 year olds playing 16 year olds), and hence "children" characters never really quite capture their childlike natures, particularly if they are supposed to be innocent and vulnerable.

Heck, much as I LOVE Yuyu Hakusho and Slam Dunk, comparing the cast to Classroom Photos from my 14 year old and 16 year old days, I cannot help but shout "Hey, what are these 30 year olds doing in School Uniform!"

Takahashi Rumiko started to break that trend with the warm innocence of her "Ranma 1/2" Designs, and eventually came a gentleman called Akamatsu Ken with his Buxom yet adorable residents of one "Hinata Hotel"....

Anime these days? As a rule rather than exception you can easily be convinced of the vulnerability and innocence of the cast because they actually look like kids rather than adults playing kids (Kyoto Animation's Haruhi and K-ON! is exceptionally good at this). JC Staff is also very good at conveying athletic, attractive yet still genuinely sweet and endearing kids (think Index, Railgun and Strike The Blood

Not that I hate the 1980's; it was a product of its Era, where Mega Blockbuster John Hughes American Films where adults played kids; Japan merely emulated the trends of the times.

But for lovable designs that conveyed genuine warmth and emotion? Bring on the 21st Century of Kyoto Animation and Akamatsu Ken, baby!

Why, do you not think Momotaro and Jotaro look fabulously school kids?

[Yui Is My Wife]

Case in point

[Okay_Bruh]

You know I looked up Macross DYRL and found these awesome babies:

[Sheba]

To be fair, DYRL IS an animated movie which is not quite comparable to today's animated TV series. Apples, oranges, etc...

Originally Posted by Yui Is My Wife

Case in point

Seventeen years old. Both of them.

[Top Sergeant]

Even though I still like the original Star Blazers (yes, I know the actual Japanese title) I prefer the modern character designs. The new ones just look so much better.

That said, I do prefer 80's over 90's: those noses in the 90's were so pointed you could kill someone with them!

[Sixth]

Modern art easily for female characters.

80's art for manly male characters.

[Solace]

I think a lot of anime (and animation in general) since the mid 2k's has become too "clean", with sharp lines, saturated colors, and similar designs. I miss the rougher look of 80's and 90's anime, before computer assistance (and replacement for old school animation) became common.

Maybe it's the transition to high definition, I'm not sure. I feel the same way about a lot of special effects heavy movies these days too. There's just something off about them, a lack of "grit", and they just don't seem as tangible somehow.

[GuidoHunter_Toki]

Originally Posted by Solace

I think a lot of anime (and animation in general) since the mid 2k's has become too "clean", with sharp lines, saturated colors, and similar designs. I miss the rougher look of 80's and 90's anime, before computer assistance (and replacement for old school animation) became common.

Maybe it's the transition to high definition, I'm not sure. I feel the same way about a lot of special effects heavy movies these days too. There's just something off about them, a lack of "grit", and they just don't seem as tangible somehow.

I think were just a lot more variety of designs and the technique to the art directions in older generations of anime honestly. I could watch numerous shows from back then and see a great deal of difference between characters and just how things were drawn.

Now that computers can clean everything up so well we are finding many shows that have a very similar clean look, with characters that resemble each other across the board. Literally so many characters out there are basically the same head/face with just different colored hair and hairstyles, lol.

A lot of newer designs just lack personality imo.

[ElCachicamo]

C.A. didn't have a clue of what he was talking about as always. Manga art style is varied, only a fool would say other wise.


- Junichi Noujou
- Ryoichi Ikegami
- Seisaku Kanoh
- Hiroaki Samura
- Takehiko Inoue
- Shinichi Sakamoto
- Mafuyu Hiroki
- Katsuya Terada
- Tanaka Tatsuyuki
- Motofumi Kobayashi
- Masashi Tanaka
- Reiko Okano
- Masayuki Taguchi
- Junji Ito
- Akira Hiramoto
-Tadashi Matsumori
-Taiyō Matsumoto
-Hiroshi Hirata
- Ishihara Gojin
- Keisuke Itagaki
- Sei Itoh
- Masayuki Taguchi
- Akio Tanaka
- Akana Shu
- Takayuki Yamaguchi
- Makoto Yukimura
- Minetaro Muchizuki
- Daisuke Igarashi
- Akihiro Yamada
- Kenichi Sonoda

just to name a few

[Liddo-kun]

Hmm, since my last post here was in 2012... would comment again.
I still prefer the current ones... hard to imagine Umaru being done in 80's style and still be funny.

[felix]

The question of which is better is irrelevant.

The reason why a certain style was used is because that style was appropriate for conveying the spirit of the show. That people like a lot of anime that happen to have a certain style is a consequence of them liking the mood given by that style, not that the style is the reason they like it by itself. You can't just slap that style on anything; though some definitely try.

This is more evident if you flip it around. If you take a show from they 80's or any other time period and superimpose a different style then what it was represented with you don't exactly get a better show, just better visuals for our contemporary sensibilities. In fact you may very well ruin it. There's a reason 80's shows feel like the 80's and it's not just the occasional jank in animation.

Of course you have styles that are just upgraded versions of older styles. Usually you see those in reboots or remakes. But for the same reason outlined above the original style typically shines though more then the retouching.

[Sackett]

Let me repost something I said previous when comparing 80s and post 80s animation:

This is where I think style and quality starts to get confused. While there is a noticeable increase in the average quality of animation in the late 70s and early 80s, there was also a major shift in animation style in the late 90s.

The most obvious changes where a significant increase in emphasis on details in the hair and the eyes. Hair and eyes both became bigger. Oh My Goddess, Love Hina and Clannad are probably examples of this near the peak (as eventually there was another shift to tone it back down a little)

Prior to this hair was usually a solid block rather than having all these details suggesting individual locks of hair. And eyes, while large, were relatively smaller.

This change in style had a lot going for it. The focus on the eyes in particular allowed for greater communication of emotions, and the hair emphasis allowed adding movement and subtlety to close ups (particularly of cute girls).

However... this was not without some loss. Watching quality animation from the 80s you'll notice some differences. The backgrounds tend to be more detailed (except for KyoAni of course), there was better use of shadow and lighting, but most of all there has been a loss of body language.

Older anime tend to have better hands, arm and body position. Body movement is more natural too.

I get the feeling that while a lot of the 80s anime used their newly expanded budgets to study pictures and videos to improve their body language, a lot of anime today seem to be copying from older anime instead of the original source (actual humans).

I'd also say these are generalities too. As the willowy character designs like Starsha in Space Battleship Yamato is much different from the typical 80's character designs, and I think still holds up as a very beautiful character design.

I think it also worth thinking about how budget and attention can change things. Some of the "glamour shots" of 80s characters can match modern characters for the level of detail in the hair and eyes. And frankly I think I like them better - it's just that 80s anime rarely has that level of detail, while it's more consistent in modern anime.