Anime or not Anime art style

[mrtoontastic]

I like both, but prefer ones that look a little more cartoonish to me. Hence a lot of my works follow that suit. But hey, non-realism is the FUN of art, hence why anime does so well.

[VanillaIceCake]

It's probably because people find it visually appealing. With that said, there are some anime art styles that actually pretty realistic. Yeah, the proportions may still be slightly off, but it's still appealing to look at!

I know I also like it because I think the chibi artstyle is cute!

[noenoh]

I saw this topic early in the morning and since I wasnt completely awake I tot I was back in 2005 were this question was in almost any art forum... tf

@darthmongoose and @Kelheor thank you I love you for your answers

I mean, the proportions of the eyes and noses are so non realistic, and yet you can't deny the success of it...

yeah right.... ahem! @erancomics

Inoue Takehiko

Shinnichi Sakamoto

Murata Yusuke

Urasawa Naoki

Kentaro Miura

Obata Takeshi

Oku Hiroya

Shinkai Makoto

Kagano Mihashi

Yamamoto Hideo

Otomo Katsuhiro

Satoh Inoue

Hoshino Yukinobu

Zhang Jing

Masanori Morita

Iwaaki Hitoshi

Hanazawa Kengo

Koike Kazuo

Tsutsui Tetsuya

Akana Shu

Katsura Masakazu

AND MANY MANY MORE

[CommanderMarty]

RIP Kentaro Miura (sorry just had to say that, the man was a legend) and I love Yusuke Murata's art, I do somewhat prefer ONE's page construction but I like Yusuke Murata's art more.

[DelythThomasArt]

For me mines a bit of a mix, but in general I lean towards the Manga style for how expressive it can be but also IT IS MUCH QUICKER TO DRAW, which when chugging out comics for places like Tapas and Webtoon makes things easier.

[jimena]

I think it's funny that this is about liking non realistic proportions, because as a child, anime was my first introduction to the idea that animation could look more realistic and feature complex art and stories. It was a revelation.

This is so true for me too, the first time I watched Howls moving castle I was so amazed at how realistic and natural their movements were!
And when I watched Paprika my mind was blown!

[SleepingPoppy]

So true. Howl's Moving Castle is such a beautiful movie, it steals your heart (Coincidentally both the film and the book are two of my favorite stories in the world!)

[Mallory]

I think it's because anime is stylized enough that you don't need to worry about crossing into the Uncanny Valley with art that's drawn on a deadline. There's artists who can draw comics with a more realistic art style and still have them look relatable/alive (Fiona Staples, Nicola Scott), but one of the reasons, for example, that I don't read many superhero comics is because a lot of the people in it look unsettling. Like corpses or wax dolls. It's just a consequence of having to draw fast, but the more stylized artwork is, the less likely you are to fall into this unfortunate category. And it allows for a wider range of emoting without, again, having the characters look really weird/frozen.

[jimena]

...I don't read many superhero comics is because a lot of the people in it look unsettling. Like corpses or wax dolls.... having the characters look really weird/frozen.

Oh finally someone put it into words! :0! I was never sure on why I didn't care for dc or marvel comics... I have actually try to "learn" from them but the drawngs and emotions are so stiff and the faces look like they had a lag in the reactions haha like when you pause a disney movie.

[hakei]

Ah man seeing OP's comments was a flashback to my high school art teacher saying "anime is not art" but somehow... Disney/Marvel style was

[kitschensyngk]

A lot of us who discovered anime had gateway series like Naruto or Bleach (Tenchi Muyo! was mine) but the more of it we saw, the more we were awed and inspired by the infinite number of styles, the breathtaking visuals, and the narrative creativity. I've seen Japanese animators do things that I wish more American animators would do.

It isn't all big-eyed, big-headed, bigger-breasted girls in skin-tight school uniforms.

[Stargazer31]

@erancomics
Most anime art styles are quite expressive and cute, and that appeals to many readers.
I'm not being rude, but I think it's a little hypocritical of you to criticize "Non realistic" anime art styles when your own art style is quite stylised and unrealistic itself.

[erancomics]

I think that there are many styles that I find interesting and amazing, but some styles are just bug eyed humans that I really don't understand. There are big breasted women in the world that many of us are attracted to, so drawing a big breasted women in not unrealistic.. But drawing humans with eyes half the size of their faces is. Again, it's a style, and it's an art, but I don't understand it... It's just too strange...

[Stargazer31]

@erancomics
People tend to like the anime art style because it's visually appealing. It's cartoony yet slightly realistic. There's not just one generic "anime" style either. The Ghibli art style is realistic, whereas most Shoujo styles are very cartoony.

And when I said "unrealistic", I wasn't just referring to their chest size. If these women were real, their legs would be too skinny to support their heads and torsos. Their waists and ribcages would be unable to contain their vital organs either, so I don't think that your art style is "realistic."

I know that there are incredibly skinny large chested women in the world, but they are mostly models, who have had large amounts of cosmetic plastic surgery. Anorexia and other dangerous eating disorders are rampant in the modelling industry, and result in impossibly thin models. There are cases of models starving to death, so, as a feminist, I think that saying that these women are "realistic" is potentially dangerous, as it may lead to normalisation of anorexia.

If you bill your art as stylised, that's fine, but it's just too exaggerated to look realistic, and it falls into the uncanny valley effect, where things look unnerving because they're simultaneously not quite realistic or stylised enough.

[CommanderMarty]

Art is not defined by how realistic it looks, it is defined by how appealing it is.

[Stargazer31]

@erancomics
I'll put it this way, so you can see the difference
This is David Tennant, he is a realistic skinny guy, and he looks cute.

This is a stylised drawing of David Tennant, he also looks cute.

This is an deliberately uncanny valley drawing of David Tennant, he looks like he's going to devour my skin while I'm sleeping. (Please ignore the wings and tail.)

[noenoh]

but some styles are just bug eyed humans that I really don't understand.

But drawing humans with eyes half the size of their faces is. Again, it's a style, and it's an art, but I don't understand it... It's just too strange...

[erancomics]

I know this is a sensitive subject, and I really don't want any artist or reader to feel like I think their art is bad. Again, there are amazing styles that I do love, and some that I don't. It's just my personal preference. My art is another style. The proportions of the breasts and weists are big, but there are real women in the world walking with such proportions. They are skinny. Like some women are, not just starving models are skinny, there are perfectly healthy women who are skinny. Not all people are fat. There are real women looking like that. But I haven't seen a single human being walking on the planet with eyes half the size of their faces. This is adorable right until the Disney's proportions (an art style that I do like) but bigger than that is just weird and not attractive. To me. This is my personal preference. No harm intended. On that note, I will not buy half a million picture of a blank white paper because it's "art". In my eyes it isn't. I understand some think it is. It's just my personal preference. Everyone has its own preference. It all right. Don't hate me for saying what I prefer or not. It's just me...

[sorible]

There are big breasted women in the world that many of us are attracted to, so drawing a big breasted women in not unrealistic.. But drawing humans with eyes half the size of their faces is.

It's part of the culture. If you don't get it that's understandable, but in Asia, bigger eyes are considered more beautiful or handsome which bleeds into the styles of art.

You're saying that lots of people are attracted to big breasts so it's not unrealistic to draw that way. But not everyone is into that, and like I said, the majority of asians are attracted to big eyes. You can't judge others based on your own standards.

It's fine if you don't like anime style but it's not really justifiable to think that your work is "better" of some degree whether it's by level of realism or exaggeration of certain body parts. Maybe not your intention but that's the feeling I got when I read your replies.

[SleepingPoppy]

Don't hate me for saying what I prefer

Again, it's a style, and it's an art, but I don't understand it... It's just too strange...

When you say "I don't understand it" and "it's just too strange" the implication is that not only do you personally not like it, but you can't comprehend why other people like and draw it, which is insulting. That's why people keep getting riled up.

Even if you don't like it, it's really easy to understand why exaggerated eyes would create appealing characters. It's not a complicated or elusive concept.