CAA: Christian Anime Alliance

So does the artwork in a manga series affect whether or not any of you would consider reading a series? (I'm talking about the style used, not what's being depicted)

I know I've ignored the Trigun series just because so much has been drawn on each page that it feels cluttered and I have troubles seeing what's going on. I've also ignored series because I didn't like the way the characters were drawn. The Oh! My Goddess manga seems to be devoid of a background half the time.

Anyone else do this?

sometimes. if a cover has art that's too shoujo-y, I don't pick it up. the same goes for shonen-y art. I like a nice happy medium.

Yes. I cannot read a manga whose style I hate. One of the main reasons I don't read alot of shounen manga is because alot of the shonen styles bug me. Anything that remotely resembles DBZ is simply unreadable for me.

I like the styles of Fruits Basket, DNAngel, Wolf's Rain, and many others.

Oh, usually, the art style doesn't matter that much to me although I like some better than others.

I do get annoyed if the style is cluttered and I have a hard time following it but it wouldn't prevent me from reading the title unless the problem was extremely bad.

If the art style is very weird/bizarre, I might pass it up.
Generally however, I rarely will refuse to read a manga just because of the art.

Art style is one of the determining factors as to if I'll even look into a manga title. Considering how expensive a hobby it can be, I'm pretty picky. XD

I really prefer a lot of shoujo things to shounen style, but I can't say I wouldn't read Kenshin or Trigun because of the more angular style; I enjoyed Cowboy Bebop and Gundam Wing mangas immensely. I do dislike greatly though most Korean styles, and what I refer to as "Peach Girl" style. I'm also not crazy on the "retro" Ranma type either.

Art style hardly bugs me since I've been reading so many different styles of comics and manga for a long time. It will, however, factor in the initial impression of the comic. Like if I see crappy art on a cover (or even "good" ones but is obivously fanservice-y) I most likely won't pick it up. But some of my favorite mangaka (Hiromi Mashiba--if I didn't spell her name wrong) have art that can be considered "weak", but dude, the superior pacing and storytelling is all that is needed to make it a great comic/manga. Pretty pictures with a weak plot just makes it a sequential illustration book. And I don't read comics/manga for that XD

I used to like CLAMP for their pretty art, but now I realized I don't really like their storytelling much. Many people hate One Piece for the hybrid style but I love the series anyway for the story and characters.

I'll buy a comic of stick-figures and no backgrounds if the artist can promise that a great plot with good pacing can come out of it XD

i care about style enough that it does make a difference. I can't stand super simple design, more in the backgrounds though. blank BG's bother me in professionally produced manga. I like a certain amount of detail, the more the better really. Hence yukito kishiro is my fave manga-ka. He's amazingly complicated in his drawing style.

I like a certain amount of detail, the more the better really. Hence yukito kishiro is my fave manga-ka. He's amazingly complicated in his drawing style.

You sound like me, Mechana. Except my favorite artist is quite clearly Tanemura Arina (you might like her). What works has Yukito Kishiro done? I'm curious now.

Ashley wrote:You sound like me, Mechana. Except my favorite artist is quite clearly Tanemura Arina (you might like her). What works has Yukito Kishiro done? I'm curious now.

Yukito Kishiro did Aqua Knights, Ashen Victor and the series for which I know him for, Battle Angel Alita (BAA) and BAA: Last Order. I may like Arina, I'll look for her next chance I get, Ive been hearing good things about her lately from a lot of people.
Review pending over X-mas vacation on BAA. Too much interest in the series not to.

Battle Angel Alita is also known as Gunnm (Gun Dream) and is drawn in a semi shoujo style.

I'm the same as a lot of the people above. Art style isn't the biggest factor - story is definitely a lot more important - but if I see something fan-servicey I won't go near it.

I haven't read that much manga; there isnt a whole lot around though thankfully its popularity and availability have gone up-- but I have refused to pick up things that are too chibi. I don't hate chibi, I just think there can be too much of it .

*Wishes we had Trigun manga*

Yeah, art isn't my top priority (I personally think that some of the unmentionable series on this site have lovely art, but I won’t read the manga), but often I’ll use covers as an initial gauge of whether I might be interested. I don’t care much for shoujo, so I generally go for the manga with the tough-looking-bishounen-with-katana cover rather than the pretty-girl-pretty-boy-fwishy-hair covered manga. Some I’ll pick up because the art style is different and eye-catching (art was a major attractor factor for Bleach for me, and then it turned out to be way cool in addition), but that’s only if I’m just cruising the manga shelves for something new; mostly I use recommendations and reviews in choosing.

I love all kinds of styles, from Eiichiro Oda (One Piece) to Tanemura Arina to Masashi Kishimoto (Naruto). The only ones I really don't like are DBZ and InuYasha/Maison Ikkou/Ranma style (they're by the same author, right?). I'm not overly fond of Fruits Basket either, but I can deal with it for the story.

Even if an art style is cute, it still makes me nuts if the pages are too cluttered or difficult to read, especially when the artist uses too many screentones that clash. I think just being able to make a ton of screentones work together well is a talent in itself.

My favorite though is Nanaji Nagamu's (Parfait Tic). And I have to settle on Naruto for the best action/fight drawings. Oh, and I love Ken Akamatsu's style, but his manga is usually too fanservicey for me to stand reading. >.<

Ashley wrote: I do dislike greatly though most Korean styles, and what I refer to as "Peach Girl" style. I'm also not crazy on the "retro" Ranma type either.

*shudder* Oh, preach it, sister. I downloaded some scanlations the other day, and the story had this rockin' plot and I was really hyped about the whole thing. And then I open it's up-- and it's Korean Manga! Ahhhhh!!! (Sorry, I just can't take it. The eyes. . . they bug me. It looks like everyone is wearing clumpy mascara!)

creatureart wrote: I don't hate chibi, I just think there can be too much of it

Then make sure you never read "Good Morning Call." It's probably half chibis!

Art is quite a priority for me. Even if the story or characters become less-than-interesting, I rationalize that I can always use the manga as art reference or eye candy. I consider my manga collection as an "investment."

However, I've reached a point where I can comfortably say, I have enough manga. Very few new manga titles have caught my interest lately enough to convince me to buy them even those with excellent art. So, I'm not sure whether it's "the story...the characters...or the art" anymore.

Anyway, I'm a bigger fan of shonen manga fan. The only shoujo I check out every now and then is Hana Kimi, Parfait Tic! and Shino Ayumi's stuff like "Penguin Brothers."

I agree that clutterness is not favorable although everyone must have their personal tolerance level of that since I consider DNAngel somewhat "cluttered." His art is really awesome but strangely, I can't relate to his characters.

My preferences seem to mirror Aka-chan's "tough-looking-bishounen-with-katana cover rather than the pretty-girl-pretty-boy-fwishy-hair covered manga."

I have no comment on Korean manga since I haven't really read much of it. But it does look like the guys tend to have the heavier mascara look.

Kireihana wrote:I really don't like are DBZ and InuYasha/Maison Ikkou/Ranma style (they're by the same author, right?).

Yup - that's Rumiko Takahashi. I like the way her style translates into manga better than the manga art itself.

As for me, if the cover doesn't grab me, chances are I'm not going to even pick it up unless I'm already familiar with the series/artist. My favorite artists are Masato Natsumoto (Record of Lodoss War - Chronicles of the Heroic Knight), CLAMP (I prefer the CCS style over Rayearth, Angelic Layer, or Wish - I don't know the names of the team to pick out which artist was lead on which title), and Megumi Tachikawa (Saint Tail, Dream Saga, Mink). I also like Tanemura's style, but I'm not quite so rabid about it as certain other members of our ranks. ]Disclaimer[/b] I haven't read any of those titles in case someone is gasping in disbelief right now. All I know is they are U-G-L-Y.]

Art style does play a part in whether I like a manga, but the story and character development play an equal role. For instance, take Rurouni Kenshin. I'm not a fan of the art itself, but I love the story and the characters. I think the character designs are great in and of themself, but I also think they aren't as good as they could be. Has this stopped me from enjoying Rurouni Kenshin and calling myself a "Kenshin fan" over the past four years? No way. Now, Yu Watase, I love her art style. I dig gigantic, expressive eyes and stuff. Same goes for CLAMP. I'd read CLAMP just for the art, I don't even need any words on the page. However, for other manga, art style isn't as important. If it has a good story and is well written (and well translated for that matter), it should be able to survive on those merits, IMHO.

It does have some role for new manga I might pick up. I hate the covers with "fanservice" as y'all call it. I also hate it if I have to pay 10 bucks for a story that is too hard to follow or one that doesn't really have much going on in the backgrounds. Currently I am only reading four series, so that shows ya how picky I am.

The only manga I'd turn down solely because of the art is Osamu Tezuka's work. He's a great storyteller, sure, but I can't get past his art style. It's just too cartoony. It reminds me of Popeye the Sailor Man.

I would say so... if its nice (to me) and the characters look decent and all then definitley. I tend to like styles like CLAMP, Fruits Basket, DNAngel, Watase (her stories are another issue).... anything with cute characters and lots of bishies ^^''

I love bebop, but I haven't bought any Bebop manga because I didn't like the way Spike was drawn, and also I remember feeling the dialogue frames were terribly cluttered.
The first volume of Trigun I bought was a bit confusing, not so much because of clutter, but because in some action scenes, the action wasn't well depicted... I really had to study a picture to tell what was going on. Now I've either gotten used to it or Nightow improved as he went along.