Anime visual styles you can't stand

Lilani

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May 27, 2009
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The title may seem redundant to some, but all of you anime watchers know what I'm talking about. The style of anime is highly varied, and has gone through many common trends and common styles over the years. I've been in an anime club for the last few years in college, and I've been exposed to more anime than I ever have in any other part of my life.

And it's made me realize that there are a few genres and styles within anime that I love, and some which I absolutely detest. For example, recently I've come to realize I really don't like the visual style of Dragonball. Or DBZ, or DBZX and whatever else. The male characters have that hypermasculine/overly buff look which I can't stand in western art either, and the faces and eyes of all the characters just look so awkward to me. I mean really, I am quite open to quirky visual styles when it comes to my anime, and really animation in general. I love the garish colors and patterns in Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Christo, and the medieval manuscript style and perspective of The Secret of Kells. But I really can't get over how lumpy and visually unappealing DBZ is to me. I understand how groundbreaking it was and all, I just can't stand to look at it.

So what are the styles within anime you just can't stand? Or is it just the "anime" style in general you don't like?
 

BathorysGraveland

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Well, for me personally, I can't get into any anime of any description, at least from what I've seen. It's all just too cartoonish or cute-sy for my liking. I'm not trying to be a manly man or anything, it's just as far as fiction and entertainment goes, those qualities just don't appeal to me. Maybe there is a kind of underground obscure anime genre I could get into, but that has so far eluded me.
 

Kae

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I'm not big into Anime but I dislike the Akira Toriyama style too, it annoys me when I play Chrono Trigger, if only it didn't look like that I would love it as much as everyone else, but I really dislike Toriyama's style, other than that well I wouldn't know what to say because I've only watched 5 maybe 6 animes.
[sub][sub]I don't dislike them, I just don't see them on the store shelves and I don't really bother seeking them out and I don't watch TV for anything other than movies, in fact I do like the visual style.[/sub][/sub]
 

SckizoBoy

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BathorysGraveland said:
Well, for me personally, I can't get into any anime of any description, at least from what I've seen. It's all just too cartoonish or cute-sy for my liking. I'm not trying to be a manly man or anything, it's just as far as fiction and entertainment goes, those qualities just don't appeal to me. Maybe there is a kind of underground obscure anime genre I could get into, but that has so far eluded me.
That's largely the issue with most who disparage anime... at least you haven't written it off...

Thankfully, not all anime aesthetic styles are like that, as [user]Lilani[/user] mentioned:

Lilani said:
I love the garish colors and patterns in Gankutsuou: The Count of Monte Christo
This is good for the non-beeg-animei-ai's character design, though the backgrounds give me a headache, the use of graphix can be a bit much in that series, awesome though I find it.

That said, go watch FMA... Withc Hunter Robin, Samurai Champloo, Ergo Proxy, GitS:SAC, Seirei no Moribito (and a few other titles I have slinging around my head). I'm not saying you'll definitely enjoy them, but they're an illustration of a greater diversity than you're probably aware of. *shrug* (or not)

OT: Of the modern styles (i.e. of regular use post 2005-ish), I'm not particularly fussed with any of them, provided they suit the mood and context of the story. Cutesy's fine, provided it's yonkoma adaptations like Lucky Star and its ilk. etc. etc.
 

[Kira Must Die]

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I'm pretty open to a lot of anime styles, although I do prefer more colorful animes, just as I prefer Wind Waker / Skyward Sword visuals over Ocarina of Time / Twilight Princess visuals in my Zelda games.

If I had to choose a style I dislike, I'm not a fan of CG use in animes. While there are good looking ones like in the Rebuild of Evangelion, most of the time it looks like crap.

And I'm also not a big fan of Akira Toriyama's style.
 

Jonluw

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I can handle any anime style. It's really just a matter of letting it grow on me.
Still, I rather dislike the Dragonball style as well.
 
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The ones where everyone looks like an androgynous teenage boy with stupid hair.



 

Jonluw

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BathorysGraveland said:
Well, for me personally, I can't get into any anime of any description, at least from what I've seen. It's all just too cartoonish or cute-sy for my liking. I'm not trying to be a manly man or anything, it's just as far as fiction and entertainment goes, those qualities just don't appeal to me. Maybe there is a kind of underground obscure anime genre I could get into, but that has so far eluded me.
If cartoony and cutesy is the problem, I can make a few recommendations for shows you might want to check out to challenge that notion.

Serial experiments Lain. I didn't like it myself. Struck me as too hard to get and a bit pretentious, but it certainly isn't cute.

Grave of the fireflies. Very touching movie. Not very cute.

Rin daughters of mnemosyne (Mnemosyne: Mnemosyne no musume-tachi). Sex and death and not particularly cute.

Welcome to the NHK. Explores the issues of a pathological shut-in. Uses cuteness in an ironic way at times, but the series itself certainly isn't cute.

Redline. Another movie. Not cute at all.

FLCL. Mindfuck. Only 6 episodes. Cute-ish. I'd still recommend giving it a try.

Cowboy bebop. Bounty hunters in space with a 1940's America aesthetic. Not very cute.
 

Lethos

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I could never get into Code Geass because all the characters seemed to have disproportionately long legs and thin bodies.
 

Smertnik

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I strongly dislike huge eyes, rainbow coloured hair and chibi-esque stuff in general; I much rather prefer more natural proportions, or at the very least exaggerated towards the spectrum of the adult body.
Also not particularly fond of both shounen and shoujo art directions.
 

jaoblia

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I can't stand most generic 90's anime styles due to the scratchyness of outlines and terrible choices of colour in most characters.

Capcha:fast and loose, oddly enough how i prefer anime visuals (See Dead Leaves)
 

StriderShinryu

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Gotta side with the OP here. Hate is such a strong word.. but I hate Akira Toriyama's style. There's a lot of other things I don't like about the Dragon Ball series but it all starts with Toriyama. Heck, his character art is one of the very few things that keeps me from considering Crono Trigger the best JRPG of all time.
 

Soviet Heavy

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I actually prefer the early DBZ style to the later episodes. Back when Vegeta had a chin that didn't look like it was trying to regress into his throat.
 

Vault101

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Im not really familiar with anime

where the charachters seem almost interchangeable aside from hair and eye colur

anyway...when I catch a glimpse of "sex" mods in a agme like fallout..and it seems kind of anime (I think Ive seen this at least one) theres sothing about that that makes me rage...like

spoilerd for profanity and offensiveness

[spoiler/] [i/] "you know what? keep your stupid fucking henti fantasies OUT of the game you fucking Weaboo loser! jesus christ...why is it always anime with you people? WHY?? [/i] [/spoiler] <- I know thats pretty harsh but..I dont know, it just makes me angry

I dont dislike anime...I dislike alot of the stuff surrounding it
 

Chemical Alia

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If it's identifiable as anime, then it's sure to have some number of visual characteristics that totally put me off. I've never seen a style of anime that is appealing to me before.
 

TehCookie

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As a huge fan of anime there are only a few styles that I cannot stand to watch. Though the one I hate the most is this:

For a less extreme example see Clannad.
 

Casual Shinji

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I like anime with a soft, warm and down to earth design.









Unfortunately, the latter is all anime seems to be as of late.