Ok, you know that one persistant and pervasive idea? That idea regarding the falsity of anime/manga art? Well, it's gotta stop. Who do these critics think they all are? You might not
like a certain style, but your personal opinion regarding what type of art is the best is just that: your opinion. In no way does having this opinion allow you to go around telling people who DO draw in the manga and art style that they're, in essense, producing bunk because that style is bogus. I'm never quite sure what those critical would-be artists are talking about when they claim things like the following:
1.Anime's not real art. It has no MEANING.
2.Anime/manga art is unoriginal. You don't need any imagination to draw them.
3.Anime/manga art all look the same.
Let's take a look at that first point. Mind telling me then, what's REAL art? Where in the world is the line being drawn? If you think all art's gonna have deep social meaning, I suppose Monet's impressionistic landscapes wouldn't be considered art. If you insist that art has got to look realistic, well, then I guess Picasso's cubism is clearly just nonsense, and modern art is practically blasphemy. If you think art's gotta come straight out of your head with none of those horrible, cop out references to life, then Da Vinci's portraits or Michaelangelo's amazingly detailed sculptures...oops, they're not art either. And yet, most people would, I think, disagree with the conclusions I just made.
So what's art, if all these different styles all fall into it?
The point is, art means something different for everyone. It's why some people find landscapes unbearably dull and others throw up their hands at abstract modern art (like myself). But the important thing is to respect that others will have different tastes, and QUIT SLAMMING THEM, for crying out loud.
You might find what you've seen of the so-called "anime/manga" art to be rather pointless, but start decrying it as "not art," and what you're really telling me is that you're a phony, a hypocrite who pretends to love art but when confronted with a style you don't understand or appreciate, you turn up your nose.
Since I just mentioned the nose, I can even give you an example of this type of snobbery, related to noses! See, it all ties together. Right. So anyway, one commenter said in response to the artist's decision to put a large nose on her anime-style character that she was "glad" the artist put the big nose on, instead of those dots or triangles that "they call noses." So what the heck's wrong with the dots for noses? If I said to someone, for instance, an artist very much influenced by cubism, that "Wow, I'm so glad you drew a normal face on here with everything in the right place instead of those messed up blobs they call faces," is that even a compliment? It's basically saying that your original influence was crap, so how wonderful of you to change it to something
I would appreciate!
That being said, what exactly IS anime/manga style anyway? The last two complaints have a clear bone to pick with the unoriginality of anime/manga art. I could go on about how there's nothing new under the sun, but that dot-nose issue is obviously one of the stereotypical examples critics bring up against anime/manga art. I'd like to ask them...so how many series have they seen? Do they realize that "anime" is simply the Japanese word for "animation" and "manga" is their word for comics? This means that really, the only real criterion for "anime" and "manga" is that they're drawn by Japanese people. In slamming the style, you're essentially slamming all Japanese animators and Japanese comic artists. No one seems to have problems recognizing that there are vast differences in American animation (compare say, the style of
The Lion King to
The Incredibles to
Spongebob Squarepants), but for some reason can't seem to grasp that Japanese animation also displays that sort of variation. The same goes with comics and manga. If I said that American comics lack originality because all I had seen were Superman and Batman, I'm SURE there would be plenty of people who'd rise up and yell at me. They'd point out comics such as
Elfquest, graphic novels like
The Sandman, any number of comic strips such as
Calvin and Hobbes,
Zits,
The Far Side,
Garfield, and on and on and on. Clearly, all American comics are not the same. So why lump all Japanese comics and declare that there's no difference? Do a bit of research and you will find a plethora of different styles within the anime and manga sphere. Then I dare you to come and tell me they're not "original" (which is another way of saying they all look the same), and that the artists who draw them are unimaginative.
To begin, I'm going to give you all a quick list of images from this "anime and manga" style, and you tell me: do they all look the same?
Exhibit A (taken from
here):
Gundam Wing: One of the most popular meccha series (for girls :p) out there, GW's style is more "realistic" than some anime, though eyes are still bigger. Note the un-dot noses, and it's not obvious in this pic, but nostrils are actually indicated (I say this b/c quite a few styles leave out the nostrils; some styles will omit noses entirely in certain pics). And btw, Trowa and Wufei smiling normally scares the HECK out of me.
Exhibit B (taken from
here):
Kamikaze Kaitou Jeanne: This is probably what many people think about when they think "anime" art, the dot noses, exaggerated large eyes, very big mouth when opened. But please see this pic of
Fin Fish and this one of
Access Time (Access, that IS you, right?0_o). You might not like the style, but are you prepared to tell me that the artist is a hack and the pictures she drew suck? Also, just to plug KKJ, I LOVE this pic of
Kaitou Jeanne and Marron, who are essentially the same person. Hehe. This artist's big problem though, is that her guys are too similar, so that sometimes you can't tell which guy is who. She needs to give them different hair. Right. Ok, anyway, NEXT!
Exhibit C:
Full Metal Alchemist: Look! It's Colonel Mustang and company!XD I love the army peoples! XD *ahem* I mean, er...right, a far less dainty style. Here we have broader chins (even for the ladies, although there's only one here), more normally proportioned eyes (and bodies), and...ACK, this series (storywise and artwise) is just too wonderful!XD I can't talk about it w/o going into raptures! Must...move...on!
Exhibit D:
Kousetsu Hyaku Monogatari~Hundred Stories: I refuse to call it "Requiem of the Darkness," which is the English title.-_- Anyway, this series has got some ker-azy art (all the side characters look like plants or animals 0_o), and I couldn't find a pic to do it justice, so that was a wallpaper I got from the
English site for Hundred Stories. Mataichi is so cool.XD Anyway, since it's a mystery/horror series, the art is appropriately grotesque, surreal, and really weird. It's also extremely graphic, with images like the gluttonous man who in the end just became one enormous, rotting, bulging mass of fat (it was SUCH a gross episode), to the Azuki Arai (bean washer)-a skeletal figure bent over a wooden pail, to Ogin holding a skull... It's a fun series.^_^
Exhibit E:
Inu Yasha: Yet another style. Rumiko Takahashi art is very distinctive.^^ The line between shounen manga (literally "comics for boys") and shoujo manga ("comics for girls") is blurring nowadays. But IY's supposed to be a shounen manga, so I thought I'd put it in as an example of more...girly style shounen manga.^^; (Shounen manga art is typically more stylistic and noticeably less flowery than shoujo...which makes sense.^^; Think Dragonball.)
Exhibit F:
Great Teacher Onizuka: Yeah, that's anime too. :p I'll be the first to admit I don't like this type of style, but it's very typically shounen manga. (IY is really...less so.^^;) Slam Dunk is kind of done in a similar way to GTO.
Exhibit G:
Shaman King: An example of what I mean when I say some shounen manga are more stylized. Shaman King characters have really big hands and feet, really thin limbs, their eyes aren't sparkley (but they're pretty big), and hair is typically blocky with far less of the flowy feel you get from many shoujo manga (think Sailor Moon, manga ONLY, or the KKJ link above). In particular, I'm talking about Amidamaru's hair (that's the guy behind the American flag). Another good example of blocky stylized shounen manga is Dragonball again, or Yu-Gi-Oh. A bad example would be something like Rurouni Kenshin, which just goes to show you that exceptions are common even within the categories. Hmm...the colors here look more pastely than usual, but that does look like the guy's art... I can't find any manga scans, so I'm going to assume this is a color page from the manga that someone used to make a wallpaper.@_@
And finally, Exhibit H:
One Piece: Talk about cartoony and stylized!^^ One Piece's art takes some getting used to for me (in case you didn't know, my personal favorite styles are KKJ-ish, or CLAMP in their Clover or Tsubasa stages), but tis pretty cute.^^ In the pic I linked, the cartoony aspect of One Piece isn't as clear...but wait, Usopp is there, so that's an example! (He's the guy w/ the big nose next to the girl sticking her tongue out.) I gotta get around to reading this series.@_@
Ok, finished finished. Ugh, that took incredibly long, but I thought it was necessary. I'm just really sick of people claiming that anime and manga all look alike, and if you look up some of the other series I mentioned, but didn't link to, you'd see even more variations. Here I tried to pick styles that were very different from each other, but even in styles that look more similar, it is definitely possible to distinguish one from another.
And now I'll get off my soapbox, and begin studying for orgo. Oh wait, I should probably eat first.0_o Yeah, first food, and then...TO ARMS!
