D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 is Anime! Wait, what?

[Incenjucar]

What they really need to do is to completely bypass "anime" and "typical fantasy" and go for a wide variety of art styles.

Bring on the 4E Cave Paintings and 4E Cubism.

Okay, maybe not Cubism, but I really wish they would embrace the VARIETY, and not just stick to pleasing specific existing fan groups.

 

[TwinBahamut]

Is it even possible to be more annoying than cloud? Well, so long as you don't coun't Jar Jar binks, that is...

What the heck is up with all the Cloud bashing in this thread? He is a really good and interesting character, and is hardly annoying. He suffered some pretty terrible adaptation decay in the games he has appeared in other than FF7 itself, but other than that he is pretty consistently seen as one of the most popular characters in the entire Final Fantasy series, for pretty good reason.

But is it just me or is it odd that someone makes a comparison to Cloud every single time we have an "is it anime?" thread here in ENWorld, even though Cloud has never appeared in an anime, and is never used as an example of a "typical anime character" anywhere but on these boards?

Anyways, other than maybe the large sword (which is arguably more videogame influence than anime influence), I don't see much at all in this picture that makes it look like anime. It just looks like typical WAR to me, and looks very little like anime.

People are forgetting the number 1 rule of anime art: girls always are designed to look cute and/or sexy. No matter what other features and traits a female character may have, they are always designed to look very attractive. The only exceptions tend to be elderly women. Girls are never designed to look manly except in truly bizarre parody like Project A-Ko, and any gender ambiguity involves men who look like beautiful women. Since this image involves a tough-looking, scarred woman who some say looks manly, it is a severe contradiction of a very basic element of anime style.

I am still waiting for a good anime-style image to appear in D&D. I think I will celebrate that day, but it hasn't happened yet. Art isn't anime because it was drawn by WAR and you don't like it.

 

[Tewligan]

You can shorten that to "all of his drawings". Male and female, living and undead, mortal and fiend alike: blocky feet, visible teeth.

And also muscles that look like someone crammed a load of baseballs just under the character's skin.

 

[Think0028]

But is it just me or is it odd that someone makes a comparison to Cloud every single time we have an "is it anime?" thread here in ENWorld, even though Cloud has never appeared in an anime, and is never used as an example of a "typical anime character" anywhere but on these boards?

Although he's not referred to as a anime character elsewhere, he is the PARAGON of sheer ludicrous character design elsewhere, which is the connotation there. His hair! His sword! His sheer apathy in the beginning of the game!

 

[dystmesis]

But is it just me or is it odd that someone makes a comparison to Cloud every single time we have an "is it anime?" thread here in ENWorld, even though Cloud has never appeared in an anime, and is never used as an example of a "typical anime character" anywhere but on these boards?

Final Fantasy VII: Last Order

 

[ArmoredSaint]

I'd never be so shallow as to reject a game just because I didn't like the art, but I can't stand this picture. I don't understand what it is that drives certain people to actually like pictures of characters with unrealistically large swords. Why is that cool? Where's the appeal? Since when does that evoke "high fantasy?" I guess the term "high fantasy" means something different to me than it does to some of you. To me, it calls to mind images from the works of Edmund Spencer, Tolkien, and Arthurian myth. Not spiky hair, egregiously huge swords, and bare midriffs...

 

[The_Fan]

Although he's not referred to as a anime character elsewhere, he is the PARAGON of sheer ludicrous character design elsewhere, which is the connotation there. His hair! His sword! His sheer apathy in the beginning of the game!

No, the paragon of ludicrous character design is Tobias Bruckner, from Turok. A racist cyborg civil war officer riding on a T-rex, also cyborg.

 

[Incenjucar]

It's just a different exposure.

Some of us grow up watching plays and going to ren faires, some of us read comic books, some novels, some of us play video games, some watch cartoons from one nation or another, some watch TV, some watch movies, and most of us have done most of them, in different amounts.

In the case of oversized weapons, those are just part of exaggerative art styles.

http://www.sjgames.com/munchkin/extras/img/lootshirt_lg.jpg

http://www.internationalhero.co.uk/p/popeye.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/7/72/Superman.jpg

Often one of the easiest ways to emphasize something is to just make it really fricking big and garish.


As for the exposed parts, that comes from a mixture of skin being sexy and rebellious, and the fact that for many of us, many of our childhood heroes ran around in spandex because their skin was as tough as steel, if only due to plot armor.

http://snarkerati.com/movie-news/files/2007/12/conan-the-barbarian.jpg

 

[Mallus]

I don't understand what it is that drives certain people to actually like pictures of characters with unrealistically large swords. Why is that cool?

Fantasy is frequently absurd. Some folks like to revel in that absurdity. Also, fantasy is frequently about thinly-veiled power fantasies and nothing says power fantasy like a 7 ft. long sword.

When in comes to phallic symbolism, size does matter.

Since when does that evoke "high fantasy?"

Final Fantasy VII?

 

[mach1.9pants]

What they really need to do is to completely bypass "anime" and "typical fantasy" and go for a wide variety of art styles.

Bring on the 4E Cave Paintings and 4E Cubism.

Okay, maybe not Cubism, but I really wish they would embrace the VARIETY, and not just stick to pleasing specific existing fan groups.

Well said that man!
What I would like to see is realistic medieval armour in the art, not all of it but some.. If you guys have read or own any Osprey aeries books you have seen glorious, detailed, realistic and awesome armour. (Oh and swords, axes etc that are actually of a size to possibly wield!). I would like to see some art in the style of Graham Turner, Christa Hook, especially Angus McBride, etc. And it can be the realistic mixed with the fantastic, but arms and armour I like (at least some, i.e. humanoid PC types) to look real...it furthers the divide between the PC's and the baddies (In ridiculous armour and massive weapons)!