Find the Anime Challenge

[AllisterH]

Here's my foray:

This is the only one and that's because I tend to associate "speed fights in a blink of an eye" with anime even though when younger, I used to read and collect Flash comics.

I think Rangerwicket is on to something though. Take for example this picture from PH2,

and I betcha many believe this is true D&D art. Looking at it though, Rangerwicket is right. I want to be there, I want to know the stories behind the caves etc."

However, in previous editions, I never got the sense of "I want to be THAT guy" as much as I do in say WAR's art like below and the other action shots we have in 3.x

 

[Nifft]

So South Park is anime?

If so, then so are the recent Star Wars cartoons.

Cheers, -- N

 

[pawsplay]

 

[Mythmere1]

When I complain about the 3e art being "anime," I mean that the weapons are too big and silly, that the action poses are too extreme, and that body proportions are way out of the human norm. The argument that the action poses in American comics are also too extreme, and that this is therefore not technically an influence of "anime" leaves me with eyes rolled slightly heavenward ... although I understand and sympathize with what's being said.

My real objection, properly phrased, is that the art derives from comic book styles, some inherent to all superhero comic books, some a recent development in comic books. That's definitely a broader category than anime, but I haven't seen a shorthand description for "any exaggerated superhero pose," "morphology of more than, say 1:8 head-to-body ratio," "more than a certain number of weapons with wild, spiny flanges, grooves and holes," "any weapons too large/heavy to be used by the critter/person using it if such person had human muscle cell structure - with a little wiggle room for some monsters, but not much," "people almost as wide as they are tall," etc. It's easier to say "anime" than to trot out all that - even though I realize it's unfair to the anime genre.

 

[Nifft]

My real objection, properly phrased, is that the art derives from comic book styles, some inherent to all superhero comic books, some a recent development in comic books. That's definitely a broader category than anime [...] It's easier to say "anime" than to trot out all that - even though I realize it's unfair to the anime genre.

I agree with your underlying point -- art has changed, and the more recent artwork is stylized differently than older editions. However, there has always been 'comic-book' art in D&D. The fact that you remember seeing less may be because there was less, or it may be because you skimmed and forgot the art you didn't like.

Cheers, -- N

 

[AllisterH]

When I complain about the 3e art being "anime," I mean that the weapons are too big and silly, that the action poses are too extreme, and that body proportions are way out of the human norm. The argument that the action poses in American comics are also too extreme, and that this is therefore not technically an influence of "anime" leaves me with eyes rolled slightly heavenward ... although I understand and sympathize with what's being said.

.

This is the Warhammer look IMO.

While one can find oversized weapons in anime, you are also more likely to find normal weapons, guys wearing "regular" armour.

Its GW where one finds "heavily decorated armour"/"stunted humans wielding oversized weapons" and that's been true since the 80s.

The Judge Dredd look.

 

[Geron Raveneye]

I agree with your underlying point -- art has changed, and the more recent artwork is stylized differently than older editions. However, there has always been 'comic-book' art in D&D. The fact that you remember seeing less may be because there was less, or it may be because you skimmed and forgot the art you didn't like.

Cheers, -- N

Is this the place to vote for Nodwick one-liners in the new Core Rulebooks?

 

[Xyl]

Judges?

 

[Raven Crowking]

Ok, since I cannot give donuts, I have a new reward.

To anyone who can find three examples of anime art from any WOTC Dungeons and Dragons book, I will add the following to my sig for a year:

Who is the impartial judge of what is or is not "anime" art?

Because, if there is no impartial judge, we might as well have diaglo making the same "challenge" related to improvements to the game since OD&D.


RC

 

[Raven Crowking]

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