Find the Anime Challenge

[Hussar]

And our first contestant:

Let's get this party started!

From the Eberron Campaign Setting:

No face faults, body proportions are regular (if comic bookish), colors are pretty standard. What anime am I supposed to see here?

Another Eberron pic, which does have its own aestetic. We got a giant? some sort of monster in the desert fighting an orc. (sorry, not up on my Eberron Lore) Orc is pretty much standard orc. Again, no face faults, bodies are proportioned, if very muscular. No different than what I would see in a Franzetta or Vajello picture twenty or thirty years ago. Ok, not Vajello, no mostly naked chick.

Another Eberron. Xendrik dark elf if I'm not mistaken. How is this anime? Because his hair is kinda spikey? Still no face faults and body proportions are dead on. Still not seeing it.

From Magic of Incarnum:

Dungeonpunk I might give you due to the buckles and spikes. But anime? He looks more like Wolverine than Inayusha.

From Magic of Eberron:

Ok, you're going to have to help me out on this one. Why would you consider this to be anime inspired?

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

I don't know if anyone would accept me as a judge, but those pictures certainly seem anime inspired to me, especially the first one.

Replace the gnome with Psylocke. Fails.

This isn't as clear cut to me. It strikes me as being more western comic influenced. It looks like a modern adaptation of the 90's "Image" style.

I think this has some anime or manga influence, but it has enough other elements to make it a unique style.

Personally, I think the first three images are enough to win the challenge by the original poster's rules though.

Describe exactly what about the pictures you think make them "anime" and why we should believe that these features do in fact make them anime.

This contest isn't going to be won without some argument to back up opinions. You say it's anime, I say it isn't. How will we ever decide?

 

[WayneLigon]

Hmm. Should we talk about, then, what is and is not 'anime-inspired'? There is no direct anime art in any WoTC book I have ever seen, but are we talking 'influence' here or direct 'swipes'? If it's 'influence', I think you could put down almost any three 'sword wider than my thigh' pic and make a pretty good claim that that is directly inspired by japanese aesthetics; anime and Japanese video games feed off each other back and forth pretty much constantly. So, perhaps not, but if so, then what counts? Thin-line art style? Spikey hair? CLAMP-like thin males? Genre-melding, or incongrous/anachronistic elements (IE, doe a cleric with big glasses count?)

Is it in action poses? The way they hold their hips? Literal 'big eyes small mouth'?

 

[Hussar]

Note, I've got no problems with comic book art. Hey, I'll agree with anyone who says that 3e is inspired by comics. But, anime art has some pretty specific connotations - face faults, strange proportions, overly feminine male figures, just to name a few. None of the above images have any of those qualities.

Or is my definition of anime too far off?

 

[Rechan]

I think the best way to approach solving the all-ready-started "That's anime" "No it's not!" subjective argument is for those who intend to judge (including the OP) to provide pictures that they consider "Anime art".

Judges, go scower the net and slap down something that you consider "Anime Style". This way, we have a baseline to operate with.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

And our first contestant:

No face faults, body proportions are regular (if comic bookish), colors are pretty standard. What anime am I supposed to see here?

Didn't you hear? Comic books are anime now.

Another Eberron. Xendrik dark elf if I'm not mistaken. How is this anime? Because his hair is kinda spikey? Still no face faults and body proportions are dead on. Still not seeing it.

Kyle Hunter's Downer has hair that's kind of spikey too. Guess he's anime.

Dungeonpunk I might give you due to the buckles and spikes. But anime? He looks more like Wolverine than Inayusha.

Maybe, but don't forget, powers = anime. He obviously has powers. Therefore, anime.

 

[Xyl]

In case some of you are confused, this is anime (well, most of it):

This is not anime:

Thank you.

 

[Monkey Boy]

Edit - ok I see what anime is now. Great, DnD art is not the same as the anime art you posted. You win.

 

[Hussar]

Well, the Wiki entry on Anime has some pretty darn good examples. That should suffice for a start I think.

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Note, I've got no problems with comic book art. Hey, I'll agree with anyone who says that 3e is inspired by comics. But, anime art has some pretty specific connotations - face faults, strange proportions, overly feminine male figures, just to name a few. None of the above images have any of those qualities.

Or is my definition of anime too far off?

I think your definition of anime style is probably pretty narrow, but I also don't think that any of these pictures even touch my own definitions. There's a pretty clear line between anime and other styles, even within japanese visual arts. Look at the difference between Samurai Champloo and Lone Wolf and Cub (I'm referring here to the trade paperbacks). The latter doesn't count as "anime" for me. It's a completely different style of art despite being set in a similar historical period and also focusing on the lives of samurai. Likewise, anime and American comic books are doing two different things, only there isn't even the assumed shared cultural background between them.

If someone wants to say that fantasy art is anime-influenced, they're going to have to work pretty hard to explain how what they're describing doesn't fit in as well or better with American comic book aesthetics.