Find the Anime Challenge

[AllisterH]

something about this look very korean.

That Ice-demon picture was made by UDON studios. I thought UDON was made up of Korean-American artists?

UDON studios basically is the first choice for American companies that want a mangaesque style.

 

[Kafen]

Of the most recent three, I can see the anime influence in the first two, but not as much in the third. At the very least, the facial expression on the flame guy is a pretty classic manga "really angree/frustrated" expression. Of course, there is a heavy influence on the guy's work from traditional D&D art, but I will acknolede the anime influence in these two pictures. Of course, this is the same artist who gave us the crazy anime tiefling, so I suppose it isn't a big surprise. Amusingly, I think the person to the right of the flame guy is supposed to be a girl, but is drawn like a "feminine" guy would be drawn in an anime, down to the pose and expression.

Also, the Ice Monster and Elf picture was made by the Udon Crew? I guess that tips the balance pretty squarely into the "anime-influenced" category. Making comic books based on Japanese anime and videogame properties is their main gimmick. It isn't pure anime-style by a long shot, but it is heavily influenced.

Pretty much, I would say the contest is over outside of the people that do not want to admit the anime influence. Sure, people could apply qualifier after qualifier to avoid "losing", but the multiple examples speak for themselves.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

I'd peg it as more Charles Vess (The Raven Banner, Stardust, all manner of awesomeness) more than anything.

Great work!

thank you very much for your kind words. it means alot coming from you.

So I in this argument i guess I'm in the center on this debate. I don't care of d&d art uses anime influenced artwork in its books. What i do care about is people using the misconception that anime is inherently bad.

all I care about is that the d&d artwork is good. That its visually stimulating and gets me in the mood to play d&d. This could be through hyper realism, this could be through extreme anime fantasy, or this could be through boob armer. its all good in my opinion. I think the d&d artwork should have a strong identity and I think this identity should be expressive about what d&d is. I think whatever path d&ds art chooses to be, it should excel. If it becomes too mixed it could loose its self identity like i feel 3.0 and 3.5 did.

thats it really.

 

[Moon-Lancer]

That Ice-demon picture was made by UDON studios. I thought UDON was made up of Korean-American artists?

UDON studios basically is the first choice for American companies that want a mangaesque style.

is UDON Korean? i don't know, I just guessed. It looked Korean to me.

 

[AllisterH]

is UDON Korean? i don't know, I just guessed. It looked Korean to me.

Well, what do you know...I thought UDON was an American company but apparently it isn't that far from where I live. Richmond Hill, Ontario is relatively local for me.

Yeah, basically, if the piece is an UDON piece then yeah, we're definitely taljking manga influence.

 

[Pale]

I don't see it that way. if your pegging the art, your pegging the artiest as well. they are all the same example

Not really, many artists change their style frequently depending on what the customer asks for. And the original post asked for three examples of art. Not three artists. Whether you think art = artist or not is irrelevant.

As an aside, I like the piece of art that you posted but it's not in my tastes for a D&D book, it looks very cell-shaded, more like a still from a film than a sketch or painting (which is what I like). As, say, a poster: way cool. My only gripe is that his left arm looks like it's hyper-extended at the shoulder for some reason.

But like I could do any better. *laugh* My brother sucked up all the artistic talent in my family... the bastich.

 

[TwinBahamut]

Pretty much, I would say the contest is over outside of the people that do not want to admit the anime influence. Sure, people could apply qualifier after qualifier to avoid "losing", but the multiple examples speak for themselves.

Hah, hardly.

Even if Hussar calls the contest (which he might, since we finally found three examples), I am still going to hold that D&D does not have a distinct anime influence. We found 3-6 or so images with anime influence, with 3 of those all being from the same artist, out of how many unconvincing pieces of art? The lack of examples is what speaks for itself.

If Hussar does call the contest, I am just going to start my own thread, and approach this whole thing from a perspective which is nowhere near as a favorable to the pro-anime influence perspective, because, face-it, just finding three examples of something amidst the huge amount of 3E D&D art is pretty easy to do, as far as contests like this go. Anything easier to find would be over in a matter of hours.

So, basically, no one has convinced me in the slightest that there is a huge anime influence on D&D. Admitably, I didn't realize there was any anime influence on D&D, and learned there was in this thread. I am glad. I hope there is a lot more in the future. I also learned that a lot of people making the claim don't seem to have a clear idea of what anime art is actually like.

At this rate, I forsee this debate lasting until 4E is released. Maybe until 5E is released, and all western art is completley subsumed under the anime style.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I also learned that a lot of people making the claim don't seem to have a clear idea of what anime art is actually like.

Speed Racer is anime. Ninja Scroll is anime. Speed Racer and Ninja Scroll are not very similar to each other. Anime isn't something you can sum up in few rules. Saying anime influenced can mean "People have rediculously large eyes and small mouths" as well as it can mean "The artwork is more fluid and less static" or "Sword slashes are never animated, you only show an after-swing shot with a movement arc indicating where the sword slashed".

The art style label "Anime" really means about as much as the music genre label "Alternative". Is Nirvana an "Alternative" band, or is it "Grunge", or is it "Rock"? It could be all three and neither depending on the listeners definition.

My own personal defintion of Anime clearly says that the 3.5 Mind Flayer pic I posted earlier has many influences. Others see none at all. Neither is right and neither is wrong, since both are just offering their opinion.

DS

 

[Zamkaizer]

I'm going to go ahead and say that these two shouldn't count, simply because in the Races of Faerun art gallery on wizards - the source of these images - they're right next to the Tiefling illustration posted earlier. I mean, it's one thing to post stuff by the same artist, but at least find material from a different book, yeah?

As for moon-lancer's illustration, it doesn't resemble anime or manga at all. Consider:

- The facial features are more or less normal, and though I'm terrible at this sort of thing, the proportions look normal as well.
- The coloring is too complex for animation, and unlike most colored manga illustrations, isn't done with watercolors or markers.
- The linework is too simple for manga, and too complex for animation.
- Finally, he doesn't look ridiculous - though he might be a bit of a bishi...

 

[TwinBahamut]

Speed Racer is anime. Ninja Scroll is anime. Speed Racer and Ninja Scroll are not very similar to each other. Anime isn't something you can sum up in few rules. Saying anime influenced can mean "People have rediculously large eyes and small mouths" as well as it can mean "The artwork is more fluid and less static" or "Sword slashes are never animated, you only show an after-swing shot with a movement arc indicating where the sword slashed".

The art style label "Anime" really means about as much as the music genre label "Alternative". Is Nirvana an "Alternative" band, or is it "Grunge", or is it "Rock"? It could be all three and neither depending on the listeners definition.

My own personal defintion of Anime clearly says that the 3.5 Mind Flayer pic I posted earlier has many influences. Others see none at all. Neither is right and neither is wrong, since both are just offering their opinion.

DS

I can't say that I like the idea that the difference between anime and not-anime is just opinion. If there are reasons for an opinion that are tied to the relevent pieces of art, then there is something absolute that can be discussed.

I hope you don't mind if I ignore the music analogy, since I don't listen to much music (other than videogame/anime remixes and classical stuff). I don't have a clue what "Alternative" or "Grunge" music are supposed to sound like.

Also, I am not claiming that anime is perfectly uniform and can be figured out with 100% reliability using an easy checklist. Of course Ninja Scroll and Speed Racer are not the same (even if you ignore the historical drift in anime styles), but they were both created in the same enviroment of self-sustaining art styles (the Japanese anime industry). Because of that common origin, where many artists influenced each other and shared the same inspiration, there are similarities. These similarities are worth mentioning.

To use some examples I am more familiar with, early middle-ages Norman churces and late middle-ages gothic cathedrals are tremendously different in every detail, but they both come from an ancient tradition of church design, so they are virtually identical in many fundamental and important ways, and they are completly different from temples built in different parts of the world for different religions.