Since this came up again with a friend of mine and we both agreed the new artstyle is just a massive downgrade, I wanted to have a look around for what others thought about it.
And all I see is disappointing to me. People preferring the new artstyle because it's "closer to the LNs" the only thing closer to the LNs is MAYBE the style of the eyes. The previous style had a much more 'faithful' if you will take on the hairstyles and uniforms. Either way closer to the LN's style does not mean better at all. Even if you said Manga rather than LNs, where there's a handful of cover illustrations where I'd agree it looks more close towards that, looking at the artstyle for the manga panels... season 1-3 matched that more closely than season 4 does.
I have to wonder if this is people trying to cope themselves into thinking this new artstyle is better simply because they're just hoping for more of the plot. Because admittedly Season 4 is incredibly faithful to the source material plot wise, which can't be said about how season 3 ended went, so I get that. I read the LNs (up to volume 20 at least at the point of writing, more soon, I guess) and well, I know the source now. But going into why the new studio is a better pick for faithfulness of the story has nothing to do with the downgrade in artstyle.
Note: I watched season 4 AFTER having already switched to reading the LNs, so I was just watching the new stuff as it came hoping to see it in animation and not just down to my imagination and a handful of illustrations every so often (which, of course I don't mind that, but there's something about 2D anime tiddies in action that is better experienced in animation).
And one scene where I really noticed my distaste for the new artstyle was during the rating game with Sairaorg. I was looking through the Gremory household characters present and I have to admit... seeing them all close together in this new artstyle... everyone's faces look just about identical. if it weren't for hair or eye colour (when bodies/breasts aren't in frame) I could not tell you who's who. Like it got to the point where I had to actively search for Kiba and be uncertain with my identification. The vague, roundness to the linearts, almost leaning towards chibi, aka the pudginess of everyone's cheeks and their eyes seeming further apart.. it makes them seem so derpy on top of everything. It's not like I couldn't get used to it either, I did manage to finish the season after all, and other anime like Clannad have peculiar art style choices. But at least those stayed consistent all the way through.
Also we're talking about professionals here. If they WANTED to keep the previous artstyle but lacked the budget or something, they could've still had something that was closer to it but perhaps a little simpler and while there - of course - would have still been complaints because even minor changes happen to be noticeable (I mean look at One Punch Man season 2. there's a quality dip there too, but at least the new studio didn't change the style to be unrecognizable even) there wouldn't be such a large disparity between those who like it and those who don't and less excuses for why the quality dipped.
Oh right, and sure, fluidity of animation. Genuinely that's more a show of the time. More modern studio, improved expertise, perhaps the new director for putting together how the action should go is better... but that's also not an "artstyle" thing. Though if you're claiming the new style being easier to animate fluidly, perhaps there's something there, but again we're dealing with professionals here.
All in all, the course correction plot wise? W move, love being back on track. Art wise? hell no, please ACTUALLY go closer to the LN's art style and remove the excessive pudginess, or aim to do more like before. If there even is going to be a season 5, which at this point I doubt will ever come to be. |