Fan service.
Mononoke and Lupin The IIIrd (Fujiko Mine series and subsequent films) are the first things that come to mind when I think of anime that visually stand out.
Lupin The IIIrd (Fujiko Mine series and subsequent films)
Have you seen Redline?
If not, you really should! Takeshi Koike is a genius animator and Redline is one of my favorite anime movies. :)
I have. That’s also a good one :)
It’s really hard to say… I don’t think I can pick just one to be honest…
I love the romantic beauty and natural charm of Ghibli. I love the realism and details of Otomo, Satoshi Kon. I love the wild, colorful, and chaotic nature of creators like Tsurumaki, Imaishi, Koike, and Yuasa. Then you have shows like CITY, which was an incredible fusion of Arawi’s cute, simple and colorful artstyle backed by the animation prowess of Kyoto Animation. There are just too many great art styles out there to pick just one!
I will say that I mostly feel that anime peaked in the late 80s and 90s. Of course, nice looking stuff is still being made, and today colors are brighter and frames are cleaner, but there is just something textural about painted cels on top of painted backgrounds that we have lost in the transition to digital.
My prediction for the future of high-quality anime is that many creators will want to return to more physical media based pipelines, due to the perceived cheapening of digital art brought about by generative AI. Because ultimately creators want to stand out, and viewers want to be impressed.
In terms of character design, it’s Lycoris Recoil and Too Many Losing Heroines for me. The girls look so cute.
Shoutout to Imigi Muru, who turned out to be the character designer for both of these series when I went to check. No wonder they look so similar!
If I have to take everything into consideration, then my pick would be Pokémon: Dragonite and the Special Delivery. It’s just so beautiful.
That, or one of Shinkai Makoto’s more famous works (e.g. Your Name).
Edit:
Can’t believe I nearly forgot about Poketoon. The artstyle of the latest episodes is just so cute, so pleasing to the eyes.
Hidamari Sketch, Nichijou, Sayonara Zetsubou sensei. And moe styles in general.
Sayonara Zetsubou sensei
Take my upvote for such top-tier taste
The flat designs, the wafuku, those fricking title cards. I could go on. Upon seeing the poster, I decided to watch it without even knowing what it was about.
It’s a shame it never got a complete adaption. The manga’s ending left quite an impression. Easily one of my favorite animes of all time.
Joshiraku and and Kakushigoto are also worth watching if you’d like a less traumatic take on Kouji Kumeta’s unique sense of humor.
Moe styles like
moe_twinstyle, a.k.a. the "BAU"DOL☆★, for instance?Had to look that up, vtubers? I guess vtubers are mostly drawn in a moe/chibi style indeed.
The Tale of Princess Kaguya was done in charcoal, which I really loved
Redline was just fun







