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I have to admit, although usually the story or characters trump the aesthetic if I'm watching something heavily story-driven, whether or not I like how something looks or feels definitely has an impact. And especially if I'm watching a kind of feel-good show, atmosphere will sometimes make or break whether or not I like it.

Shows with aesthetics I really, really like include:

Steven Universe


Not only are the backgrounds really nice pastel palettes, but also the soundtrack has a really nice kind of minimalistic sound palette as well so everything looks and feels very nice and pretty and cohesive.

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Over the Garden Wall


This is now my favorite thing to watch when it first starts feeling like Fall. The colors are all fall-y and the settings are all old timey and nostalgic and so is the soundtrack. Again, everything feels visually and audio-ly and thematically unified which really appeals to me.

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These are the top two that come to mind right now. I guess I really like it when the visuals in a show as well as the soundtrack feel really cohesive around a theme. Where it has a specific style that really fits with the mood of the show? That's not to say I don't love some shows that you can't really say the same about, just that this is definitely my favorite style in animation, even if not all of my favorite shows feature it.

I'll have to think of some examples. There are a lot, but for now I'll got with Batman: The Animated Series. The show has an amazing noir style, that's heavy on shadows and dark colors. Apparently Eric Radomski had the animators paint the backgrounds by using light colors on black paper as opposed to the standard dark colors on white paper (and it looks great).

[MEDIA=youtube]oQVC2zCC5qA[/MEDIA]

Generally I only like anime if I'm watching animation, Japanese art looks the best usually. The only western animation I can bear is in adult cartoons like Rick & Morty, South Park, ect.

I dunno anything specific.

^^ Every time someone makes a post about that show I ask myself, "why have I not seen that show?"

Seriously. That looks rad.

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^ ah yes, south park, the visually stunning masterpiece. :{P

To be serious for a moment though, do you like the visuals in some anime over others? Like, the anime Tsuritama is really cute and has a really nice art style, I like it a lot. One Piece gets a fricken shout-out for having one of the most unique art styles of anime I watch, even if it generally looks better in the manga. Anime art styles vary too, are there any you like in particular?

I don't pay a ton of attention to the way art styles are done during the actual show. The only style that really sticks out to me either way is Archer, which causes my eyes to bleed profusely.

So basically I only really notice the styling in openings, and what I like can apparently be summed up as "anything that flows well." Hadn't thought about it too much until now:
[MEDIA=youtube]RQOc_07raNE[/MEDIA]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJ0onJKSITA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O9hRcIAza0

After much effort trying to find other non-game examples of this I was forgetting, the above apparently itself mostly translates to "Durarara and occasionally something else." I tried. :/

[QUOTE="SPOOKYLADY, post: 1567714, member: 30977"]^ ah yes, south park, the visually stunning masterpiece. :{P

To be serious for a moment though, do you like the visuals in some anime over others? Like, the anime Tsuritama is really cute and has a really nice art style, I like it a lot. One Piece gets a fricken shout-out for having one of the most unique art styles of anime I watch, even if it generally looks better in the manga. Anime art styles vary too, are there any you like in particular?[/QUOTE]

I'm probably in the minority here but I really do think South Park's style looks good. Much like Family Guy, I am not a fan of their old art, but South Park's more recent art is like paper cut-out stuff, it's appealing. Really looks good in the video game, Stick of Truth.

Yeah, I do prefer some visuals in certain anime over others (not to bash, buut I actually cannot stand the way One Piece looks now that you mention it) but I don't know how to explain it. All I can really do is list things I do and don't like the look of:

Don't like: One Piece, Fairy Tale, and Naruto.

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Do like: Yu Yu Hakusho, DBZ, and G Gundam.

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A lot of people don't think DBZ and MFGG look good but I do.

As far as the visual aesthetics of animation go, I do still largely prefer the 2D, hand-drawn (or hand drawn looking) animation that's become rare in western movies. I'm not going to knock on 3D computer animation (which has actually been used subtly to brilliant effect to enhance certain 2D movies), but I've just never really found it visually appealing.

Seriously though, the movies from Studio Ghibli, early Warner Bros. shorts, and the late Satoshi Kon have a lot of my favorite visual aesthetics in animation.

Of course, sometimes it goes beyond that. I wouldn't necessarily consider The Simpsons to be a visual masterpiece, but I love the early seasons of it to death. I still make Simpsons references quite often. Same goes for Daria.

Clay animation like Wallace & Gromit is awesome. I really enjoy how they look for some reason.

Some things that break the current norm really stand out.




Something as simple as not using any black outlines at all makes a story feel more like a story rather than just a cartoon.

I am a big fan of animations interacting with anything real like in who framed Roger Rabbit.

What really sold me on that was probably the swedish animation movie dunderklumpen

[MEDIA=youtube]8rHNZg65nic[/MEDIA]

and as i can only post one Media link per post here is the rest what i was trying to say:

And the use of Real life models (for bakground) on picture to animate on hard to describe look at this intro and you get it:

[MEDIA=youtube]W6cJ556TCEU[/MEDIA]

Here is some extra trivia first animation interacting with a human being (about 17 years before disney did it):

[MEDIA=youtube]tZjWxYbdTlc[/MEDIA]

Kind of a little thing. But I really like how kind of run-down and ramshackle things look in 'Gravity Falls'. Like, the town itself just looks kind of unkempt. Grimy and cobwebby. I like it---------really sells the whole hoary 'John Dies at the End for kids' atmos. Sort of makes sense the residents wouldn't notice the weirdness going on under the surface when the surface itself wants a lick and a polish.

A lot of the stuff mentioned here is great... I think Adventure Time's style is fantastic as well, so fun and colorful. In anime, I'm partial to Satoshi Kon and Studio Ghibli's styles (of course) and Cowboy Bebop remains one of the coolest looking things ever animated. One Piece looks **** awesome almost all of time, it's alive and vivid and full of color and varied body shapes, which is a big part of what makes it the best of the mainstream Shonen properties and one of the best Manga/Anime properties of all time. Steven Universe is one of the most gorgeous things on TV screens at this moment. And anything that can portray smooth, stylish movement in swordfighting (Samurai Champloo and Afro Samurai come to mind immediately) gets a thumbs up from me. I love that the cream of the crop in modern cartoons (the ones mentioned in this post, plus Regular Show, Gravity Falls, and Over the Garden Wall) create visually pleasing worlds, as opposed to the past generation's less detailed and alive worlds (and of course there are exceptions from recent years, a few of which have been mentioned in this thread, but recent animation has been **** fantastic in my opinion).

Honorable mention to One Punch Man for being the most perfect franchise to EVER be granted a huge budget and be animated by Madhouse.