The Evolution of Anime Character Designs
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- Опубліковано 26 січ 2017
- I've been looking into stylistic developments in anime a lot recently. In this video I give an overview of how anime character designs have developed.
Video essays on this year's anime:
Top 10 Anime of 2016: • Top 10 Anime of 2016
What Makes a Good Anime Character?: • What Makes A Good Anim...
Social Links:
My twitter: / anime_everyday
My Facebook: on. 1p1QJTV
My hummingbird: hummingbird.me/users/Anime_Eve...
My MAL: myanimelist.net/profile/AnimeE...
Anime mentioned (in order):
Astro Boy
Dororo
Ashita no Joe
Space Battleship Yamato
Mobile Suit Gundam
Macross
Gunbuster
Legend of the Galactic Heroes
Fist of the North Star
Dragon Ball
Akira
Ghost in the Shell
Perfect Blue
Jin Roh
Berserk
Cowboy Bebop
Escaflowne
Evangelion
Air or Kanon
K-On
Monogatari series
Madoka Magica
Serial Experiments Lain
Boogiepop Phantom
Gurren Lagann
Eureka Seven
Kill la Kill
Kaiba - Фільми й анімація
god 80s and 90s anime are so comfy to look at.
JoJo was part of the 'macho man' time period, it wasn't inspired by it. The creator himself has even redesigned preexisting characters in artworks so that they *don't* have the 'macho man' design.
jojo is it's own art style nothing can compete with it nothing will even try to come near it
@@Slammatoro part 4 to 8 is his own art style
@@Slammatoro Same goes to FKMT's art because it looks like something that comes out from nowhere lol. Extremely distinct and unique.
First jojo parts WAS a hokuto no ken ripoff in terms of visuals.
@@syahaz7088 yeah.
1994 - 2001 ish. I just love that aesthetic.
Great choice!
JammyGuyStudios yes!
JammyGuyStudios
Agreed. When drawing manga I blend both 90's and 2010's style with my own.
JammyGuyStudios Y E S
ultra realism of the 90s with the standard traditional anime dark ink is so good compared to the digital stuff
1988-1998 Is my favourite period of character designs.
You should continue this character design videos with individual charachter designers spotlights. Also you could do a video on original and adaptive designs( taken from a source material).
I will keep saying But 90s anime style is the best, it looks realistic but it has the touch of being Anime, plus those dark shades make it even better, today's is way too brilliant for me with those clear colors spamming your eyes
yeah I do not like how bright and smooth everything is and kinda miss seeing those hints of linework. To be fair it is not always like that in anime made now - just a lot of the shounen /harem-y for younger people stuff. Horror / scifi type anime still sorts avoids that plus other miscellaneous anime.
Yes but when a bright color palette is done right it just works, like Your Lie in April, or Violet Evergarden
Mike503 exactly
Btw I love violet evergarden
@@Voltage.Bone.R violet evergarden looks absolutely amazing I could just never get into the anime
@@keeganwilson9062 Same, I watched a few episodes and didn't enjoy it.
it would be better to analyze the evolution of manga character designs and artwork rather than anime, since many of the anime mentioned are manga adaptations that rely and take heavily from their manga counterparts
Dorohedoro To an extent, but there is also a lot to be said about the deviation from original manga designs once they are given to animation studios. Firstly there are very few completely faithful adaptions. Secondly, the sheer act of animating a character applies another stylistic choice which is (in most cases) otherwise not apparent in manga.
@@justcomments Yeah, and we can sorta see this with Jojo's
The Anime uses designs for the parts based on how the characters look by the end of a part versus how they look at the start.
Jouske at the start of Part 4's Manga looks like he was ripped right out of Part 3, but Jouske at the end of Part 4 looks vastly different and is the start of Araki's shift towards his modern-day style.
And, David Production doing that also lets each part have a more and more unique feel because Araki's style has changed noticeably by the end of each part, ergo with that mentality of character design for the anime, it gives each new season/series/part a fully unique feel in look.
Part 1 looks different from Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4, and Part 5 has clear differences versus part 4.
Also, the general detail of the anime getting better and better for the designs in each new part helps as well.
I like the 90s style, it was the decade of creativity for me.
Just wanna say that Slam Dunk has a unique style which seemed ahead of its time.
Thanks for another great essay!
1 - A couple of ideas occurred to me: AKIRA probably owes more to Disney than Tezuka. I'd make the same argument with Wings of Honnenaise.
2 - Also, you didn't make any mention of the way technology has altered character design -- with the adoption of CGI (3D and 2D) animators are forced to make choices that were unnecessary only a few years ago: AIJIN, for example (a show I loved) is a weird hybrid of 3D implementation and 2D frame rates which is not always successful. The technical limitations of early anime (frame rates, line counts, and TV resolution) have created an aesthetic which doesn't always work for contemporary.
The revolution of realistic female bodies and movement in Gunbuster. Real subtle. Real subtle pal.
I love the 90's art style.
I prefer the look of the earlier shows because they seemed to put more emphasis on facial diversity between characters. That's something I've noticed a lot of people have seemed to do away with in order to make their characters more "attractive"
Wait, you showed the wrong Kanon, the original (and ugly) made by Toei in 2002. Kyoto Animation did the remake, with the same style but far less ugly, Kanon 2006.
But just a minor detail.
My favorite period?
All of them.
I can appreciate good design in any style or fad. If it's good it's good.
2000s for me.
omg. i was literally watching some of your videos yesterday because you hadn't uploaded in a month!! I really enjoy watching / listening to your essays.
Daisy B Same with me, on both of your points!
Thanks!! I'll have more regular videos coming over the next month or so :)
God damn I wish the GItS style remained popular. I especially love Motoko's design. Those eyes are some of the best.
RustredRaven it was really awesome
RustredRaven too expensive.
80's and 90's had the best desings and the early 2000's the worst
I agree. If you watch a lot of anime, you would notice that the animation was heavily detailed in the late 80's to the 90's. What I loved about this era is how everything was hand drawn in the backgrounds so that the characters don't look too disconnected. When the 2000's arrived, animation quality took a massive plunge and everything looked shite. It didn't mean the actual show was bad, like one good example being Welcome to NHK, but the animation in that show was unarguably appalling at times. And of course, action animes suffered the most because of this. When the 2010's came along, quality started to pick up again after anime's popularity started to rise oversees. Now that studios knew that tons of people do like to watch anime outside of Japan, not only did they start getting bigger budgets, technology became better and made the animation process more efficient, and they also started to recruit and utilize better people to work on animations. Though there still are repercussions that animes and manga still suffer today. I won't name all of them but the one I have the biggest gripe with is the lack of though put into character designs. Especially when there are several girls in the show and design they follow is the "rainbow method," where each of them have different brightly coloured hair. It's definitely true to say that today's characters are not memorable save for a few.
I really like the 90's design, but dont dislike the design of early 2000's, what I really dislike are nowadays designs with the worst shadowing ever.
The early 2000's had a few amazing art styles; eg 2004's anime Wolf's Rain - I love the design of the world and look of the characters. When I first saw it I'd thought it was from around 2013; not 9 years prior to then.
idk man, FMA (2003) and Kino's Journey looked pretty good
Hell, compared to the 90s and early 2000s a lot of today's style is more refined or toned down
As a child of the early 90s, the grounded, more realistic style of anime is my favorite. I have a hard time watching newer anime as its so unrealistic, colorful, and sorta childish looking. It feels like I'm constantly being reminded THIS IS ANIME. Rather then watching a show that just happens to be anime, if that makes sense.
I've got you.
So you like designs that aren't stylish at all?
@@justsomegreendude9034 that's not really it tho, they were heavily stylish, just more grounded in reality, or let's say they didn't venture a lot into unrealistic human proportions, however the designs themselves and the facial expressions and hairstyles were all very stylistic just in a different approach.
Everyone is free to express their opinion online, and I think yours is shit.
Was a bit disappointed toy didn't talk about the people behind the character designs, but great video as always
speaking of the evolution of character designs, I've noticed that studio ghibli is perhaps the only studio that has maintained it's unique aesthetic since it's reception with nausicaa. I mean the characters in the wind rises or when Marnie was there can be easily traced back to classics such as laputa or the aforementioned nausicaa.
One of most iconic designs is Lupin III and his gang.
Whoa, hold the phone. Why were you showing Toei's Kanon while discussing Kyoto Animation? Come on, man. xD
Because of copyright.
This is a very good and detailed video. :0
Thanks man!
I really like the character designs in Little Witch Academia. Anyone else watching it?
I was thinking the same thing!
Definitely one of my favourite art styles. It has relatively realistic designs but the shapes and lines are very simple. The low detail allows for some great sakuga moments while not making the animation very complex and time intensive to do. It also make weird proportions and animations look more normal despite them actually being pretty outrageous when they break away from their still animation poses. They also use a different outline going for a much thinner look and the use a colour pallet that makes everything look a little like an oil painting if you were to paint in solid colours with sharp edges. It's something that is only possible thanks to digital animation.
J Mouch Me!
That's Trigger's magic for ya!
it kind of reminds me of bnha tbh
I really feel like the quality of character animation in Anime is like an arch spiking in the late 90s and early 2000s. It evolved to a highly passionate detail in that time and then regressed when studios got higher contract numbers when Anime really got popular in the whole world and to feed that demand they had to cut down on quality. Although motions got more realistic the characters look today look flat and simplistic, without much detail or shadow in their faces, hair and clothes. The weird thing is that backgrounds went the other direction, they get more and more realistic, but that makes the characters fit less into the whole thing and creates too much artistic contrast. It's like drawing Shin Chan's face on the Mona Lisa's head and expect anybody to not notice.
I absolutely love the animation style of the 90's, especially with sci-fi. So much mechanical detail.
Trigun had some pretty great character designs
I really like the attention to muscle and anatomy that was put into North Star and JoJo and how that was carried on in series like Baki and Attack on Titan
This really is great. It's so cool to see a video on anime whose purpose is to inform rather than argue. I've loved anime for decades but lacked the time to keep up the way true fans can. So overviews like this help me understand trends I'm seeing in current shows I watch. I really hope you'll do more Loki this. Thanks!
That video essay was A1, it's like Lessons From The Screenplay but for just the anime world. Subbed
10:20 Your talking about Kyoani but showing Kanon (2002) which was animated by Toei. Kanon (2006) is the one by Kyoani.
I really love watching your vids, I almost feel smarter as a fan of animation after finishing one. If an anime textbook was ever written I'm sure you'd be on some part of the team;) Keep up the great work.
I completely agree with your point of view on these art styles, i love going from watching recent anime to going all the way back to the 80s and 90s. I've always been drawn to really 'different' looking art designs though. some of my favourite series are: Blood Lad, The Kono Danshi series, One piece, Golden Boy, Hellsing, Shiki, Trigun, Cowboy Bebop, Mob Psycho, Ajin, The Wallflower, Ranpo Kitan, Eden of the East, Love Chunibyou and other delusions, Dimension W, Sankarea, Danganronpa, Kiznaiver, 91 days, Yuri on Ice, Ao haru ride, Barakamon, No game no life, Gurren Lagann, Sunday without god, Btooom!, Deadman wonderland, Persona 4, Terror in resonance, Noragami, Kill la Kill, Full metal panic, Black bullet, Is this a zombie?, the melancholy of haruhi suzumiya, Another, Tokyo ghoul, ect...
(Horror/Psychological is my fav genre)
This is great work! Keep doing it, really enjoyable to watch!
Good video, very interesting, keep up the good work boi. Til' next time space cowboy.
Thanks! :)
Nice video! I also loved the background song. ;-)
Love your hard work and effort really wish you upload more frequently
awesome video dude!
im so glad you mentioned perfect blue
Great video ! Keep it up !
Dam bro three years gone come back ya videos are amazing
this was great!
Super break down. Thank you.
Thank you for the breakdown of anime styles 😉😉😉💯👌👍👍
Nice analysis and essay. Anime designs have really evolved throughout the years and it's influences can be seen in a lot of anime today and they do continue to evolve and change today. This video made me miss those designs and style from the mid-late 90s, to Akira to Cowboy Bebop, really impactful and definitely my favorites. Would like to also point out the similarities and inspiration in a lot of shinichiro watanabe's shows, as from bebop and samurai champloo to spance dandy and zankyou no terror a clear style and evolution can be seen.
Awesome video.
Funny how character designs have improved over time but character personalities get dumber and dumber every year.
Generally yes. But luckily there are still a multitude of great personalities (albeit in smaller quantities).
+Xcho agreed. The male protagonist is almost always a walking bag of clichés. Shy with girls? check. Stupid spiky hair? check. unmanly and lanky appearance? check. goes to high school? check. Wow I can't believe how east it is to create a male character!
I think it's a consequence of anime becoming more and more self aware and meta. It's like an inside joke in the industry that the male harem protagonist is shy around girls and find themselves in comedically compromising positions with the members of their harems. Anime writers know that these are cliché and implement these clichés into their stories in order to play with them and their associated tropes.
Takumi Did Nothing Wrong or maybe because it's the easiest and the most laziest type of writing that doesn't require 0 effort or 0 skill. I get that some anime make them like this but bother to progress the main male characters (which is still bit lazy in my opinion) or just make fun of such tropes yet continue using them which is even worst. And before you guys state anything I'm not expecting every male character to be James Bond version but at least someone with some balls growing them not someone with no balls gaining small amount throughout story especially since the 2nd one since it has been overused beyond redemption at this point.
Rutin Acuzza I'm not saying I'm amazing when it comes to writing but I'm sure even I could make a better male character or hell even a better manga/light novel than most that are just walking bag of cheesy cliches.
This is great, I’d love manga talked about more though. It’s so connected to everything in these videos and the two medium are symbiotic and both affect the other.
My favorite characters design, at the moment, are the return to basic forms by Masaaki Yuasa and artists like One with OPM and Mob Psycho 100, and trigger to some extent. This designs look a lot like Tezuka's and most of western animation, and this makes so much sense. The ability and technology in animation has improved so much that simpler design actually feels so much fluent and you can see how much the industry has growth.
I feel like you cool be the perfect guy to do an analysis on the development of Mecha design, haha.
Awesome video, man.
I like to hear him talk about that.
Hentai designs have also come a long way.
X. Numbers ROFL you stupid😂😂😂
Bible Black is hentai endgame, best character designs
*EPIC JOKE*
69 likes
Well to be fair they have come from having more mainstream designs that you might find in any old manga to more hyper-sexualized cartoonish ones.
quality channel right there
Modern designs are the best for me, so varied and interesting. I love bebop and I'm nostalgic for 90s, but shafts style, iconic designs like space dandy, fucking gurren lagann, kill la kill, or anything trigger. Even mob psycho and ping pong. There is many high quality work going around lately.
10:14 Man, that's not a Kyoto Animation show. That's the studio Toei adaptation of the visual novel Kanon developed by Key. It was visual novels that cemented that style, not anime studios. To Heart is probably the main culprit, its anime was aired in 1999.
Kyoto Animation's first show was Full Metal Panic Fumoffu and those designs didn't look at all like what you can find in the VNs by Key.
Ayyy he's back! Fuck yea!
I think female character design peaked with Golden Boy :D
The designs in "Golden Time" and "Your Lie in April" are very similar and probably my favorite evolution in the style of anime so far.
Yea this topic is HUGE, you didn't even go into the design influence of Rumiko Takahashi (Ranma, Maison, UY), Ikuko Ito (Princess Tutu, DoReMi), and CLAMP (X, Geass, Chobits) Fantastic work as always! ^_^
I think my favorite design is from shows like Cowboy Bepop, Dirty Pair Flash, and old school Yu-Gi-Oh.
Recently, my wife and I started watching Cat's Eye (1983), and I immediately noticed how different the character design is compared to today, and I couldn't quite put my finger on why. I think the leads' faces are much more angular, longer, and darker in complection compared the softer, rounder, and paler skin tones of today's Anime.
Quality vids dawg
Wow this was great. I never noticed how old art styles are still seen today like in JoJo, Gurren Lagann, and kill a kill. Saying Gurren Lagann and kill a kills art style stem from the 90s makes me real happy!
Comment with your favourite period of character designs. (It's the mid-late 90s for me).
Can't contest with that except for some of my favorites being in the early 2000s. Like Haibane and Texhnolyze.
Late 90's early 2k's looks are melancholic, but late 2k's to early 2k10's such as "The tatami galaxy" and Kill la kill" are awesome.
Late 80's and early 90's are my favorite.
Same. The iconic personable realism of Perfect Blue, Evangelion, Lain, GitS, Jin-Roh, etc. is really hard to beat. Also a huge fan of Yoshihiro Togashi's main character/villain designs.
Although the continuation of that realistic tradition in the '00s (combined with the anime industry's increasing familiarity with then-modern technology) by ABe, Madhouse, Kon, I.G, and others is also something I really appreciate.
Form me, it is the 80s
Great job, think there is a lot to explore in this if you split by niche geners like sports, or mecha. Keep the good job
It is quite impressive how the styles have changed, and evolved over time with some styles revisited. I personally like the realistic anime like Ghost in the Shell, however I love to watch a variety of anime.
I found the period frommid 80's to mid 90's to be the best. I love the art style of Dirty pair, Gunbuster, City Hunter, Akira, Jojo's 4th season, Dragonball, Gunnm... and the list goes on
I think you missed the character design of Kawajiri, I think he did influence in some way the 90's. Good video!
I feel old
Thanks for this video, always great to hear your views ^^. I assume you didn't have time to talk about it, but it would be nice to hear your ideas about the cliché that character design develop within the years. In other words (pardon my bad English, I'm French ^^'), the character design can be really specific according to the personality and importance of the character. I'm thinking a lot about the female ones, less developed in this episode. Thank you again for you video ^^.
been working alot about the changes of character design/ watch a bunch of anime
I find the girls in moe often insulting to my intelligence when it is done very badly. I do not mind a cute character or a cute show but when they all act like baby idiots it is condescending .
I like 90s designs of some shows like Martian Successor Nadesico, but I also like the simple but memorable designs of 00s Gainax and Trigger shows. I also like early 00s designs of show like Full Metal Panic and Scrapped Princess.
Kinda surprised you never mentioned Nagai. He really pushed for more realistic designs in the 70's a long with Matsumoto.
Dude mentioned Bersekr in an anime video, bless his heart he seems to care but he probably doesn't too much insight
Matsumoto use fat ugly people with big noses, one eyed protagonist with scar and tall beautiful girls, is like tezuka with two decades of evolution, blue people are realism? Aliens can have other colors, but to other forms or details, is like watching human race painted face, no an alien face
No matter which era, anime/manga chara design kills my damn heart! So gorgeous
for me the early 2000 for experimental and their aproach towards more arts styles
favorites characters designs:
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Cowboy Bebop
Ghost in the Shell
K On
Madoka Magica
Monogatari
Bacanno
Lain
Check out Hidamari Sketch if you enjoy Madoka's designs.
wings of honneamise has some really detailed work. I really liked Ergo Proxy.
My favorite is the age of monster girls.
after that is the Cute but Dark
Do you ever watched case closed? the character desings are a mixture of thrill and comic style, just like the tone of the show.
your videos always have fantastic insight. I prefer the late eighties. have you ever heard of toward the Terra or Terra e? I'd recommend it
era of realism is my favorite with experimental designs as a close second. I'll always be a fan of creators that don't pander to an audience but create for the sake of creation and expression, however, the designs in shows akin to the ghost in the shell designs will always have a place in my heart.
Years ago when Wikipedia first started, the anime portal had an amazing chart that showed how anime style evolved and how different styles were connected. I still remember it, but after many changes to Wiki's page format it was lost.
Design is one of the central ironies in a show like Now and Then, Here and There. It's very reminiscent of the late 80s, but the show aired in the late 90s and early 2000s. Here, design functions as a commentary on the naivety of adventure stories, both halcyonic and wistful and yet at the same time sobering. Of course, I will always verbally fellate that show so there's no distanced commentary on my part.
Still - great vid!
That show left no impression on me when i first saw it, but if you praise it so much maybe I should give it a second chance.
2005-now is my favorite. Like you said, there are so many different styles tailored specifically to their genres that it really helps communicate things to the audience. The better technology also means that all these different styles (retro or experimental) can look fantastic too.
I would love to see something like Death Note or Black Lagoon designs again, to me these two are the perfect mixture of realism and anime-ish style.
0:52-1:39 ONE OF MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE ANIME'S"
I fell in love with the Shounen character designs, especially the earlier works of Naruto and One Piece. Fullmetal Alchemist is definitely on my top five when it comes to designs, too.
An absolutely excellent video as always. I can't say that I have a period that is my all time favourite. But, I certainly enjoy a lot of the designs from the 90s through to present day. The 80s wasn't bad either. Can't say I'm a fan of the earlier eras though...
90's, early 2000, best anime design in my opinion
I agree, even though once the 2000 started anime improved in visuals the story/characters took an insane dive into mediocre or just trash
your awesome in your videos your research is very intricate and accurate i absolutely loved your videos. I myself I'm 42 years old and have been watching anime since 1979 my very first anime was Universal Century Gundam and to this day it is my favorite anime of all time I then backtracked and started watching things from 1975 and 77 like battleship Yamato and Captain Harlock and Galaxy railroad Express. then was super dimensional fortress macross and supper dimension century orguss. lol I now have a VHS, DVD and Blu-ray collection of over four hundred anime. I find your videos outstanding
while i will never deny Osamu Tezuka's achievements in animation, it is interesting to see how much his style still looms in every anime show these days, maybe to their detriment.
Whenever someone says "all anime looks the same" the defense mechanism right away is to point out the exceptions to the rule. "How can you say that if Tatami Galaxy exists?" or "Kaiji looks nothing like other anime". But thats what they are isnt it? Just exceptions. Im not saying western animation isnt the same sometimes, CG animation has kinda turned every Pixar and Disney movie into the same type of design, but you take a look at the tvshows and they all look distinct from one another.
But then again, I guess thats what makes anime so interesting and special, those self imposed limitations are what makes it distinct from traditional western animation, because once you get into anime you start to see the differences in each show, a Shaft anime is automatically distinguishable from all oher anime studios.
10:14 Note that this is the Toei animation version of Kanon, not Kyoto animation.
Takeshi Obata has it all, expressive character designs, cute girls,what ever you need he got you covered. You should cover him in like a new series or something like that.something like before they were famous
Guys, remember this dude has 50 000 subscribers. Because it's gonna blow up in a few months
also need to see Ghost in the shell and perfect blue
If they end up to off the beaten path for you, I definitely recommend Stand Alone Complex and Tokyo Godfathers. Both by the respective artists, but both being WAY more approachable than those two movies. Not saying I didn't enjoy them, just that they aren't the kind of thing I'd personally sit down with popcorn for a relaxing movie night.
One thing I've noticed about art styles today is that many of them have the characters looking... I dunno, petite...? It's not exactly full on "moe," but characters generally don't look realistically proportioned as they used to in lots of anime. There's this slight petite aspect to them, where their heads are drawn a bit bigger and their bodies appear a bit thinner and smaller. It's a really subtle shift in the art direction and has become more or less the main direction for most series today. Even long-running franchises originally beginning with a different art style have shifted into this direction (look at kids anime such as Pokemon, where everything from gen 5 and onwards looks slightly cutsier compared to the previous seasons).
I am glad you mention Robotech...
For me is the 80's and 70's... With shows like Candi Candi, Heidi of the Alps, Mazinger Z, Galaxy Express, Battle of the Planets, Ranma 1/2, Ulyses 31(I know is supposed to be French) And my all time favorite anime show: Saint Seiya or Knights of the Zodiac...The original run...
When it comes to movies I liked The Little Mermaid(the Disney version borrow A LOT from the anime) Frankenstein and Dracula...
i like unique designs more than the common ones
astroboy style was really good for me
cyborg 009 as well
and one piece of course
not that other styles are bad i just appreciate uniqueness
I literally clicked just because of the thumbnail - Astro Boy, Ghost in the Shell and Attack on Titan 💕
i haven't seen akira, but it looks so neat and well design; especially considering it's older than myself xD
One of my favorite character designs has to be Shin Getter Robo Armagedon. It takes the best aspects of 70s and gives it that extra detail with 90s animation. I also love the new animes based on old mangas like Jojo's bizarre adventures or Ushio and Tora. It's nice to see old art styles interpreted in modern high quality animation.
You skipped the whole Gatchaman Casshan, Tekkaman, American superhero style era of the Early 70's with its "realistic" anatomy. The Super Robot Era had some of this look too.
I honestly love all anime designs.The 2000s anime art style has a special place in my heart because it's what I grew up with. It does have a cuter/simple style but I still love it just like all the other anime designs. I do like the 80s style & i wanna try watching more 80s anime. Iv'e seen a few 90s animes.
Late 80-90s.
I kinda was hoping you'd go into a little more detail about the evolution of designs in specific genres because you focus a lot on mecha and sci-fi which tend towards more realism in general but shounen and shoujo, for example, have distinct styles themselves as well as harem/romcoms.