How important is the art?

[Mellusia]

Yay for attempts at discussion

So how important is the art in a manga to you? Is it the most important quality you look in for a manga series, or can it drop a couple of places? Can you forgive the art quality and style if the story is interesting enough, or is that a big no-no in your book?

I have particular art styles I'm fond of, and I can even concede that their ranking in quality compared to others is probably lower, but if I like it, I can over-look quality and lacking details if the style appeals to me...

Does that make sense?

But yeah, what do you guys think?

[Jigoku Shōjo]

I was just talking about this with Ryvius the other night. Unless I've been told by numerous people that the story is good I normally will not read something if I don't care for the art. I like to enjoy what I'm looking at especially if it's a series. I tend to gravitate to artists that are similar to CLAMP.

[Ryvius]

I tend to judge manga by their art at first, simply because certain genres tend to use certain art styles. Art isn't really that important to me though. With manga, it's dialogue without a doubt. Sometimes I read through manga so quickly I miss thesomething in the art anyway.

[Darkmatter]

For me it's a combination of both. I couldn't read all the dialouge looking at bland art but I wouldn't appreciate the art it it was poor quality dialouge.

[Rivey]

The art is what draws me in. If it's not pleasing to look at, I don't really want to read it, even if the story is appealing.
I blindly bought a manga (I don't remember what it was) because the story sounded interesting. As soon as I opened it and saw the art, it was pretty much an immediate turn off. I don't think I ever finished it.

I guess you could say I'm a shallow manga reader.

[Lind_L_Tailor]

Usually it's not going to bug me. The art in the Trigun manga is weak, and uses too much black and not enough detail, making things hard to make out a lot. Still, it's not terrible, and it doesn't really stop me enjoying the manga. The art in Soul Eater, on the other hand, is distractingly awful. The same can be said of the HYPER-BISHIE style in the Ouran manga that Bones were nice enough to fix in the adaptation.

At the same time, I'm absolutely drawn to anything with loads of detail in the artwork. Case in point:


ANYTHING by Naoki Urasawa.

[Bruton Gaster]

I usually check out a manga because of plot, but I won't read it if I dislike the art. I have to enjoy both the art and story/dialogue in order to stick to a manga.

[Philosophy]

I'm with ya on that one. I'm a huge fan of the BECK anime, and when I tried to read the manga, I couldn't stand the art. All the characters looked so ugly to me. Guh. Couldn't read it, even though I tried really hard to.