Anime is an amazing form of entertainment from Japan that is praised for sharing a beautiful art style with the world. It inspires fans and influences other forms of entertainment media such as movies.
Discussions about these forms of entertainment span across various subjects, such as narrative or the themes they depict. But beyond those, we are here to look at some of the anime that have attracted fans solely because of their mesmerising art.
Beautiful Art Styles From Some Amazing Anime
Mononoke
Originally, the anime was a part of the horror anthology from 2007 titled Ayakashi: Samurai Horror Tales. But it got popular enough to have its own spinoff series produced by Toei Animation, and that fame is lent mostly by the show’s beautiful art style.
Mononoke follows the story of a mysterious medicine peddler going around exorcising the supernatural beings known as mononoke, in feudal Japan. Every episode follows the main character confronting a mononoke and defeating it by reasoning with it.
Beyond the unique setting and themes of Mononoke, the show is amazing to look at as well, as every frame of animation looks like a live traditional Japanese Ukiyo-e painting.
Katanagatari
Katanagatari is often mistaken by some fans to be a part of another popular and amazing anime, the Monogatari series. It actually is a completely separate franchise made out of a different light novel as source material, written by Nisio Isin.
The show follows the story of Yasuri and Togame, who travel through Edo-era Japan in order to find legendary swords forged by a master swordsmith.
Katanagatari may be mistaken for a more action-oriented show due to the premise, but it’s more about exploring themes of morality and loyalty, beyond just wielding power.
The anime frequently grabs the attention of fans of this medium and gets praised quite often for its beautiful art style and use of colors on the characters.
Violet Evergarden
Kyoto Animation Studio, or Kyoani studio as it is referred to in Japan and by the fans, is frequently brought up in discussions about anime studios that are very good at emulating a consistently beautiful art style for their character designs.
It’s hard to point at any particular Kyoani show and call it the most beautiful of the bunch, but we chose to pick out Violet Evergarden, as it is one of the more recent and frequently praised among fans of the medium.
Violet Evergarden is originally based on a light novel written by Kana Akatsuki, and follows the story of a girl named Violet who was raised as a war machine in the past.
Afro Samurai
It is no news that the West, especially the US, is a big fan of anime as an art style and media, while Japan is heavily into the hip-hop culture and street wear. Sometimes these come together to create beautiful and amazing art. One such product is Afro Samurai.
Originally adapted from the manga with the same name, illustrated by Takashi Okazaki. It explores the mangaka’s love for hip-hop culture and artistically blends it with stylized manga fight choreography and samurai.
The story of Afro Samurai follows the titular samurai, who is out to seek revenge for the murder of his father in a futuristic Japanese setting.
Land of the Lustrous
3D is often a hit or miss in anime as only a few shows so far have been able to produce an art style that truly looks beautiful and unique and does not fall into weird uncanny valley visual territory.
One such show that perfected 3D designs with an appealing and amazing art style is Land of the Lustrous, also known as Houseki no Kuni in Japanese. The show is adapted from the manga by the same name, written and illustrated by Haruko Ichikawa.
The anime follows a beautiful fantasy story about gemstones known as Lustrous, who are constantly threatened by impending attacks from lunarians.
xxxHOLiC
The presence of the famous female manga artist group, CLAMP, has been missing in the modern anime scene. Some of their shows such as Card Captor Sakura and Chobits, were well celebrated among fans of the media back in the 90s and early 2000s
Among all of CLAMP’s works, the series that stood out for its beautiful art style was xxxHOLiC. The show utilized the ukiyo-e painting style mashed with CLAMP’s unique design style, having characters with elongated proportions but still balanced in an amazing way.
xxxHOLiC follows a high school student by the name Kimihiro Watanuki, who is fed up after being haunted by spirits and seeks the help of a mysterious witch named Yuko.
Tatami Galaxy
Tatami Galaxy is a beautiful show based on a novel written by Tomihiko Morimi. As much as it is a work of art, it is also a beautiful work of literature with themes harkening back to the works of Franz Kafka and such.
It follows the story of a Kyoto University student, chronicling his adventures through different versions of his mundane life, which he calls ‘rose colored campus life’.
One of the reasons that lends to Tatami Galaxy’s unique art style is because of the director who was behind the anime. Masaaki Yuasa, well-renowned for his amazing works in the anime industry, later went on to co-establish the Science SARU animation studio.
