While a shonen manga series should always have an intriguing story, compelling characters, and exhilarating fight scenes in order to stand out from the competition, one thing that most fans will notice sooner than anything else is the artwork. While some manga authors will stick with a particular style or aesthetic for the entirety of their series, there are some who have drastically changed their artwork over the course of the story, and there are a few reasons why this can be the case.
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On the one hand, adapting a different style can help to reflect the mood of the series. Since most shonen stories will gradually become darker and more mature as they go on, the artwork can help to convey the escalating seriousness of the situation. On the other hand though, it's no secret that manga authors are often given very strict deadlines to complete their work on a weekly basis, which can also have an effect on the designs of the characters and environments. With that said, it's time to take a deeper look at a few popular shonen manga series which have undergone drastic changes to their art styles since they first began.
Bleach
From Cartoony Visuals To Sleek, Stylish And Moody Designs
- Manga Artist: Tite Kubo
Tite Kubo, the author of the immensely popular and highly influential Bleach, has always had a knack for drawing characters who appear a lot more mature and realistic than would often be seen in most shonen manga. However, in the early arcs of Bleach, specifically up to the Hueco Mundo arc, there was still a very cartoony visual aesthetic that could be gleaned from Ichigo and his pals, with Kubo often using a lot of quirky and comedic facial expressions and poses to give this series a bit more of a light-hearted feel before it became too dark.
As the stakes began to rise higher and higher though, Kubo's artwork began to shift. When looking at the characters themselves, it started to become clear that Kubo was going for a much sharper and more refined style that helped to replicate the more moody and stoic vibe that had become synonymous with mid-to-late Bleach. This can be seen most clearly in the Fullbring arc, which feels like more of a seinen manga than a shonen, considering how ultra-realistic a lot of the characters look, and Kubo would continue to follow this template style right up until the very end of the Thousand Year Blood War.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure
Araki Toned Down The Muscles To Lean Into His Own Unique Aesthetic
- Manga Artist: Hirohiko Araki
Considering the anime has only been around for a little more than a decade, it can be easy to forget that Araki has actually been drawing JoJo's Bizarre Adventure for more than 30 years by this point, and there's no signs of him slowing down anytime soon. Considering JoJo's first released in the late 80s, at a time when Fist of the North Star was dominating the market and Japanese pop culture, it makes sense why many of Araki's characters looked like brutish bodybuilders who were all much larger and more stocky than the average human.
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Araki would continue with this style until he eventually reached Part 4, where the protagonists started to appear a lot slimmer and more flamboyant than Jonathan, Joseph, and Jotaro who came before. A prime example of this is Giorno from Part 5, along with the other members of Team Bucciarati, who all look a little more realistic thanks to the incredible amount of detail Araki puts into their body proportions. It's also important to point out just how incredible Araki's artwork has become over time, as while some of the chapters in Phantom Blood may look like rough comics, reading a chapter of Steelball Run feels like peeking into the art book of a Renaissance-era artist.
Slam Dunk
Takehiko Inoue Became A Master At Portraying Fast And Fluid Movements With His Artwork
- Manga Artist: Takehiko Inoue
Slam Dunk is a series that has become renowned for its lovable cast of characters and inspirational messages, but while the artwork has also become highly admired, it did take a little while for author Takehiko Inoue to finally get there. This isn't to suggest that the art in Slam Dunk has been bad, just that, as is the case with most manga authors, it started off with a more basic style which allowed some of the characters to feel a little more exaggerated and how they moved and acted on the court.
As the series goes on though, it starts to become evident that Inoue was placing a lot more focus on the realism of his characters. This resulted in some frankly jaw-dropping illustrations which almost looked like real images, considering how much work went into emphasizing the characters' muscles and body proportions to ensure that they all felt like real athletes. Today, Slam Dunk is one of the shining examples of a series which only got better with time, and that especially relates to its art style.
Attack On Titan
Isayama Really Stepped Up His Artwork When AOT Started Taking Off
- Manga Artist: Hajime Isayama
Though there have long been debates about whether Attack on Titan can be considered a shonen, considering how violent and dark it is, it was still first published in a shonen magazine, which would technically make it applicable. While the highly successful anime adaptation of Attack on Titan may have gotten off to a strong start, one thing that was preventing the manga from reaching mainstream success was its artwork. Isayama himself has gone on record to say that his artwork, outside of the stunning two-page spreads, which still look absolutely incredible, was ultimately pretty amateurish for a series that was so ambitious.
Once Attack on Titan started to really gain some steam though, Isayama's artwork improved by leaps and bounds, not just in terms of his characters, who now look a lot more detailed and refined, but also his environments. A clear example of this is how Isayama was able to portray the country of Marley pretty late in the story. Rather than just being a bunch of rough buildings and trees, this felt like a realistic area that was truly lived in, thanks to the amount of effort he put in to showcasing even the smallest of details. By the time the series was reaching its end, Isayama was putting out plenty of horrifyingly detailed panels which did an excellent job at conveying just how high the stakes had risen.
Jujutsu Kaisen
Some Theorize JJK's Sudden Change In Art Reflects The Character's Own Views On The World
- Manga Artist: Gege Akutami
The Jujutsu Kaisen manga contains one of the most drastic shifts in art style ever seen in shonen, and while there have been countless debates about whether Gege's artwork got better or worse, it's clear as day to see how much it's actually changed. In the early story arcs, the manga contained a fairly rough but still eye-catching aesthetic which helped each of the Sorcerers and Curses feel different and unique in their design, but there was still a stiffness which could make some of the action scenes feel a little slow and muddled.
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All of this completely changed after the Shibuya Incident arc, when many of the characters began to take on very different appearances, including Itadori himself, who was now a lot wider in his features and also looked much older than before. While the freeze frames of characters may not have looked as captivating as before, this more minimalistic art style did greatly benefit the action, as it allowed the characters to feel much more fluid and natural when moving around. While it seems likely that this sudden change was due to Gege trying to keep up with the harsh deadlines, some fans have seen it as a representation of Itadori's own mental state, and how he began to view the world in a much darker light after the Shibuya Incident.
My Hero Academia
By The End Of MHA's Run, Horikoshi Had Become One The Best Artists In Shonen
- Manga Artist: Kohei Horikoshi
My Hero Academia is a rare example of a shonen series that already started off with incredible artwork, but somehow, managed to reach even greater heights the longer it went on. At the beginning, Horikoshi's characters were well known for being very wide-eyed and young in their appearance, which gave the series a slightly more child-like aesthetic than many other series at that time. It wouldn't be this way forever though, as once Deku and the students of 1A began to leave their exams and face off against real-world villains, the artwork became noticeably darker and even more detailed than before, especially in the case of Deku.
Deku may have started out as a cowardly and naive wannabe hero, but after a few hundred chapters, his appearance was entirely changed, having much more serious facial expressions along with a more rugged suit which reflected his mindset at the time. Horikoshi also started to go all-out with his double page spreads, especially when it comes to the villains, who also receive a significant upgrade to their designs, primarily after the Overhaul arc, which is where the art style really begins to go through a noticeable change.
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