The Old School Otaku Lounge

Wow, I dunno how I hadn't heard of this sooner, but apparently there's a new Heroic Legend of Arslan manga running now! The thing that surprised me the most, though, is that it's drawn by the creator of Fullmetal Alchemist:



I'm so used to the old OAV character designs that I dunno if I'd be able to get used to these new ones. So far I don't think anyone's picked it up for US release yet, but I hear there's scanlations floating around already. I might give it a shot, see how the story is at least...

What do you guys think?

Whoa - that sort of is just... discomforting. I know it's probably designed to bring in new readers but the style shift is pretty remarkable.

Sgirl wrote:Whoa - that sort of is just... discomforting. I know it's probably designed to bring in new readers but the style shift is pretty remarkable.

That's what I assumed, since the artist is very popular (not that that's a bad thing--I enjoyed the FMA manga well enough, though I know that since they showed the anime on Toonami or whatever, it's one of those series that has a huge following of dumb kids, too, lol.) I know his style is much more shounen and action-friendly; but I loved the almost delicate, detailed art of OAV and old manga:



So maybe they wanted to step away from the almost shoujo-y feel of it? Which I guess is understandable, but a bit disappointing to me--the art style was one of my favorite aspects of it.

Sgirl wrote:Whoa - that sort of is just... discomforting. I know it's probably designed to bring in new readers but the style shift is pretty remarkable.

If it's just the art style, that's one thing. But if the story and direction of this classic series was also redesigned to appeal to the modern anime lovers, then that would be truly discomforting.

The old art was just too beautiful to be replaced with this goofy FMA style.

danth wrote:The old art was just too beautiful to be replaced with this goofy FMA style.

I agree, but I'll take a look at it after I rewatch my VHS.