At this point I'm kind of wondering what she's actually seen. Because aside from a few blatantly mainstream common works most Anime I come up with off the top of my head don't look similar at all.

I mean, heck, I'll prove it. Let's play a game. Click "random item" and see if the first two Anime/Manga you get look anything like each other.

I got...Shattered Angels◊ and Die Buster◊. Which look surprisingly distinct in spite of the fact that neither of these premises sound all that extraordinary.

edited 28th Oct '09 4:19:57 PM by Some Guy

Actually, I didn't think they looked that distinct, based on the series page pictures.

edited 28th Oct '09 9:19:14 PM by GlennMagusHarvey

Yeah, those still have the extreme facial similarity.

As far as anime goes, those two are rather similar art-wise. I mean, I see diferences, but they aren't very noticable. :/

edited 28th Oct '09 9:22:38 PM by Sabbo

Films might be a better bet... Dead Leaves[1]◊ Paprika[2]◊

Dead Leaves looks freaky.

Well, yes.

Films aren't really representatives of anime as a whole, though, any more than A Scanner Darkly shows how Spongebob works. (warning, sleep deprivation, metaphors get worse and worse)

I don't think those two look any more similar than, say, Donald Duck looks like Daffy Duck. They use the same basic genre conventions, but I thought it was pretty noticeablethat their bodily proportions were completely different from each other. Like, size of the eyes and all that.

If we're going to use freaky weird-looking stuff, then yeah, you don't have to try very hard to find non-conventional Manga-style drawings.

When I said they looked similar, I was looking at the important things when it comes to this kind of art: line thickness, angle, and frequency. This is most easily noticed with the hair, and shape of the faces.

Daffy and Donald look similar as well.

Also, try something like, say, Lucky Star vs. anything, or Paprika vs. Nanoha, or Nanoha vs. Nausicaa.

Or Mononoke. Holy crap, just look at it. [1]◊ [2]◊

edited 30th Oct '09 1:50:44 AM by melloncollie

Seems to remind me of some traditional Japanese theater face-art.

Kinda, but the eyes (as just one example) are completely different. Donald - and pretty much all of the other major Disney characters, for that matter - have large eyes which rarely shrink, even when squinting, while Daffy & Co. have comparatively smaller eyes which change shape and size often, to fit the situation.

This is what I mean by wanting more input from the individual who thinks that all manga look the same. Because going by that extreme train of logic most western comics looks the same, too.

Bear in mind that depending on how elitist she is the latter might be true, too.

Western productions from any particular era do look similar. The big picture linked from Only Six Faces has more Western examples than Japanese.

Also, made-for-TV Western animation has always been notoriously cheap looking compared even to theatrical shorts, let alone feature films.

In an apples-to-apples comparison of between any randomly chosen American animated TV show, and an anime from the same era and similar genre/demographic, I bet they're usually on par in terms of animation quality.

@Some Guy: Yes, she's that elitist. I'm gonna show her FLCL and the virtues of Animation versus Too Much Detail

Only Six Faces

Interesting, my attitude is: "So what?"

Manga is cheaply produced drawing made on a killer schedule. What do you expect? The Sistine Chapel?

I read manga and watch anime for the stories not the artwork.

What is she doing comparing such material to major animated motion pictures? Heck you can't even compare live TV to motion pictures.

Now I suppose you might show her some particularly good anime. I don't pay alot of attention, but the Roy vs Lust fight in Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood was rather good.

Doesn't Aria have a reputation for good artwork? You might also show her the Ah My Goddess movie.

On the Only Six Faces front, I think it'd be good to point out that she's applying something Double Standard. It's not just anime faces that look the same; it's animated faces look the same◊. It's the inevitable byproduct of having to draw simplified features consistently.

Anyways, as for more shows to show her: Dennou Coil's a good one in that it's cute without following many of the Bishoujo-Moe character design tropes  ^*

^{you mean they have consistently visible noses, normal hair/eye colors and eyes that don't take up half of their face? Blasphemy!}

. It's also a damn good series. Seriously, their internet-equivalent's example of a Flame War involves homing missiles◊

edited 7th Nov '09 10:18:17 PM by Sparkysharps

Y'know, with all the ads for Full Metal Panic kickin' about, I've noticed that they're actually pretty good about the facial-differentiation thing; Kurz doesn't look like Gauron who doesn't look like Sousuke who doesn't look like Tessa who doesn't look like Mao who doesn't look like Kaname who doesn't look like her meganekko friend who doesn't look like the otaku kid.

Also, speaking of facial differentiation, has Fullmetal Alchemist been mentioned yet?