5. Realistic
You’ll find many manga with realistic art styles, from ones that take inspiration from real human anatomy to those that pursue geometrically accurate structures inspired by real-world architecture.
Realistic art styles aim to make every page, panel, and frame visually appealing in ways that stand out from the more traditional, cartoonish aesthetics of manga illustration.
With imagery that feels more true-to-life, the portrayal of emotions in realistic manga art can oftentimes be more impactful without its reliance on usual manga iconography, which elevates the story.
JoJo’s Bizarre Adventureis a prime example of the style. Even though the series has an entirely unique illustrative approach, it’s rooted in a realistic style that’s anatomically true (although exaggerated at times).
Another great example isOne Punch Man, which started off as just some ordinary kid’s drawing but was eventually given a solid manga version with realistic art by Yusuke Murata.
Related:The Best Manga Subscription Boxes
4. Chibi
The chibi art style is one that’s immediately recognizable, even by those who don’t really read manga or watch anime.
Chibi characters have a few iconic, distinguishing features: a small body with a disproportionately large head that’s soft, round, and complete with equally large, soft, round eyes.
In many manga series, most characters might be drawn normally to a specific style while young characters and children are the only ones drawn in chibi style. Anya inSpy X Familyis one such example.
The chibi art style is also commonly used for comic effect, mainly as a way to defuse tension in a scene, to make a scene less serious, and to make fun of certain characters, ideas, and situations.
Lots of spin-off manga series completely change the mood of their original stories simply by switching art styles. If they want the spin-off to be more lighthearted, silly, and funny, they’ll usually go with chibi style.
For example,Narutogets pretty dark in the latter half of its run, butChibi Sasuke’s Sharingan Legendfeatures serious characters in chibi style doing silly things, like Sasuke and Itachi fighting for a TV remote or Suigetsu and Kisame using their great swords for cooking.
Related:The Greatest Classic Manga Series Written Before the 21st Century
3. Kawaii
In Japanese,kawaiimeans “cute.” Many manga series are drawn in what’s called kawaii style, which isn’t meant for comedy (as is the case for chibi art) but for highlighting the looks and beauty of individual characters.
The kawaii art style is unique for its relative simplicity. Character designs aren’t as exaggerated or complex as they are in other manga art styles, making it a go-to style for theshojo, magical girl, and slice-of-life genres.
More recently, some mangaka have started incorporating the kawaii art style into other art styles, much like how chibi art is often mixed in with other manga art styles.
Kawaii art can appear inshonenandmechaseries, often for the purpose of lifting up frames and panels from their dark and intense atmospheres.My Dress-Up DarlingandKaguya-Sama: Love Is Warare two popular manga series that feature kawaii art.
Related:Manga Iconography, Explained: The Most Common Symbols for Emotions
2. Colored Pages
Normally, manga is published in black and white. Lines are drawn thicker and thinner to evoke different effects, and there are many shades of gray thrown in to differentiate between light and dark.
But every so often, you’ll run into colored pages—primarily on cover pages, but also the occasional page within a volume. Colored pages are meant to catch your eye and emphasize important scenes.
Sui Ishida’s art style in his worksTokyo GhoulandChoujin Xfeatures unique cover pages with artistic applications of watercolor, giving them a gloomy feel that fits perfectly with their dark fantasy themes.
The volume covers ofTokyo Ghoulare even more interesting because each character that’s featured on the page is given different strokes of color, depth, hues, and saturations to make them stand out.
Related:The Best Sci-Fi Manga Series for Science Fiction Geeks
1. Disturbing
With horror manga, much of the terror comes from the creature designs and the way they’re illustrated—but not only do the creatures need to be scary, the art style itself needs to be creepy, dreadful, and evocative.
Mangaka Junji Ito, often cited as the father of horror manga, has a horrifying technique—based on classic manga art styles—that producestruly haunting creatures that are disturbing to look at.
For example, his manga storyUzumakiinvolves strange spirals that drive people crazy. There’s alsoThe Long Hair in the Attic, which features hair that kills its owner because it doesn’t want to be cut off.
These types of creepy stories aren’t drawn in any particularly new way—they’re done in classic manga style with traditional framing, composition, etc. But they emphasize dread in their scenes through bold lines, heavy strokes, and overall darkness.
Junji Ito’s artwork is further unique because most of his stories don’t scare using creatures and monstrosities. His scares are rooted in psychologically haunting images and disturbing plot developments.
Read next:The Best Horror Manga Series of All Time, Ranked
Spy X Family
Kaguya-Sama: Love Is War
Tokyo Ghoul
The Long Hair in the Attic
