Agreed

I'm ashamed to admit it but I do judge every book by it's cover.
The first thing I look at when I see a manga on mangaupdates is the cover, sadly. The art has to be great otherwise I'd just drop the manga ._.
Of course the summaries have to be good as well, though I don't judge much on the rating, because I tend to have different opinions
It's kind of balanced on the scale, because I can't say I like art more, I mean who wants to read a manga with stunning artwork and a crappy storyline?
Plot means a bit more...it can make up for slightly-horrible artwork...
Agh, I'm going to kill myself over this debate

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I'm a REALLYYYY picky reader. I need a good plot and excellent artwork before I even consider reading a shoujo/josei/seinen manga. However, if I had to choose, I would have to say that the artwork is the most important consideration because a manga's cover usually tips the balance for me.

The art has to be tolerable for me to want to start it. But even with bad art, once the story gets going, I can get used to the art. With Hana Yori Dango, after a couple of chapters, I barely noticed the old art. On the other hand, I was bored by the first chapter of Nana and didn't care much for the art, so I never read the rest.
I suppose if the plot is alluring enough, I'll read it. I don't really consider most shojo art to be "good", I much prefer shounen art. The exception to that would be WATASE Yuu, whose art makes me feel all happy inside.

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I will not lie. I will judge a book by it's cover, but NO MATTER how great the art is, if the story isn't there for shoujos, I DEFINITELY will not read it. (Unless I'm not looking for a manga that doesn't require plot, such as fanservice manga/ero manga, then, the art matters completely, but we are talking about shoujo manga here, so yeah....)

Anyways, for me, first of all, the cover pic has to have good art on it, then if it passes my "read-able art", the summary has to be enticing for me to even consider it, then, depending on how the summary hooks me, I will either put it on my reading list(which is basically my to-read list+reading list) or I go to the scanlators site instantly and begin either using their OR, Batoto, or DL links.
And, if a manga is enticing, but not enticing enough for me to want to go to the scanlator site, I will look at the comments on the manga page and see if it has good or bad reviews.

Yeah,I agree both have to be somewhat decent for me to even continue past the first chapter.But,I think if I absolutely had to choose one or the other,I'd go with the plot over the art because most of the time I can "get used" to the art,but the plot is either bearable or it isn't---it's as simple as that for me unfortunately.

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I guess it depends...
The least I can take is a 4/10 art with a 7/10 plot, and a 4/10 plot with a 9.5/10 art.

If it doesn't pass my personal standard then I'll just let out a sigh and find another manga to read.

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Same here. LOL. I exactly do the same thing.. If the cover art is really good and irresistible and the summary is not that bad then I go for it. I tend to check the comments of the series too before checking them out.

But in some cases, If I get curious at certain series whether the art/plot isn't that good I still read them just to feed my curiousity Like what happened with Hana Yori Dango. I have never read this until I've watched the dramas (Taiwanese and Korean version). I didn't like the art so that's why I never intended on reading it though I admit the summary is interesting.

But after seeing how the dramas turned out got me curious of how did things really happened in the manga. So yeah I had read HYD for curiosity's sake lol

Last edited by hello1269 at 8:48 am, Sep 13 2011

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Plot majorly. Take, for example, TCP, even the art isn't that great the characters jus pull you in. But I wouldn't go so far as to say that art is not at all necessary. In my case, though I read ravin reviews for both basara and glass no kamen, I hated the art and the art style. Basara's droopin wierd eyes were a huge turn off and so were maya's psycho smiles which make me wanna kill her..a LOT!

Initially, art for shoujo will always be first, plot second. Actually if we were considering genre/subgenres too, I'd have to put genre before plot, lol.
To be fair, if I pick up something with nice art and it puts me to sleep/ or it seems pointless, I'll drop it. However, most mangaka's with nice art are the ones with the experience (usually) and with all that said experience, more likely than not, they can create a decent plot to keep me engaged.
If a series has a great plot with meh-ish art but shows signs of improvement in the art department later, I'll give it a go too. These are usually the old, longer shoujo series.
Although this is irrelevant, I'd say if a series has great art and an eye catching plot, I'd grab it if it's not usually the genre (romance/shoujo) I read. I'd admit though, if I see a series tagged with ecchi, yaoi, yuri, tragedy that is an autokill for me, lol, I won't bother with either the plot or art.

I'm not a big fan of older shoujo art; I really actually hate it. But, gosh, the older shoujo series have the best plots. The art even starts to grow on me and improves over the many volumes. Like Pharaoh no Haka, Red River, Tokyo Crazy Paradise, Ingenuo although I haven't finished reading all yet, I do like them very much.
Other cases like Bride of the Water God, which is gorgeous... well, plot wise the way it's going now makes me want to slam my head on the desk, repeatedly.

For art probably what I'm most picky about are eye. I hate huge, starry/bubbly eyes with the tops of white showing and unnatural, measured lashes and stick eyebrows. It just makes me grimace in pain. And this coupled with bad plot is a killer.

I know I'm biased and picky as hell.

i agree completely but there are some exceptions where i just can't stand the artist's style.

Definitely the summary/plot. Although I have preferences with manga art, if the plot is good enough I will read it.
-For example, I read a lot of 'old-school' manga (70s-90s) because, to be honest, the best ones come from that era, for example, Glass Mask,[m] Ouke no Monshou[/m], Basara, Anatolia Story, Sailor Moon etc

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it like picking between a heart and a liver. heart being the plot and liver being the art.

Pretty much that, the art should be a vehicle for the plot, art is not just about the look but also about how well it transmit the message, if it looks like you are reading a picture book with some text then you could as well just read a novel.



Last edited by BlackOrion at 4:05 am, Nov 14 2012

You should definitely read HYD, you'll eventually fall for it!
I read lots of shojo and what I look for is an interesting story line; apart from that the art is essential because they are almost the only ones in which the drawings are detailed and cute.

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