This week's poll is from our member XReader. It's all about picking between bad, imperfect choices. The lesser of many evils perhaps? If forced to choose, which way would you swing?

You can submit poll ideas here (and try to keep them manga/anime-related)
http://www.mangaupdates.com/showtopic.php?tid=3903

Previous Poll Results:
Question: Favorite romance scenario in manga
Choices:
Just one pairing - votes: 5463 (37.3%)
Love triangle - votes: 1263 (8.6%)
Love quarter (or more) - votes: 409 (2.8%)
Harem (1 boy, many girls) - votes: 1901 (13%)
Reverse harem (1 girl, many boys) - votes: 1310 (8.9%)
Multiple couples (getting complicated here) - votes: 3083 (21.1%)
I hate romance. Everyone deserves to be single - votes: 1208 (8.3%)
There were 14637 total votes.
The poll ended: August 3rd 2013

So either we go simple with just 1 pairing or we get really complicated with tons of matches. The middle ground isn't worth much apparently

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A just ruler amongst tyrants

After reading OMK, Molester Man and the original version of Onepunch-man... Yeah, great plot can cover for bad artwork. Or is it just that you get used to it?

I still find it difficult to pick up a random manga with bad art though.

I think it strongly depends on the kind of manga and the story they're trying to tell. A good action manga lets you see the movement of the characters - too much detail can actually be a drawback as you lose the sense of motion and it feels like a static but beautiful image. A compelling romance or drama is strongly dependent on the "setpieces" and the expressions of the characters as far as art goes, but also very strong writing (monologue, dialogue); psychological manga is the same in that regard, though the focus is different. Comedy manga, though, are often about reactions, so character expressions can be exaggerated (which may cover for the artist's lesser competence), clarity of movement is not largely necessary, and art can be simple or even objectively bad; so in that case comedy manga are all about the writing and the plotting, and the art is almost entirely secondary except where it hinders a reader.

As long as the art is not an impediment to storytelling (e.g. clarity of movement), and in fact is the vehicle for storytelling (e.g. complicated character expressions), the style or quality of the art doesn't truly matter. A good artist, however, has a better grasp on the subtlety and the nuance, so arguably, good art and good manga storytelling go hand in hand; even if you don't prefer the artistic style (RoxFlowz for instance says OMK and Molester Man had 'bad' artwork, but here I would disagree - character design was sometimes all over the place, but the art itself is consistent and very well captures the characters' feelings and experiences).

The best manga are those that approach their storytelling like both a movie and a novel - they primarily use the visual medium to express movement or character emotion or visual symbolism, but they also make calculated use of monologue, thought bubbles, dialogue and narration as needed; in other words, they get the best of both worlds, film and literature, and choose from the visual or written medium wherever it is most appropriate, whichever technique best tells the story.

Having said all of that, my sentiments echo RoxFlowz's: I still find it difficult to pick up a random manga with bad art though.

Last edited by Harimau at 1:12 am, Aug 3 2013

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If you were to go there and come back to me hurt, I will take your place.. and pull everything you hate.. into destruction...
I will erase anything that hurts you.. from the face of this world.

Mangas are read for there stories, and thus the artwork doesn`t matter as much.

I don't think that only great plot can save bad art. a manga with good plot and bad art is still good. Also, a manga with good plot and great art will stay good and bad plot with amazing art is still bad. To me, art doesn't matter at all. Well ok, it does matter a bit, but only anatomy. Anyway, there are not so many manga's with bad art. Only with different art (the exception proves the rule). It's not like manga artists try to draw realistic.

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if there is an option between "to do" and "not to do", I will always choose the latter.

"what kind of crazy, twisted conclusion is that...?" - banana bread no puding

art comes in all shapes ans sizes. so frankly, unless art is so bad to the point where i can't recognize what the figures are, it's plot that matters

unless of course, it's hetai. thats a different story

Talk about Angel Densetsu, Yagi Norihiro's first serialized manga, the story so great but the art is so painful to see . But his drawing skills is evolving to very fascinating from there to point on.

This. Artwork doesn't matters when the story is good...

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My choice is Good Visuals with Average storytelling.

I really can't stand the generic look of girls that became so prevalent in anime and manga (i.e. Ro-Kyu-Bu, Fate/Prisma Ilya, Idolmaster, Lucky Star, anything Tohou and the like) - the character design is so unappealing to me it completely kills whatever worth the plot there is. I just can't get into the story enough to measure it!

I'll read even the bad stuff as long as there's something that interests me. Besides, bad stuff can be... entertaining. And certainly useful for writers.

Shingeki no Kyojin anyone?

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And if all of you aren't a bunch of liars, you better prepare what I want up there. (Tower of God)

I cant stand horrible story/plot, while ugly artwork can be forgiven with a great story/plot.

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ꉂꉂ(ᵔᗜᵔ*)笑

Nah, I'm kinda confused with this one, since even if the plot and artwork is good, It wont do if the way the author tell the story isn't good. And I would be fooling myself if I say artwork doesn't matter..

In this case I gotta join the majority

I've tried all kind of mentioned combinations and I'll always read a manga to the end if I like the story and the plot makes sense.

Actually I'll even read not-so-good stories if I like the characters. Thus characters > story to me I guess.

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~Give time when it's needed~

THIS. I still wouldn't say I enjoyed the art all that much even in the final volumes (or even the first few of Claymore, but the story/plot - and most importantly the humor - more than made up for it. Other examples I could name off the top of my head include One Piece, Gokusen, MVP wa Yuzurenai and Tokyo Crazy Paradise (can you tell that that Nakamura Yoshiki is one of my favourite mangakas ever?), Flame of Recca and Rocket Princess (and I quite like Anzai too...) ... I'll even throw Glass Mask in there, even though I gave up on it after a few chapters once or twice (to be fair, I dislike shoujo romance in general).

On the other side of the scale, there are still plenty of manga by [a]Ellie Mamahara[/a] that I haven't read/finished, even though I absolutely love her art (not saying her plots are horrible, just... I drop series easily?).