New Poll - Good Plot But Bad Art

9 years ago
Posts: 10862
This week's poll comes from Caedis. What if you read the first chapter of a new series and the story has a lot of promise but the artwork makes your eyes bleed. Would you still try to keep reading it or just give up?
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: Your current main occupation status
Choices:
Student, no other job - votes: 3854 (40.5%)
Student, also working though - votes: 1357 (14.3%)
Part-time employee - votes: 459 (4.8%)
Full-time employee - votes: 2229 (23.4%)
Work multiple jobs - votes: 145 (1.5%)
Currently unemployed, but looking for work! - votes: 761 (8%)
Unemployed and not looking for work - votes: 620 (6.5%)
Retired - votes: 87 (0.9%)
There were 9512 total votes.
The poll ended: February 27th 2016
Very few old people and lots of young 'uns
A just ruler amongst tyrants
9 years ago
Posts: 130
I stick to reading it, if I did not I wouldn`t have ever read Angel Densetsu missing out on a great gem.
it depends on how much of a terrible artwork you mean for me I can accept it and actually appreciate it because it makes me feel that it's too old and that's something special BUT there are cases it can't be saved even if the story is great example : gokusen I wanted to read it so bad but I give up that's why I'm going with (Drop it right away)

9 years ago
Posts: 2133
If the plot is good and stays good, of course I'll keep reading. In fact, I've never dropped a good manga because of ugly art, but I've dropped countless manga with the kind of art that makes my heart weep for joy because I couldn't stand the plot.
Though come to think of it... I don't think I've ever dropped any manga, good or bad, because I didn't like the artwork. I only ever drop a series if I dislike the story (or, very rarely, the characters); the art doesn't factor into the decision at all.
9 years ago
Posts: 354
my art tolerance is very high but as long as the plot is interesting to me and hooks me right away, I'll go for it.
@sara...Gokusen? Yeah that's one of the mangas that I thought was oddly weird in plot and the art wasn't that impressive. In cases like these mangas, I skim it in the first round. Those mangas that have a good reputation but don't hook me right away are ones I set aside for rainy days and just skim to give them a chance to win me own since not all mangas have a great start with the first chapter. I found Gokusen pretty funny
I remember there was one manga that had a very strange weird sci-fi like plot and the art had that sort of feel to it....It wasn't to my preference aesthetically and the story was really weird. I kept with it to the end but in the end I was weirded and I'll never look at it again...I don't know why I bothered reading it...
I think the only reason I would drop a manga no matter how good/bad the art is is one that shows super gorey scenes or the plot is skin crawling horror. I can't deal and sit through gore in manga nor horror no matter how art and plot is....

9 years ago
Posts: 280
If a series has terrible art, I mostly likely won't even pick it up in the first place. Not unless I've heard great things about the story. And if the plot is indeed outstanding, I will keep reading it regardless of its art level.
You can PM me if you need a temporary (freelance) cleaner/redrawer for some project. Especially if it's something with nice art.
Being the lazy person that I am, I'm not likely to accept anything long-term though.
[img]http://i298.photobucket.com/albums/mm252/Gradonil_Ral/Bulsajo/sig2small.png[/img]

9 years ago
Posts: 370
I most definitely won't give up on a series with bad art and compelling plot. That said, it will indeed influence my overall judgement on the series. Then there are some series that are so well done in terms of plot and characters, that they end up making you embrace even the art, as a quirk of the manga. Luckily manga like these ones tend to improve in terms of art as time goes by.
My current top 3:
Fullmetal Alchemist
Pandora Hearts
3-gatsu no Lion
9 years ago
Posts: 86
It depends. Some artists their art evolves as they work on a series. Even experienced ones sometimes it takes a little time for them to get comfortable with new designs on a new series. That's why if the story is good I tend to be forgiving on the art. On the other hand there's been a few artists who have been kind of not so hot on the art side and even after several series they've shown that bad art is their style and they have no interest in improving. I'll stick with them but if the story quality drops, I'm liable to drop the series as well.
@sara Gokusen is rough at first in both story and art, but both get better as it goes along. However, yea it was a little ugly at first, but I'm glad I stuck with it. You could always try checking out the anime which has the benefit of looking better, having most of the story condensed, and not being too long.
Elfen Lied I seem to recall started out pretty fugly too, but got better art wise. And yea Angel Densetsu is another one and the artist Yagi Norihiro would go on to make Claymore. Its the same style but you can see the evolution in his art from one series to the other and even how it grows in Claymore.

9 years ago
Posts: 374
Bad art influences my choice when deciding which manga to read, but if I've read far enough to tell that the plot is good, I won't stop.
Most of use are indeed young and should lack perspective on all sorts of things but the repeated unemployment question is indeed a good one. The EU accepted Greece into the fold with highly "refurbish" statistics and look what happened.
Assuming plot stays good, I'll read it until the end and i won´t even complain too much. Art and writing need to 100% go hand in hand in an ideal scenario and a truly good comic should work without dialogue, which is impossible with bad art, but i am still reading the magazine version of Historie and we all remember HxH´s "quality" art in parts. Or look @ Mr.ONE. I am also willing to follow a comic with mediocre writing as long as the art is truly amazing unstill the end too but it need to be inoffensive and can´t be truly bad.
NTR trash with lavish paintings by let´s say Alex Ross would thus never grace my reading list. Or shit by Oh! Great.
I also read EU/US comics and am a librarian.
Manga-Masters, My ANN-Lists + Imdb

9 years ago
Posts: 421
Assuming plot stays good, I'll read it until the end!
You know I read all of ONE's work and Hunter x Hunter too.
And about ONE's messy drawings, I would say it has it's own class. If you read enough of him, you'll eventually start to see it.
[img]https://i.imgur.com/ERg8slD.gif[/img
[img]https://i.imgur.com/HphHlPh.gif[/img]
Tv Tokyo - Anime & Manga ~ [color=red]MinatoAce[/color]

9 years ago
Posts: 265
I have read some stories with no good artwork, some of them even to the end. What is important to me is always plot. Fortunately good plot but bad artwork is rare combination. (I don't care about art style though, so i consider many artworks to be good)
Though i'm very demanding to plot personally so that is probably one of the reasons. Good plot should be logical (not necessarily realistic, but just should not contradict itself). Oftentimes if art is messy, plot is also messy, and I don't like messy plots...
I am envoy from nowhere in nowhere. Nobody and nothing have sent me. And though it is impossible I exist. © Trimutius
Really depends on what you count as bad. Like legit absolutely horrible art trying to go for a serious plot, don't even bother. If it's a total joke, then sure, why not. I actually do read comics that look like trash, but that are borderline psychedelic and have morbid humor, so it fits. Some people count Shingeki No Kyojin art as bad, but that's honestly not so bad.

9 years ago
Posts: 100
the art should be good, not bad...and if it is bad I stop reading eventually. Though I am not harsh to juge art, so not a lot of manga was droped because of it. proportion of character, eyes out of places, if you start something at leas be sure not to push your style to adoopt someone else, because that is were you will make mistake.
plot is more important, and I can read one shot or short manga with bad art.
same thing I can't read beautifull artwork with plot that just drag too long..
9 years ago
Posts: 22
What do you mean by "terrible artwork" ?
You probably meant "artwork you don't like".
When you say, good or bad artwork, you are being a critic, and to be a critic you actually need to know what are you talking about.