Art Style Dissonance: Difference between revisions

Compare with [[Crap Saccharine World]].

 

 

== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==

* ''[[Gosick (Light Novel)|Gosick]]'' has a cute [[Moe]]-esque style reminiscent of ''[[Rozen Maiden]]'' and a cheerily-colored opening, but is a murder mystery through and through.

* ''[[Gundam AGE]]'', infamous for having a part of a kiddish cartoony art style with the tone of the story remaining dark and mature. '''[[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|FURTHER EXPLANATIONS NEED NOT APPLY.]]'''

* ''[[Now and Then Here And There]]'' isn't quite as cutesy as some of the examples on this list, but it's unusually stylized for such serious subject matter. This arguably works in its favor, softening the blow of the most traumatic scenes.

* Can hit ''[[One Piece (Manga)|One Piece]]'' from time to time. The most noted example being {{spoiler|Luffy's reaction to Ace's death}} Oda's art cost it some it's impact for some readers.

 

== [[Comics]] ==

* ''[[Maus]]''. Holocaust memoirs--with the characters portrayed as [[Funny Animal|Funny Animals]]. "Funny" absolutely not being the operative phrase.

* Much of [[Jason Shiga]]'s comics have a serious tone that contrasts with his cartoony artwork. His characters are big-eyed and usually have [[Generic Cuteness]]; his plots involve [[Bus Stop|searches for missing parents]], [[Double Happiness|gang wars]], [[Fleep|terrorism]], [[Bookhunter|over-the-top police action]], or [[Meanwhile|the death of every human on Earth]].

* ''[[Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog (Comic Book)|Archie Comics Sonic the Hedgehog]]'' stories drawn by Jon Gray have this in ''spades'', only the weird thing is, it ''works'' really well. Gray's hyper-exaggerated, hyper-expressive cartoony style makes comical moments ({{spoiler|like Knuckles meeting his baby half-brother}}) all the funnier, but it also lends full emotional weight to more serious moments ({{spoiler|Like Sonic and Sally's breakup argument}}).

 

* ''[[Harvest Moon]]: A Wonderful Life''. It's probably the darkest game in the entire series, dealing with some fairly deep thematic stuff (like aging, losing one's friends, cheating, etcetra). But it still has the same cuddly, [[Puni Plush]] aesthetic as the other games.

** In addition, ''Harvest Moon 64'' and ''Harvest Moon: Back to Nature'' qualify. They have simplistic, childlike character models and cutesy anime character portraits... which appear in games dealing with alcoholism, implied abuse, stagnating marriages, abandonment (parent abandoning child, in particular), and death.

* ''[[Cave Story (Video Game)|Cave Story]]'' features mentions of war (with implications that the protagonist was one of the "killer robots" involved), a [[Big Bad]] whose experiments are somewhat reminiscent of [[Complete Monster|Mengele]], and {{spoiler|a boss fight that forces you to ''kill'' one of the cutest characters in the game}}. But just look at the [[Badass Adorable|robots!]] The [[Graphics Induced Super Deformed|in-game graphics]] just make it even more jarring.

* ''[[Conkers Bad Fur Day (Video Game)|Conkers Bad Fur Day]]'' could best be described as the video game equivalent to ''[[South Park]]''. Death, sex, drunkeness, scatalogical humor, swearing...not a kids game. But [[Rare]] made it with the same adorable art style that characterized their family friendly fare like ''[[Banjo Kazooie]]''.

* Intentionally done in ''[[Yggdra Union]]'', where Kiyuduki Satoko's [[Puni Plush]] art style helps to conceal the dark nature of the game until [[Wham Episode|the player gets whacked in the face with it]].

* ''[[The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda the Wind Waker]]'' introduced a cartoony and very brightly colored art style very different from the ''[[The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|Ocarina of Time]]'' era's more realistic art. However, it is arguably even darker than ''Ocarina of Time''; central to the plot is {{spoiler|a [[Great Flood]] that reduced the world to a handful of islands that were once mountaintops}}--not to mention the fact that the final battle culminates in {{spoiler|Ganon being stabbed ''[[Impaled With Extreme Prejudice|in the forehead]]''.}}

* ''[[Bastion]]'' looks like a [[Sugar Apocalypse]] at first, but it eventually becomes clear that the world (or at least the main character's nation) was pretty messed up even before the Calamity.

* This is one of the criticisms often aimed at the ''[[Battalion Wars]]'' games: Their art style is [[War Has Never Been So Much Fun|a little too cute for the combat involved]], but not quite cute enough for the characterization of the units and commanders.

* ''[[Kagerou]]'' starts out this way, with extremely bright colors and cartoonish art contrasted against the dark plot and tendency towards gore. Eventually, though, the art [[Art Evolution|evolves]] into a more realistic but still brightly coloured style.

* ''[[Nanas Everyday Life]]'' has very cutesy, somewhat [[Super Deformed|chibi]]-like art. It is also based on [[Elfen Lied]], starts out as a [[Dead Baby Comedy]], then [[It Got Worse|gets worse]].

* ''[[Wondermark]]'' is a [[Cut and Paste Comic]] made from sophisticated Victorian art. The jokes tend to be either very silly observations on modern neurotics to very silly poop jokes.

* ''[[Niels]]'' has the same cutesy style as ''[[Scandinavia and The World]]'' by the same author, despite having much darker subject matter. The author's [[Love and Tentacles|third comic]] is in a different style, so this is clearly a deliberate choice.

[[Category:Art Tropes]]

[[Category:Art Style Dissonance]]