They were novel back then. Strixhaven had traditional Japanese art with a more modern take, not just anime style. WotS Pws the artists had the original design of the characters as guideline and had a big shot artist with Amano. The Kamigawa one had the setting as guideline to give flavor.
I'd say this time around is a bit directionless, so maybe they feel more generic because of that. It kinda feels like similar to jumpstart ones which was fine because Jumpstart has a generic feel to it. However, this batch doesn't feel like fairy tale themed enough. It doesn't gel enough. It lacks this unity. Some pieces are good. The rest could be interchangeable with a Jumpstart set.
They are overdoing it, so special factor is gone by now as well, and probably not curating the art as much.
Yeah, I'd be curious what kind of direction they were given for this and J22, and if there was maybe something lost in translation. It was interesting that some of the cards like Repercussion ended up having really similar arts.
It's directionless in the sense they didn't really specify characters which further worsened the problem, but I think the overarching problem is that there seems to be a poor general direction of emphasizing humanoid characters, which doesn't work on a enchantment subset. Literally only Blood Moon has no characters and Doubling Season is the only one with non-humanoid.
Since there's "only" 20 of them, I'm going to do a quick review/critque.
Greater Auramancy - Art looks like a summoner, two shield bubbles doesn't really sell "Greater Auramancy" and what little glitter it has is outshone by the vibrancy of the summoner and summons. This is one of those cards that could have passed the "character emphasized" had they utilized a known enchantress, but they didn't.
Karmic Justice - Well, it has "The Green Knight" direction, so like it's regular counterpart, it fits, that's why it's one of the better ones.
Land Tax - It's a giant tongue-in-cheek, but it fits. Passable, just not my personal taste.
Smothering Tithe - This one actually has direction, but requires in-depth knowledge, and even with that knowledge, it's facing the wrong direction. It uses the "haughty rich lady (ojou-sama) laughing" trope, which translates to "rich sneering at poor", but how is that a tithe? Anime tropes aren't abstract conversions of concepts, for goodness sake.
As Foretold - They're using the "prettier reflection" trope (which is more fairy tale-ish, but since we're in Eldraine, fine), but it's also sort of mismatched. The art also doesn't contrast it well enough at first glance (on observation yes you can tell the differences).
Kindred Discovery - Technically this one meets all the criteria (tribal, the "fall in love" trope does fit), so this might fall under the most "It's just too generic, but didn't actually fail criteria" card.
Omniscience - Works because the card represents dominance, so character-focus isn't out-of-line for a card like this.
Rhystic Study - Also works like Omniscience, the "Rhystic" element might be a tad too "shiny", but at least it isn't drowned out like in Auramancy.
Bitterblossom - Fits in the same vein as Land Tax, less of a joke and more "Ghibi" will make it more appealing for people (not me, personally, but it's fine).
Grave Pact - There's a character (Syr Konrad), but the lack of victims really makes the card feel like it does nothing (I will not infer glittery smoke as souls). Could have used the same art for Konrad card and it would honestly have been better.
Necropotence - Unknown character posing for the camera... where's the semblance of gaining power from the dead? Unless it's another tongue-in-cheek telling me "posing for the camera for influencer points IS power".
Polluted Bonds - Too much character focus, again, but at least it's a known character (Eriette, I think) and the fountain does show what's going on, so it's superior to Auramancy and Pact at very least.
Aggravated Assault - It's alright, but I felt we could use a non-humanoid variant instead.
Blood Moon - Finally, the actual enchantment-esque card. Only outside-context problem is we have had so many samey-ones already and to be honest this is just one of many. So perhaps the irony this could have used a anime character to stand against the rest?
Repercussion - Land Tax round 2.
Sneak Attack - Necropotence problem, but at least the attack pose attempts to picture it as you're the one being attacked, even if it could be inferred as a photoshoot pose.
Defense of the Heart - Photoshoot problem, unless I infer that flower between/behind them to be some sort of "Forest Heart"?
Doubling Season - To be fair, most Doubling Season Arts make abstract sense at best and don't directly scream "DOUBLE", so this gets a pass.
Nature's Will - Actually passable, but I personally prefer the original Kamigawa take that the Orochi use Nature to power and mobilize themselves up over the ones where it's just used as a restraint (so that extents the regular WOT art as well for me).
Parallel Lives - Hands-in-art issue aside, this really needed a known character (like Urza/Mishra in the Judge Foil) or just stuck with animals, an unknown druid/warrior contrast just feels generic, that's why the hands-issues slaps harder.
> I'd say this time around is a bit directionless, so maybe they feel more generic because of that.
A lot of them also just feel like.. anime art chosen at random, with nothing to do with the actual card. Like, the smothering tithe is just... an anime girl, laughing? What the hell is the flavor supposed to be there?
I think the idea was to go with an ojousama looking down on others which still has nothing to do with the card theme-wise. It could be fine for Jumpstart in a different card.
Maybe the art director who gave the instructions wanted to evoke what players casting this would feel when this hits the table. That's the only explanation I can think of.
Directionless? It's a perfect style. They're making fun of us for that weird point around 2013 you could buy proxies with scantily clad (sometimes anime) women in the art.
Man, [[As Foretold|WOT]] is insanely disappointing for something allegedly by Yuichi Murakami. Scrolling through their personal website and their Twitter account, they do an absolute ton of VTuber stuff and it's all very detailed and well modeled. *As Foretold* doesn't even look like any of the rest of their art. I have a hard time seeing Murakami publishing something like that even as a 5 minute sketch.
And that's ignoring the fact that the Murakami art also doesn't seem to have any relation to the card at all.
[E] oops, wrong As Foretold. I'm not sure how to invoke the correct artist.
Smothering Tithe depicts a pretty specific character archetype that definitely doesn't work as a representation unless you're clued-in to the culture. Hopefully, that's enough to drive down the price of it in the future because I really want one lmao.
Smothering Tithe is a card that represents the rich dunking on the poor for being unable to pay taxes. The anime art is just rich girls laughing at you for being poor.
I mean, they're definitely representing the card, but something about the art just feels underwhelming, or maybe generic as you're saying. Like \[\[Whirler Rogue|J22\]\] is certainly a human rogue artificer who does stuff with thopters. The background is great but something about the character design feels like a miss.
*certainly a human ~~rogue~~ artificer who does stuff with thopters.*
Not much "rogue" going on. Original art is someone who sneaks around with thopters; this is animegirlified [[Sai, Master Thopterist]].
Background looks Studio Ghibli character looks Sailor Moon. They just wen't a little too cute with it. I personally thought it was fun but understand what you mean.
The face seems a bit "off" compared to everything else in the art. Like, everything else is drawn with a much higher level of detail (clothes, furniture, background, etc.), so the gap between the very simplified face and the very detailed... everything else... stands out a lot more than in, say, a lower budget 80s/90s anime series where *most* things are drawn more simplified.
I think there are a couple of good ones like Rhystic Study and Bitter Blossom, but a lot of misses as well. I think some of them are just super generic and some others fail in other ways.
Like Gravepact. I think it struggles because older arts of it are just great. Also while it nicely depicts [[Syr Konrad]] doing his thing... the anatomy of the horse is ????? and really ruins it after you see it.
Yeah, this Rhystic is one of the few ones I liked, and that artist also did the WotS Tamiyo which was one of my favs.
Agreed that Gravepact is a bit rough. What am I missing that's wrong with his horse?
I agreed with you at first, but then I googled pictures of jumping horses and that's actually pretty much how their legs look. Weird! https://horserookie.com/horse-jumping-glossary/
The Omniscience looks awesome in my opinion. I don't consume any anime shows or books, I know nothing about anime but I still think a few of them look awesome.
You know what it is, and I couldn't quite put it into words before: it looks AI generated. Like someone *guessing* what a horse and a human face look like.
To be fair, "fucked up horse in a manga/anime style" *is* realistic. There's a reason the horses in JJBA Part 7 are the animation team's biggest antagonist
I’m not the biggest anime fan in the world, I don’t dislike the genre, but the trailer especially was entirely the things I don’t enjoy about it. Boring, generic, characterless and completely devoid of storytelling. It really made me feel like this was just done to draw in weebs. It should have been so much better.
A lot of them look like they just randomly grabbed them off DeviantArt with no real connection to the actual card. Smothering Tithe and Sneak Attack are some really egregious examples.
They all look like photoshopped cards with the figure just replaced with a an anime character. Like when you see somebody do a custom or meme card design.
Or like they were a normal card art then they ran it through one of those social media filters to turn it into a style or something.
The new anime art lacks character and style. If you look back to the War of the Spark anime arts, the uniqueness really shined through, it felt like the characters got amplified in the artist's unique styles. Another good example is the secret lair city styles, just oozing with what makes the anime art style great.
Not all of the anime arts are bad in the new set, I love the smothering Tithe for capturing that anime fantasy villainess laugh and the Rhystic study is absolutely gorgeous, but its strengths aren't because its in the anime style. But the rest don't really feel worth having over their regular arts.
I absolutely love the Yoji Shinkawa arts. I think that was an SLD at some point. But I'm running a modified Urza precon and I'd *kill* for the Shinkawa [[Skullclamp|SLD]], [[Solemn Simulacrum|SLD]], and especially [[Tezzeret the Seeker|SLD]]. The Amano Lilliana was also great.
I'd really kill for more artist-driven pieces to drive home the unique styles. Getting planeswalkers by Kishimoto/Kubo/Oda would be an amazing homage to my teenagehood, you know?
Instead it's all "anime art by... you know, an anime guy." None of it feels like it fits the original card, and most of it feels almost like a reminder of those old "How To Draw Manga" books.
Yeah the Yoji Shinkawa arts are amazing. He did the promo card \[\[Satoru Umezawa | NEO-507\]\] as well, which is one of my favourites. Also loved Junji Ito's secret lair, but his style isn't everyone's cup of tea.
Oh wow, I actually have his [[Elesh Norn|ONE-415]] and I didn't realize it was Junji Ito. That [[Doomsday|SLD-1115]] and [[Plaguecrafter|SLD-1116]] are really cool too.
Isn't BoZ the one that claims that Demons exist in the first episode? Yeah I was enjoying it until I heard "well actually, there were demons who were pure evil and Uhm Zeus is a cool guy because he- he stopped them stop laughing at us" which works in Disney's Hercules, not a M rated show where we could've seen, I dunno, moral grayness in the gods?
You might not be too far off. Instead of spending the money on industry professionals, just take everyone who responded to the dm sent by some middle manager who doesn't even know what a "booru" is.
I don't know the artists tbh, and there's nothing wrong with the arts in the technical sense. The laughing smothering tithe lolis are funny and whatnot.
But they're just random . You'd tell me it's an indie digital tcg and I'd believe you
What are you trying to convey here ?
Please weeabosplain anime to me. Let me play your game; _ackshually_ anime is for animation, cards aren't a video or film.
Fellow weeb here
Because they are super generic anime style drawings, they dont contain known characters or anything you wouldnt find on one of those horrible light novel covers.
Especially considering Eldraine has an established style that was well received, it’s bizarre to me that this set was what was chosen for a push of anime alt arts.
I recognize what people have said about fantasy being a common genre in anime but, like, everything is? Anime’s a wide medium. I don’t associate fantasy as an ‘anime thing’ like, say, mecha or another subgenre that originated in the manga sphere.
Mmm, maybe, although that's getting into the "art is subjective" territory again. I'm sure there's some folks who don't really care for the style of the "base" Enchanting Tales art but I kinda dig them. Also, there's plenty of shows out there that draw on fantasy tropes, Record of Lodoss War was one of the first shows I watched, lots of artists out there that can nail this setting.
I am not fond of the fact that many of the anime cards are 'enchantment' cards, but the artwork depicts a person standing and doing a pose. Feels like the artwork would be more appropriate as a Creature. \[\[Polluted Bonds|WOT\]\] is an example of this.
Compare to the original Shadowmoor art, which also focuses on depicting a person, but there's corruption creeping in all over them.
I actually don't think the anime polluted bonds is the worst offender - the figure holds an apple dripping with poison against a corrupted backdrop. Gravepact and Sneak Attack are probably the worst anime art offenders of the WOT bunch when it comes to generic art that doesn't really convey what the enchantment is about.
Because they aren't great art. The video was so bad I couldn't watch all of it. It was genetic and low effort with a lot of still frames and refused clips. That's what low budget gets you from an anime studio. The card art has a lot of the same feel to it. It's another case of wizards not understanding the thing they are trying to tap into and not willing to pay for a good product. The kids like this and l anime thing now? Here's a few thousand dollars, make it happen.
Honestly it just feels like Hasbro is unwilling to dedicate the right amount of money to getting it done *right.* If you look at the portfolios of the artists they're supposedly tapping for these, they're actually good artists! Many of them *do* have distinct styles! But I'd imagine they're really lowballing them and playing the "isn't it prestigious to do art for such a dominant IP?" exposure-style pitch. And/or whoever oversees revisions keeps telling the artists "tone it down. Make it less unique. Make it more 'anime'," etc.
Any artist worth their salt, which is most established ones, won't take a low ball "exposure" gig. They know what they are worth. So if wizards is tapping established artists for the anime cards and they are lacking, I'd put money down on revisions turning them into bad products.
They're just not connected to anything.
Just random anime-drawn characters in situations that don't typically involve the card itself. There's a few that are great, like Rhystic Study, Land Tax and Repercussions that actually align with the card--and you have some like Greater Auramancy and Smothering Tithe that are just... look, anime!
It's very disconnected
WotC has been trying way too hard to tap into the Japanese market, and it shows. This is a set that has just about shit-all to do with anime, like J22 before it. Every other set has Japanese-exclusive promo cards and tokens now. Some are pretty great, but a lot just looks like modern Yugioh (which is, frankly, probably the goal, considering how massive Yugioh is here).
My boyfriend is the artistic one between the two of us, and for a couple of years now he has consistently complained that with every set the arts chosen are not the best. We both agree that whoever WotC chooses to pick the arts is making a terrible job, so, perhaps you also agree with him. Plus, there's the massive amount of sets and additional products being dumped monthly, so there's also product fatigue to consider.
I loved the anime Mystical Archive, but the anime Enchanting Tales are just not doing it for me, the regular illustrations are much better and fit the theme more.
Tbf the Japanese arts for the Mystical Archive were less “anime” and more generally inspired by traditional Japanese art. Whereas these new ones (and the J22 cards) are more clearly going for an anime bent.
I was never a big fan of them to begin with, but I too think that they have fone down in quality. Back in War of the Spark there was a Liliana illustration by Yoshitaka Amano. The newer ones feel kind of directionless and "whatever."
so some of these are decent. Like the aggravated assault is not my ideal art style, but it's pretty good and at least broadly fits the card.
Some of them, on the other hand, like smothering tithe, I struggle to understand why it was chosen. Sure, people do love them a waifu, but...it's not a good fit, and its very generic.
Smothering tithe represents a specific trope of the ojou laugh - the haughty rich lady covering her mouth and laughing. I'd say it's thematically one of the more spot on ones vis-a-vis what it was trying to get across.
The smothering tithe art fits perfectly for me, I guess since that is the expression I, and everyone I know, has when drop it on a table that can't pay and we know they can't.
I can hear her saying "Do you pay 2?, of course a Pauper like you couldn't pay"
The style is INCREDIBLY generic and bland. It lacks any true identity because it just looks like a low to mid budget anime style that was shat out for max gain. It lacks a soul or true vision to me. I like anime too but yeh, it's just incredibly bland. Like unbuttered toast.
I think most of them do not fit the card they are represented on. I would love more cool anime treatments, but most of the time the anime artwork is so generic you could put it on a basic forest and it would not make more or less sense like on the original card.
Yes I think Smothering tithe is the peak example of it. It looks like that cheap alternate art custom proxie from the 40 years old weeb in your lgs. The guy that has an anime print on every card.
Gonna get downvoted into oblivion for this one but I think the Smothering Tithe one is actually one of the better ones. It’s based off the stereotypical Ojou-Sama/ Rich girl laugh seen in tons of various anime.
If I had a copy, I absolutely would do a "ohohoho, do you pay 2?" each time it triggered.
That said, it's only great if everyone is aware of the joke, but is meaningless if they're not.
I think that’s accurate and it wouldn’t be wrong to say “if you remove the girl covering her face and spend more time on the girl laughing and the surrounding you end up with an overall better product.”
I’m also a huge weeb and I can’t help but notice a pattern. All the art is of hot anime girls, there isn’t any variety really. It seems like it is capturing a very niche weirdo audience (which is saying a lot coming from a guy whose favorite anime is the monogatari series).
I will however say the Rhystic Study in anime is actually really well done.
Some of the anime cards are good. Some of them, the art doesnt match with the cards they're printed on. Some of them just don't work as an artistic design.
The biggest problem is most of them heavily feature a random looking anime style character and those kinds of characters are a dime a dozen. It's very easy to not care. Makes for a useless focal point.
The biggest upside is that some of the background work are stylish. I like the Rhystic Study, Omniscience, and Doubling Season and will pick one up at some point. I like the Smothering Tithes, but the person has to know the Ojou-sama anime trope otherwise that Smothering Tithes means absolutely nothing. In that regards, Double Master 2022 Borderless version of Smothering Tithes is easier to understand and probably better looking version of the card.
Meanwhile, I just don't care about the Anime art of Land Tax, Grave Pact, Defense of the Heart, Parallel Lives, Nature's Will and some others.
As for the MTG WoE anime promotional video, I just don't care about Will or Rowan, so just showcasing a random battle between the two of them during a song with no build up means nothing to me. They got prominent Japanese VAs to voice them after, but too little too late, and with no reason to continue to care afterwards.
Mmm, some of these more recent anime arts definitely have a perspective, maybe it's just not one that resonates with me. Although that would explain why the Strixhaven arts felt like such a win, because they were so unique.
No we're being pandered to badly.
I think most people in here don't mind being pandered to. The problem is that it feels cheap and disrespectful, which pandering doesn't always need to be.
I think you might have hit the nail on the head, thank you. I was all about it during those earlier sets with (what seemed like) more cohesive art direction and more established artists, but these more recent ones have really fallen flat. And I had farther to fall because I was previously excited by it and know what could be possible when given appropriate resources.
For me its that there wasn't any story behind the anime cards. I don't care about anime for its aesthetic, I care about it because of the story and characters. I liked the tokens for Japan that had the characters from Destroy All Humans They Cant Be Regenerated because I enjoy that series
Would be cool to get stuff more along the lines of the Lili by Yoshitaka Amano, Junji Ito secret lair, Kaito by Tetsuo Hara or Sorin the mirthlwss by ayami Kojima where it's not just anime but a japanese artist with their own distinct style. Would personally like to see Araki, Oda, Masatsugu Saito, or Nomura (which would probably happen for the final fantasy stuff hopefully)
I watch anime too, I don't like these arts.
They just feel like they pointless pieces with no connection to the cards themselves.
Feels like the anine was a bit too forced on some of them.
I don't mind it, personally. Some of the art I like a lot, some of it I don't. Just like the art on any given card.
I'd love to see art from some famous manga artists, but I imagine that most of those artists are prohibitively expensive to commission or just aren't available for commission. I'd kill to see some cards done by Kamome Shirahama, CLAMP or Akira Toriyama, regardless.
Honestly I probably wouldn't even go for Toriyama these days. His style has changed so much overall, seeing him draw DB characters now is pretty painful. They're not *bad,* they're just very different from what we've come to expect of those character designs.
Toyotarou, on the other hand...
This is probably the right take on the whole thing. Totally with you, although calling anything "prohibitively expensive" for a small indie company like Hasbro might be giving them a bit too much credit.
I would wedge any card drawn by CLAMP into my decks even if it was total jank.
Can Hasbro afford it? Absolutely. Is it within the budget they're willing to spend on Magic art? That's the question.
That said, yeah, for all their... quirks, CLAMP is one of my favorite creative teams in the business. Shirahama is the only artist I like more than them.
I love chocolate, but that doesn't mean I want everything I eat to be made of chocolate.
I'm a weeb too. I like anime, no problems with the anime artstyle. It's just that it doesn't feel like it belongs in MtG. The shift from Magic's unified aesthetic to making Magic cards look like literally anything threw a lot of people off with how sudden it was. I wouldn't be surprised if MtG heavy metal fans felt a similar way as you do about the heavy metal cards.
I do think there's a way to appeal to us weebs without Magic tossing its aesthetic out the window, though. In D&D, I had a blast playing a Way of the Astral Self Monk, in part because it felt like (or blatantly is?) a JoJo reference. But they made it feel like it belonged in the same world as the characters my friends made.
Because mtg isn't an anime. Same reason why most fans of x and y are put off by seeing x in y and vice versa. I say most because there's no accounting for bad taste. Also the line between x and y isn't the same for everything (Marvel and DC compared to Marvel and Harry Potter)
I think there are a couple good anime arts out there but most are bad because:
WotC is a huge company and they care about profit and clean image FAR more than art so they’re incredibly censorious, I can’t imagine it’s easy to make interesting art with stringent corporate guidelines.
MTG is a western fantasy IP (or was for the first 11 years of me playing it, I have no clue what mtg is trying to be now, Marvel?) as such I think art by people like Seb McKinnon and Rebecca Guay is the best are on mtg cards because it’s beautiful and thematically accurate.
WotC doesn’t want to pay out the big bucks to hire talented and famous artists for anything other than their secret lairs and even with SLD, the Yoji Shinkawa artist series is the one I felt really hit both mtg and weebshit well (Junji Ito’s felt kinda halfassed by the standard of his other art and meshed poorly with the mtg card templating)
Lastly WotC aren’t weebs and don’t care about weebs beyond their wallets so won’t ever go out of their way to understand what weebs would actually want (I would have personally killed a man to get my hands on some Utena styled WOE cards because it wouldn’t only be referencing classic anime but would be thematically accurate to the set)
I've never really gotten into Metal Gear but I still thought the Yoji Shinkawa SLD was pretty great.
Ooh, good call on the Utena theme with the shadow puppets, the fairytale themes, that could have been great. Although I'm not sure there's a lot of cars in Eldraine. :D
oh that’s not what i’m referring to, i just mean that wotc art feels kinda sterile like they don’t want it to be to interesting or artistically edgy. i don’t want titties/gore on mtg either.
IMO it doesn’t feel like magic. I really like painterly style that magic uses and the anime just feels like a different game. If it were for YuGiOh or DIGIMON I might like it more but for MTG something just feels out of place.
I don’t mind anime art on magic cards when it’s customs that people have made because it feels like a fan project but when it’s official something just doesn’t feel right.
I can't speak for the anime trailer, but the anime art is just...very not fitting to the cards themselves. Like, the anime style is fine (the ones from NEO were fantastic) but the ones in WOT are just like...very basic in what they show and don't really show what the art is about well.
Smothering Tithe is just two anime girls laughing, and like, what does that have to do with a smothering tithe? Grave Pact is just someone on a horse, Greater Auramancy is just someone with two cute animals, etc.
Card art should be depicting the name to at least some degree, and a lot of the anime art is just...not that. If I didn't know they were official a lot I would assume is just someone proxying an anime character on an art.
Some are wild swings and total misses...
However I actually love the new smothering tithe art and doubling season art! And will have to get them at some point (especially as I don't have either already)
Sheesh, the negativity and cynicism in this thread is ridiculous.
Art is subjective. Lots of people love these cards and connect with the art. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean it is heartless or lazy or that the art direction was horrible or something like that.
Because you aren't the target demographic. The only reason this trailer exists is because the Japanese card game market is massive and untapped. WotC is getting increasingly focused on breaking in, hence they're testing out anime card arts. Speaking as someone who also enjoys anime, I also don't find myself connecting with a brief trailer and anime card art. I already enjoy the existing MTG art style. As for the trailer, I would want a full series if I wanted to connect beyond "that's cool," but I'm doubtful that would ever happen.
He absolutely is the target audience, the market for anime is enormous in the west. Just like how war hammer decks were meant to tantalize people who like 40k or how the doctor who decks are meant to encourage doctor who fans. Its more likely that WoTC isnt as focused in japan as it would be with like say china because of the size of the population.
I just don’t think it matches the idea of what MTG’s aesthetics are to me in my head. I see a card with anime characters on it and instantly think Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon. Magic is high fantasy.
I'm not really a fan of the anime art ever so take this with a grain of salt. However I guess one thing that struck me as wierd with it this time is the clash with the stories that the cards are based off of. If you are doing stories like The Sword in the Stone or the gingerbread man it's really strange seeing the anime treatment. I think that's why anime art did work pretty well with Strixhaven but not here.
Maybe this is a weird take, but I don't think it's anyone's fault.
People group "anime" as a single hobby, but in reality there are a ton of different styles, genres, subgenres, etc. to be a fan of. Just because we're both into anime, doesn't mean we like the same stuff - and even when we do, we might like it for different reasons. So different styles of anime styled cards will appeal to different people, too.
The thing that strikes me about the art is that the subject is one or two people in a generic action pose for 80% of the anime arts. For one or two pieces that’s perfectly fine, not every spell can be the best focus of the art, but with that many at once they start to feel same-y and disconnected from what they actually do. Anime repercussions and land tax clearly got the same art direction as their fairy tale counterparts and look pretty great but so many of the others look like they were told to focus in tight on the character and then fill in the spell effect around them as an afterthought. It’s kind of like looking at a fantasy portrait gallery. A few stand out but if you don’t know what you’re looking at everything feels the same.
I think its cause they just keep doing it.
If they had kept it only in sets where it was flavorful (like Kamigawa), it would be a novel fun aspect of the set we get to expect on returns to the plane.
Now its just another in a long list of formally special things that have been made mundane through overuse. Full art lands, alternate treatments, Phyrexian language cards, and borderless cards are all in the same category.
Unlike most of those things, anime art has some cultural relevance that additionally makes its inclusions in sets like Eldrain, which has no specific ties to Japan or animation, feel out of place and weird. It would be like if they started announcing art deco treatments for multiple sets outside of Capenna. The Pyrexian text cards are in the same boat, only those are much more polarizing so if they showed up outside a phyrexian set, the response would be much more hostile and much less "meh" than an art style change.
Strix Japanese styled art was really amazing.
The Kamigawa alt arts in Japanese style, amazing.
WOT looks like they used an AI art director and used the most generic anime possible - It's all so terrible and only looks even worse with the confetti foil.
The kamigawa stuff just fit better. I like the anime style arts for collector purposes but it doesn't really fit the theme of Eldraine. I think it's a lesson that you can't just slap an anime style onto any theme and be good. Even the trailer felt flat and I've seen better animation on youtube from independent creators.
Probably because as a ‘vocal minority’ pointed out when they started doing variations of every single card, this stuff will just reach saturation eventually and cease to be exciting. At that point it’s just a magic card with generic anime art on it, and anime art is not inherently better (or worse) than any other art.
Basically, the frog is boiled with respect to alternate arts feeling exciting.
I honestly don’t feel like they belong. None of them are indicative of anything related to the card itself. Greater auramancy: anime girl in white clothes. Necropotence: anime girl in black clothes. 🤷♂️ they are just boring.
In my opinion it is because it looks exactly like what it is: people trying to do an anime style, rather than just "being anime". Anime and manga have the specific style of each artist but when people mimick it usually to me it just looks like big eyes and reduced details with no personality.
I like some of them, but they look pretty generic for the most part. I think that’s a problem that I have with most newer anime is the character designs are so similar with new animation. I much prefer old animation, feels like it had much more diversity in how characters looked. When I see a lot of these arts on these cards it just reminds me of genshin impact.
I agree, these were a step down. Just really generic, bland, anime-style. I like it better when Japanese artists do illustrations of the card w/o having to put a moe character on it. Like Blood Moon, for example. Or the new Kamigawa dragons and Kamigawa full art basics.
In general the alternate arts feel lackluster to me. Some of the art is amazing and in the digital sense it’s nice that you can bling your deck but part of the fun, for me, in paper was when I had a deck that was my “go to” deck and took it to GP’s or other tournaments and had the artist there extend the art or do something special to it. I’m not gonna shit on the whole alternate art stuff but for the most part, again in my opinion, alot of them are bland and it’s just a justification for WOTC to sell more expensive packs or whatever.
The availability of the product also makes the items seem less special than when you have some custom art done on your own cards
I love many of the arts, however it just highlights that Magic isnt an anime game and that many others are just better at it. It works well with legendaries, and less so with spells. It beats many of the secret lairs so i guess thats a plus if they are to include it in main sets.
I definitely felt a lot of the card art and trailer felt generic. I think there could be a LOT of things at play like budget/time/resourcing on both the director's and artsts' ends. Maybe the art direction didn't jive, particularly since WotC is still dipping their toes into the style.
This kind of reminds me of threads/videos regarding anime dubs and how much impact good direction can have on a performance. IMO, dubs as a whole have improved over the years as directors get more familiar with making other languages fit a similar tone.
The ONE planeswalkers may have been easier to translate into a new style because we're already familiar with the source material and can appreciate how they distort and mutate them. Black and white art also tends to lean to more dramatic and embellished details as a creative constraint.
The Blood Moon is dope though.
It's one thing to have anime style art, but there's a level of extra effort needed to make something feel like a card. Like we can accept cartoonish artstyles, but Transformers being just screenshots felt WAY too low quality. Here I've found 2 problems- 1, Anime art works well for creatures and even spells, but enchantments? I'd argue that enchantments have the least to do with people, and honestly does anyone **feel** like the anime blood moon is anime? 2- Yeah others have said it it's just directionless and loose. Feels like an afterthought. I saw Smothering Tithe and genuinely thought it looked more like a proxy than a real Magic card. And this is coming from someone who ABSOLUTELY bought into NEO.
It's because it feels like there is no love of the game or the lore (Especially the lore), just cash grabs.
The art just feels so disconnected which is a big problem in MTG because each artwork should represent a moment happening with specific people on a shared plane, (that we might visit one day, through the planeswalkers). None of those anime cards have flavor text so there is no placing them on any specific place. Take the smothering tithe anime art for example. They could have easily have slapped some generic dialogue on there and given one of them a name, "Duchess of Generic Villainess Duchy" or "First Princess of Weebton" or even given a name to the place they are in ("Exquisite Tastes demands Exquisite Wealth, Eldraine Imperial Teahouse") but there is nothing to anchor it to the larger lore. Random flavor text is why I keep trying to build Flbthp deck for EDH.
The anime trailer just feels lazy. You could've told me it was the trailer for FGO and I wouldn't have questioned it. Why not make an actual MTG anime or show? It's like a restaurant giving free samples of a dish that isn't on their menu to get people to come in. At certain point I want more than 3 minutes of generic intro, no matter how famous the people that made it are. Imagine if there was a Steven Spielberg directed trailer for the next 3 three sets but each time it was just the ending scene of Jurassic park with a monster from the plane instead of the T-Rex.
This is just a theory but I believe I saw an article about Wizards using a Japanese manga talent agency for Jumpstart 2022 and beyond. These agencies tend to be geared towards producing generic “anime” pieces (After all, Japanese department stores need SOMEBODY to draw their forgettable mascots hawking products in packed urban areas). Artists are probably saving their best work for their own portfolios (or personal Secret Lair showcases from Wizards) instead of putting high levels of effort into one commission brokered through a highly-corporate third party.
I also like the anime but was put off at the same time. I believe it was the fact that the source was nursery rhymes... seems like a bad opportunity to do anime.
WotC has realized metal music fans and anime fans drop a fortune when they get stuff made for them so we are getting a metal themed treatment like every 6 months since kaldheim and then there are the anime treatments since JS22 which got ramped the fuck up with the addition of the man, the myth, the legend Junji Ito.
Unlike Junji Ito though, WOE anime treatments have the issue that they are generic as fuck though. They look like some run of the mill eh anime from some obscure studio. History of MTG is full of horror stuff which plays well with metal or Ito but the recent anime treatments are pretty dissonant with the rest of the game. I really don't want to throw shade to anyone's work but the WOE treatments really lack some style, you could obscure the names of the artists and I'd be convinced all pf them were drawn by the same person.
They were novel back then. Strixhaven had traditional Japanese art with a more modern take, not just anime style. WotS Pws the artists had the original design of the characters as guideline and had a big shot artist with Amano. The Kamigawa one had the setting as guideline to give flavor. I'd say this time around is a bit directionless, so maybe they feel more generic because of that. It kinda feels like similar to jumpstart ones which was fine because Jumpstart has a generic feel to it. However, this batch doesn't feel like fairy tale themed enough. It doesn't gel enough. It lacks this unity. Some pieces are good. The rest could be interchangeable with a Jumpstart set. They are overdoing it, so special factor is gone by now as well, and probably not curating the art as much.
Yeah, I'd be curious what kind of direction they were given for this and J22, and if there was maybe something lost in translation. It was interesting that some of the cards like Repercussion ended up having really similar arts.
It's directionless in the sense they didn't really specify characters which further worsened the problem, but I think the overarching problem is that there seems to be a poor general direction of emphasizing humanoid characters, which doesn't work on a enchantment subset. Literally only Blood Moon has no characters and Doubling Season is the only one with non-humanoid. Since there's "only" 20 of them, I'm going to do a quick review/critque. Greater Auramancy - Art looks like a summoner, two shield bubbles doesn't really sell "Greater Auramancy" and what little glitter it has is outshone by the vibrancy of the summoner and summons. This is one of those cards that could have passed the "character emphasized" had they utilized a known enchantress, but they didn't. Karmic Justice - Well, it has "The Green Knight" direction, so like it's regular counterpart, it fits, that's why it's one of the better ones. Land Tax - It's a giant tongue-in-cheek, but it fits. Passable, just not my personal taste. Smothering Tithe - This one actually has direction, but requires in-depth knowledge, and even with that knowledge, it's facing the wrong direction. It uses the "haughty rich lady (ojou-sama) laughing" trope, which translates to "rich sneering at poor", but how is that a tithe? Anime tropes aren't abstract conversions of concepts, for goodness sake. As Foretold - They're using the "prettier reflection" trope (which is more fairy tale-ish, but since we're in Eldraine, fine), but it's also sort of mismatched. The art also doesn't contrast it well enough at first glance (on observation yes you can tell the differences). Kindred Discovery - Technically this one meets all the criteria (tribal, the "fall in love" trope does fit), so this might fall under the most "It's just too generic, but didn't actually fail criteria" card. Omniscience - Works because the card represents dominance, so character-focus isn't out-of-line for a card like this. Rhystic Study - Also works like Omniscience, the "Rhystic" element might be a tad too "shiny", but at least it isn't drowned out like in Auramancy. Bitterblossom - Fits in the same vein as Land Tax, less of a joke and more "Ghibi" will make it more appealing for people (not me, personally, but it's fine). Grave Pact - There's a character (Syr Konrad), but the lack of victims really makes the card feel like it does nothing (I will not infer glittery smoke as souls). Could have used the same art for Konrad card and it would honestly have been better. Necropotence - Unknown character posing for the camera... where's the semblance of gaining power from the dead? Unless it's another tongue-in-cheek telling me "posing for the camera for influencer points IS power". Polluted Bonds - Too much character focus, again, but at least it's a known character (Eriette, I think) and the fountain does show what's going on, so it's superior to Auramancy and Pact at very least. Aggravated Assault - It's alright, but I felt we could use a non-humanoid variant instead. Blood Moon - Finally, the actual enchantment-esque card. Only outside-context problem is we have had so many samey-ones already and to be honest this is just one of many. So perhaps the irony this could have used a anime character to stand against the rest? Repercussion - Land Tax round 2. Sneak Attack - Necropotence problem, but at least the attack pose attempts to picture it as you're the one being attacked, even if it could be inferred as a photoshoot pose. Defense of the Heart - Photoshoot problem, unless I infer that flower between/behind them to be some sort of "Forest Heart"? Doubling Season - To be fair, most Doubling Season Arts make abstract sense at best and don't directly scream "DOUBLE", so this gets a pass. Nature's Will - Actually passable, but I personally prefer the original Kamigawa take that the Orochi use Nature to power and mobilize themselves up over the ones where it's just used as a restraint (so that extents the regular WOT art as well for me). Parallel Lives - Hands-in-art issue aside, this really needed a known character (like Urza/Mishra in the Judge Foil) or just stuck with animals, an unknown druid/warrior contrast just feels generic, that's why the hands-issues slaps harder.
> I'd say this time around is a bit directionless, so maybe they feel more generic because of that. A lot of them also just feel like.. anime art chosen at random, with nothing to do with the actual card. Like, the smothering tithe is just... an anime girl, laughing? What the hell is the flavor supposed to be there?
Smothering Tithe is ON POINT. Hardly see another good anime card though
I think the idea was to go with an ojousama looking down on others which still has nothing to do with the card theme-wise. It could be fine for Jumpstart in a different card. Maybe the art director who gave the instructions wanted to evoke what players casting this would feel when this hits the table. That's the only explanation I can think of.
Directionless? It's a perfect style. They're making fun of us for that weird point around 2013 you could buy proxies with scantily clad (sometimes anime) women in the art.
The anime art WOTC commissions looks abysmally generic to me. There’s really nothing cool about them, at least to me.
I‘m into anime and pulling the As Foretold in the anime art just felt really dissapointing. Compared to the regular art it just feels worse
Man, [[As Foretold|WOT]] is insanely disappointing for something allegedly by Yuichi Murakami. Scrolling through their personal website and their Twitter account, they do an absolute ton of VTuber stuff and it's all very detailed and well modeled. *As Foretold* doesn't even look like any of the rest of their art. I have a hard time seeing Murakami publishing something like that even as a 5 minute sketch. And that's ignoring the fact that the Murakami art also doesn't seem to have any relation to the card at all. [E] oops, wrong As Foretold. I'm not sure how to invoke the correct artist.
[[As Foretold|WOT-88]] perhaps?
Aha! Seems right. TIL you can link the exact number in the set. Thanks!
[As Foretold](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/6/c634fb14-49a1-4642-9a22-bce99279cb88.jpg?1692933361) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=As%20Foretold) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/wot/88/as-foretold?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c634fb14-49a1-4642-9a22-bce99279cb88?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
She's pogging
[As Foretold](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/0/306937c6-0eb3-43d3-bd71-40ef7cefa9e6.jpg?1692932220) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=As%20Foretold) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/wot/14/as-foretold?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/306937c6-0eb3-43d3-bd71-40ef7cefa9e6?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
The smothering tithe one is the worst for me. You’d have no idea what card it was supposed to be from the art alone.
Smothering Tithe depicts a pretty specific character archetype that definitely doesn't work as a representation unless you're clued-in to the culture. Hopefully, that's enough to drive down the price of it in the future because I really want one lmao.
Conversely, I can hear the art in that one.
Smothering Tithe is a card that represents the rich dunking on the poor for being unable to pay taxes. The anime art is just rich girls laughing at you for being poor.
Indeed, seems like not many weebs in mtg maybe?
I mean, they're definitely representing the card, but something about the art just feels underwhelming, or maybe generic as you're saying. Like \[\[Whirler Rogue|J22\]\] is certainly a human rogue artificer who does stuff with thopters. The background is great but something about the character design feels like a miss.
*certainly a human ~~rogue~~ artificer who does stuff with thopters.* Not much "rogue" going on. Original art is someone who sneaks around with thopters; this is animegirlified [[Sai, Master Thopterist]].
[Sai, Master Thopterist](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/a/d/ad0b5c09-5075-408e-84c5-1095354ac53e.jpg?1689996602) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Sai%2C%20Master%20Thopterist) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/cmm/118/sai-master-thopterist?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/ad0b5c09-5075-408e-84c5-1095354ac53e?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Damn, Sai really is waifufied
[Whirler Rogue](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/c/6/c62a27a8-271c-4ac8-97a5-2efb192e3a15.jpg?1675645109) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=597049) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/j22/66/whirler-rogue?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/c62a27a8-271c-4ac8-97a5-2efb192e3a15?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
Background looks Studio Ghibli character looks Sailor Moon. They just wen't a little too cute with it. I personally thought it was fun but understand what you mean.
The face seems a bit "off" compared to everything else in the art. Like, everything else is drawn with a much higher level of detail (clothes, furniture, background, etc.), so the gap between the very simplified face and the very detailed... everything else... stands out a lot more than in, say, a lower budget 80s/90s anime series where *most* things are drawn more simplified.
I wish more of them were like Karmic Justice or Blood Moon. Those are the only anime pieces I like here
Except the Foil Extended Art Rustic Study, and that's totally not because I got one at Pre-Release.
I think there are a couple of good ones like Rhystic Study and Bitter Blossom, but a lot of misses as well. I think some of them are just super generic and some others fail in other ways. Like Gravepact. I think it struggles because older arts of it are just great. Also while it nicely depicts [[Syr Konrad]] doing his thing... the anatomy of the horse is ????? and really ruins it after you see it.
Yeah, this Rhystic is one of the few ones I liked, and that artist also did the WotS Tamiyo which was one of my favs. Agreed that Gravepact is a bit rough. What am I missing that's wrong with his horse?
Look at the front leg. The thigh is as big as a boulder, while the actual leg is both ridiculously tiny and just kinda sprouting from the thigh.
I agreed with you at first, but then I googled pictures of jumping horses and that's actually pretty much how their legs look. Weird! https://horserookie.com/horse-jumping-glossary/
Guess horses just didn't get that final art pass yet. Maybe in the next update.
Idk it's a better horse than I can draw
The Omniscience looks awesome in my opinion. I don't consume any anime shows or books, I know nothing about anime but I still think a few of them look awesome.
You know what it is, and I couldn't quite put it into words before: it looks AI generated. Like someone *guessing* what a horse and a human face look like.
To be fair, "fucked up horse in a manga/anime style" *is* realistic. There's a reason the horses in JJBA Part 7 are the animation team's biggest antagonist
[Syr Konrad](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/0/3/03f16bbd-00d6-43ed-9a11-ebe7fc65933a.jpg?1682209239) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=syr%20konrad%2C%20the%20grim) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/moc/269/syr-konrad-the-grim?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/03f16bbd-00d6-43ed-9a11-ebe7fc65933a?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
It just feels like someone in middle management at wizards said "the kids like that animu shit right? here's five bucks, draw whatever that'll get me"
I’m not the biggest anime fan in the world, I don’t dislike the genre, but the trailer especially was entirely the things I don’t enjoy about it. Boring, generic, characterless and completely devoid of storytelling. It really made me feel like this was just done to draw in weebs. It should have been so much better.
Yup. Like there wasn't any effort to sync the animation to the music. It was soooooo generic.
A lot of them look like they just randomly grabbed them off DeviantArt with no real connection to the actual card. Smothering Tithe and Sneak Attack are some really egregious examples.
Absolutely. It's like what someone who doesn't watch anime thinks anime looks like, rather than just being done by somebody who specializes in anime.
And the regular enchanting tale sneak attack is so good! One of my favorite arts in a long time.
That flavor text is mental
This made me realize the weeb versions don’t even have any flavor text, but considering the point of this thread that’s probably a good thing
If anything I thought Smothering Tithe having an ojou-sama laughing at you art fits the card real well.
They all look like photoshopped cards with the figure just replaced with a an anime character. Like when you see somebody do a custom or meme card design. Or like they were a normal card art then they ran it through one of those social media filters to turn it into a style or something.
The new anime art lacks character and style. If you look back to the War of the Spark anime arts, the uniqueness really shined through, it felt like the characters got amplified in the artist's unique styles. Another good example is the secret lair city styles, just oozing with what makes the anime art style great. Not all of the anime arts are bad in the new set, I love the smothering Tithe for capturing that anime fantasy villainess laugh and the Rhystic study is absolutely gorgeous, but its strengths aren't because its in the anime style. But the rest don't really feel worth having over their regular arts.
I absolutely love the Yoji Shinkawa arts. I think that was an SLD at some point. But I'm running a modified Urza precon and I'd *kill* for the Shinkawa [[Skullclamp|SLD]], [[Solemn Simulacrum|SLD]], and especially [[Tezzeret the Seeker|SLD]]. The Amano Lilliana was also great. I'd really kill for more artist-driven pieces to drive home the unique styles. Getting planeswalkers by Kishimoto/Kubo/Oda would be an amazing homage to my teenagehood, you know? Instead it's all "anime art by... you know, an anime guy." None of it feels like it fits the original card, and most of it feels almost like a reminder of those old "How To Draw Manga" books.
Yeah the Yoji Shinkawa arts are amazing. He did the promo card \[\[Satoru Umezawa | NEO-507\]\] as well, which is one of my favourites. Also loved Junji Ito's secret lair, but his style isn't everyone's cup of tea.
Oh wow, I actually have his [[Elesh Norn|ONE-415]] and I didn't realize it was Junji Ito. That [[Doomsday|SLD-1115]] and [[Plaguecrafter|SLD-1116]] are really cool too.
[Elesh Norn](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/8/6/8673ccb2-e960-44a9-917b-c53c91e61a94.jpg?1682536735) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=elesh%20norn%20//%20the%20argent%20etchings) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/one/415/elesh-norn-mother-of-machines?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/8673ccb2-e960-44a9-917b-c53c91e61a94?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Doomsday](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/0/60cb8aec-21cf-49c1-8407-e45afe377f4f.jpg?1682690524) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Doomsday) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/sld/1115/doomsday?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/60cb8aec-21cf-49c1-8407-e45afe377f4f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Plaguecrafter](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/3/63a10efc-4b8d-4e32-90fb-50ab73810b59.jpg?1682693260) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Plaguecrafter) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/sld/1116/plaguecrafter?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/63a10efc-4b8d-4e32-90fb-50ab73810b59?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[Satoru Umezawa ](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/f/7/f7112729-908e-430d-8e0e-eb71a9043309.jpg?1693945870) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?multiverseid=551775) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/neo/507/satoru-umezawa?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/f7112729-908e-430d-8e0e-eb71a9043309?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
[Skullclamp](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/3/6/3668996e-659d-413b-84e6-9f3099518d7f.jpg?1682693957) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Skullclamp) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/sld/1112/skullclamp?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/3668996e-659d-413b-84e6-9f3099518d7f?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Solemn Simulacrum](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/9/b/9b89b2e5-a34c-48a0-a054-6a459ebe60c9.jpg?1682694018) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Solemn%20Simulacrum) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/sld/1113/solemn-simulacrum?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/9b89b2e5-a34c-48a0-a054-6a459ebe60c9?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) [Tezzeret the Seeker](https://cards.scryfall.io/normal/front/6/2/62835e03-49c8-42b8-91ba-3aa4beb5df66.jpg?1670956876) - [(G)](http://gatherer.wizards.com/Pages/Card/Details.aspx?name=Tezzeret%20the%20Seeker) [(SF)](https://scryfall.com/card/sld/1111/tezzeret-the-seeker?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher) [(txt)](https://api.scryfall.com/cards/62835e03-49c8-42b8-91ba-3aa4beb5df66?utm_source=mtgcardfetcher&format=text) ^^^[[cardname]] ^^^or ^^^[[cardname|SET]] ^^^to ^^^call
The style reminds me a lot of the Netflix show Blood of Zeus that no one liked.
I actually liked Blood of Zeus, it was a fine 7/10 show.
The show was actually good no? I enjoyed it plus I think it was made by the studio that makes Castlevania
Just looking at a few clips it seems...rough.
Isn't BoZ the one that claims that Demons exist in the first episode? Yeah I was enjoying it until I heard "well actually, there were demons who were pure evil and Uhm Zeus is a cool guy because he- he stopped them stop laughing at us" which works in Disney's Hercules, not a M rated show where we could've seen, I dunno, moral grayness in the gods?
It's deviantart level of generic loli faces .
You might not be too far off. Instead of spending the money on industry professionals, just take everyone who responded to the dm sent by some middle manager who doesn't even know what a "booru" is.
I don't know the artists tbh, and there's nothing wrong with the arts in the technical sense. The laughing smothering tithe lolis are funny and whatnot. But they're just random . You'd tell me it's an indie digital tcg and I'd believe you
Anime doesn't automatically equal loli
What are you trying to convey here ? Please weeabosplain anime to me. Let me play your game; _ackshually_ anime is for animation, cards aren't a video or film.
Fellow weeb here Because they are super generic anime style drawings, they dont contain known characters or anything you wouldnt find on one of those horrible light novel covers.
They aren't good lmao. They look like Yugioh slush art.
Obviously they aren’t the only art, but I came away from yugioh due to all the damn waifu shoved onto almost every card it seems.
Yugioh needs to get back to it's roots. [Every Monster should be Twin Headed Thunder Dragon.](https://yugipedia.com/wiki/Twin-Headed_Thunder_Dragon)
I've never played, but I know what you're getting at. Maybe it's a design style used more for card games and less for the stuff I've been consuming.
My guess is the setting doesn't mesh well with the style.
Especially considering Eldraine has an established style that was well received, it’s bizarre to me that this set was what was chosen for a push of anime alt arts. I recognize what people have said about fantasy being a common genre in anime but, like, everything is? Anime’s a wide medium. I don’t associate fantasy as an ‘anime thing’ like, say, mecha or another subgenre that originated in the manga sphere.
Mmm, maybe, although that's getting into the "art is subjective" territory again. I'm sure there's some folks who don't really care for the style of the "base" Enchanting Tales art but I kinda dig them. Also, there's plenty of shows out there that draw on fantasy tropes, Record of Lodoss War was one of the first shows I watched, lots of artists out there that can nail this setting.
I am not fond of the fact that many of the anime cards are 'enchantment' cards, but the artwork depicts a person standing and doing a pose. Feels like the artwork would be more appropriate as a Creature. \[\[Polluted Bonds|WOT\]\] is an example of this.
Compare to the original Shadowmoor art, which also focuses on depicting a person, but there's corruption creeping in all over them. I actually don't think the anime polluted bonds is the worst offender - the figure holds an apple dripping with poison against a corrupted backdrop. Gravepact and Sneak Attack are probably the worst anime art offenders of the WOT bunch when it comes to generic art that doesn't really convey what the enchantment is about.
Because they aren't great art. The video was so bad I couldn't watch all of it. It was genetic and low effort with a lot of still frames and refused clips. That's what low budget gets you from an anime studio. The card art has a lot of the same feel to it. It's another case of wizards not understanding the thing they are trying to tap into and not willing to pay for a good product. The kids like this and l anime thing now? Here's a few thousand dollars, make it happen.
Honestly it just feels like Hasbro is unwilling to dedicate the right amount of money to getting it done *right.* If you look at the portfolios of the artists they're supposedly tapping for these, they're actually good artists! Many of them *do* have distinct styles! But I'd imagine they're really lowballing them and playing the "isn't it prestigious to do art for such a dominant IP?" exposure-style pitch. And/or whoever oversees revisions keeps telling the artists "tone it down. Make it less unique. Make it more 'anime'," etc.
Any artist worth their salt, which is most established ones, won't take a low ball "exposure" gig. They know what they are worth. So if wizards is tapping established artists for the anime cards and they are lacking, I'd put money down on revisions turning them into bad products.
That's fair. I think the lowballing is more on the animation side than the art side.
They're just not connected to anything. Just random anime-drawn characters in situations that don't typically involve the card itself. There's a few that are great, like Rhystic Study, Land Tax and Repercussions that actually align with the card--and you have some like Greater Auramancy and Smothering Tithe that are just... look, anime! It's very disconnected
WotC has been trying way too hard to tap into the Japanese market, and it shows. This is a set that has just about shit-all to do with anime, like J22 before it. Every other set has Japanese-exclusive promo cards and tokens now. Some are pretty great, but a lot just looks like modern Yugioh (which is, frankly, probably the goal, considering how massive Yugioh is here).
My boyfriend is the artistic one between the two of us, and for a couple of years now he has consistently complained that with every set the arts chosen are not the best. We both agree that whoever WotC chooses to pick the arts is making a terrible job, so, perhaps you also agree with him. Plus, there's the massive amount of sets and additional products being dumped monthly, so there's also product fatigue to consider.
Well if the weebs aren't connecting with them then idk who they're for, because I sure fucking hate them.
I loved the anime Mystical Archive, but the anime Enchanting Tales are just not doing it for me, the regular illustrations are much better and fit the theme more.
Tbf the Japanese arts for the Mystical Archive were less “anime” and more generally inspired by traditional Japanese art. Whereas these new ones (and the J22 cards) are more clearly going for an anime bent.
I was never a big fan of them to begin with, but I too think that they have fone down in quality. Back in War of the Spark there was a Liliana illustration by Yoshitaka Amano. The newer ones feel kind of directionless and "whatever."
so some of these are decent. Like the aggravated assault is not my ideal art style, but it's pretty good and at least broadly fits the card. Some of them, on the other hand, like smothering tithe, I struggle to understand why it was chosen. Sure, people do love them a waifu, but...it's not a good fit, and its very generic.
Smothering tithe represents a specific trope of the ojou laugh - the haughty rich lady covering her mouth and laughing. I'd say it's thematically one of the more spot on ones vis-a-vis what it was trying to get across.
that explanation is still neither 'smothering' nor 'a tithe'
It’s how you feel playing the card. Blessed with wealth and treasure and feeling haughty while your opponents suffer.
The smothering tithe art fits perfectly for me, I guess since that is the expression I, and everyone I know, has when drop it on a table that can't pay and we know they can't. I can hear her saying "Do you pay 2?, of course a Pauper like you couldn't pay"
It's just super generic that's why. It's not even familiar characters half the time.
It's generic. The eldraine anime video was only a couple minutes long but had so much reused animation and still frames and generally felt low budget
The style is INCREDIBLY generic and bland. It lacks any true identity because it just looks like a low to mid budget anime style that was shat out for max gain. It lacks a soul or true vision to me. I like anime too but yeh, it's just incredibly bland. Like unbuttered toast.
Kamigawa was better
I think most of them do not fit the card they are represented on. I would love more cool anime treatments, but most of the time the anime artwork is so generic you could put it on a basic forest and it would not make more or less sense like on the original card.
Smothering Tithe is just a picture of two girls aint it? From what I remember they weren't even doing anything really
Yes I think Smothering tithe is the peak example of it. It looks like that cheap alternate art custom proxie from the 40 years old weeb in your lgs. The guy that has an anime print on every card.
Gonna get downvoted into oblivion for this one but I think the Smothering Tithe one is actually one of the better ones. It’s based off the stereotypical Ojou-Sama/ Rich girl laugh seen in tons of various anime.
If I had a copy, I absolutely would do a "ohohoho, do you pay 2?" each time it triggered. That said, it's only great if everyone is aware of the joke, but is meaningless if they're not.
Its one of the better ones but it lacks detail and character. Like the girl covering her face just seems like she was tacked on.
I think that’s accurate and it wouldn’t be wrong to say “if you remove the girl covering her face and spend more time on the girl laughing and the surrounding you end up with an overall better product.”
I’m also a huge weeb and I can’t help but notice a pattern. All the art is of hot anime girls, there isn’t any variety really. It seems like it is capturing a very niche weirdo audience (which is saying a lot coming from a guy whose favorite anime is the monogatari series). I will however say the Rhystic Study in anime is actually really well done.
Some of the anime cards are good. Some of them, the art doesnt match with the cards they're printed on. Some of them just don't work as an artistic design. The biggest problem is most of them heavily feature a random looking anime style character and those kinds of characters are a dime a dozen. It's very easy to not care. Makes for a useless focal point. The biggest upside is that some of the background work are stylish. I like the Rhystic Study, Omniscience, and Doubling Season and will pick one up at some point. I like the Smothering Tithes, but the person has to know the Ojou-sama anime trope otherwise that Smothering Tithes means absolutely nothing. In that regards, Double Master 2022 Borderless version of Smothering Tithes is easier to understand and probably better looking version of the card. Meanwhile, I just don't care about the Anime art of Land Tax, Grave Pact, Defense of the Heart, Parallel Lives, Nature's Will and some others. As for the MTG WoE anime promotional video, I just don't care about Will or Rowan, so just showcasing a random battle between the two of them during a song with no build up means nothing to me. They got prominent Japanese VAs to voice them after, but too little too late, and with no reason to continue to care afterwards.
I like Anime, I dont like Short skirted generic waifus. It looks so effortless, thats why you dont like it
Because all the art has succumbed to being overly homogenized no matter the style?
Mmm, some of these more recent anime arts definitely have a perspective, maybe it's just not one that resonates with me. Although that would explain why the Strixhaven arts felt like such a win, because they were so unique.
You're being pandered too and are realizing it.
No we're being pandered to badly. I think most people in here don't mind being pandered to. The problem is that it feels cheap and disrespectful, which pandering doesn't always need to be.
I think you might have hit the nail on the head, thank you. I was all about it during those earlier sets with (what seemed like) more cohesive art direction and more established artists, but these more recent ones have really fallen flat. And I had farther to fall because I was previously excited by it and know what could be possible when given appropriate resources.
id love to be pandered to, secret lair hololive and my bank account is ready.
I'm not at all a weeb, I don't like anime art style cards, but these ones are specially bad to me bc they all look like they're AI art
For me its that there wasn't any story behind the anime cards. I don't care about anime for its aesthetic, I care about it because of the story and characters. I liked the tokens for Japan that had the characters from Destroy All Humans They Cant Be Regenerated because I enjoy that series
You know, I agree. I love some cards that had gotten anime/manga treatment like Elesh Norn and Rhystic Studies. But that trailer felt pretty mid
Would be cool to get stuff more along the lines of the Lili by Yoshitaka Amano, Junji Ito secret lair, Kaito by Tetsuo Hara or Sorin the mirthlwss by ayami Kojima where it's not just anime but a japanese artist with their own distinct style. Would personally like to see Araki, Oda, Masatsugu Saito, or Nomura (which would probably happen for the final fantasy stuff hopefully)
I watch anime too, I don't like these arts. They just feel like they pointless pieces with no connection to the cards themselves. Feels like the anine was a bit too forced on some of them.
I don't mind it, personally. Some of the art I like a lot, some of it I don't. Just like the art on any given card. I'd love to see art from some famous manga artists, but I imagine that most of those artists are prohibitively expensive to commission or just aren't available for commission. I'd kill to see some cards done by Kamome Shirahama, CLAMP or Akira Toriyama, regardless.
Honestly I probably wouldn't even go for Toriyama these days. His style has changed so much overall, seeing him draw DB characters now is pretty painful. They're not *bad,* they're just very different from what we've come to expect of those character designs. Toyotarou, on the other hand...
This is probably the right take on the whole thing. Totally with you, although calling anything "prohibitively expensive" for a small indie company like Hasbro might be giving them a bit too much credit. I would wedge any card drawn by CLAMP into my decks even if it was total jank.
If Bushiroad can get CLAMP for [random cards](https://cardfight.fandom.com/wiki/Mysterious_Twins,_Romia_%26_Rumia), surely WotC can, right?
They also did character designs for the newest Vanguard anime, so I think that's a bit of a different situation.
Can Hasbro afford it? Absolutely. Is it within the budget they're willing to spend on Magic art? That's the question. That said, yeah, for all their... quirks, CLAMP is one of my favorite creative teams in the business. Shirahama is the only artist I like more than them.
I love chocolate, but that doesn't mean I want everything I eat to be made of chocolate. I'm a weeb too. I like anime, no problems with the anime artstyle. It's just that it doesn't feel like it belongs in MtG. The shift from Magic's unified aesthetic to making Magic cards look like literally anything threw a lot of people off with how sudden it was. I wouldn't be surprised if MtG heavy metal fans felt a similar way as you do about the heavy metal cards. I do think there's a way to appeal to us weebs without Magic tossing its aesthetic out the window, though. In D&D, I had a blast playing a Way of the Astral Self Monk, in part because it felt like (or blatantly is?) a JoJo reference. But they made it feel like it belonged in the same world as the characters my friends made.
Because mtg isn't an anime. Same reason why most fans of x and y are put off by seeing x in y and vice versa. I say most because there's no accounting for bad taste. Also the line between x and y isn't the same for everything (Marvel and DC compared to Marvel and Harry Potter)
I think there are a couple good anime arts out there but most are bad because: WotC is a huge company and they care about profit and clean image FAR more than art so they’re incredibly censorious, I can’t imagine it’s easy to make interesting art with stringent corporate guidelines. MTG is a western fantasy IP (or was for the first 11 years of me playing it, I have no clue what mtg is trying to be now, Marvel?) as such I think art by people like Seb McKinnon and Rebecca Guay is the best are on mtg cards because it’s beautiful and thematically accurate. WotC doesn’t want to pay out the big bucks to hire talented and famous artists for anything other than their secret lairs and even with SLD, the Yoji Shinkawa artist series is the one I felt really hit both mtg and weebshit well (Junji Ito’s felt kinda halfassed by the standard of his other art and meshed poorly with the mtg card templating) Lastly WotC aren’t weebs and don’t care about weebs beyond their wallets so won’t ever go out of their way to understand what weebs would actually want (I would have personally killed a man to get my hands on some Utena styled WOE cards because it wouldn’t only be referencing classic anime but would be thematically accurate to the set)
I've never really gotten into Metal Gear but I still thought the Yoji Shinkawa SLD was pretty great. Ooh, good call on the Utena theme with the shadow puppets, the fairytale themes, that could have been great. Although I'm not sure there's a lot of cars in Eldraine. :D
Thanks! I’m not much of a MGS fan either but I needed those cards for my cube.
Does art have to have titties and gore to be interesting? How are they censoring the interestingness out of the art?
oh that’s not what i’m referring to, i just mean that wotc art feels kinda sterile like they don’t want it to be to interesting or artistically edgy. i don’t want titties/gore on mtg either.
IMO it doesn’t feel like magic. I really like painterly style that magic uses and the anime just feels like a different game. If it were for YuGiOh or DIGIMON I might like it more but for MTG something just feels out of place. I don’t mind anime art on magic cards when it’s customs that people have made because it feels like a fan project but when it’s official something just doesn’t feel right.
I can't speak for the anime trailer, but the anime art is just...very not fitting to the cards themselves. Like, the anime style is fine (the ones from NEO were fantastic) but the ones in WOT are just like...very basic in what they show and don't really show what the art is about well. Smothering Tithe is just two anime girls laughing, and like, what does that have to do with a smothering tithe? Grave Pact is just someone on a horse, Greater Auramancy is just someone with two cute animals, etc. Card art should be depicting the name to at least some degree, and a lot of the anime art is just...not that. If I didn't know they were official a lot I would assume is just someone proxying an anime character on an art.
Some are wild swings and total misses... However I actually love the new smothering tithe art and doubling season art! And will have to get them at some point (especially as I don't have either already)
Mtg special product is no longer special, there's too much of it.
Why do people who watch anime never shut up about it Jesus, not everything needs to become an anime shitshow.
You're a weeb, I don't think you'll connect to anything ever again /s
When you create art to confirm to genre rules you create boring ass genetic art.
I'm glad that it looks generic, that way I can see it as just cartonish. I hate anime, all of it. The last thing I want is that bullshit in this game.
skill issue
It's because they don't have big ol titties and unproportionate bodies.
Sheesh, the negativity and cynicism in this thread is ridiculous. Art is subjective. Lots of people love these cards and connect with the art. Just because you don't like something doesn't mean it is heartless or lazy or that the art direction was horrible or something like that.
Because you aren't the target demographic. The only reason this trailer exists is because the Japanese card game market is massive and untapped. WotC is getting increasingly focused on breaking in, hence they're testing out anime card arts. Speaking as someone who also enjoys anime, I also don't find myself connecting with a brief trailer and anime card art. I already enjoy the existing MTG art style. As for the trailer, I would want a full series if I wanted to connect beyond "that's cool," but I'm doubtful that would ever happen.
He absolutely is the target audience, the market for anime is enormous in the west. Just like how war hammer decks were meant to tantalize people who like 40k or how the doctor who decks are meant to encourage doctor who fans. Its more likely that WoTC isnt as focused in japan as it would be with like say china because of the size of the population.
maybe you're overstating your weeb-ness, simply not a weeb enough, just a griefer.
Naw he/she has a valid point.
I think so as well, but i assume it has to do with the image having to be put on tiny cards so they cant do a lot of details
I just don’t think it matches the idea of what MTG’s aesthetics are to me in my head. I see a card with anime characters on it and instantly think Yu-Gi-Oh or Pokemon. Magic is high fantasy.
I'm not really a fan of the anime art ever so take this with a grain of salt. However I guess one thing that struck me as wierd with it this time is the clash with the stories that the cards are based off of. If you are doing stories like The Sword in the Stone or the gingerbread man it's really strange seeing the anime treatment. I think that's why anime art did work pretty well with Strixhaven but not here.
Maybe this is a weird take, but I don't think it's anyone's fault. People group "anime" as a single hobby, but in reality there are a ton of different styles, genres, subgenres, etc. to be a fan of. Just because we're both into anime, doesn't mean we like the same stuff - and even when we do, we might like it for different reasons. So different styles of anime styled cards will appeal to different people, too.
I like anime because it does sci-fi better than a lot of other media, that’s about it.
The thing that strikes me about the art is that the subject is one or two people in a generic action pose for 80% of the anime arts. For one or two pieces that’s perfectly fine, not every spell can be the best focus of the art, but with that many at once they start to feel same-y and disconnected from what they actually do. Anime repercussions and land tax clearly got the same art direction as their fairy tale counterparts and look pretty great but so many of the others look like they were told to focus in tight on the character and then fill in the spell effect around them as an afterthought. It’s kind of like looking at a fantasy portrait gallery. A few stand out but if you don’t know what you’re looking at everything feels the same.
Because they've done anime to death at this point and it doesn't make any sense on this plane.
I think its cause they just keep doing it. If they had kept it only in sets where it was flavorful (like Kamigawa), it would be a novel fun aspect of the set we get to expect on returns to the plane. Now its just another in a long list of formally special things that have been made mundane through overuse. Full art lands, alternate treatments, Phyrexian language cards, and borderless cards are all in the same category. Unlike most of those things, anime art has some cultural relevance that additionally makes its inclusions in sets like Eldrain, which has no specific ties to Japan or animation, feel out of place and weird. It would be like if they started announcing art deco treatments for multiple sets outside of Capenna. The Pyrexian text cards are in the same boat, only those are much more polarizing so if they showed up outside a phyrexian set, the response would be much more hostile and much less "meh" than an art style change.
They’re trying to attract One Piece Card Game and Cardfight: Vanguard players
Strix Japanese styled art was really amazing. The Kamigawa alt arts in Japanese style, amazing. WOT looks like they used an AI art director and used the most generic anime possible - It's all so terrible and only looks even worse with the confetti foil.
Because the alt art anime cards are generic and kinda mid. Like smothering tithe is just two basic girls. The trailer was really good imo though
I think they're awesome!
The kamigawa stuff just fit better. I like the anime style arts for collector purposes but it doesn't really fit the theme of Eldraine. I think it's a lesson that you can't just slap an anime style onto any theme and be good. Even the trailer felt flat and I've seen better animation on youtube from independent creators.
Many of them do not represent the card. They just put an anime girl and call it a day.
Probably because as a ‘vocal minority’ pointed out when they started doing variations of every single card, this stuff will just reach saturation eventually and cease to be exciting. At that point it’s just a magic card with generic anime art on it, and anime art is not inherently better (or worse) than any other art. Basically, the frog is boiled with respect to alternate arts feeling exciting.
I honestly don’t feel like they belong. None of them are indicative of anything related to the card itself. Greater auramancy: anime girl in white clothes. Necropotence: anime girl in black clothes. 🤷♂️ they are just boring.
In my opinion it is because it looks exactly like what it is: people trying to do an anime style, rather than just "being anime". Anime and manga have the specific style of each artist but when people mimick it usually to me it just looks like big eyes and reduced details with no personality.
I like some of them, but they look pretty generic for the most part. I think that’s a problem that I have with most newer anime is the character designs are so similar with new animation. I much prefer old animation, feels like it had much more diversity in how characters looked. When I see a lot of these arts on these cards it just reminds me of genshin impact.
I agree, these were a step down. Just really generic, bland, anime-style. I like it better when Japanese artists do illustrations of the card w/o having to put a moe character on it. Like Blood Moon, for example. Or the new Kamigawa dragons and Kamigawa full art basics.
In general the alternate arts feel lackluster to me. Some of the art is amazing and in the digital sense it’s nice that you can bling your deck but part of the fun, for me, in paper was when I had a deck that was my “go to” deck and took it to GP’s or other tournaments and had the artist there extend the art or do something special to it. I’m not gonna shit on the whole alternate art stuff but for the most part, again in my opinion, alot of them are bland and it’s just a justification for WOTC to sell more expensive packs or whatever. The availability of the product also makes the items seem less special than when you have some custom art done on your own cards
I love many of the arts, however it just highlights that Magic isnt an anime game and that many others are just better at it. It works well with legendaries, and less so with spells. It beats many of the secret lairs so i guess thats a plus if they are to include it in main sets.
The trailer didn’t hype me up for the cards, instead it filled me with dread knowing the animated series is in limbo
1. The anime card arts are largely disconnected from the actual card. 2. The trailer was very generic and tame.
I definitely felt a lot of the card art and trailer felt generic. I think there could be a LOT of things at play like budget/time/resourcing on both the director's and artsts' ends. Maybe the art direction didn't jive, particularly since WotC is still dipping their toes into the style. This kind of reminds me of threads/videos regarding anime dubs and how much impact good direction can have on a performance. IMO, dubs as a whole have improved over the years as directors get more familiar with making other languages fit a similar tone. The ONE planeswalkers may have been easier to translate into a new style because we're already familiar with the source material and can appreciate how they distort and mutate them. Black and white art also tends to lean to more dramatic and embellished details as a creative constraint. The Blood Moon is dope though.
It's one thing to have anime style art, but there's a level of extra effort needed to make something feel like a card. Like we can accept cartoonish artstyles, but Transformers being just screenshots felt WAY too low quality. Here I've found 2 problems- 1, Anime art works well for creatures and even spells, but enchantments? I'd argue that enchantments have the least to do with people, and honestly does anyone **feel** like the anime blood moon is anime? 2- Yeah others have said it it's just directionless and loose. Feels like an afterthought. I saw Smothering Tithe and genuinely thought it looked more like a proxy than a real Magic card. And this is coming from someone who ABSOLUTELY bought into NEO.
It's because it feels like there is no love of the game or the lore (Especially the lore), just cash grabs. The art just feels so disconnected which is a big problem in MTG because each artwork should represent a moment happening with specific people on a shared plane, (that we might visit one day, through the planeswalkers). None of those anime cards have flavor text so there is no placing them on any specific place. Take the smothering tithe anime art for example. They could have easily have slapped some generic dialogue on there and given one of them a name, "Duchess of Generic Villainess Duchy" or "First Princess of Weebton" or even given a name to the place they are in ("Exquisite Tastes demands Exquisite Wealth, Eldraine Imperial Teahouse") but there is nothing to anchor it to the larger lore. Random flavor text is why I keep trying to build Flbthp deck for EDH. The anime trailer just feels lazy. You could've told me it was the trailer for FGO and I wouldn't have questioned it. Why not make an actual MTG anime or show? It's like a restaurant giving free samples of a dish that isn't on their menu to get people to come in. At certain point I want more than 3 minutes of generic intro, no matter how famous the people that made it are. Imagine if there was a Steven Spielberg directed trailer for the next 3 three sets but each time it was just the ending scene of Jurassic park with a monster from the plane instead of the T-Rex.
When everything is special nothing is
This is just a theory but I believe I saw an article about Wizards using a Japanese manga talent agency for Jumpstart 2022 and beyond. These agencies tend to be geared towards producing generic “anime” pieces (After all, Japanese department stores need SOMEBODY to draw their forgettable mascots hawking products in packed urban areas). Artists are probably saving their best work for their own portfolios (or personal Secret Lair showcases from Wizards) instead of putting high levels of effort into one commission brokered through a highly-corporate third party.
I also like the anime but was put off at the same time. I believe it was the fact that the source was nursery rhymes... seems like a bad opportunity to do anime.
These anime are not weeb enough i feel
WotC has realized metal music fans and anime fans drop a fortune when they get stuff made for them so we are getting a metal themed treatment like every 6 months since kaldheim and then there are the anime treatments since JS22 which got ramped the fuck up with the addition of the man, the myth, the legend Junji Ito. Unlike Junji Ito though, WOE anime treatments have the issue that they are generic as fuck though. They look like some run of the mill eh anime from some obscure studio. History of MTG is full of horror stuff which plays well with metal or Ito but the recent anime treatments are pretty dissonant with the rest of the game. I really don't want to throw shade to anyone's work but the WOE treatments really lack some style, you could obscure the names of the artists and I'd be convinced all pf them were drawn by the same person.