I’m making this to be called out if I’m just wrong in a bad way. But I feel like a lot of anime style lately is starting to look very samey? I don’t know if its because of gotcha games but I’ll see a anime character and go "hmm have I seen this character before?’ When in the past I would know a anime character even if I didn’t watch the show. Maybe it’s just the type of anime that is popular now? Honestly no idea.
I think it’s partly because of how quickly they have to churn out new material, makes it a lot easier I’m sure if you’re just drawing same face with different hair. Masaaki Yuasa is the only person off the top of my head that does interesting things with the medium
Yeah. This is why. Each production is so hyper-optimized with razor-thin margins for error that they can’t afford to get too freaky with the character designs. Seems like since 2010 or so this modern era of designs has been happening and that’s also when the industry started getting thinner margins and pumping out more shows each year. Before that design trends would cycle in every 5-10 years based on aesthetics and new production processes.
I believe they do this to make easier for themselfs and animators (specially since a lot of anime is send to vietnam, korea or philippines to be finished). I always found sort of interesting how Sailor Moon’s villains are the only ones to have different faces/irises.