I have a tendency to be.... inspired.... by things I watch a lot of, but I found that anime and manga (mostly manga in my case, but whatever) tend to be the most easily discernible inspirations, even though I don't ordinarily watch/read much (I prefer manga, and $10 a pop? Ha.... no). For example, I love CLAMP. I love it soooooooooooo much it's kinda scary. I recently went on a little kick, watching Tsubasa, which got me rereading Tokyo Babylon, which got me back into X. That was a all well and good.... until I noticed that in not one but two of my recent works a character who was already more that a little batty had lost an eye and gotten even battier. Not that our good friend Seishiro left an impression on me or anything. Do you ever find this happening? How much so? Or perhaps I'm just batty myself.

Alichino definetly has some very good looking art. I'd like to read it though...

I think part of the reason I like anime and manga so much is that it often inspires me, and that does of course lead to things I make being largely influenced by anime and manga.

Thing is, I don't know if it's really the graphical style that does it. Oh, I mean, there are aspects of the style that are significant--large eyes make expressing emotions easier, for example--but mostly it just seems to be that they have standardized a few things that Western animation and comics still haven't, and that makes for stuff that is much more exciting for a maker.

For example, animation-wise, continuity, a (relatively) short ongoing plot that gets wrapped up in the end and character development are fairly common. That's not to say it's always well done, but it's there, and that's not as often true with American cartoons....which is fairly limiting for a person interested in the art form. There are some western shows that do that (and they inspire me pretty much equally. I'm thinking of shows like Gargoyles and more recently, Avatar. Although since that one's so heavily influenced by anime, that might not be a great example).

Manga-wise, continuity and character development are pretty standard, but at least in the mainstream stuff, a fixed length plot isn't. Mainstream stuff tends to be ongoing. It's also largely superheroes. Indie stuff has changed that a bit, but indie stuff is harder to find (I still can't find a copy of Scott Pilgrim at any of my local stores, for instance), and there have always been limited series.

Anyway, these are just some thoughts off the top of my head. I'll probably have some more to say later.

Alichino makes me happy. Then I note its status on the things I love that haven't been finished (next volume=supposedly the last) and die a little inside. YnM has too much sketchy, not enough stuff I care about, thus putting it below other sketchy supernatural series. But agreed, for the most part, on the CLAMP bit, though Rayearth was great.

Are there any specific things you tend to see yourself doing? I drew a lot of characters with black hair and freaky-colored eyes after doing an X layout with Kamui. Not that I'm a raving X fangirl or anything. Noooooo, never.

Uhhh it really doesn't. This probably seems REALLY HYPOCRITICAL being that I usually draw with an anime style, but that is mostly because it is supereasy, awesome for whoring, and because I grew up drawing it. Anime doesn't particularly inspire me, and the only series that has really had an effect is Bleach, who I stole eyebrows from, but the only thing that really interested me creativity-wise is the whole Soul Society concept and hierarchy.

Other than that I haven't really drawn anything- artistically or otherwise- from anime. To me its just another medium of entertainment.

Oh shit I forgot about Hellsing! Well I haven't really taken anything from it, I've ATTEMPTED to (mostly nose/mouth stuff), but never successfully. I think most of my body style is fairly generic stuff that is used by most people, it isn't really inspired by any one thing and is more a conglomeration of real anatomy and the simplistic styling that pretty much all anime uses.

One thing I neglected to mention, though, was costume design, mostly because my costumes are inspired by so many different things at once, and each costume draws from different things. Somehow I grew an affinity for belts, chains, and wrappings, but I really have no idea where that came from! Other times if I am focusing for a particular mood to the costume I reference a particular character that matches that style, but I don't really focus on any specific series/game than any other.

So hurry up and show your work already.

Also do this.

When I talk my mouth just opens and closes with no other movement in my face whatsoever

Not me. I'm rubber-hose style, so my body tends to move with no regard to the laws of gravity or the presence of bones and tendons, and my mouth can become larger than my face. But that's a feature, not a bug, you understand. Just ask John Krickfalusci. He will explain at length why that's preferable.

I have a friend that's more influenced by the more mainstream modern American animation, though, and he's made up exclusively of fairly static geometric shapes. His face doesn't change when his mouth moves, either, come to think of it. Hmm.

It turns up more in my writing, to be honest, and I can't find any isolated examples. The eye example given earlier was one.... I'll scrounge in my binders for specific text if you like. Maybe it's just turning up more glaringly than literary influences, which I usually only notice long after.
Surprisingly enough, anime has no effect on the movement of my body or mouth. Strange, that.

It turns up more in my writing, to be honest, and I can't find any isolated examples. The eye example given earlier was one.... I'll scrounge in my binders for specific text if you like. Maybe it's just turning up more glaringly than literary influences, which I usually only notice long after.
Surprisingly enough, anime has no effect on the movement of my body or mouth. Strange, that.

I just meant you should post your artwork.... GA needs activity... (we won't bite I promise!)

As soon as I finish something, hopefully better than the last one, I'll do so. Sorry, misunderstood.