Anime & Manga

I recall being into anime way before I ever picked up a manga book, mainly due to all the animes coming to America through Toonami.  One of the first ones I read was a Shonen Jump mangas that were multiple action boy adventure comics that were very different in story arc compared to the American comics I read at the time.  I didn't know about the original Astro Boy's story until very recently.  When looking back at the timeline of when Astro Boy came out I'm actually really surprised at where modern anime has taken itself in regards to the shift in drawing.  Tezuka's style reminiscent to Fleischer's Betty Boop is something that's not as emulated aside from reproductions of Astro Boy, which remains still very respected for being the first popular anime.  I feel later successors ended up leaving a larger impact on the American anime public at least.  It's interesting relooking through old anime now and seeing a time where that kind of style was frequently used.  There's a softness in the faces of Rumiko Takahashi that's similar to Astro Boy, along with Usagi Yojimbo being more focused on soft round shapes as well.  Modern anime has taken into more of a focused on angle and sharp features with a variety of styles within one scene.  In manga you can have a shift between a logo/symbol usage of a character to a dramatic rendering with accurate lighting.  The diversity in styles is very inspiring to see and explore, despite certain cliches of Anime & Manga being heavily used at times.