I understand the bony, figureless limbs in his current style. It’s the abdomen/upper body that gets me the most. It’s like they have no ribs or something. Considering the number of years he’s been in the manga industry, ESP shonen genre, I’d have hoped he’d be better at THAT by now. Oh well..
I do love the way he draws hair & eyes though.
& in case you’re interested, below is my style of drawing that last example
It’s also my first time drawing Hao cuz he’s a douche
Great observations! I understand the argument of “it’s just his art style” - and to an extent, it is. I do think it’s a little bit of both. But for an artist who is super talented at drawing pretty much anything and everything and being able to observe complex things such as machinery beautifully, it’s quite strange his human anatomy skills are his biggest weakness - when it comes to children/young adults at least.
I re-read SK again (for like the 100th time) recently and I noticed Takei’s attention to detail and anatomy fluctuates SO MUCH with his ever-changing styles and even between chapters (although I could argue this might’ve been due to the crazy workload and health issues he had during SK’s original run) His characters have always been laughably skinny but since you’re talking about the upper body specifically, some of the main characters physic change throughout (sometimes for the worst, which you demonstrated with your Hao and Horohoro examples!) - here’s some of Ren (grabbed what I could so they’re not perfect)
Nowadays if you read Flowers, SK zero and even Nekogahara despite being about cats, his overall mistakes are much louder and glaringly obvious than his unique art style, that in previous years would’ve been covered up a little. Maybe it’s a time-constraint thing, or his anatomy skills are actually getting worse and he’s fallen into a real bad habit (maybe thanks to Ultimo’s character designs???) LOL who knows…but I know he’s definitely capable. Sorry for the text wall but Takei’s probably my favourite artist and I like to observe his stuff a lot :V I really like your improvements/corrections!
