/ic/ - Artwork/Critique

I'm doing a graphic novel currently and to say it's inspired by Manga would be an understatement. Japanese properties are probably 80 % of my inspiration, mainly 90's anime in general, the works of Gainax (and now Trigger), Devilman, Tezuka Manga's etc
I talked with a friend sometime ago that we are living in times where there is massive cultural overlap and a big chunk of "western" artists grow up with manga and anime. My best guess is soon we won't even differentiate comics and manga.

A big part of the mass appeal of Manga and how it become this big in Japan and outgrew comics in the west I believe and I think was not mentioned here thus far is expressiveness and appeal.
You often have well designed characters with simplified features for the sake of expressing emotion as intensively as possible.
Compare that to sth like that
>>3866873 where it's kind of a bland looking realism with two times the same facial expression. Nothing about this character screams cute or interesting or anything else. Despite the transgressions of him recently, John K, of Ren and Stimpy fame made many good posts about this topic.
Pic related by Hiroyuki Imaishi may illustrate my point somewhat. Of course, most Japanese artists make bland samefacey kawaii ugguu characters but the real winners, let's take even something recent like One Punch Man have just this instant recognisability and expressions.
I also agree with the black and white aspect making it more interesting and it made me reconsider to leave my graphic novel black and white too (would also safe countless hours).