Artstyle Change - Good or Bad?

I think Asami's looks have just kept improving. His face is more refined. His nose is now the perfect size. He's one of the handsomest characters in this entire genre, but lately he is even more so.
I notiice his hair is a mess sometimes lately, and he still looks beautiful. YamenoAmanoeyYamane really does a beautiful job on him.

I agree with both top two comments. Also Fei Long looks amazing as well. Maybe it is because very often Akihito is comic relief lol I had been thinking the same thing though; you could see why Asami would find Akihito attractive in the beginning chapters but not so much now and Akihito is still my favourite character.

Yep comic relief but I liked the manga more when it had more serious and less comic situations than now. Anyway Asami and Fei look w-o-n-d-e-r-f-u-l so it's ok. (▰˘◡˘▰)

I liked the art style of the early work, .I agree with a lot of what you have said.She has played around with their body shapes and facial feat, a lot over the years. for example. Asami started out with more of a angular face , She has soften him a great deal.Perhaps she changed Takaba in response to equal them out in her mind. ?I don't know. Maybe the older way of drawing was to much work and to detailed and took to much time or she is trying to keep up with the changes in taste. There is a very" youth " type culture in Jpn also. where being seen as old is not good.She uses Takaba as the young one to attract readers?

Aki is used to promote the plot. Asami and FeiLong are the best combination to attract readers.

Aki to promote the fun take of the plot you could say. About attracting readers: sure Fei long and Asami are the best for that. ٩(๑❛ᴗ❛๑)۶

Maybe the softer face shapes are easier to show emotions when drawing.

I was Attracted to the manga for Aki and Asami equally. I don't really have any warmth for Fei but hes an ok character I guess.

Yamane sensei has had a lot of development with all the characters imo and I actually prefer Aki's look now... It shows the growth and development of their relationship from serious and stiff to adaptable and used to living with each other... But just my opinion! ヾ(❀╹◡╹)ﾉ~

I disagreed completely. Just look at the first chapter the old style was awful. Asmai wasn't sexy or hot and I have no clue why his lips were so weird and big. Aki looked too old because of all the over the top shading. I'm glad she is going with the times in terms of design and even the clothing of characters. They look so much better now (⌒▽⌒)

agree

Personally I agree with a lot of the comments said about how Asami and Fie actually look better now and I totally agree with you guys about that. Asami now has softer features but I think that makes him look more handsome and I think that the art style for Asami and Fei Long is much better. But I still think that Aki suffered a bit because of it. Personally I like Aki's face before and I don't mind his new hairstyle, but from some odd reason I still prefer Aki's older style. In terms of other characters I think there was a major improvement, especially with Asami.

I will admit, I was sucked into this yaoi because of Asami, so the art change for Asami is just perfect ;) But I have to say, that Aki looked more fierce and stronger in the beginning (more free spirited because of his innocence and ignorance at the start of the manga). But I do have to admit, the difference in his EYES is better. His eyes are drawn more empty and hardened because of what he went through, but the rest of his design isn't resonating with me unfortunately. (〜￣△￣)〜

I was totally suckered in because of those two so I completely understand your suffering. ლ(´ڡ`ლ)

I have to admit that at first I wasn't a huge fan of Fei Long, but after a while he sort of grew on me. I like him a bit more with the recent chapters and his mature attitude about putting his feelings for Aki aside and letting Asami and Aki reunite.

Personally I love the development of Aki and his is eyes seem to be more hard and cold because of what he went through. So I know what you mean there, but I feel that his softer facial features take away from his serious and hard character development.

Yeah that's what I was thinking, since I also noticed that most of the backgrounds are also getting more white and less detailed, since it takes time to draw and tone the backgrounds and there's a lot of panels to get through. It's time saving to draw them more simplistic so I see your point there (〜￣△￣)〜

You got that right. Personally I love Aki BECAUSE of his continuous humor, despite going through all that shit in Hong Kong, so kudos to Aki for being such a little sunshine. And You got that right. I was sucked in because of how hot Asami is. (▰˘◡˘▰)

I totally agree with you about the older artstyle. Don't get me wrong, some characters look better and they look more refined, but I think you said it correct when you mentioned how she's trying to be consistent with his art change. I personally think that she is trying to change her style to look more modern and less 90s style which she started with. And it takes time to draw all the details that we say in the first few chapters and with the monthly releases and how much time it takes to draw and but the toner's on for the chapters, I can see why her artstyle may have changed for convenience sake. ╮(￣▽￣)╭

I totally agree with you there about preferring her older artstyle. I think she changed it to fit more of a modern artstyle that you mentioned rather than sticking with her 90s style that she started out with to fit with other manga. Don't get me wrong, some of the characters look better with the new art change and it adds to their character, but I prefer the old style for some reason. I think she changed all the characters to keep a consistent form of artstyle. And I think you're right about the time constraint. If you take a look at the older chapters, you can see that in the first few panels that the art was more detailed, especially with the backgrounds. But I think with monthly releases and taking the time to sketch and tone all the panels must be hard, so for time's sake the art style may have suffered or changed. ╮(￣▽￣)╭

Aki's appearance at the beginning was more muscular and manlier, I miss that.

She does/ did very detailed background work .I wondered why would she make such background of a city scape? she treats such details like Asami ties as another part of the story. You see that opening drawing of that city your mind says Tokyo. She is leading you into the story That is a lot of hand and joint work doing than. I must say. There is more flow and movement and emotion (in all the faces) when she draws now.That battle scene with Fei was a beauty (looked like a dance).That would have been hard to do with Asami's older body it was too blocky to do that. LOL. I see why see changed them You can't change one w/o changing the other. We get + and - with everything You can't have Asami looking younger than Takaba or Takaba looking the same age as Asami. She will use the character to tell the story like a ink itself as an emotion. It tends to be a subtle thing and you the reader don't notice for ex. that picture of Asami as he waits for Takaba at the penthouse door on coming out of jail. It is that look on Asami's face and Takaba's responds. Very emotion filled .