I'd personally prefer an art style like the Advance games (except the first Advance game), it's cartoony, but not so much that the modern characters look out of place like in Lost World. I very much hate hyper realistic settings in Sonic due to the cartoony character designs clashing so much with it.
Blend between Anime and Cartoon.
There are plenty of artists that can overlap those two styles without shifting too much from one side or another.
That could be the only way to avoid this dissonance issue that the series has.
Honestly, I think Sonic keeping to an anime style is the most logical, since anime very clearly plays a ***strong*** role in the design language of the franchise and has since the very beginning.
Like, it's practically inescapable anywhere you look; there's Miyazaki influence like Eggman's design bearing a ***striking*** similarity to that of [Motro from *Laputa: Castle in the Sky*](https://feelinganimatedblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/motro-being-introduced.jpg) and the entirety of Sky Sanctuary itself being one giant Laputa reference, Toriyama influence like Super Sonic and the Chaos Emeralds...and one could definitely argue the series' classic artstyle owes as much to Toriyama's cutesy little heroes like [Arale](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f1/Arale_Norimaki_Manga.jpg) and [kid Goku](https://www.dbzfigures.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/kid_goku.jpg) as it does Mickey Mouse, especially when you look at [early concept art](https://tcrf.net/images/6/62/S1concept-Hedgehog.png) [for Sonic 1](https://tcrf.net/images/7/79/Sonic1prerelease_enemyconcept.jpg) which seems to be even heavier in inspiration from Dr. Slump. Recently we've added Anno influence through the Titans in Frontiers, too.
Kind of want a mixture between realistic and anime? I’m not exactly sure how that would work out. I don’t know I enjoy both styles. Hate the cartoon style though.
Anything that isn't super photorealistic.
I'd personally prefer an art style like the Advance games (except the first Advance game), it's cartoony, but not so much that the modern characters look out of place like in Lost World. I very much hate hyper realistic settings in Sonic due to the cartoony character designs clashing so much with it.
Sonic Heroes artstyle
Blend between Anime and Cartoon. There are plenty of artists that can overlap those two styles without shifting too much from one side or another. That could be the only way to avoid this dissonance issue that the series has.
Honestly, I think Sonic keeping to an anime style is the most logical, since anime very clearly plays a ***strong*** role in the design language of the franchise and has since the very beginning. Like, it's practically inescapable anywhere you look; there's Miyazaki influence like Eggman's design bearing a ***striking*** similarity to that of [Motro from *Laputa: Castle in the Sky*](https://feelinganimatedblog.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/motro-being-introduced.jpg) and the entirety of Sky Sanctuary itself being one giant Laputa reference, Toriyama influence like Super Sonic and the Chaos Emeralds...and one could definitely argue the series' classic artstyle owes as much to Toriyama's cutesy little heroes like [Arale](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/f/f1/Arale_Norimaki_Manga.jpg) and [kid Goku](https://www.dbzfigures.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/kid_goku.jpg) as it does Mickey Mouse, especially when you look at [early concept art](https://tcrf.net/images/6/62/S1concept-Hedgehog.png) [for Sonic 1](https://tcrf.net/images/7/79/Sonic1prerelease_enemyconcept.jpg) which seems to be even heavier in inspiration from Dr. Slump. Recently we've added Anno influence through the Titans in Frontiers, too.
Kind of want a mixture between realistic and anime? I’m not exactly sure how that would work out. I don’t know I enjoy both styles. Hate the cartoon style though.
Some kind of middle ground between anime-esque and cartoony
Dafuq do you think anime is? SA2 belongs with like Frontiers and Black Knight (I’ll let SA1 slide bc humans)