What Are The Worst Character Designs You Have Ever Seen?

[DenseDeerFather]

Targetmon. You could make a thread on just horrible Digimon designs but this one takes the cake in my opinion.

And that says a lot when Sukamon exists

 

[A-Stump]

Digimon have quite terrible designs lol.

Cute pokemon TO some sort of ugly pokemon TO anime dude with armor.

Lol wtf

 

[Absolute-Despair]

View attachment 3888678

You may not like it but this is peak male performance

 

[UnsufficentBoobage]

If I am not mistaken, the same company that does Digimon had separate series for all normal monster designs, Catcha Beast and something else

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

View attachment 3888678

wisened elder kung fu master pac-man

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Not necessarily bad, but TOS and TNG of Star Trek got kind of repetitive with all those different aliens that look just like "Earthlings" - but with different forehead bumps. No wonder they made that TNG episode ("The Chase") explaining why that is.

 

[naaaaiiiiillllll!!!]

Not necessarily bad, but TOS and TNG of Star Trek got kind of repetitive with all those different aliens that look just like "Earthlings" - but with different forehead bumps. No wonder they made that TNG episode ("The Chase") explaining why that is.

I believe it was done for money saving purposes in TOS and eventually carried over into TNG as well. It is interesting how Star Trek is an overwhelmingly humanoid universe — funny but a little unimaginative given such a large scifi setting.

 

[Gar For Archer]

Yeah, she looks awful here. It's the equivalent of C-3PO with a red arm from the Force Awakens — a slightly modified character design made with the sole purpose of selling merchandise.

Having watched Gurren Lagaan and how that show did a timeskip with aged-up characters to explore its themes and push the main cast's conflicting relationships and differing beliefs to their breaking point, if they were gonna do a timeskip they should've made all the Children (including the Rei who should've been saved at the cost of fucking up the world) adults. They would all be twenty-eight, and there was a lot of thematic potential in having them age with the rest of their classmates. For one, adult Shinji's despairing behavior where he just does nothing would've been a lot more unsettling, yet pitiable at the same time.

I can also see adult Asuka cracking open a beer or two and shooting the shit with Kensuke and Hikari about how much of a man-child basketcase Shinji has become, but Hikari would retort by telling her not to be so hard on him and that she's had fourteen more years to become an adult while Shinji's just woken up and is still the same fourteen-year-old boy he was long ago. Aging up the main cast would've been interesting since a core theme of Evangelion is maturity and how each character comes to terms with it, but I guess that would've meant changing Shinji's seiyuu.

Interestingly enough, there actually is April Fools artwork from a decade or more ago of Rei, Shinji, and Asuka as adults, and they look amazing.
View attachment 3858933
Just imagine the story we could've gotten.

Aging up Asuka is literally the only way her character could’ve worked in the Rebuilds. They clearly just didn’t have the screen time to devote to actually giving her a character arc, so as a result her characterization is completely nonsensical. It’s like they couldn’t decide whether she’s supposed to be an adult in a child’s body or another child who’s never grown up, so when she talks down to Shinji for being immature it all comes off as very hypocritical when she’s still hung up over some boy that she knew for a couple months fourteen years ago.

If we accept the reality that there isn’t enough screen time to properly devote to developing her as a character (what we got was already bloated well past the original planned runtime) the obvious fix to this is to age her up off-screen. Hell, have her and Misato switch roles, she should be the no-nonsense resistance commander while Misato should be bumming around the village being sad. This sidesteps the need to devote screen time to her (because the whole point would be that she grows up and gets over her problems off-screen, like the other aged-up classmates) while also really driving home the fact that 14 years have passed in-universe, since the only character in 3.0 who noticeably ages is Fuyutsuki, who goes from old dude to walking skeleton. Aging her up also lets them explore her character in new ways, e.g. how does someone whose entire purpose in life was to be an Eva pilot deal with being physically unable to take that role anymore, and having to depend on other people to fight on the front lines? Instead of Mari having her own Eva of unexplained origin, she should be piloting the refurbed Unit 2 as a more direct symbol of Asuka giving up her desire to always be the best and do everything on her own, and entrusting her favorite shiny toy to a protege.

Honestly a lot of the 3.0 character designs just suck. They completely fail at selling the idea that all this time has passed in-universe, it feels like it’s been at most like 4-5 years rather than 14 because everyone looks the same aside from a change in hair and outfit. Especially in a stressful radiation-filled post-apocalyptic environment, you’d expect people to age faster.

 

[BScCollateral]

I believe it was done for money saving purposes in TOS and eventually carried over into TNG as well. It is interesting how Star Trek is an overwhelmingly humanoid universe — funny but a little unimaginative given such a large scifi setting.

Forehead bumps aren't imaginitive, nor do they work as hard SF, but they permit an actor to show expressions and, well, act.
I'd handwave it as a problem caused by budget and practicality, like zero or lunar gravity not being a typical thing.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

It is interesting how Star Trek is an overwhelmingly humanoid universe — funny but a little unimaginative given such a large scifi setting.

Forehead bumps aren't imaginitive, nor do they work as hard SF, but they permit an actor to show expressions and, well, act.

Of course in the 1970s animated series, they could get more aliens who are more non-humanoid (and not "energy beings") in.

Seems few - if any - of them made it into the rest of the series though.

 

[naaaaiiiiillllll!!!]

Of course in the 1970s animated series, they could get more aliens who are more non-humanoid (and not "energy beings") in.

Seems few - if any - of them made it into the rest of the series though.

Maybe having uncreative forehead-bump aliens was good in the long run...

 

[Belvedere]

Maybe having uncreative forehead-bump aliens was good in the long run...

View attachment 3955521

> Be Gene Rodenberry.
> Convince network to green-light a ST animated series.
> Use medium that allows for any alien design imaginable.
> Makes cat girl waifu.
> Makes actual wife be the VA for said character.
> Gene Rodenberry furry status: CONFIRMED.

 

[ToroidalBoat]

Maybe having uncreative forehead-bump aliens was good in the long run...

I like the design of the Phylosians, one of the more "starfish alien" aliens.

 

[Waifuchu]

I get that Fire Emblem's general weeb aesthetic isn't for everyone, but I've never had any problem with super sexualized designs like Tharja.

Spoiler: Tharja

And Corrin gets a lot of shit for the feet thing, which is fair, but I still like her design overall.

Spoiler: Corrin

It's not for everyone, but it's pretty consistent with itself in-universe...

Unlike what we have with this atrocious vtuber shit in the upcoming title. It's well-drawn in a vacuum, but this looks like character art from some mobile waifubait gacha shit, and I know it's a deliberate decision to try and get more eyes on this franchise that they've consistently struggled to market outside of Japan.

Spoiler: Overdesigned vtuber

 

[Omnium Ultimatus]

Unlike what we have with this atrocious vtuber shit in the upcoming title. It's well-drawn in a vacuum, but this looks like character art from some mobile waifubait gacha shit, and I know it's a deliberate decision to try and get more eyes on this franchise that they've consistently struggled to market outside of Japan.

Spoiler: Overdesigned vtuber

View attachment 3978117

What's their backstory - being the bastard children of Nintendo Switch controllers?

Aging up Asuka is literally the only way her character could’ve worked in the Rebuilds. They clearly just didn’t have the screen time to devote to actually giving her a character arc, so as a result her characterization is completely nonsensical. It’s like they couldn’t decide whether she’s supposed to be an adult in a child’s body or another child who’s never grown up, so when she talks down to Shinji for being immature it all comes off as very hypocritical when she’s still hung up over some boy that she knew for a couple months fourteen years ago.

If we accept the reality that there isn’t enough screen time to properly devote to developing her as a character (what we got was already bloated well past the original planned runtime) the obvious fix to this is to age her up off-screen. Hell, have her and Misato switch roles, she should be the no-nonsense resistance commander while Misato should be bumming around the village being sad. This sidesteps the need to devote screen time to her (because the whole point would be that she grows up and gets over her problems off-screen, like the other aged-up classmates) while also really driving home the fact that 14 years have passed in-universe, since the only character in 3.0 who noticeably ages is Fuyutsuki, who goes from old dude to walking skeleton. Aging her up also lets them explore her character in new ways, e.g. how does someone whose entire purpose in life was to be an Eva pilot deal with being physically unable to take that role anymore, and having to depend on other people to fight on the front lines? Instead of Mari having her own Eva of unexplained origin, she should be piloting the refurbed Unit 2 as a more direct symbol of Asuka giving up her desire to always be the best and do everything on her own, and entrusting her favorite shiny toy to a protege.

Honestly a lot of the 3.0 character designs just suck. They completely fail at selling the idea that all this time has passed in-universe, it feels like it’s been at most like 4-5 years rather than 14 because everyone looks the same aside from a change in hair and outfit. Especially in a stressful radiation-filled post-apocalyptic environment, you’d expect people to age faster.

I'm sure the figma of adult Asuka alone would've sold far more than all of the official Rebuild merchandise. The fact that characters with minor alterations can justify the selling of more of the same merchandise without actually putting any thought or effort into designing memorable characters speaks volumes about the amount of cynicism and contempt that Anno has.

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

I get that Fire Emblem's general weeb aesthetic isn't for everyone, but I've never had any problem with super sexualized designs like Tharja.

Spoiler: Tharja

View attachment 3978039

And Corrin gets a lot of shit for the feet thing, which is fair, but I still like her design overall.

Spoiler: Corrin

View attachment 3978051

It's not for everyone, but it's pretty consistent with itself in-universe...

Unlike what we have with this atrocious vtuber shit in the upcoming title. It's well-drawn in a vacuum, but this looks like character art from some mobile waifubait gacha shit, and I know it's a deliberate decision to try and get more eyes on this franchise that they've consistently struggled to market outside of Japan.

Spoiler: Overdesigned vtuber

View attachment 3978117

Reminds me of that red and blue Kamen Rider from a few years back

 

[wtfNeedSignUp]

Unlike what we have with this atrocious vtuber shit in the upcoming title. It's well-drawn in a vacuum, but this looks like character art from some mobile waifubait gacha shit, and I know it's a deliberate decision to try and get more eyes on this franchise that they've consistently struggled to market outside of Japan.

Spoiler: Overdesigned vtuber

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It might have worked for a Dancer since that at least can justify ridiculous hairstyle

 

[Flaming Insignias]

Unlike what we have with this atrocious vtuber shit in the upcoming title. It's well-drawn in a vacuum, but this looks like character art from some mobile waifubait gacha shit, and I know it's a deliberate decision to try and get more eyes on this franchise that they've consistently struggled to market outside of Japan.

Spoiler: Overdesigned vtuber

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The sheer absurdity of Alear's design made me think the leaks were fake, simply because I assumed Nintendo would be smart enough not to give the main character such stupidly split hair. Guess I deserved to be wrong for being so gullible.

 

[Local Degenerate]

Bit of a hot take, but I find Akira Toriyama's works to be fucking ass.

Not because they're bad, they're fine, hell, some were even good.

But because the man can only draw three characters, and one house. Dude is a fucking hack, and I don't know why people crowd around to kiss his feet.

Kind of naturally leads on to Dragon Quest, which I feel has the absolute worst designs in the biz today. At best, they're simple and generic (I.E. Dragon. Bunny girl.) At worst, their lazy and stupid as shit. (Bag with face. Mushroom, but the top is hair.)

 

[Peru oso donas]

Unlike what we have with this atrocious vtuber shit in the upcoming title. It's well-drawn in a vacuum, but this looks like character art from some mobile waifubait gacha shit, and I know it's a deliberate decision to try and get more eyes on this franchise that they've consistently struggled to market outside of Japan.

Spoiler: Overdesigned vtuber

View attachment 3978117

The hair color most likely being tied to the plot similar to how 3 houses tied Byleth's inexpressiveness to them being a still born kinda made me less sour on it, but i still find it an eye sore, especially the heterochromia which i think only really works when it is subtle.