>>49794754>>49794760the top images unironically look better, i'm not even trolling
as an artist, i always loved how Pokémon looked and the fidelity to Sugimori's (and then Ohmuras, etc) art style, the outlines and cel shading... it just felt like Pokémon. these realistic fur and scale textures have the opposite effect than what they probably intended. instead of making the pokémon feel more "real" they just highlight how nonsensical the anatomy, eyes, markings etc are. which is fine, it's fiction, it can be nonsensical and unrealistic! but if you try mixing the two it just doesn't work.
