When I was making my 3rd art style concept, I started looking at an art style that absolutely dominated the dating sim scene. This style is called otome style (unofficial name). The reason why I call it the otome art style is because this genre of game caters towards young women. Otomes are typically dating sims with multiple love interests and the major goal of these games are to develop a relationship with one or multiple of the men (sometimes women).
The major things I have noticed when looking at this art style is that the faces of the men are a drastically different than the ones in typical animes. Men have a longer face to make them seem more mature and their features are sharper.
Evidently, the image on the right looks more different than the image to the left. This is because more “ikemen” faces are seen as more attractive to the female eye. The term ikemen roughly translates to good-looking guy.
How can I apply this style to my work?
- Make the line work more thin
- Eyes slant upwards
- Typically thinner eyebrows
- Longer faces
Results from research are back on the concept art page! (Last row)