Aesthetics and you; Legend of the Halation Heroes

The more I stay in this medium, the more I see the saying of don't judge a book by its cover gets lost to the wind. Assuming all things were equal, do certain art styles or methods of presentation have a tendency to cause people to over or underestimate the writing itself? Does quiet and contemplative get too much credit? Is something loud and cute often written off? Do we sometimes pay too much attention to high-quality aesthetics thinking it's all a show has? Is a unique art style the only thing keeping a show symbolic instead of pretentious at points?



You don't have to limit it to those examples, but maybe you get the idea. I can't say for certain I'd be able to take Legend of the Galactic Heroes as seriously as I do if the character designs are something out of an Ume Aoki work. Maybe I wouldn't find Honoka infectiously energetic if Love Live! didn't wave its ability for epic expressions. Perhaps this speaks to how easily or not some combinations of style and substance are accepted.



What's been your experience with this? How often or not do you think your acceptance or denial of a work sways because the aesthetics (visuals, sound, maybe even character archetype) resemble style X instead of style y? How often have you seen this happen?

Aesthetics and you; Legend of the Halation Heroes