AI Anime & Illustration Styles

"Anime style" is not one look, it is dozens. This guide holds one character across 16 anime and manga sub-styles, so the difference you see is the style, not the subject. Ghibli's soft watercolour worlds, shonen's high-energy lines, seinen's mature realism, webtoon's clean digital colour, noir manga's ink and screentone. Copy a prompt, swap in your character, and you have the look. Model-agnostic across Midjourney, GPT Image, Flux and Nano Banana.

Works in: Midjourney, GPT Image, Flux, Nano Banana, Stable Diffusion.

How to use this skill

When the user asks for an image prompt in this style, compose one using the formulas and vocabulary below. Fill each slot with a concrete choice, then return the finished prompt. Prefer naming a real camera/lens, a light, and a colour or film treatment, which is what makes the output read as a real photograph rather than an AI render.

Formulas

The anime formula

[character + action], in the [anime sub-style] style, [two signature traits], [studio or era, optional]

The signature traits stop the model averaging. For shoujo: 'sparkling eyes, soft pastels'. For seinen: 'realistic proportions, muted tones'. For manga: 'black and white, screentone shading'.

Worked prompt examples

_Naming the studio_

A young woman with windswept hair, anime character, upper body, in the Studio Ghibli style, soft painterly watercolour backgrounds, gentle warm colours, hand-drawn

_Modern cel-shaded_

A young woman with windswept hair, anime character, upper body, in a modern cel-shaded anime style, clean flat shading, crisp lineart, vibrant

_Noir manga_

A young woman with windswept hair, anime character, upper body, as black-and-white manga, bold ink, screentone shading, dramatic

_Webtoon / manhwa_

A young woman with windswept hair, anime character, upper body, in a Korean webtoon manhwa style, clean digital colouring, soft gradients

Vocabulary

16 anime styles, one character

Classic anime

• Studio Ghibli: Soft painterly backgrounds, gentle colours, hand-drawn warmth.
• Shonen: Bold dynamic lines, high energy, saturated colour. Action anime.
• Seinen: Realistic proportions, mature muted tones, detailed.
• Shoujo: Delicate, sparkling eyes, soft pastels, floral accents.
• 1990s retro: Grainy film look, muted palette, VHS nostalgia.
• Slice-of-life: Warm pastel colours, cozy, gentle light. Everyday calm.

Manga & ink

• Noir manga: Black and white, bold ink, screentone shading, dramatic.
• Sumi-e ink: Minimal black brush ink, expressive strokes, negative space.
• Dark fantasy: Dramatic shadows, intricate detail, ominous mood. Berserk-like.
• Chibi: Super-deformed, big head, tiny body, very cute.

Modern digital

• Cel-shaded: Clean flat shading, crisp lineart, vibrant. Modern default.
• Modern digital: Glossy rendering, detailed lighting, painterly polish.
• Watercolour: Soft washes, delicate edges, gentle illustration.
• Webtoon: Clean digital colour, soft gradients. Korean manhwa.
• Vaporwave anime: Pink-and-teal 80s city-pop palette, retro glow.
• Mecha / sci-fi: Hard mechanical detail, dynamic angles, sci-fi mood.

From God of Skills: a curated, hand-tested directory of AI skills, prompts, templates and image style guides. Source: https://godofskills.com/playbooks/ai-anime-styles?ref=claude-skill