The origin of manga is generally attributed to two main camps; those who believe it is based on US influences during the US occupation of Japan from 1945 to 1952. Others stress the influence of pre war Japanese culture, aesthetics and Meji art. The influences of anime and manga styles on jRPGs is incredibly strong, with many characters looking as though they stepped straight out of well known shows and books. Akira Toriyama, manga artist and creator of Dragon Ball Z, lent his art to one of Japan's biggest and most long running game series: Dragon Quest as well as Chrono Trigger. His art is some of the most iconic and easily recognizable to Western fans due to the success of Dragon Ball & Z in the West.
Dragon Ball Manga
Dragon Quest art
Above: Artwork from DBZ and Chrono Trigger, an anime and a game respectively
Mangaka (Japanese manga/comic artists) working on games is not unheard of. KÅsuke Fujishima, creator of popular manga series Oh my Goddess worked as character designer for many of the Tales Series of games, giving them a distinctly anime-inspired look.
Oh my Goddess.
Colette Brunel, from Tales of Symphonia.
Other series, such as Persona and Suikoden, were not worked on by mangaka but have lots of traits in common with manga and anime. Eyes are a common feature used to portray character personality and intent; younger characters tend to have larger, rounder eyes. Older characters have smaller eyes, and evil characters tend to have very narrow, angular eyes.
Another feature of the anime style is minimalism, something I remember reading about during my comic book research. Noses and mouths are often portrayed with very few lines or none at all.
Final Fantasy is a jRPG series notable for the evolution in art style; it begins as very manga-esque, and evolves into a very idealised sort of semi-realism. There are still manga/anime elements in the hair, clothing design and overall feel. Facial features are not as simplified as they generally would be in manga and anime, but they still follow certain shape conventions (innocent characters with large eyes) and have an airbrushed, "perfect" feel.
Another feature of the anime style is minimalism, something I remember reading about during my comic book research. Noses and mouths are often portrayed with very few lines or none at all.
Final Fantasy is a jRPG series notable for the evolution in art style; it begins as very manga-esque, and evolves into a very idealised sort of semi-realism. There are still manga/anime elements in the hair, clothing design and overall feel. Facial features are not as simplified as they generally would be in manga and anime, but they still follow certain shape conventions (innocent characters with large eyes) and have an airbrushed, "perfect" feel.
Vanille and Hope, two very 'innocent' and childlike characters. Hope is a male character.
Gender differences in Japanese media aren't always immediately apparent or as heavily emphasized as they are in Western counterparts. This isn't to say that masculine characters do not exist in jRPGs; androgenous characters are just more common than they are in the West.
Vaan, another male character.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manga_iconography
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