>>6029997I agree with your point overall, though I disagree with the idea of using Inoue as your example. Slam Dunk was very influential, it's the reason there was an explosion of sports series for the decade following its conclusion. Even the senior authors at Jump were inspired by the guy (see: Rookies by Masanori Morita). Slam Dunk is much, much more on the simplified end of the art style spectrum, so I'm not arguing against what you're saying.
Vagabond's influence is a bit limited given that apart from just being very good it's not really groundbreaking, it's just a very good adaptation of one of the definitive works of japanese literature. It might not have an entire continent trying to be him like Toriyama, but literally any other author on the planet loses that comparison too -- it's not just the art style that creates this gap.
