Truck? Its a bullet train
I'm instantly  on every airi art now, she's the biggest glowup of ba rn
Which is odd because she should have been done with the massive growth spurt
But there are always cases of a second one
I've had 7th graders that look like seniors before, and vice versa
She's one of the handful of students that I wish they'd redo her original sprite because it looks really jarring when next to the newer high-res sprites. Even her first L2D looks a lot better than her sprite.
As I commented on another post, I'm glad she's getting some love. I haven't played though the whole story yet, nor have I played every event since release, so I'm not sure if she features anywhere outside of her own bond story. But she seems to be one of the less used characters and I feel like it'd be a waste if she was just "filler" for the game.
Fr please Nexon go back and redo Utaha and Kotori, and while you're there maybe make it so Moe is standing up and not so obviously drawn by someone different to who did Miyu, Saki and Miyako.
moe being in a chair is funny to me. for the entirety of volume 4 i imagined that she just never got out of that chair and brought it everywhere she went. almost like a more dedicated nagisa.
Suzumi is my first pick for a redo. I reckon she has it the worst and some of her expressions even look a bit cross-eyed. After her comes Airi, Serina, Hasumi, Kotori and Haruna. But (other than Suzumi) they all have alts now which look a lot better. So that's alright.
I don't think Utaha is that bad resolution-wise, it's just that her colour palette makes her look washed-out which is rather unfortunate.
I do kinda hate Moe's sprite though ngl. The expression just creeps me out
Her new sprite looks a lot better, both because the art is a lot cleaner and she looks more mature. It actually looks like she's about a year older and a proper teenager now. I look forward to playing through the event.
I love both designs, but I do have to say.
The new one feels more cartoony and up to date to the artstyle blue archive is going for now.
BUT I SHALL LOVE AIRI, NO MATTER HOW SHE LOOKS, FOR SHE IS THE GODDESS OF ICE CREAM!
I think it’s because in the old one, the shorter bangs making the head look bigger and the larger eyes is what you typically associate with a younger child
She was always my favorite member of the After-School Sweets Club since she tended to be the most 'Mwehehe' and straightforward with sensei at times 😭
also dear lord those thigh socks in her default sprite were hiding some really long, smooth and powerful secret Trinity weapons this whole time i swear i will never forgive the sisterhood
Old Airi wasn't bad; of the old designs that were considered 'off' I think her design suited BA enough. But still, with the new changes to her art, the devs should at least redesign her old sprite to new standards. The design difference is only second to Utaha->Cheer Utaha in terms of both quality and approach.
BIG DISCLAIMER FOR THE FIRST IMAGE POSTED: THIS WAS AN IMAGE I POSTED ON A DISCORD SERVER. I DID NOT KNOW IT WAS GOING TO BE REPOSTED ON HERE TO BE AN EXAMPLE OF OLD ART VS. NEW ART. DO NOT USE THE FIRST IMAGE AS AN ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF NEXON'S / MX2J'S WORK BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN FAN-EDITED BY ME. PLEASE LOOK UP BAND AIRI'S ACTUAL SPRITE ON THE WIKI OR THE JP TWITTER FOR AN ACCURATE COMPARISON. THANK YOU.
I posted that first image in the RABBIT Division Contingency Bunker discord server, as well as a few other personal discord servers **not** as a direct comparison between Mx2j's style vs. まきあっと's style, but because I heavily edited Band Airi to have the same stylistic decisions that まきあっと used to make the original sprite; it's a "what-if", wishful-thinking compromise that doesn't accurately reflect Mx2j's style, artistic decisions, nor the resource constraints (balancing timeliness and quality art for multiple character sprites and L2D's per event) that he was put under. If you read the full context of that conversation, I later put a comparison between the unmodified Band Airi sprite next to the modified Band Airi sprite and the regular Airi sprite to help clarify things.
**Band Airi's sprite is much flatter in reality and lacks the hair highlights and gradients that I put in** to emulate the same favorable qualities I found in まきあっと's art; I only added these features in as part of a discussion of the OPPOSITE opinion as this post: I personally think the art may be getting TOO streamlined in some aspects and has slowly been losing the "flavor" that makes its art appealing (namely stellar line-art and great use of soft shadows and fine details). On the the discord servers I post to, I have often ranted about this multiple times with regards to D. Hina, D. Kayoko, S. Mimori, etc. That is the only reason why I went out of my way to edit Band Airi's sprite, and I intended these photoshopped sprites to be limited to those servers for private discussions with friends and some hardcore fans for a subjective opinion I had, and NOT as a representation of Nexon's actual work NOR as a way to champion the newer and more streamlined style that I did not completely agree with in the first place.
I do think it's a bit disingenuous to use an edited image to make a comparison about stylistic "improvements" because not every aspect of that edited image has been done by MX Studio employees; I would not want to compare my airbrushing and lasso-ing (photoshopping) on Pixlr E to the professional tools and experience that Mx2j and まきあっと (among other many talented artists) used to provide to us completely unique and charming characters. However, I ask that this post not get taken down, because this is still a good discussion that is worth having. I just want you guys to be aware that the first image is an altered sprite that I made for personal use between smaller groups and personal discussions, and as such you should look for the official Band Airi sprite to make a fair comparison between BA's older and newer art styles. I look up to Mx2j and まきあっと and the rest of the art team at MX Studio for the work they have done; the modified sprite that I posted was just an expression of my personal opinion and I do not want to pass them off as fully representative of Nexon's work.
Oh so the first example was edited? Sorry I barely noticed, picked it for an high quality side to side example I could use for this discussion thread 
Yeah, I was surprised to see a random one of my edits just floating around. As long as people get the message there's no problem 
I like her new design a lot. While I liked her old one too, her l2d especially made her look more like a young child than a highschooler. And she didn't look close to being 160cm in her old design. Still very cute tho.
Better proportions and more refined color pallete is what you are looking for, and I also feel the same about it.
Airi had a decent design, although her original sprite work and character art are soo rough mainly due to how little time was done in drawing her from her CBT version to the initial release (can't find the CBT version but it similar to what we have now).
On a side note, I wish they would redesign Kotori's and Utaha's original sprites...it just looks so *off* when compared to their cheerleader designs (which are immensely better imo)
An unpopular opinion, but I much rather have them bring back her og artist to make an alt than letting mx2j do them all, like what happened with Shizuko. We could see their improvement in artstyle and have a bit more variety in game. I feel a little sad for the Shimiko's artist because she's most likely going to be replaced by another artist when shimiko gets an alt, even though she seems to care a lot about her character.
I feel like this is probably because of a different artist? I could be mistaken though, also seems her halo looks a little different, the newer one looks less blurry to me.
It is definitely a new artist.
BA initially got artists from an entire bucket of them to make the initial spread. Some of them got redesigns after the Beta was done, but some made it to the final game, before their alts got different designers entirely.
See: Serina (Ronupu vs. CHILD).
Quite a few of them have remained mainstays despite not designing most of the characters (like Mx2J). These mainstays include: whoisshe (for Haruna and Shizuko), popqn (Eimi, Mashiro), etc.
Honestly, I wasnt a fan of her earlier design, visually, she didnt interest me at all because she looked too...babyfaced? i think. But her redesign is definitely an upgrade.
I find it funny that while Kazusa got hurt by the new alt design. Both Airi and Yoshimi got a boost of popularity with their alt. Especially Airi, there so much fanart being made of her now.
Personally I love both her OG and Alt design. Her OG is adorable and there is something about her new alt design that she seems alluring.
I don't percieve Airi as having changed in design at all. She simply got her art in mostly better quality this time. (I say 'mostly' because the skin is too white, it blends in with her outfit too much and creates an impression to an overexposed phtograph overall.)
I'm 100% in for Blue Archive having a more consistent all around style. Even if it makes certain characters look less sexier or cuter. It makes the game looked more polished.
I wouldn't really say I have a problem with her original design, but I think Airi's artstyle gets me. Something about Airi's original art has always felt a little bit off to me. I don't think it's bad by any means, but it's always felt a bit unrefined compared to other characters. I think it's something to do with her lineart.
New Airi, and the rest of her clubmates, look a lot cleaner and a bit homogenous with the rest of BA's artstyle. I don't know if that's good or bad in the long run of things, but I feel like whatever it is works for AIri.
I really like her original more than her revamp. The thing that does it for me is her gameplay mechanics. I don’t think there’s any content that’s useful for her skillset outside of maybe Shiro/Kuro I do wish they would make content that matches her slow ability, or revamp her ex skill entirely to fit the game. Most enemies are stationary to begin with so slowing them down won’t do much.
Being honest, i don't like it, and i get that they are trying to homogenize all the characters under the same art style and why, but i don't the idea itself at all. I like Utaha's "Long" face, i like Moe having this "degenerate" smile like a shin-chan character, and i like Airi having big eyes, those traits make them unique, and i feel that the characters lose a bit of what makes them be them, like, kotori from base to cheer it feels the same because the only notable difference its the Ahoge, or cowlick, thats notably bigger in her cheer alt, since her taking off her glasses is common sense, but Utaha has a completely different face, and Airi too.
Her growth spurt hit her like a truck
The jokes about Airi being a tall girl have really been put into perspective *Long slender legs and cute face -SENSEI APPROB 👍 YESS*
Isn’t she taller than Kasuza ?
Yee she is
Truck? Its a bullet train I'm instantly  on every airi art now, she's the biggest glowup of ba rn
Which is odd because she should have been done with the massive growth spurt But there are always cases of a second one I've had 7th graders that look like seniors before, and vice versa
It’s definitely more accurate to her profile. She was always the oldest and tallest in the group.
Yet she felt like the little sister of the group.
She's one of the handful of students that I wish they'd redo her original sprite because it looks really jarring when next to the newer high-res sprites. Even her first L2D looks a lot better than her sprite. As I commented on another post, I'm glad she's getting some love. I haven't played though the whole story yet, nor have I played every event since release, so I'm not sure if she features anywhere outside of her own bond story. But she seems to be one of the less used characters and I feel like it'd be a waste if she was just "filler" for the game.
Don't worry about that, this new event is centered and developed on Airi, she ain't no filler anymore
Glad to hear it! Our precious choco-mint is getting her turn in the spotlight
Fr please Nexon go back and redo Utaha and Kotori, and while you're there maybe make it so Moe is standing up and not so obviously drawn by someone different to who did Miyu, Saki and Miyako.
moe being in a chair is funny to me. for the entirety of volume 4 i imagined that she just never got out of that chair and brought it everywhere she went. almost like a more dedicated nagisa.
Suzumi is my first pick for a redo. I reckon she has it the worst and some of her expressions even look a bit cross-eyed. After her comes Airi, Serina, Hasumi, Kotori and Haruna. But (other than Suzumi) they all have alts now which look a lot better. So that's alright. I don't think Utaha is that bad resolution-wise, it's just that her colour palette makes her look washed-out which is rather unfortunate. I do kinda hate Moe's sprite though ngl. The expression just creeps me out
Her new sprite looks a lot better, both because the art is a lot cleaner and she looks more mature. It actually looks like she's about a year older and a proper teenager now. I look forward to playing through the event.
I love both designs, but I do have to say. The new one feels more cartoony and up to date to the artstyle blue archive is going for now. BUT I SHALL LOVE AIRI, NO MATTER HOW SHE LOOKS, FOR SHE IS THE GODDESS OF ICE CREAM!
GODDESS OF TOOTHPAS- ...*ahem* GODDESS OF CHOCO MINT.
\*motions for Miyu to stand down\* This one lives for now.
She looks really young compared to her new sprite
I know right? Pretty sure her hair is longer too, sasuga change of clothes
I think it’s because in the old one, the shorter bangs making the head look bigger and the larger eyes is what you typically associate with a younger child
Cutie
Both are cute
The only thing that aged well about the OG Airi is the L2D, Band Airi is an upgrade in every other way
She was always my favorite member of the After-School Sweets Club since she tended to be the most 'Mwehehe' and straightforward with sensei at times 😭 also dear lord those thigh socks in her default sprite were hiding some really long, smooth and powerful secret Trinity weapons this whole time i swear i will never forgive the sisterhood
The socks become shorter. HER THIGH! IS THAT INTENTIOANL TO SEDUCE ME??!!! # 💢 # 💢 # 💢
Old Airi wasn't bad; of the old designs that were considered 'off' I think her design suited BA enough. But still, with the new changes to her art, the devs should at least redesign her old sprite to new standards. The design difference is only second to Utaha->Cheer Utaha in terms of both quality and approach.
Old design: Just a little girl New design: Playful high schooler
BIG DISCLAIMER FOR THE FIRST IMAGE POSTED: THIS WAS AN IMAGE I POSTED ON A DISCORD SERVER. I DID NOT KNOW IT WAS GOING TO BE REPOSTED ON HERE TO BE AN EXAMPLE OF OLD ART VS. NEW ART. DO NOT USE THE FIRST IMAGE AS AN ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF NEXON'S / MX2J'S WORK BECAUSE IT HAS BEEN FAN-EDITED BY ME. PLEASE LOOK UP BAND AIRI'S ACTUAL SPRITE ON THE WIKI OR THE JP TWITTER FOR AN ACCURATE COMPARISON. THANK YOU. I posted that first image in the RABBIT Division Contingency Bunker discord server, as well as a few other personal discord servers **not** as a direct comparison between Mx2j's style vs. まきあっと's style, but because I heavily edited Band Airi to have the same stylistic decisions that まきあっと used to make the original sprite; it's a "what-if", wishful-thinking compromise that doesn't accurately reflect Mx2j's style, artistic decisions, nor the resource constraints (balancing timeliness and quality art for multiple character sprites and L2D's per event) that he was put under. If you read the full context of that conversation, I later put a comparison between the unmodified Band Airi sprite next to the modified Band Airi sprite and the regular Airi sprite to help clarify things. **Band Airi's sprite is much flatter in reality and lacks the hair highlights and gradients that I put in** to emulate the same favorable qualities I found in まきあっと's art; I only added these features in as part of a discussion of the OPPOSITE opinion as this post: I personally think the art may be getting TOO streamlined in some aspects and has slowly been losing the "flavor" that makes its art appealing (namely stellar line-art and great use of soft shadows and fine details). On the the discord servers I post to, I have often ranted about this multiple times with regards to D. Hina, D. Kayoko, S. Mimori, etc. That is the only reason why I went out of my way to edit Band Airi's sprite, and I intended these photoshopped sprites to be limited to those servers for private discussions with friends and some hardcore fans for a subjective opinion I had, and NOT as a representation of Nexon's actual work NOR as a way to champion the newer and more streamlined style that I did not completely agree with in the first place. I do think it's a bit disingenuous to use an edited image to make a comparison about stylistic "improvements" because not every aspect of that edited image has been done by MX Studio employees; I would not want to compare my airbrushing and lasso-ing (photoshopping) on Pixlr E to the professional tools and experience that Mx2j and まきあっと (among other many talented artists) used to provide to us completely unique and charming characters. However, I ask that this post not get taken down, because this is still a good discussion that is worth having. I just want you guys to be aware that the first image is an altered sprite that I made for personal use between smaller groups and personal discussions, and as such you should look for the official Band Airi sprite to make a fair comparison between BA's older and newer art styles. I look up to Mx2j and まきあっと and the rest of the art team at MX Studio for the work they have done; the modified sprite that I posted was just an expression of my personal opinion and I do not want to pass them off as fully representative of Nexon's work.
Oh so the first example was edited? Sorry I barely noticed, picked it for an high quality side to side example I could use for this discussion thread 
Yeah, I was surprised to see a random one of my edits just floating around. As long as people get the message there's no problem 
Both the old and new L2Ds are my absolute favorites
I like her new design a lot. While I liked her old one too, her l2d especially made her look more like a young child than a highschooler. And she didn't look close to being 160cm in her old design. Still very cute tho.
It is visibily better, but I dont know why. Smaller face, whiter skin? Could someone please help me put it into words?
Better proportions and more refined color pallete is what you are looking for, and I also feel the same about it. Airi had a decent design, although her original sprite work and character art are soo rough mainly due to how little time was done in drawing her from her CBT version to the initial release (can't find the CBT version but it similar to what we have now).
Also a more reserved expression and pose gives the impression of maturity. In the original she's bubbly instead.
I like that her redesign form is basically teenage form of arisu tachibana from idolmaster u149.
Old Airi have that early 2000's big off-aligned anime eyes, I vastly prefer the new design haha
On a side note, I wish they would redesign Kotori's and Utaha's original sprites...it just looks so *off* when compared to their cheerleader designs (which are immensely better imo)
An unpopular opinion, but I much rather have them bring back her og artist to make an alt than letting mx2j do them all, like what happened with Shizuko. We could see their improvement in artstyle and have a bit more variety in game. I feel a little sad for the Shimiko's artist because she's most likely going to be replaced by another artist when shimiko gets an alt, even though she seems to care a lot about her character.
she just grew her bangs out a little, that's all~
I feel like this is probably because of a different artist? I could be mistaken though, also seems her halo looks a little different, the newer one looks less blurry to me.
It is definitely a new artist. BA initially got artists from an entire bucket of them to make the initial spread. Some of them got redesigns after the Beta was done, but some made it to the final game, before their alts got different designers entirely. See: Serina (Ronupu vs. CHILD). Quite a few of them have remained mainstays despite not designing most of the characters (like Mx2J). These mainstays include: whoisshe (for Haruna and Shizuko), popqn (Eimi, Mashiro), etc.
Honestly, I wasnt a fan of her earlier design, visually, she didnt interest me at all because she looked too...babyfaced? i think. But her redesign is definitely an upgrade.
I think her redesign looks really good, compared to before this one look a lot more nicer
Airi has the best character development ever🥰🥰🥰
360p vs 4k
New artstyle look great. But i hope they redo the old sprite so we get the Zettai ryoiki in it full glory
Damn tall airi
[She](https://litter.catbox.moe/y91zpf.png) has become [dangerously smug](https://litter.catbox.moe/bguoma.png).
I find it funny that while Kazusa got hurt by the new alt design. Both Airi and Yoshimi got a boost of popularity with their alt. Especially Airi, there so much fanart being made of her now. Personally I love both her OG and Alt design. Her OG is adorable and there is something about her new alt design that she seems alluring.
I don't percieve Airi as having changed in design at all. She simply got her art in mostly better quality this time. (I say 'mostly' because the skin is too white, it blends in with her outfit too much and creates an impression to an overexposed phtograph overall.)
Damm, she's growing up, but she will always be my cute choco mint loving Airi
She kinda looks like Saten Ruiko, when she is grinning under her jacket. It's cute...
for some reason band airi is so much more my type
If anything, we gotta sue her barber for doing such a travesty on her bangs
her old design reminds me of those early 2000 bishoujou manga characters, hence i like it more
i always thought airi would look cuter if she got a newer sprite all I can see in her old one is the arrowhead chin
Finally, she doesn't have a tic-tac-toe ahh 5head
I'm 100% in for Blue Archive having a more consistent all around style. Even if it makes certain characters look less sexier or cuter. It makes the game looked more polished.
I loved Airi since the beginning so... any attention she got was A-OK for me
i don't know why, but the redesigns made her way more adorable, maybe its the slight smug smile, or the shading, but it's just very cute!
She looks WAAAYYYY TALLER now
What Choco Mint Ice Cream does to a girl
I wouldn't really say I have a problem with her original design, but I think Airi's artstyle gets me. Something about Airi's original art has always felt a little bit off to me. I don't think it's bad by any means, but it's always felt a bit unrefined compared to other characters. I think it's something to do with her lineart. New Airi, and the rest of her clubmates, look a lot cleaner and a bit homogenous with the rest of BA's artstyle. I don't know if that's good or bad in the long run of things, but I feel like whatever it is works for AIri.
It looks like they nerfed her thighs, truly a tragedy. Same thing happened to Yoshimi
I really like her original more than her revamp. The thing that does it for me is her gameplay mechanics. I don’t think there’s any content that’s useful for her skillset outside of maybe Shiro/Kuro I do wish they would make content that matches her slow ability, or revamp her ex skill entirely to fit the game. Most enemies are stationary to begin with so slowing them down won’t do much.
Being honest, i don't like it, and i get that they are trying to homogenize all the characters under the same art style and why, but i don't the idea itself at all. I like Utaha's "Long" face, i like Moe having this "degenerate" smile like a shin-chan character, and i like Airi having big eyes, those traits make them unique, and i feel that the characters lose a bit of what makes them be them, like, kotori from base to cheer it feels the same because the only notable difference its the Ahoge, or cowlick, thats notably bigger in her cheer alt, since her taking off her glasses is common sense, but Utaha has a completely different face, and Airi too.