While I’m not 100% sure, as an artist myself, I think the tweaking for the deadline is the more likely of those theories. If the art had gotten simpler because the artist had changed and they were trying to replicate the old artists’ art style, there would be more of the subtle changes in designs whether it’s because the new artist has a different art method or because their own style sensibility is creeping in. As far as manwa art styles go, this one’s on the more distinctive side to begin with so it would take a new artist much more practice to take over. Of course there’s also the possibility that it’s an expansion in the art team, in which case the simplified aspects would be more for consistency between several people and then lack of time for later polish. Just my two cents :)
This has been in my bookmark for awhile and have read it since 2022 and stopped for awhile when it was in 50+ chapters but would occasionally read the updates every now and then,
I accidentally clicked chapter 90 something and read the next few chapters to spoil myself and then back to chapter 1 to re-read the whole thing and noticed the change of art style in the beginning is more detailed. I do get the the art style for the first chapters (or volume) have to leave a impact for readers and I compared to the later chapters that the lineart was more bolder and cartoon-y than the beginning. I do enjoy the artists' note of 3d environment drafts hey leave at the end of some chapters.
Was there an artist change after season 1 or somehwere in the middle?? Or did they tweak their art to be more easy to work with bc of the deadline??? I can't unsee the change, this is just my opinion and genuinely asking
No hate on the current art style though, I love it and will contnue reading ╮(￣▽￣)╭