Dark fantasy seinen favors high contrast, desaturated hues, and grounded, adult themes. Subject matter leans toward solitude, burdened heroes, ruined architecture, and hostile weather.

Key cues to embed in prompts:

• Palette: obsidian blacks, bone grays, dried-blood reds, cold steel blues; tiny crimson accents.
• Lighting: low-key, hard-edged shadows, pronounced rim light, minimal practicals (torches, candles).
• Materials: worn leather, matte steel, patinated bronze, rain-soaked capes, tattered hems, scuffed boots.
• Atmospherics: drifting embers, ash motes, fog, rain streaks, breath vapor, wet cobblestones.
• Composition: deep shadows and negative space, off-center subjects, Dutch angles, triangular capes as leading lines.
• Linework: clean yet assertive line art; limited highlight bloom; coarse texture on stone and fabric.

Use concise, weighted phrases. Keep the tone consistent and avoid kawaii cues.

Character key art

• dark fantasy seinen, {protagonist} in {setting}, low-key chiaroscuro, gritty textures, tattered cloak, floating embers, cinematic depth of field, desaturated palette with crimson accent, detailed anime line art, mature tone, rain and fog, wet surfaces, 35mm, high detail, sharp focus

Environment concept

• dark fantasy seinen environment, ruined {architecture} shrouded in fog, torchlight pools, deep occlusion shadows, ash motes, puddled stone, overgrown thorns, high contrast, matte materials, limited palette, dramatic scale, volumetric light shafts

Action panel

• dark fantasy seinen action, {protagonist} clashes with {foe}, cape whipping, sparks and ember particles, harsh rim light, motion blur restrained, angular composition, bloodless but intense, cinematic framing, inked shadows, page-ready panel

Negative prompt tips

• Avoid: kawaii, chibi, neon cyberpunk, pastel, glossy plastic, toy-like, overexposed, flat lighting, soft glam, doodle eyes
• Cleanliness: blurry, low-res, jpeg artifacts, extra fingers, deformed hands, mushy textures, watermark, text artifact

Anchor one dominant light (torch/candle/moon) and let the scene fall away into black.

Tactics

• Put key light 3/4 back or side for strong rim; keep fill near zero.
• Prompt atoms: low-key lighting, high contrast, hard shadows, chiaroscuro, deep shadow shapes, occlusion, rim light.
• For ControlNet: pair Canny (composition) with Depth (volume). Optional NormalMap for more consistent shading.
• Post polish: subtle vignette, multiply-layer shadow paint, sparing dodge on highlights.

Failure modes

• Overfilling shadows makes the look generic. Reduce fill and raise contrast.
• Bloom halos flatten linework; keep highlight bloom very low.

Sell motion and weight without over-noise.

Cloth cues

• Prompt: heavy wool cloak, rain-soaked fabric, torn hem, wind-swept cape, directional folds, gravity-aware drape, matte fibers.
• Encourage designed flow lines that point toward faces/weapons.

Ember/particle cues

• Prompt: drifting ember particles, ash motes, sparse sparks, shallow depth of field bokeh, subtle motion streaks.
• Keep particle density low; prioritize scale variety and depth separation.

Video/sequence tips

• Use pose guidance (OpenPose) for continuity; add AnimateDiff for controlled motion.
• Keep ember noise stable: introduce as a separate overlay pass or consistent prompt tokens across frames.

Seinen paneling breathes—use negative space and controlled pacing.

Guidelines

• Panel shapes: tall verticals for dread; wide horizontals for bleak vistas; occasional splash for reveals.
• Gutters: slightly wider than shonen; leave room for moody silence.
• Angles: low horizon and Dutch angles for unease; push silhouettes against light sources.
• Typography: restrained SFX; weathered serif or minimalist sans; avoid playful type.
• Export: generate clean art, add type and gutters in layout tools; keep line art on top with multiply for easy edits.

A dependable pipeline for repeatable results.

1. References and palette

• Build a tight board: capes, torches, wet stone, Gothic arches, fog density references; pick 3–5 hex anchors: #0B0F14, #2B2F36, #4B0E0E, #6F1E1E, #C9C6B8.

2. Base and guidance

• Choose a high-quality anime-focused model (SDXL/SD1.5 variants) with crisp linework.
• Add ControlNet: Canny + Depth; optionally OpenPose for action shots.

3. Generation settings (starting point)

• Sampler: DPM++ 2M Karras; Steps: 28–40; CFG: 4–7.
• Resolution: 768–1024 on the short side; upscale 1.5–2x with detail-preserving upscaler.
• Denoise (img2img passes): 0.35–0.55 for refinement; lower for keeping lines.

4. Style anchoring

• Use a style LoRA sparingly (0.6–0.9) for gothic textures if needed.
• IP-Adapter or similar for character identity from a reference sheet.

5. Lighting pass

• Emphasize: low-key, rim light, chiaroscuro, occlusion; reduce fill language.

6. Finishing

• Subtle grain; vignette; cool shadows/warm lights split; hand-paint edge highlights if needed.

Maintain recognizability across pages and shots.

• Lock a seed per character; vary only when changing time/arc.
• Keep a compact identity prompt: age, build, hair shape, key garment, scar/talisman.
• Use IP-Adapter/face control for tight likeness without overfitting.
• Color discipline: repeat 1–2 accent colors (e.g., crimson sash) across scenes.
• Store pose thumbnails and camera notes to reapply with ControlNet.

Before publishing, verify:

• Blacks are truly low-key; highlights are intentional, not bloom-drift.
• Embers are sparse, depth-aware, and not covering faces.
• Cloth reads heavy and directional; no rubbery spec.
• Hands and weapons are clean; no deformation or tangling capes.
• Panel gutters breathe; typography matches tone; no crowding.
• Visual continuity: seed, palette, and lighting logic are consistent.