When I first watched anime, it was the giant eyes 
and stub noses in a commercial that made me 
think, "Huh? How weird... I'm kinda curious." 
Seven, eight (?) years later, I'm still 
watching. :o)

I'd have to say that in general, I still prefer 
big, expressive eyes and stub noses. When I first 
watched Escaflowne, it took me a few episodes to 
really adjust to the ski slope noses. Then again, 
when I first watched The Glass Mask, it took me 
the first eight episodes before I really got 
comfortable watching the late-80's/early-90's 
character design. When I first saw the RK OAVs, 
though, I adored the art style, so I don't always 
need those big eyes. ;o)

So, yeah, I'd have to concur that character 
design is largely influenced by the subject 
matter being dealt with. But, after sitting 
through a number of episodes, it's easy to kind 
of adjust and accept whatever "new" style happens 
to be presented. It's kind of like listening to 
voices... you eventually adapt to whatever's 
presented, even if it isn't what you were 
expecting, or if they all sounded the same the 
first time you heard them. Still, there are some 
series that I don't watch, just *because* I can't 
stand the character design... and don't care to 
try and get used to it, either. ;o)

-Cres