What exactly makes modern manga look, well, modern and why is it it always easy to see wheb someone is emulating a more retro look? It is related to the setting/story as well?
For example 80s and 90s sci-fi series had their own aesthetic that don't have a direct modern equivalent, so it's easy to see when something it's influenced by specific older artists despite being made decades after

>>7611457 (OP)
Using this as an example of the latter btw

>>7611461
I don’t consider this retro.

Don't worry, you haven't read a single manga from the 80s in the first place.

>>7611457 (OP)
Everything is blocky, more flat shading, rough/grainy outlines, pillow shading.

>>7611457 (OP)
Digital inking and enhancements. Even if we couldn’t tell, subconsciously we feel something is off.
Especially for tankoubon releases, I think the cleanup and redraws are done by a third-party.

What makes something look "modern" is that you already fucking know it's contemporary and are working backwards from the answer. You're thinking of maybe 3 or 4 contemporary works and thinking "yes, this is the modern style" even though there isn't a whole lot of overlap between them and there's a huge amount of variety outside of them even in other mainstream works.
In short, you're biased.

>>7611537
>I think the cleanup and redraws are done by a third-party.
Nope. That would just introduce more errors to be corrected. Fixups are done by the same people who drew it in the first place out of necessity.