A comic

[Gold]

Why is sprite-mixing so bad?

'cause it looks bad?
Try applying it elsewhere, imagine a show with detailed anime characters and stickmen. Does that mix well? Wouldn't that take away from the show? Style mixing of any kind has the same effect, it makes it look weird and halfassed.

But this isn't going to be anime and stick men. They'll be different, but won't be drastically different.

Yeah, that was just a drastic example, the point still stand though that two styles side by side don't look very good. Take M&L and Donkey Kong Country for example, they look absolutely nothing alike, put them side by side and it really looks unappealing.