She looks very “cutesy!” That’s not necessarily bad, but I honestly had no problem with her original anime design pre-GMG. The GMG art was when I think everything went to hell art-wise, and definitely with Juvia. She just looked so weird and “off” in so many episodes. It was annoying.
I wish this new design was a more straight-on picture. I think that would have helped us judge it better. I’ll hold off on being critical until we see her in motion, but, yeah, I’m not in love with it, but I think it’s pretty good, and certainly miles ahead of the GMG anime Juvia.
The thing is, we’ll always compare anime Juvia to her manga counterpart, and since Mashima improves on her design in nearly every chapter, it’s hard to not be a bit disappointed by comparison. He draws her so well. Juvia CAN be cutesy, but also beautiful, and also classy, and badass. Mashima nails all of these looks with her. So, this design didn’t make me think it looks closer to Mashima’s style, she just looks more “adorable,” which again, is not bad, but I thought the other previous character anime designs (Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Erza, etc) DID look closer to Mashima’s art overall (except for Laxus, who also looks different from Mashima’s style).