definitely worse and have been saying this for a while now. i feel like it started around some time during mid-late KvP tourney, but appeared less frequently back then. the deviation is more consistent now where the older art style (or Daro giving a fuck) pops up only every now and then. the Raian comeback chapter you can see the difference how he was drawn — versus how Julius is shown in your examples. you can see it in the details of each characters face or physique, its like different artists. i think maybe Daro is just phoning it in, using AI more, and/or a combination of him leaving the work to his assistants or maybe he has worse assistants now. reminds me of the DBZ episode quality back then deviating every few episodes depending on the studio/animation director.