In both male and female cases, my favourite art style was between late 80s and throughout the 90s. It's got that rawness to it that gives the art both power and beauty/grace when required.
Before that, the art was a bit rough and unrefined. The current art is very clean, but sometimes they can appear a bit too cookie-cutter. Perhaps use of CGI means more "stock templates" are used.
I'm using the timeframes very generally of course - it's all progressive. Early 2000s actually fits in quite well to the above description too.
Source.