I'm heavily text-focused, so often skimmed right past it in prior (Western) comics

I'm the same way, actually--I have a tendency to tear through things as fast as I can read the text, and only spectacularly gorgeous, elaborate art would slow me down at all. I've been trying to teach myself to stop and look at the art. The better integrated art and text are, the more important it is, because you're in danger of missing at least half the story if you don't.

That's part of my interest in reading this sort of thing (the rest is pure geekhood)--other people's insights can help me understand what I'm looking at.