As for Yamamuro, he might simply be focusing on designing the new characters for upcoming episodes. I do hope he backs away from the series and lets someone else take over, although I'm not sure Ide or Tsuji would be as good.
Yamamuro isn't the animator or character designer he used to be. His designs have become uglier over the years, specifically the faces. As the main animation supervisor for the various modern works he seems to have discouraged animator individuality and brought an overall homogenized look and feel to Dragon Ball. This homogenization is made worse by just how unremarkable Yamamuro is as an animator--he has no specialty. He isn't skilled at character animation, dance animator or action animation. Yamamuro's recently taken to directing and storyboarding, but like his animation he lacks any sort of sense for telling a story interestingly. The Majin Buu arc Opening for Dragon Ball Kai looks nothing like a high-quality Opening animation and Fukkatsu no F conveys information in the most blatant and disengaged manner possible.DBZMerciter2005 wrote:I've seen Yamamuro's name thrown around a lot with a negative tone. Why are his character designs so disliked? I think his stuff looks just fine. It's not like his stuff was as bad as Uchiyama's. (Note: I'm looking at the Kanzenshuu animation guide so feel free to correct me where I'm wrong.)DragonBalllKaiHD wrote:I don't condemn off-models (I actually enjoy seeing Toshiyuki Kan'no's work in Dragon Ball Z). But it would be nice if they draw on-models every a few episode or so. The detailed animation is always nice to look at, especially in motion, like the Seigasha episodes. Naruto Shippuden has some pretty good off-models animation, but they are good because they had better planning and schedules, which Super obviously doesn't have. Yamamuro's character designs don't help either. Speaking of Yamamuro, I wonder what he is up to now. His presence isn't felt in the new series. I wonder if promoting Ide as the chief animation supervisor was only because Yamamuro doesn't want to do too much anymore.
Yamamuro's been with the franchise a long time but he hasn't improved. He's stayed stuck in the early 1990s while his underclassmen have all moved on and added new aspects to their character. Yamamuro keeps falling back on the same old, tired tricks and animators. There's no sense of competition like one sees in most of the PreCure films or better series.