New or Old animation

[Khin]

I honestly would prefer the old colors,i hate the new colors.But animation in general,i dunno.Both have ups and downs.

[gokaiblue]

I like the old style but love the fluidity of the new animation.

[Hellspawn28]

I'm fine with the new colors. Dragon Ball is a colorful series and having bright colors fits the tone in my opinion.

[emperior]

I don't dislike new colors, though I liked old ones better, but I'm curious to see what Super would look like with old colors (is there a fan-made picture of Super with old colors?)

[Ajay]

I'm not even really sure what people mean by the "old colours". Do you mean the grain and the warped Dragon Box colours or what?

I made a joke picture editing a shot from the Golden Freeza arc to look like a Dragon Box shot. if that helps?

Spoiler:

I honestly feel like the biggest issue with the way the latest outings look is entirely down to character designs. Yamamuro is not what he once was:

Now:

Spoiler:

Then (excuse the warped colours):

Spoiler:

[Blade]

Just so I'm clear here, what are we talking about when 'old colors' are referred to?

Unlike Dragonball GT which had a noticeably different palette (which was artistically intentional), Dragonball Super uses more or less the same design palette as Dragonball Z - the marked difference being the sharper, more absolute hues facilitated by digital rendering and a non-degrading digital storage medium.

I think it's worth pointing out that the washed-out colours in the old Dragonball/Z anime are largely a direct artefact of the celuloid animation process, the degradation (and poor handling - pass your regards to Toei for that) of the analogue storage medium (film), and the numerous/various remastering processes that the modern home video releases have been subsequently subjected to.

--Edit-- Ajay beat me to the punch.

[Metalwario64]

There's a pretty big difference in colors with the newer stuff, with Goku having a more tan skin tone, vs the more peach color he had throughout the original DB and Z.

Also, the Super Saiyan forms clothes no longer change to a lighter shade of color with each progressive form:



vs.



or



vs.



I also like how the blues in Goku's uniform were a nice lavender in Z when he was in his SS forms. It's a very clear difference.

[Danfun64]

I also like how you're using the off model hdtv rips to make your point. Can you use blu-ray frames instead?

[Bansho64]

I like really like the old shading of the characters. It seems like nowadays that everyone is made of glass. I also like the way they shaped the muscles. Not every character was extremely muscular but they certainly weren't anything close to skinny.

[Duo]

a reply to my response.

That bit you cited in Battle of Gods is probably my favorite bit of animation in all of Dragon Ball / Z / Super / GT / etc. I'm sure most wouldn't agree, but that sequence (paired with the audio) gets me more pumped up than just about anything ever.

[dbzfan7]

Old. The style is nicer, and the choreography is a lot better. New looks nicer in some cases, but drops the ball once motion is implemented.

[Wezenheim]

a reply to my response.

That bit you cited in Battle of Gods is probably my favorite bit of animation in all of Dragon Ball / Z / Super / GT / etc. I'm sure most wouldn't agree, but that sequence (paired with the audio) gets me more pumped up than just about anything ever.

It's one of my favorites as well, maybe even my favorite. I love everything about that entire sequence. If Super lasts long enough, I really hope we get more work from Shida (the animator who worked on that cut). He's probably working on the new One Piece movie at the moment. I don't know if he'd be able to produce his best with the tight schedule Super has, but I'm sure it would be pretty nice regardless. The work he does for One Piece (like the stuff I cited in my first post) is so good.

[Metalwario64]

I also like how you're using the off model hdtv rips to make your point. Can you use blu-ray frames instead?

I don't own the Blu-rays, and even then those redrawn shots still use the same palette.

[ParkerAL]

Like some posts here have hinted at, Dragon Ball's older aesthetic wasn't as much the result of the animators drawing on cels as it was those cels then being transferred onto 16mm and 35mm film. I'd be very curious to see what modern Dragon Ball animation would look like if put through a similar process. I think it's the filmic look of the older shows that many people miss - which is ironic, considering the lengths Funimation has gone to make Dragon Ball Z look "new and shiny" on its most recent Blu-rays.

[Darkton]

One look at Yukio Ebisawa's episodes (at least the parts he worked on and not the stand-in) can defeat this argument instantly. Animators will always cut corners, especially on a minuscule Japanese anime budget.

As for digital vs. analog, all that matters is how much went into the animation. On one hand, you've got stuff like Akira for analog, and on the other you have Gundam Thunderbolt's OVAs. Both of those are covering things with high budget, and both look fantastic.

[Bansho64]

Like some posts here have hinted at, Dragon Ball's older aesthetic wasn't as much the result of the animators drawing on cels as it was those cels then being transferred onto 16mm and 35mm film. I'd be very curious to see what modern Dragon Ball animation would look like if put through a similar process. I think it's the filmic look of the older shows that many people miss - which is ironic, considering the lengths Funimation has gone to make Dragon Ball Z look "new and shiny" on its most recent Blu-rays.

Does the transfer to film really make it look that much better?

[Metalwario64]

Like some posts here have hinted at, Dragon Ball's older aesthetic wasn't as much the result of the animators drawing on cels as it was those cels then being transferred onto 16mm and 35mm film. I'd be very curious to see what modern Dragon Ball animation would look like if put through a similar process. I think it's the filmic look of the older shows that many people miss - which is ironic, considering the lengths Funimation has gone to make Dragon Ball Z look "new and shiny" on its most recent Blu-rays.

Does the transfer to film really make it look that much better?

I like the film look, but my ideal way to view the series would be a rescan of all of the cels digitally, to see each and every detail as they were originally drawn. which for obvious reasons, is impossible.

[Polyphase Avatron]

I also prefer the older animation.

[qjz123]

Didn't Dragon Ball Z have a higher budget back during its original run(relative to animating costs of course)? Super is basically a Saturday morning cartoon whereas Z had a prime time slot. Or am I getting that wrong?

The new animation isn't worse because of the way its produced, its worse because Toei are cheap as hell.

[JulieYBM]

Didn't Dragon Ball Z have a higher budget back during its original run(relative to animating costs of course)? Super is basically a Saturday morning cartoon whereas Z had a prime time slot. Or am I getting that wrong?

The new animation isn't worse because of the way its produced, its worse because Toei are cheap as hell.

Dragon Ball Z was apparently allowed a higher number of in-between drawings than other Toei Animation shows, standing at around 3,500. The average count per episode for modern series is 3,000-4,000 but most Toei series seem to stick closer to 3,000. Toei Animation series are no 'cheaper' than any other long-running weekly series, they're just produced haphazardly due to poor management as the studio tries to remain afloat in a climate where less and less money is going to studios that never had very much to begin with.