"Dragon Ball Super" Animation Staff Discussion

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

I have no doubt that there are a lot of people at Toei who care, which is why this sucks. It seems like Shuiesha is more to blame.

Might I ask what would give you that impression?

Bandai Namco and Shueisha didn't want to wait too much longer and pulled the trigger to air the series too early, and now we are stuck with it.

Again, where is this coming from?

Are these just assumptions people have come to, or is there something I've missed? I can assure you, these are not the companies at fault for the current state of the series' production. For one, Bandai Namco has no involvement with the series' production, at all. Secondly, Shueisha also has no real significant involvement, other than coordinating the Dragon Ball Super manga with Toei. The main companies that have any actual decision making power with the production of the series are Toei (Animation), Fuji TV, and Yomiko Advertising.

Bandai is behind merchandising, is it not? The quicker the show gets out, the more money they can get by selling merchandises.

[Wezenheim]

I have no doubt that there are a lot of people at Toei who care, which is why this sucks. It seems like Shuiesha is more to blame.

Might I ask what would give you that impression?

I assume it's more from the perspective of them being the owners of the franchise. You'd think they'd understand the industry a little better.

Pretty much this. It's just a shot in the dark of course, I'll admit I don't know for sure. Who would make the decision as to when the show would air and how much of a planning stage it would get? I assumed, perhaps unrightfully so, that Toei is not the sole entity to blame for the production.

[Hujio]

Bandai is behind merchandising, is it not? The quicker the show gets out, the more money they can get by selling merchandises.

Bandai is one of many companies that merchandise the franchise. Shueisha, Happinet, etc. are all merchandising companies that have a vested interest in Dragon Ball Super. However, they are at the mercy of Toei and Fuji TV, who are producing the series. If Bandai had hired Toei Animation to animate a new series, then yes, they would have input on its production schedule. But that's not what happened. Toei and Fuji TV got together to begin producing the series, as has always been the case with Dragon Ball, and then they sell certain merchandising rights to various companies, such as Bandai, allowing them to produce figures, cards, etc. If anything, it is Toei who would rush into things to recoup production costs from merchandising.

[Sodhi]

Bandai is one of many companies that merchandise the franchise. Shueisha, Happinet, etc. are all merchandising companies that have a vested interest in Dragon Ball Super. However, they are at the mercy of Toei and Fuji TV, who are producing the series. If Bandai had hired Toei Animation to animate a new series, then yes, they would have input on its production schedule. But that's not what happened. Toei and Fuji TV got together to begin producing the series, as has always been the case with Dragon Ball, and then they sell certain merchandising rights to various companies, such as Bandai, allowing them to produce figures, cards, etc. If anything, it is Toei who would rush into things to recoup production costs from merchandising.

Interesting, looks like they are in damage control mode now. Still cant believe they would let the series be in such a tight schedule.

[Wezenheim]

Bandai is behind merchandising, is it not? The quicker the show gets out, the more money they can get by selling merchandises.

Bandai is one of many companies that merchandise the franchise. Shueisha, Happinet, etc. are all merchandising companies that have a vested interest in Dragon Ball Super. However, they are at the mercy of Toei and Fuji TV, who are producing the series. If Bandai had hired Toei Animation to animate a new series, then yes, they would have input on its production schedule. But that's not what happened. Toei and Fuji TV got together to begin producing the series, as has always been the case with Dragon Ball, and then they sell certain merchandising rights to various companies, such as Bandai, allowing them to produce figures, cards, etc. If anything, it is Toei who would rush into things to recoup production costs from merchandising.

Ah, I see. Well I retract my earlier statement and apologize for my ignorance. It's difficult to wrap my head around everything going on with the production.

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

Well, either way, things are not looking good right now. With the mess they are in, I do have to wonder if many of the good animators are wary of the series since the beginning. Shida hasn't been our storyboard artist for quite a while, let alone animate even a single cut. Chioka didn't even get a chance to do his thing. Oonoshi Ryou wasn't involved as much as we would have liked. With Toei trying to shuffle the staff, the production has been in the worse state than I'd thought. Recovering from the bad schedule right now would be their priority, I hope.

The story and script have been good so far, so I have no issue with it other than its fast pacing.

[raulvalente]

Just a question from a noob... How much time would be ideal for a fight episode? I know it would need a lot of in-between frames and refined work for it to look good in motion, I was just wondering how much time it would be necessary for it.

[DragonBalllKaiHD]

Around 3 months would be sufficient to make the fights look as good as the previous series. But Toei has no time to make such a single quality fight. And even if they have the time to do it, they are only allowed to produce 2,500 drawings, while the older series had a thousand more.

[JulieYBM]

Anime News Network has a new interview with Yamamuro Tadayoshi and Producer Hayashida Norihiro.

Just a question from a noob... How much time would be ideal for a fight episode? I know it would need a lot of in-between frames and refined work for it to look good in motion, I was just wondering how much time it would be necessary for it.

It depends on the complexity of the animation and the staff involved. From what I have read before movie quality animation productions typically have enough time for their staff to focus on only one cut (shot) a day. Being that there are about thirty days in a month and three hundred shots in an episode that would mean two months of work from a single key animator would produce almost a third of an episode of high-quality shots. Mind you, some animators are faster and not every cut needs the same amount of time. Tanaka Hironori is said to be capable of fifty to sixty cuts in a month and he produces incredible fight scenes.

To get a nice, high-quality action episode like Naruto Shippuuden gets we'd probably need three-to-five months and three or four good animators working on a sizable number of cuts, but that's only assuming that the episode is allowed a high number of drawings, i.e. ten thousand or more.

[ekrolo2]

While watching Resurrection ’F’, there is some stuff that never gets fully explained.

Yamamuro: It's not going to be 100%, but most things from the movie that remain unexplained are made to explored later in Dragon Ball Super.

[JulieYBM]

The interview is from between 29 October and 01 November, so it makes sense for things to have changed. If anything it helps imply that someone has been meddling with the story.

[Ajay]

I'm 99% sure I've read all of these answers before. Maybe I read the original interview during that Spanish drama.

[ekrolo2]

The interview is from between 29 October and 01 November, so it makes sense for things to have changed. If anything it helps imply that someone has been meddling with the story.

That's odd, why's a few months old interview on the front page of the site now?

[Patrolman Jaco]

"What is the future for Dragon Ball movies, then?"
"Hayashida: We are waiting to see what happens, but there may be something coming soon."

Please let there be a movie remake for the U6 arc, hell just cancel Super and continue the series with movies instead.

[JulieYBM]

Since Chioka is stepping away from the weekly animated series and we're only four months away from the month in which the last two movies were announced I wouldn't be surprised if Chioka is already beginning pre-production on a new movie.

[VegettoEX]

That's odd, why's a few months old interview on the front page of the site now?

Larger site with actual paid employees and freelance staff allocating their time and editorial schedule for what makes sense in context with the rest of the site's coverage. It's not the same as me sending Julian and Jake an email at 11:00 p.m. and demanding a transcription and proper translation by the time I wake up in the morning .

[KaiserNeko]

I personally always believed they shouldn't have made a new TV series and just continued with the movies.

Also, a cross-post from ANN:

"The criticism we've received has been way too overblown."

"Way too overblown"!?

He openly admits to employing new talent on a veteran franchise and that their timetable is completely screwed up because of the system they're using. It doesn't sound overblown, it sounds entirely justified. Because he justified it. In the interview.

Look, I understand sticking up for your new animators, but when the quality of your series is lacking, people are going to notice and they're not going to be happy about it. Making excuses and essentially blaming it on new talent (and then deftly defending them in the same statement, quality move there) and your unsustainable schedule just isn't the answer. Encourage people to get angry, to get upset, and have that response fuel a change in the system.

[SansrivaaL]

They put newbie animators on DB a well known anime thats mostly all about fights, with a tight schedule and only 2,500 papers per episode, well that basically explains why DBS looks sh*t compared to the other shonen on going series right now. Thank you Toei.

[Wezenheim]

Hayashida's comments are typical interview fluff, but they still don't sit too well with me if the translation is accurate. I also don't know when the interview was conducted, but I'm not sure that matters.

Waving off criticism is a dangerous trap that you should never fall into. It also doesn't look good to the fans. I'll keep from saying too much because I don't know all of the details of this interview but... it don't look good.

[Chuquita]

I am disappointed the animation is in such a mess for Super.