Favorite non Toriyama Dragon Ball Artist?

[Wezenheim]

Dragon Ball media outside of Toriyama Akira's original manga series has seen work from the pens of many great artists throughout the years. Whether it be in an anime series or a spinoff manga, many people have channeled their own talent into the Dragon Ball world. Out of everyone outside of Toriyama himself who has worked on the franchise thus far, which artist is your favorite?

Maybe you enjoy the classic works of people like Maeda Minoru

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Nakatsuru Tatsuyoshi

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Ide Takeo

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Miyahara Naoki

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or any of the other talented members of the anime staff during the 80's and 90's.

Maybe you're a fan of our current character designer's work, Yamamuro Tadayoshi. Maybe you like his classic designs:

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Or the work he's doing for Dragon Ball now:

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Perhaps you like the people who stray away from Toriyama's style, such as Masunaga Keisuke.

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Then you get rare but sweet occasions, whether it be from a cut or fan art, that show off the talent of guys like Shida Naotoshi that feature a more modern look:

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To move away from the anime staff, we have people like Toyotaro (the current artist for the Super manga):

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As well as Ooishi Naho, who is the artist for the Dragon Ball SD manga and the Episode of Bardock manga.

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You can pick anyone you wish, including people not listed here. This list is very incomplete and is not meant to be a "best of the best" type of thing, I just wanted to have a significant number of examples without having too many.

For me, it is very difficult to pick an absolute favorite. Although his work isn't as good as it was previously in my opinion, I still really like Yamamuro's classic character designs a lot. I'm also a fan of Miyahara, I love the way he drew Super Saiyans.

If I had to make a choice, I might have to go with Nakatsuru. I love his drawings for the anime, but I also love that drawing shown above of Super Saiyan 4. It has a more "modern" feel while also looking really nice. What about all of you? It can be anyone, even people who work on fan manga like Dragon Ball Multiverse if you want.

[Bansho64]

For me it's a tie between Nakatsuru and Shimanuki. I love Nakatsuru's designs because of how well they mimic Toriyama's which really makes it seem like the manga is coming alive. I love Shimanuki's designs because of how they're slightly different from Toriyama's but still similar and how the characters can stay on model while also moving smoothly.

[Wezenheim]

For me it's a tie between Nakatsuru and Shimanuki. I love Nakatsurus designs because of how well they mimic Toriyamas which really makes it seem like the manga is coming alive. I love Shimanukis designs because of how slightly different from Toriyamas and how the characters can stay on model while also moving smoothly.

Shimanuki used to be really good. I don't quite like his drawings as much in Super these days, although I will say that he has gotten better recently and he still probably draws the best Piccolo alongside Karasawa Yuichi.

[Atp23]

I do enjoy toyotaro's super art a lot. Not so much the character designs, but his style is really enjoyable and captures the comic and whole-hearted nature of the whole franchise and not only 'late-Z' bulky testosterone fest (which I also love don't get me wrong). His extra sketch of vegeta learning his bingo dance from a Kame sennin-esque Pilates tape cracks me up to no end.

[Vijay]

Obviously 90's Tadayoshi Yamamuro, Naoki Miyahara, Shimanuki Mashashiro & Hizada Kazuya

Former 2 gave very "modern" & rugged look to DBZ. Definetly responsible for DragonBall's ascension into the "great looking fighting show" troope

Latter 2 provides some of most legendary & unthinkable "shots" for DragonBall. They focus more on movements which flings at your face like rubber bands. Also, Shimanuki's soft-overarching style is like the sole remnant of heyday DB's rounded-artsyle.

Masunaga Keisugi's my personal fav. His hard-edged drawings may be atypical by DB's standard, but its superior quality during action sequences are unrivalled. Ex: Goku vs Cell (ep 179) & Goku vs Kid Boo (Ep 279)

[Doctor.]

Yamamuro's classic designs are the absolute best and closest to Toriyama's style character designs that we've seen in this franchise. I absolutely adore them. His new work isn't bad either, but it is a step down.

[Iberian_Saiyan]

I have to ask, how do you guys identify animation by its artists? Is it because it's written on the episode's ending credits? I get that they all have their different looks but they still all look so incredibly good with variety so I never really noticed or thought about like "hm, this was drawn by X and this was by Y". If I'd have to pick it would be that Mr. Yamamuro. He really stands out from the rest.

[DB1984]

I don't know much about the non-Toriyama animators, but I'll go with Maeda Minoru.

[Wezenheim]

I have to ask, how do you guys identify animation by its artists? Is it because it's written on the episode's ending credits? I get that they all have their different looks but they still all look so incredibly good with variety so I never really noticed or thought about like "hm, this was drawn by X and this was by Y". If I'd have to pick it would be that Mr. Yamamuro. He really stands out from the rest.

The person credited as the Animation Supervisor/Director in the credits of an episode is usually the one that puts their own style into the art of an episode. This quote from an excellent blog post describes the role of a supervisor like this: "Their position is basically about consistency. They check all the key frames being created for an episode and make corrections where necessary so that the drawings are as close to the models for the series as possible". Ajay's "Super Animation Catalogue" thread is a good place to check out if you want to compare the styles of the supervisors currently working on Super for example. After a while, you can start to guess pretty well who is going to be supervising an episode based on the style alone!

Masunaga Keisugi's my personal fav. His hard-edged drawings may be atypical by DB's standard, but its superior quality during action sequences are unrivalled. Ex: Goku vs Cell (ep 179) & Goku vs Kid Boo (Ep 279)

I love Masunaga's facial expressions. They aren't "Toriyama-esque" but they convey a lot.

[Wezenheim]

I have to ask, how do you guys identify animation by its artists? Is it because it's written on the episode's ending credits? I get that they all have their different looks but they still all look so incredibly good with variety so I never really noticed or thought about like "hm, this was drawn by X and this was by Y". If I'd have to pick it would be that Mr. Yamamuro. He really stands out from the rest.

The person credited as the Animation Supervisor/Director in the credits of an episode is usually the one that puts their own style into the art of an episode. This quote from an excellent blog post describes the role of a supervisor like this: "Their position is basically about consistency. They check all the key frames being created for an episode and make corrections where necessary so that the drawings are as close to the models for the series as possible". Ajay's "Super Animation Catalogue" thread is a good place to check out if you want to compare the styles of the supervisors currently working on Super for example. After a while, you can start to guess pretty well who is going to be supervising an episode based on the style alone!

Masunaga Keisugi's my personal fav. His hard-edged drawings may be atypical by DB's standard, but its superior quality during action sequences are unrivalled. Ex: Goku vs Cell (ep 179) & Goku vs Kid Boo (Ep 279)

I love Masunaga's facial expressions. They aren't "Toriyama-esque" but they convey a lot.

Yamamuro's classic designs are the absolute best and closest to Toriyama's style character designs that we've seen in this franchise. I absolutely adore them. His new work isn't bad either, but it is a step down.

His classic designs were among the best for sure to me. I still like his art, but man it was so much more interesting before.

[Lord Beerus]

It's a tie between old school Masunaga Keisuke, Nakatsuru Tatsuyoshi and old school 90s Yamamuro Tadayoshi, and I'm really hard pressed at choosing one, because they all had great styles for various different reasons. Nakatsuru Tatsuyoshi provided his own unique artstyle while trying to keep faithful to Toriyama's style, Yamamuro Tadayoshi was incredibly on-model while being incredibly faithful to the Toriyama's evolving artstyle in the manga and Masunaga Keisuke was so unique and wild and far from Toriyama's style of art but the same time it the most expressive and dynamic the Dragon Ball (Z) anime would ever look.

[Captain Strawberry]

I think it's Toyotaro for me, it's simple yet detailed. Does that make sense?

[Wezenheim]

I think it's Toyotaro for me, it's simple yet detailed. Does that make sense?

Yeah, it does. I also like Toyotaro. I certainly like him much better than Ooishi for sure.

[ErikB]

Keisuke Masunaga/Studio Cockpit is definitely my favourite. There's a great intensity to their drawings, though a lot of their work is a bit too off-kilter in their early episodes for my tastes (the Gohan example in the first post I don't like so much). Their Buu-era work is phenomenal.
Followed closely by Yamamuro's late Z work. And Minoru Maeda is also up there.

[jjgp1112]

My overall favorite is Masunaga. Goddamn did his episodes look incredible during the Buu saga. Watching Toonami I always used to look forward to those episodes. Obviously I idn't know anything about the production staff back then, but I always picked up on the distinct styles from episode to episode and his stuff stood out the most.

Outside of him, 90s Yamamuro and Nakatsuru are at the very top. Nakatsuru's stuff is a little bit bolder and more expressive than Yamamuro, so I give him a slight edge.

Toyotaro's great too. He captures 90s Toriyama quite well but he has his own spin on it, which is always refreshing to see.

[jjgp1112]

I have to ask, how do you guys identify animation by its artists? Is it because it's written on the episode's ending credits? I get that they all have their different looks but they still all look so incredibly good with variety so I never really noticed or thought about like "hm, this was drawn by X and this was by Y". If I'd have to pick it would be that Mr. Yamamuro. He really stands out from the rest.

Combination of credits and then using those credits to pick things out.

Like ide Takeo for example. He's been a key animatior for Dragon Ball since the Red Ribbon arc and supervised two DBZ episodes. One thing notable about those two eps was that the faces were drawn very...strangely. Particularly the mouths. And after that, I started noticing the same thing during certain portions of previous Maeda Minoru-supervised episodes, and now it's to the point where whenever I see those episodes, I can instantly point out the cuts he provided.

[Bansho64]

Wow I'm surprised to see so many people picking Nakatsuru. I didn't think people still liked his cuts. Toyotaro too. He's often overlooked.

[Wezenheim]

Wow I'm surprised to see so many people picking Nakatsuru. I didn't think people still liked his cuts. Toyotaro too. He's often overlooked.

Toyotaro surprises me a bit (even though I personally like his style quite a bit) but this thread is mostly just about art rather than animation, so even if you don't like Nakatsuru's animating maybe you like how he draws the characters. So many votes for Masunaga is a really pleasant surprise for me. I don't know if he is my absolute favorite, but I love his style and he's in my top five for sure.

[Cipher]

Nakatsuru was also the character designer for GT, right? If so, he gets my pick. Even if he's not strictly my favorite at drawing the core characters next to Toriyama, he created a series of designs that put a really unique spin on Toriyama's style, more bold and complex while still not feeling out of place, and which together offer a distinct but viable aesthetic for a potential future of the series (one that didn't last beyond 1997, but still).

Masunaga's probably my favorite among the Z animation staff, and I quite like Toyotaro as well, especially the way he handles action and character expressions. A little different than Toriyama, but that's nice.

[Wezenheim]

Nakatsuru was also the character designer for GT, right? If so, he gets my pick. Even if he's not strictly my favorite at drawing the core characters next to Toriyama, he created a series of designs that put a really unique spin on Toriyama's style, more bold and complex while still not feeling out of place, and which together offer a distinct but viable aesthetic for a potential future of the series (one that didn't last beyond 1997, but still).

Masunaga's probably my favorite among the Z animation staff, and I quite like Toyotaro as well, especially the way he handles action and character expressions. A little different than Toriyama, but that's nice.

Yup, Nakatsuru was indeed the designer for GT! He's also pretty much responsible for Super Saiyan 4's design, as his initial rough sketch of the form is pretty close to the final product:

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Nakatsuru's art looks really nice, and it only improved with time. I especially love the work he did for the GT Dragon Box covers (which is where the Super Saiyan 4 example from above comes from!):

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