Super Animation Catalogue 2.0

[Draconic]

I really can't help but wonder if Super can offer episodes like this one and the last one with this rushed production schedule, what it could be without that problem.

[Ajay]

I really can't help but wonder if Super can offer episodes like this one and the last one with this rushed production schedule, what it could be without that problem.

Considering the animators working on last night's episode, I am absolutely blown away that it was as mediocre as it ended up. Re-used scenes from last week, a flashback to Z, excessive standing around, and an extended recap all point to a hugely troublesome episode. For as controversial as Tate's episode may have been, it's hard to deny that it was much more dynamic than this week. I'm very surprised at the supervisor rotation choices, honestly; Kitano isn't really the guy to have on a climactic episode. Yashima handling the final part of the battle, too?! It's baffling, to say the least.

But back to last night: when Ken Otsuka and Tadayoshi Yamamuro can't produce, at the very least, satisfying animation for a climax, there's a pretty big issue. For all the shit I give Yamamuro, I won't pretend he's not a world above many of the average animators working on Super. As stiff as his work was on episode 13, it's far better than many of the cuts from last night. I was very surprised to see that he handled so little of the episode!

I'm just glad that we had this to kick things off -- I really enjoyed it. The hand wiggle was beautifully fluid, and filled with character. Followed up by a great dash that actually used background animation was very surprising. Super tends to fake that type of stuff in After Effects, and it rarely looks good. The speedy punches could have been better by varying the flurries like Z used to do, but it was still visually appealing, so it gets a pass from me!

This was absolutely dreadful. It reuses the same Otsuka close-up flurries from earlier, but colours them differently to try and hide the fact. The long-shot is laughably bad. I rarely go, "Really?!" when watching the show live, but that totally took me out of the moment -- as if those speed lines were helping anything! What annoys me most about the cut is that the ending punch to Hit's cheek isn't even properly animated. It's one drawing of Goku's arm being digitally moved across the screen to Hit's cheek, at which point Hit's face snaps into the flinch frame. It's why I said some parts of the episode moved like cardboard. That's not animation.

This was the strongest part of the episode by a large margin, but I do think it also speaks volumes about the schedule totally killing the impact this episode could have had. While the transformation is fine, the action that follows it is crippled by endless shaking stills and poorly timed loop flurries. It's only saved by the scene at approximately 1:09 - 1:15, where (I assume) Otsuka placed most of his attention. I only wish it were longer! I had assumed we were about to head into Takahashi territory, but unfortunately, I was wrong.

I'm sure these posts must get on some people's nerves, and I really do apologise for that. I tried to explain it best on Twitter last night. About a year ago, I dove head first into understanding the intricacies of animation, and it totally changed how I watched anime -- for better and for worse. While I can now appreciate show's best moments on a deeper level than, "Oh, this is great!", it's also left me with an eagle eye for sub par work. I find it impossible to ignore -- especially when I know the talent behind it can do so much better. I equated it to finding out that your Dragon Boxes have bad colour and the audio out of sync; once you notice it, it's so difficult to pretend it's not there.

I found new appreciation for the creative ways that Z and GT's staff got over the limitations of a weekly show, and it irritates me to no end that Super doesn't follow suit. It irritates me more that fans will settle for on-model characters, even if the animation is dogshit. I want the best for this show, and I really hope my criticisms sound fair, even if some of you don't necessarily agree with them. I'm not here to incessantly complain; I just want to realistically document the quality of each episode.

[Bansho64]

I was kinda annoyed by the reusing of the frames where Goku keeps punching Hit. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying the that the previous series didn't do that but they atleast had certain effects placed over them to make them look good. Just take a look at the fight between Goku and Majin Vegeta. There was a scene in there where they kneeing each other at the same time. The frames kept repeating but they had all these flashing effects and blood flying around that really made it interesting. But that's really a nitpick and not much of a criticism.

[Sodhi]

Yea its really annoying they give such important episodes to kitano. Plus idk why yamamuro always works with kitano, i am seriously worried about what is yashima going to do?

[Greator]

I don't really care whether scene is "animated" or not if it just looks good on screen. I have now watched 39 three times and it has nothing to be pointed out IMO. It was nearly flawless episode in every way.

[JulieYBM]

I don't really care whether scene is "animated" or not if it just looks good on screen. I have now watched 39 three times and it has nothing to be pointed out IMO. It was nearly flawless episode in every way.

You don't care about the animation in animation?

[Draconic]

Regarding on-model and Yamamuro. I would have loved if after BoG they went with the God transformations turning the character skinnier, because then, when the Kaioken was reintroduced, it could have made them pop back up. It looks good as it stands, but that would have been much more lively.

[Bansho64]

I don't really care whether scene is "animated" or not if it just looks good on screen. I have now watched 39 three times and it has nothing to be pointed out IMO. It was nearly flawless episode in every way.

Can you explain why you feel this way?

[kinisking]

Same I dont care if it's technically impressive or not as long as it's visualy impressive. This episode was visually impressive imo

[Greator]

Well, for example this scene might lack on animation side, but it still looks good in my eyes. There is more in there, making characters move than just the core of animation.

Same I dont care if it's technically impressive or not as long as it's visualy impressive. This episode was visually impressive imo

This is pretty much what I meant.

[Wezenheim]

Yea its really annoying they give such important episodes to kitano. Plus idk why yamamuro always works with kitano, i am seriously worried about what is yashima going to do?

I always assume that it's because Kitano is one of the mini Yamamuros. I personally think Ishikawa is a little bit better between the two. Yashima next week is a head scratcher as well, but what can you do?

At the risk of sounding like an animation geek, this particular episode was merely a step up from the average Super episode. They cut corners here quite a bit, and it shows. It was better than I expected to be, especially the Super Kaio-ken sequence, and like Ajay I adored the beginning of the fight. There were some really cool drawings this week as well. I feel like this could have been amazing if the production was better. They already did an okay job, but man if only Ootsuka Ken hadn't been so rushed!

Also, just to emphasize this once again, pointing out a few flaws that we see isn't the same as not enjoying the episode. I loved it! It was awesome! Probably one of my favorite Super episodes yet. It sucks that I even have anything negative to say about it. I had no major qualms with the episode at all, but the only two really impressive sequences to me were the beginning and the end. Everything in the middle was carried by some good drawings and cool choreography, like the bit where Goku punched Hit in the stomach. Granted, that is leagues better than we are usually allowed to get in Super, but still.

Even typing this kind of makes me feel bad, because I hate to seem like a party pooper despite loving this episode to pieces, but there were things to nitpick for sure.

[Araki]

This episode had Onishi Yoichi (who worked as key animator in Z) debuting as an assistant animation supervisor. He came from World Trigger, so could be another reinforcement.

Re-used scenes from last week, a flashback to Z, excessive standing around, and an extended recap all point to a hugely troublesome episode.

Reused scenes, standing around, flashbacks, long recaps?
That's the franchise in a nutshell.

[Wezenheim]

This episode had Onishi Yoichi (who worked as key animator in Z) debuting as an assistant animation supervisor. He came from World Trigger, so could be another reinforcement.

Re-used scenes from last week, a flashback to Z, excessive standing around, and an extended recap all point to a hugely troublesome episode.

Reused scenes, standing around, flashbacks, long recaps?
That's the franchise in a nutshell.

It really was nostalgic, wasn't it?

[Ajay]

Reused scenes, standing around, flashbacks, long recaps?
That's the franchise in a nutshell.

Haha, definitely! But... Not something you ever want during the arc's climax. Would have been to pull out all the stops for this one, instead of it feeling like it barely got finished on time.

[Sodhi]

I am going to be honest and say that even though this was just a average episode, the fact that we even got to average is an accomplishment. I know its sad to hear, but with the talent that was behind this episode, this was definitely rushed. Tate or even ishikawa would have handled this episode really well but it is what it is because it could have been even worse. For ex. look what happened to #5 even though it had talent in it too.

[Wezenheim]

I am going to be honest and say that even though this was just a average episode, the fact that we even got to average is an accomplishment. I know its sad to hear, but with the talent that was behind this episode, this was definitely rushed. Tate or even ishikawa would have handled this episode really well but it is what it is because it could have been even worse. For ex. look what happened to #5 even though it had talent in it too.

I am happy that it turned out as well as it did at least, it very much could have been as bad as episode 5. The staff seems to be getting better at cutting corners. Kitano and Yashima are the two biggest question marks on the staff for me and its weird they are getting such big episodes, but it looks like Kitano got a lot of help for this one. Maybe Yashima will get lucky next week.

[Sodhi]

I think the reason kitano and yashima are doing the last two fighting episode is that there is no one else available in the rotation. Tate just did #38, Shimanuki #36 and ishikawa #35, so their only option left are kitano and yashima, also seizo toma, but toma would do great downtime episodes so no complaints there. They could have called tatsuya oka like they did in #14 and #27 for #40 though, maybe he was not available?

[Hit!!]

11 was my favorite episode so far, but now its 39. Now, I will say this, 39 had really weird shots. Goku's face looked fucked up in some of those shots, so did Piccolo. Also, right before Goku said "Kaio Ken", they showed a still of Goku's body after powering up and he looked like a midget. The episode was on model most of the time, but badly on model. Of course, some shots were beautifully drawn, but unfortunately they were stills.

But still, the episode was fantastic and had the best fighting scenes we've seen till now in Super in my honest opinion.

[Blade]

I think 39 was a competent episode - nothing flashy, nothing spectacular, but most importantly, nothing too awkwardly out-of-place.

I think with Super, we now have a pretty solid idea of what the benchmark is in terms of animation quality, and I think, at this point, I'm more inclined to take a consistent, fairly rounded-out episode, over a static piece of trash with one or two interesting cuts.

I think that the narrative content of this week's entry has generated more intrigue around this episode than others - and it's interesting to see how dramatic developments seem to sway general opinion into the stratosphere despite fairly mundane animation - but honestly, if Dragonball Super was like this every week, I don't think anyone would have a reason to be too unhappy.

It was a decent episode; and of all the things that I'm willing to criticise Tadoyoshi Yamamuro for, his pragmatic animation style isn't one of them. It's not verbose or expressive - but it doesn't need to be, and I think that when people get overly het up over that sort of thing that they're sort of missing the point.

Imagine a skilled violinist who is able to play an extremely technical piece of music exactly as it is written on the stave. It may be a little robotic - but it's still technically sound. In contrast, imagine a guitarist who liberally slaps vibrato on every fucking note - it doesn't make him a great player; sure it's all expressive and stuff, but it's not necessarily tantamount to greatness. If anything, if anyone on here is a musician like myself, they'll know when you're playing a stringed instrument, playing something entirely straight, without interjecting dynamic expression, can actually be pretty damned challenging.

But yeah, some people don't like tomato ketchup, whereas other people like to totally lather their food in it. Some people, however, just like having a little, and will complain to the waitress if she doesn't bring over a bottle.

[Araki]

The staff seems to be getting better at cutting corners.

That's what's the most important thing here, i think. Long running, weekly tv anime is all about cutting corners. The staff gotta know how to work with what they have.
The fact some new staffers are coming over and the rotation seems to be giving them an extra week or two doesn't hurt, either.

Btw, i don't mind an episode having a lot of standing around to balance out the action, as long as they fill it up with useful dialogue, or building up the tension. It's certainly better than seeing unrelated and long gags with Pilaf's gang or those cutaway adventures that Z did a lot like Chi Chi wanting to travel to Namek.