I don't think Yamamuro is a bad animator -- though I've definitely been hyperbolic in the past -- I just find his work hopelessly boring. It's overly mechanical and has no impact. He wouldn't get anywhere near the level of criticism and focus if he weren't such a big name in the franchise, not to mention his draconian rule as a supervisor. If you're the one at the top of the chain, you better damn well be good enough to warrant your place there. He isn't, and that's an issue. When the spotlight's on you, you have to deliver, or you're going to get eaten alive. Put Shimanuki in the same spot, and I'd be saying the exact same things, just I have done for his episodes in the past. Neither of them are remotely good enough to lead anymore. Kazuya Hisada is, but he's busy with One Piece, unfortunately.Blade wrote:I think one of the main situational differences that I see between his old, more adventurous style, and his modern output is the nature of his role and seniority. He picks and chooses what he puts his hand to these days, and probably feels that he has less to prove. I'm not saying that's a good thing - nor one which really excuses the perceived stagnation of his output, but it's a relative benchmark against himself, which, in the wider context, shouldn't be interchangeable with saying that his current work is bad - because it isn't.
Moreover, I think that his modern leanings are more indicative of a wider problem in the franchise, where everything has been regurgitated to the nth degree, and at every opportunity, Toei, Shueisha and Bandai are going for the nostalgia-play. We just don't know what Yamamuro's modus operandi is in regard to that from the people who are planning the strategic direction of the franchise above him, or whether, indeed, he actually was hired into his current role specificity to retain that feel and aesthetic from old Dragonball. For all we know, he's a dinosaur who has been hired to be a dinosaur.
You don't hire someone to do nothing but enforce mediocrity. His style of animation these days doesn't retain the feel or aesthetics of the older shows -- if it did, I wouldn't be complaining. It's a significant downgrade, and once again, that's an issue. He has the position he has due to Toei's history of respecting legacy and seniority -- nothing more. Any sensible executive would have canned him a long time ago, but as has been noted on this website's very podcast many times, he's too well connected to let go.
I'm really disappointed in this response. I give you 800 words breaking down my issues with his work, and you bring it back round to his character again. I know it's homage, and that's the point I was making. Yamamuro's storyboards are not particularly interesting unless he's channeling someone else's ideas. That's not an attempt to knock him based on his character, that's just something to note based on his work.For example, like you rightly allude to, the 'Base Goku' sequence in Revenge of F is pretty heavy in the homage domain. If you consider this from that angle, it says quite a lot about how Yamamuro is viewed when it's not uncommon for people to, essentially, mitigate his successes. The thought trail of 'yeah, this was good - but it was only good because ___' is perhaps little bit harsh, when I doubt that someone would reverse-engineer the work of someone like Naotoshi Shida in the same way.
I mean, we're talking about a guy who managed to make Goku vs Freeza boring. He hopped into the director's chair and produced a phenomenally mediocre film, where the best bits were homages to others' work. I think that says a heck of a lot about his imagination. I won't deny that Toei have done similarly awful things with Super, but two wrongs certainly don't make a right.
I'm not going to pretend that biases don't exist towards Yamamuro -- they absolutely do -- but biases don't exist for no reason. Totally unaffiliated animators don't question his work based on his personality, and the many sakuga fans out there aren't criticising him over interviews they've never read. They just look at what's in front of their eyes, and see someone that's been consistently mediocre, overruling, is a clear barrier preventing Dragon Ball from growing aesthetically.I accept that Yamamuro has dipped into that Kamehameha pose a few times too many, and what you demonstrate does, I think rightly, point to him being stuck in a rut - but I try and take a wider view and be a little bit forgiving. Because, I mean, after all, when Toriyama reuses poses, gags or styles (especially in regard to facial expressions, hair styles and anything mecha), on this part of the Internet, we tend to fawn over how the charm in his repetitiveness is 'so Toriyama'. And really, I think it just ties back to the 'black cloud' that hangs over Yamamuro because of his character. I think people are instinctively less forgiving about anything he does, and I feel pretty qualified in the assertion that, for the most part, that people roll their eyes when they see his name attached to something before they've even seen his contributions.
I'm not saying that's wrong, or demanding complete objectivity, but I think it's something to be cognisant about.
Toriyama definitely isn't exempt from criticism. Dragon Ball Minus was horrendous, and Resurrection F's script wasn't great either. Myself and many others have been incredibly critical of his shoddy work lately -- sometimes wondering whether Battle of Gods was just a fluke. This Universe 6 story has certainly restored my faith a little, but I'm still apprehensive as all hell.
If Toriyama is given leniency, it's because he's proved he can still produce fun new stories in some capacity over the past few years. Battle of Gods, as already mentioned, alongside Jaco, and many aspects of this current arc. What's Yamamuro given us that would warrant the same treatment?
I'm so surprised at how this conversation got here!
I mean, nobody was really saying anything bad about him; some of us just expected him to do more than he did given it was the climactic episode of the arc. I sort of expected him to pull out his usual tools, which would have been great for a weekly TV show. Unfortunately that wasn't the case!But yeah, just to clarify: I would happily take Yamamuro as a regular supervisor for Super. He's good enough to supervise a weekly TV show! That said, the tidal wave of criticism launched against him is 100% valid; he is nowhere near good enough to storyboard, direct, and supervise entire films/episodes. If he loosened up his hand as a supervisor, I would someone begrudgingly tolerate his unappealing character designs.
I mean... I would totally rather look at Yamamuro's work than Yashima's pointy-nosed smurf-faces tonight.
