If Super Looked More like Z...

[SingleFringe&Sparks]

I came across a few deviant art pictures by an artist "Salvamakoto" that apparently did some work with making images of of Super fit into the older Cel-look of the older series, and by comparison I think it looks pretty good - even if just wishfully.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Black Hawk]

Absolutely beautiful. If only. If only...

[VegettoEX]

These have been discussed somewhere in the "Dragon Ball Super" sub-forum already.

Personally, I don't understand them. To me, it just looks as if someone blew out the colors to match FUNimation's terrible remastering, and this somehow gives people nostalgia on some weird Toonami-generation level that I can't relate to. It doesn't look like Dragon Ball to me, and it does not make me happy to look at them.

[sintzu]

These put the current art style to complete shame.

It looks so much more natural unlike what we have now which looks fake and could be mistaken for something fan made.

[Metalwario64]

These have been discussed somewhere in the "Dragon Ball Super" sub-forum already.

Personally, I don't understand them. To me, it just looks as if someone blew out the colors to match FUNimation's terrible remastering, and this somehow gives people nostalgia on some weird Toonami-generation level that I can't relate to. It doesn't look like Dragon Ball to me, and it does not make me happy to look at them.

Pretty much this.

Now, if the colors looked more like the Dragon Boxes, or Kai, then we'd be in business.

[Bansho64]

The drawings are pretty good but those colors are pretty awful. The color of the characters range from too bright to too dark. Piccolo's gi in that last pic is actually black instead of purple and Beerus' skin is a bit dark as well. Not all of Salvamakoto's drawings are like that though. Some of them are actually spot on in my opinion

[Xeztin]

The drawings are pretty good but those colors are pretty awful. The color of the characters range from too bright to too dark. Piccolo's gi in that last pic is actually black instead of purple and Beerus' skin is a bit dark as well. Not all of Salvamakoto's drawings are like that though. Some of them are actually spot on in my opinion

He's a really talented artist! It's neat to see what Super might look like if it was made in the late 90's but I don't think that style or way of animation (If we're talking about the first 3 series) would make it in 2016. You'd be surprised how much of that turns the younger generation off, the way Super currently is now is what's best for it in this time and age. Here's something else that looks more like early DB.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[ArchedThunder]

The drawings are pretty good but those colors are pretty awful. The color of the characters range from too bright to too dark. Piccolo's gi in that last pic is actually black instead of purple and Beerus' skin is a bit dark as well. Not all of Salvamakoto's drawings are like that though. Some of them are actually spot on in my opinion

All of the pictures in the OP except the very first one are just frames of Super with the colors changed and a bad filter put over them and then put on an old background. Though I'm not sure where the hair on Krillin came from.

[Soppa Saia People]

Ech, Orange Bricks colors, if these were more like the Dragon Boxes colors, it'd would look a bit better, but not better then Super.

[Nejishiki]

He's a talented artist, but I disagree with the use of his colors, especially for animation. I wager if the series went into that direction, there would be justified complaints that it looks dated and that the effects are cheap. For example, the smoke in one of the photos would not appear natural if one were to commit to that reference.

[Gonstead]

Admittedly I would be lying if I said I didn't like the initial look of the images. They look fine on their own.

What I can't get over are the crushed blacks and white contrast that have been boosted far too much. Goku Black and Piccolo's gi being the worst offenders with Whis not too far behind.

[Dragon Ball Ireland]

It's a fun curiosity, but the colours definitely need some work.

If the images looked more like Kai they'd be perfect.

[Black Hawk]

Personally, I don't understand them. To me, it just looks as if someone blew out the colors to match FUNimation's terrible remastering, and this somehow gives people nostalgia on some weird Toonami-generation level that I can't relate to. It doesn't look like Dragon Ball to me, and it does not make me happy to look at them.

I'm not sure what it is, but there's just something about them that's visually appealing to me. I'm pretty sure it isn't nostalgia, since my first exposure to the anime was GT in the late '90s; I didn't watch the 1986-1996 anime until Kai came about in 2009. I really can't put my finger on what stands out to me so much in Salvamakoto's stuff.

[Hero]

Personally, I don't understand them. To me, it just looks as if someone blew out the colors to match FUNimation's terrible remastering, and this somehow gives people nostalgia on some weird Toonami-generation level that I can't relate to. It doesn't look like Dragon Ball to me, and it does not make me happy to look at them.

I'm not sure what it is, but there's just something about them that's visually appealing to me. I'm pretty sure it isn't nostalgia, since my first exposure to the anime was GT in the late '90s; I didn't watch the 1986-1996 anime until Kai came about in 2009. I really can't put my finger on what stands out to me so much in Salvamakoto's stuff.

I didn't see Dragon Ball until 2013 and that was after animes like Death Note. Still, there's something about the old art style that goes with Dragon Ball very well. One Punch Man, for example, I can't imagine with the old DBZ style, but Super would be better off looking more akin to Kai.

[sintzu]

I really can't put my finger on what stands out to me so much in Salvamakoto's stuff.

They look amazing ?

[spoiler][/spoiler]

In terms of his redrawn images, the colors aren't as bright as Super so maybe that's it.

[Metalwario64]

I looked up this guy's Deviantart, and while I think a lot of his stuff is just okay, this one stood out to me:



Even though I'm sure all of these images, if not outright traced were based on existing images, this is composed quite well and looks like actual 90s Dragon Ball promo art! It's better than all of the cut and past promo art the series has had the past several years (that's also usually done by that terrible artist who did the Extreme Butouden cover).

For instance, SSG Goku is obviously based on this SS3 Goku art:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

Looking through his profile further, I noticed that he completely traced the Movie 6 poster here, as well as a Cell arc screenshot of Vegeta:
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[Rubens]

Personally, I think it makes Super look old-fashioned. I enjoy the current animation, apart of course from the proportinal errors and whatnot - but even DBZ had such issues ocasionally. Those pictures just look "good" because of a sense of nostalgia.

In fact, there was a flashback in the latest super pisode [spoiler]showing the same scene from the "History of Trunks movie, where Gohan speaks to young Trunks before he knocks down with a chop in the back and flies off to die against the androids; it also portrayed Trunks's first transformation[/spoiler] and I thought the animation was so much better (sometimes even wished I could see more DBZ scenes with current animation quality).

The only big problem I have with Super is the fighting scenes are not as exciting as the ones from DBZ, they seem more static and stiff, whilst the others were more fluid and gave a better sense of speed and brutality. Certainly Super's choreography is very good, but the final execution displeases me.

[Ajay]

These have been discussed somewhere in the "Dragon Ball Super" sub-forum already.

Personally, I don't understand them. To me, it just looks as if someone blew out the colors to match FUNimation's terrible remastering, and this somehow gives people nostalgia on some weird Toonami-generation level that I can't relate to. It doesn't look like Dragon Ball to me, and it does not make me happy to look at them.

Agreed.

They don't match the cels, they look like the Orange Bricks, and they do nothing to fix the series' troublesome character designs.

While the first image is interesting as pure fan art, it's entirely out of touch with Toriyama's current art, and even the tail end of Z.

As fun nostalgia trips for whatever audience this is supposed to appeal to, then okay, whatever. But as a genuine alternative to Super's current art? They're bad.

[TheGreatness25]

I'm sure that the point was that there's a preference for the character designs to look like they did in Z over the current character models -- colors aside. There seems to be a strong focus on them "looking like the Orange Bricks," but that does not interfere with how the characters are actually drawn.

[Bansho64]

In fact, there was a flashback in the latest super pisode [spoiler]showing the same scene from the "History of Trunks movie, where Gohan speaks to young Trunks before he knocks down with a chop in the back and flies off to die against the androids; it also portrayed Trunks's first transformation[/spoiler] and I thought the animation was so much better (sometimes even wished I could see more DBZ scenes with current animation quality).

Wait, you're saying this is better than this? I'd have to disagree there. The latter has so much more detail and better special effects. The hair, the eyes lighting up when he transforms, everything. It ain't perfect but it's pretty good. My apologies for going off topic.