Super Animation Catalogue 2.0

[FortuneSSJ]

Well this was a big arc after all. We had 3 opening. I remember I joined the army before Dressrosa arc started and I returned and still the Dressrosa arc was on tv.

Just like me.
Dressrosa in the anime is unbearable.

[ArchedThunder]

I know we've talked about how the show really seems to be holding together a lot better and the overall quality of the art and animation has risen and we've talked briefly about how the backgrounds seem much more detailed now, but I don't think the storyboarding is getting enough love. Out of all of the things that seem to have improved due to a presumably better schedule it seems like storyboards are one of the big things people are overlooking
On top of them using varying camera angles a lot more (above, below, dutch angles etc) the composition of the scenes is just so much better, here's just a few that stood out in my mind, obviously there is a lot more than this.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Mazingerdestro]

Does Super have any sakuga till now? Are episode 13 and blue kaioken considered sakuga?

I have all of the notable moments in the first post of this thread, but some of them I've been quite lenient with.

It has about 10 entries on the Sakugabooru if you exclude the openings, but only a few (#2, #26, and #14) are what I'd consider genuinely good.

WAIT!!! Tate's "Vegeta vs Hit" moment with the camera started from Hit's face and finishing with Vegeta getting punched wasn't a sakuga? It looked amazing

[JulieYBM]

The storyboards have always been the highest-quality aspect of Dragon Ball Super. Kaizawa Yukio and Kakudou Hiroyuki are really saving the series with their storyboards, especially given how Hatano Morio no longer has time to do storyboards for his own series. It's a shame Chioka Kimitoshi never had a chance to storyboard.

[ArchedThunder]

The storyboards have always been the highest-quality aspect of Dragon Ball Super. Kaizawa Yukio and Kakudou Hiroyuki are really saving the series with their storyboards, especially given how Hatano Morio no longer has time to do storyboards for his own series. It's a shame Chioka Kimitoshi never had a chance to storyboard.

We got some gems here and there, but I don't think the show's storyboarding has ever been as consistently high quality as it has been in this arc.

[Mazingerdestro]

The storyboards have always been the highest-quality aspect of Dragon Ball Super. Kaizawa Yukio and Kakudou Hiroyuki are really saving the series with their storyboards, especially given how Hatano Morio no longer has time to do storyboards for his own series. It's a shame Chioka Kimitoshi never had a chance to storyboard.

Really? Are super's storyboards that good? Why exactly?

[Avok]

I don't find them to be that good tbh. Lots of wasted opportunities.

[Wezenheim]

Kaizawa and Kakudo are both excellent. I honestly don't know which between the two that I prefer. They've both been involved with Super's best storyboarded episodes though. Kaizawa does seem to use digital zoom in quite a lot, but I'm not entirely sure if that's something he genuinely likes or if that's him being creative to help the animation team out a little. Yashima's storyboards are pretty okay for comedy episodes too, such as episodes 4 and 15. I miss Morio, I hope he gets another chance to direct and storyboard sometime.

[Ajay]

Super's storyboarding has been one of the most consistent aspects of the show. I remember episode 6 being a real standout during the show's early run before it all kicked up a notch during the U6 Tournament.

JulieYBM is absolutely correct on that front. Kaizawa and Kakudo have produced nothing but excellent storyboards throughout the show's run, even during episodes that weren't particularly well animated.

That said, ArchedThunder is 100% on the money regarding this arc so far. There has been some incredibly powerful imagery in this arc that easily pushes it above and beyond the large majority of what's come before.

I think the animators' ability to translate the storyboard into competent layouts could use a lot of work, but the actual shot composition has been nothing short of great.

EDIT: Actually, let me pimp Jacob's imgur account, if he doesn't mind. He screenshots the episodes week by week, and I think they do a great job of showcasing the praise given out above. It goes way beyond my shots which are nothing more than supervisor style showcases.

[Anime Kitten]

Thanks for linking that Imgur account. I'm definitely gonna benefit from those, and I'm probably gonna use this as a reaction image:
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[A Man named RJ]

Also I was unlucky enough to watch the latest episode of op even though I have stopped checking weekly episodes and omggggg what was that??? Op's animation was always decent but now Super looks like a masterpiece compare to that episode. How can you make a bad episode when you are basically remaking a scene for the 4th-5th time? The only moments that were good were after water 7 when they used old clips. So in general the animation quality of Toei has dropped in every project and not just in Super.

N-No. A recap episode is there to strengthen the production of upcoming episodes. It doesn't exist to look good. That's not indicative of any quality drop. They're just throwing at extra week at the Zou arc, which we already know is going to be packed full of great stuff thanks to several animator tweets. Considering how strong One Piece has been these past few years, I'm not sure how you came to that conclusion.

As for next episode looking like the F arc training sequence, you're right. It's because both episodes are being supervised by Masahiro Shimanuki. He has a very distinctive style.

I know this is a bit of an off-topic but could you link some of those tweets? I dont use twitter enough to even bother trying to search for them, lol.

___________________
AS for the storyboarding, the show's storyboards have been super awesome. that scene with Future Bulma being killed was POWERFUL. I mean it was no Barefoot Gen, It's not even an Early Detective Conan death scene (episode 57), but the fact that it's blacked out lets the imagination handle it for you. All while being emotionally gripping.

Other instances being Trunks' PTSD flipout being nicely handled.

I appreciate the work they put into this series's storyboarding and composition.

Another irksome thing I see people flipping out about is how "the music isnt hard rock like the original" Guess they've never Heard the actual original score.

Some people, man.

[Bansho64]

Another irksome thing I see people flipping out about is how "the music isnt hard rock like the original" Guess they've never Heard the actual original score.

Some people, man.

Can I sig this? I really like this quote.

[A Man named RJ]

Another irksome thing I see people flipping out about is how "the music isnt hard rock like the original" Guess they've never Heard the actual original score.

Some people, man.

Can I sig this? I really like this quote.

go for it.

[nite_jay]

I think ever since the Goku v.s. Hit fight the storyboarding and compostion took a big step up. The first scene of episode 47 with Trunks running away from Black in the city's ruins is just so well done.

[Wezenheim]

I think ever since the Goku v.s. Hit fight the storyboarding and compostion took a big step up. The first scene of episode 47 with Trunks running away from Black in the city's ruins is just so well done.

Vegeta vs. Cabba was also storyboarded extremely well, I thought. Now that I think about it, it seems as though Kaizawa fight episodes tend to have a fair amount of interesting hand to hand combat. It's a shame that his storyboard ideas often have to go to waste because of the production.

[PMD]

Vegeta vs. Cabba was also storyboarded extremely well, I thought. Now that I think about it, it seems as though Kaizawa fight episodes tend to have a fair amount of interesting hand to hand combat. It's a shame that his storyboard ideas often have to go to waste because of the production.

I really liked that zoom-out during Cabba's attack to Vegeta. It's an interesting animation resource.

[Hit!!]

Definitely liked this one

[spoiler]HAIL HYDRA

[/spoiler]

[Super Saiyan Swagger]

The storyboarding for the Future Trunks arc so far has been fantastic. Here are some of my favourite shots:
[spoiler]
















[/spoiler]
There was also some great stuff in the latest episode with Zamasu and the tea.

[PMD]

^ Oh yeah, I definitely loved this one:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

[ParkerAL]

I guess I wasn't the only one who heard about the most recent One Piece episode and immediately thought of Dragon Ball Super. Obviously, there isn't much point hating on a recap episode, but I thought Sam Leach brought up an interesting criticism of modern Toei shows in his review over at Anime News Network:

But by far the most heartbreaking thing about this episode is how it forces you to think about how much the animation style has changed for the worse over the years. Again, I'm usually an apologist for the modern incarnation of Toei's One Piece, but I do think it's lost a bit of soul somewhere down the line. Even if this was a more expensive looking episode, something about the way the show is made on a technical level wouldn't allow those old scenes to have the same organic quality they used to have. Shiny and plastic is just kind of Toei's thing now, and I do not understand why. This has little to do with how impressive the show does or doesn't look at a given moment, since even the old stuff had it's fair share of butt-ugly animation, this is purely about what feels good to look at. And feel-good episodes are few and far between these days.

No matter how good the animation is an episode of One Piece or Dragon Ball Super, it must fight against Toei's less-than-stellar grasp of digital paint.