Super Animation Catalogue 2.0

[Ajay]

Seems we've lost Hakamada for the time being (possibly permanently). He's working on Days now with ex-World Trigger staff member Uda Konosuke. Not sure if he'll be back! He was a supervisor and animator for the recent episode.

Just noticed the credits for the special were at the end of Resurrection F's. I'm blind as a bat!

Tadayoshi Yamamuro was the animation supervisor, but Yuya Takahashi was the top credited key animator. Kinda blown away at the former's presence, the latter is all over this thing. Is Yamamuro finally letting people do their thing?!

Ken Otsuka tweeted out a confirmation for his part on the special. He provided everything from this point through to the end of the first half, apparently. - https://my.mixtape.moe/hcmvrv.mp4

Here are the full credits:

Animation Supervisor
Tadayoshi Yamamuro

Key Animators
Yuya Takahashi
Ken Otsuka
Norie Kanekubo
Kenji Miuma
Tomoya Kosakai
Tadayoshi Yamamuro
Jin Inaba
Kumi Nakajou
Kenji Ota
Hiroyuki Itai
Yosuke Yabumoto
Takashi Nashizawa

[Sodhi]

So this is where inaba jin was. I was wondering where he went.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

So am I getting this right. Animation supervisor overseas everyone's work if nothing is up to scratch then they intervene? So does Yamamuro have a history on doing this or was it only of the movie? (Remember reading here a couple of animators called him out on that from the movie).

[Ajay]

So am I getting this right. Animation supervisor overseas everyone's work if nothing is up to scratch then they intervene? So does Yamamuro have a history on doing this or was it only of the movie? (Remember reading here a couple of animators called him out on that from the movie).

Gonna steal this from Kevin Cirugeda's great article on animation credits:

-Animation Director (作画監督, Sakuga Kantoku ; 作監, Sakkan):
The people in charge of overseeing the animation within an episode and ensuring its quality and consistency, mostly by correcting the key animation drawings. Since the term could be misleading for people expecting a ‘director’ to have input on creative and management tasks beyond what Sakkans do, it's sometimes referred to as ‘Animation Supervisor’ in western circles. Perhaps not the best terminology since on the Japanese side ‘Animation Director’ is the preferred translation (you might even see the katakana アニメーションディレクター for Chief Sakkans in some Bandai/Sunrise projects), but it does more accurately describe their role.

While their job is to make sure all animated sequences are up to par, they are often thought as the guardians of art uniformity - which is by all means a major aspect of their work, they are a necessary figure to enforce some cohesion to the footage that often has been drawn by dozens of different animators. That doesn't mean, however, that they restrict all idiosyncratic styles for the sake of consistency and sticking to the character designs; many renowned Sakkans allow a rather raw output to come through unfiltered, embracing distinctive drawings if appropriate rather than restricting them. As often unique artists themselves, they value the worth of unconventional animation, and understand that anime's current production model is meant to let a key animator's personal voice be heard to begin with. In fact there's even some Sakkans who, with the permission of the director, pretty much abandon a production's standard designs, temporarily tweaking them into forms they're more comfortable with or feel are more effective.

Being directly responsible for the quality of the animation and often reducing the time to actually animate cuts they might want to handle can make the job a less attractive proposal; sure it is better paid than doing regular key animation, but the extra layers of responsibility and different approach to the craft is not something all pros are fond of. That is why many top animators are not interested in being promoted to Sakkan.

Their corrections (修正, Shuusei) don't necessarily entail fully redrawing the key animation sequence; more often than not they will fix the character's expression and adjust some lines, keeping the foundation of the cut. Chances are that a solid key animator will craft acceptable motion, but nailing designs of a project they might not be very involved with is trickier. This also heavily relies on the Sakkan’s personal approach to the job, the production schedule and the state of the drawings they're mean to supervise so it's hard to generalize about what their role exactly entails.

The reason many of us complain about Yamamuro is that historically, he doesn't allow for animator's raw output to shine through. He erases the the animator's voice, redraws unconventional animation, and leaves works looking almost entirely drawn by him. This isn't what you want from a supervisor, at all. It creates an uninteresting monotone final product.

That's why I found it so surprising to see that he was the supervisor. It's amazing to see Takahashi's style shine through in all of his scenes. Wezenheim even guessed Otsuka's work correctly yesterday just based on his style. It's rare that Yamamuro lets that stuff shine through! There were a lot of really interesting, exaggerated poses, and a heap of really rough brush strokes found throughout. Totally not used to seeing that from a Yamamuro-lead production.

I don't know if he was busy, wanted to let everyone run wild, or whether he's become aware of what a lot of people have been saying about him recently. Don't know, but I'm sure happy for it.

[cuartas]

I really, really expected 56 to be an epic episode, considering the amount of time until tate has shown up again and the hype you guys brought here, but I still saw some unpolished frames and the animation was meh, especially in the goku vs black part.
If you ask me, I think even 47 was better than this one.
Shimanuki is still my top 1 for trunks arc, let's see what karasawa bring us next

[Hit!!]

I really, really expected 56 to be an epic episode, considering the amount of time until tate has shown up again and the hype you guys brought here, but I still saw some unpolished frames and the animation was meh, especially in the goku vs black part.
If you ask me, I think even 47 was better than this one.
Shimanuki is still my top 1 for trunks arc, let's se what karasawa bring us next

Animation wasn't the best this episode had to offer. It's everything else, the tone, the tension, the twists, the atmosphere, how the episode unfolded, but the animation wasn't anything special, even though it was pretty consistent.

Let's hope we get awesome action scenes next week.

[Baggie_Saiyan]

So am I getting this right. Animation supervisor overseas everyone's work if nothing is up to scratch then they intervene? So does Yamamuro have a history on doing this or was it only of the movie? (Remember reading here a couple of animators called him out on that from the movie).

Gonna steal this from Kevin Cirugeda's great article on animation credits:[spoiler]

-Animation Director (作画監督, Sakuga Kantoku ; 作監, Sakkan):
The people in charge of overseeing the animation within an episode and ensuring its quality and consistency, mostly by correcting the key animation drawings. Since the term could be misleading for people expecting a ‘director’ to have input on creative and management tasks beyond what Sakkans do, it's sometimes referred to as ‘Animation Supervisor’ in western circles. Perhaps not the best terminology since on the Japanese side ‘Animation Director’ is the preferred translation (you might even see the katakana アニメーションディレクター for Chief Sakkans in some Bandai/Sunrise projects), but it does more accurately describe their role.

While their job is to make sure all animated sequences are up to par, they are often thought as the guardians of art uniformity - which is by all means a major aspect of their work, they are a necessary figure to enforce some cohesion to the footage that often has been drawn by dozens of different animators. That doesn't mean, however, that they restrict all idiosyncratic styles for the sake of consistency and sticking to the character designs; many renowned Sakkans allow a rather raw output to come through unfiltered, embracing distinctive drawings if appropriate rather than restricting them. As often unique artists themselves, they value the worth of unconventional animation, and understand that anime's current production model is meant to let a key animator's personal voice be heard to begin with. In fact there's even some Sakkans who, with the permission of the director, pretty much abandon a production's standard designs, temporarily tweaking them into forms they're more comfortable with or feel are more effective.

Being directly responsible for the quality of the animation and often reducing the time to actually animate cuts they might want to handle can make the job a less attractive proposal; sure it is better paid than doing regular key animation, but the extra layers of responsibility and different approach to the craft is not something all pros are fond of. That is why many top animators are not interested in being promoted to Sakkan.

Their corrections (修正, Shuusei) don't necessarily entail fully redrawing the key animation sequence; more often than not they will fix the character's expression and adjust some lines, keeping the foundation of the cut. Chances are that a solid key animator will craft acceptable motion, but nailing designs of a project they might not be very involved with is trickier. This also heavily relies on the Sakkan’s personal approach to the job, the production schedule and the state of the drawings they're mean to supervise so it's hard to generalize about what their role exactly entails.

[/spoiler]

The reason many of us complain about Yamamuro is that historically, he doesn't allow for animator's raw output to shine through. He erases the the animator's voice, redraws unconventional animation, and leaves works looking almost entirely drawn by him. This isn't what you want from a supervisor, at all. It creates an uninteresting monotone final product.

That's why I found it so surprising to see that he was the supervisor. It's amazing to see Takahashi's style shine through in all of his scenes. Wezenheim even guessed Otsuka's work correctly yesterday just based on his style. It's rare that Yamamuro lets that stuff shine through! There were a lot of really interesting, exaggerated poses, and a heap of really rough brush strokes found throughout. Totally not used to seeing that from a Yamamuro-lead production.

I don't know if he was busy, wanted to let everyone run wild, or whether he's become aware of what a lot of people have been saying about him recently. Don't know, but I'm sure happy for it.

Pretty interesting thanks. I am beginning to definitely understand some of this Yamamuro hate now lol. The Goku vs Freeza stuff in that special was certainly a lot better than anything from Goku vs Freeza in the actual movie (well post Transformations there were some good stuff in the base fight).

One more question about Yamamuro so since he's a character designer is he also responsible for even the little things that weird shading on Goku's hair? For example in the recent episode this[spoiler][/spoiler]
Vs this
[spoiler][/spoiler]

So is the second considered rebellious with the animator not adhering to the designs? I really really don't like that shading on Goku's hair at all.

[Mazingerdestro]

[spoiler][/spoiler]

Isn't that the same type of animation as gear 4?
Is the same guy working on it?

[Ajay]

One more question about Yamamuro so since he's a character designer is he also responsible for even the little things that weird shading on Goku's hair?
So is the second considered rebellious with the animator not adhering to the designs? I really really don't like that shading on Goku's hair at all.

Yeah, Yamamuro comes up with the shading. You can see this in his character sheets:

[spoiler][/spoiler]

As for those images, both of them are off-model, just in different ways. The top one is certainly more closer to the sheets in terms of shading, whereas Tate seems to have opted for jet-black hair.

Isn't that the same type of animation as gear 4?
Is the same guy working on it?

Yes, Shida did the Gear Fourth transformation, too.

So does anyone know who drew the parts where they had ultra pointy faces? Like the face when Vegeta smiled after Trunks sliced the missiles? Also when Black is coming after Vegeta's signal. I really like that style on Vegeta.

That was Shuuichiro Manabe, the other supervisor next to Tate.

[kinisking]

So does anyone know who drew the parts where they had ultra pointy faces? Like the face when Vegeta smiled after Trunks sliced the missiles? Also when Black is coming after Vegeta's signal. I really like that style on Vegeta.

That was Shuuichiro Manabe, the other supervisor next to Tate.[/quote]
Don't recognize that name... hope he pops up again though!

[ArchedThunder]

I see people saying that the schedule is better now, is that true???

Our only solid numbers are that we know that episode 39 only had 3 weeks for animation(thanks to tweets from Otsuka) while episode 57 has at least 7(thanks to tweets from Shida).

Seems we've lost Hakamada for the time being (possibly permanently). He's working on Days now with ex-World Trigger staff member Uda Konosuke. Not sure if he'll be back! He was a supervisor and animator for the recent episode.

A shame, but kinda expected that he was gone since we haven't seen him since May.

[Hit!!]

I see people saying that the schedule is better now, is that true???

Our only solid numbers are that we know that episode 39 only had 3 weeks for animation(thanks to tweets from Otsuka) while episode 57 has at least 7(thanks to tweets from Shida).

Seems we've lost Hakamada for the time being (possibly permanently). He's working on Days now with ex-World Trigger staff member Uda Konosuke. Not sure if he'll be back! He was a supervisor and animator for the recent episode.

A shame, but kinda expected that he was gone since we haven't seen him since May.

Well if that's true then that means the schedule is only good for episode 57, from episode 58 and on, it will be back to 3 or 4 weeks per episode?? Correct??

I hope those 7 weeks really shows!!

[ArchedThunder]

I see people saying that the schedule is better now, is that true???

Our only solid numbers are that we know that episode 39 only had 3 weeks for animation(thanks to tweets from Otsuka) while episode 57 has at least 7(thanks to tweets from Shida).

Seems we've lost Hakamada for the time being (possibly permanently). He's working on Days now with ex-World Trigger staff member Uda Konosuke. Not sure if he'll be back! He was a supervisor and animator for the recent episode.

A shame, but kinda expected that he was gone since we haven't seen him since May.

Well if that's true than schedule is only good for episode 57, from episode 58 and on, it will be back to 3 or 4 weeks per episode?? Correct??

I hope those 7 weeks really shows!!

Unless the script writers and storyboarders were sitting on their hands for no reason (unlikely) or something disastrous happened it shouldn't go back down in any drastic way. 5-7 weeks for an episode seems about right for what we should expect for the time being, maybe a bit better after the September break. That's a huge improvement for Super, but they likely still aren't able to start important future episodes way early (upwards of 12 weeks) like other anime can.
They way the arc has played out so far makes it seem like they actually planned it with the breaks in mind to improve the schedule.

[Wezenheim]

It's amazing to see Takahashi's style shine through in all of his scenes. Wezenheim even guessed Otsuka's work correctly yesterday just based on his style.

I was partially incorrect because I hadn't really thought of Takahashi doing half of that scene until someone pointed it out to me, but yeah these two screens just screamed Ootsuka Ken to me and they were a big factor in my guess:

[spoiler]
[/spoiler]

I also figured that the action in that cut wasn't totally unlike stuff he's done in the past, so that's who I went with. Still, if you look at Takahashi's past effects work, the first half is pretty clearly him. Still, to see Ootsuka's style be there at the end so clearly is definitely unexpected. I'm just as surprised as anybody that Yamamuro's corrections are, for the most part, only minor.

Unless I'm mistaken, I think I might have spotted Inaba Jin in the special as well. It was someone who worked on Super #38 at least.
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

On the topic of Super #56, I rewatched it and while it's good, I still think 38 might be Tate's magnum opus so far. It was kind of a shame to see him get corrected by Tsuji as much as he did in some places.

[FortuneSSJ]

-Episode 56-

Tate & King Ryu combo returns almost one year later and this time they delivered something much better than episode 11.
Funny thing is that everytime these two work together, someone gets stabbed. Beerus stabbed SSG Goku in episode 11 and now Black stabbed SSB vegeta.
I never realize how much I need King Ryu back, until I see his episodes..

-Nexr week Episode 57-

Shida, the Greatest, will finally animate something for the first time in Super!
In fact, I don't remember we animating anything for the franchise since BOG Movie and that was more than 3 years ago.
One Piece always gets the man for all its key moments.

And next week it's one of my favourite animation supervisors turn, Karasawa. So excited!!

[A Man named RJ]

I would absolutely Love to see Somebody like Yoshikazu Tomita show up in DBS,

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

after the sheer badass-ness of the most recent one Piece Episode (and his work shines through anyway, so much so that people confuse him for Naotoshi Shida)

If Shida is a flowing river, Tomita is a flowing square.

I am curious for anybody who knows, Their styles are in fact very similar, from their hyper-detailed shading to their sense of timing. Who developed the style they're most known for first? It's obvious they come from the same animation camp They even popped up in the industry around the same time (early 1980s) Who Knows they may have even been classmates or something.

[Sonicjamareiz]

In the NEP why does Trunks have ssj3 eyes while hes in ssj2?

[kinisking]

In the NEP why does Trunks have ssj3 eyes while hes in ssj2?

He has his eyebrows, he just happens to have defined ridges. Would be hilarious if that's him transforming into ss3 and Vegeta gets to see yet another person transform.

[Wezenheim]

It's probably just a goof. I wondered about the eyes a page or two ago as well.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

He has pupils for some reason, but other than that the eyes really don't look like Super Saiyan 3. It'll (probably) be fixed before the episode airs.

[ArchedThunder]

It's probably just a goof. I wondered about the eyes a page or two ago as well.

[spoiler][/spoiler]

He has pupils for some reason, but other than that the eyes really don't look like Super Saiyan 3. It'll (probably) be fixed before the episode airs.

Episode 49 had similar shots of Trunks with pupils in Super Saiyan.