Super Animation Catalogue 2.0

[Shreyas_Singh]

So lately, we've been discussing about the importance of good storyboarding very seriously on this thread. Can you guys tell me who did some for the best story boards for Super? Also, do you know the names of some of the best story boarding artists(or episode directors) in the industry? Would really appreciate it.I wanna see their work and learn something.

[Sodhi]

So far Hatano Morio has done the best work when it comes to Episode direction and storyboard. His #6 and #14 were excellent, especially #6.

[ArchedThunder]

I think Ryota Nakamura is the best on Super, his storyboarding and directing in 75 is probably the best in the series and 48, 57 and 65 are pretty great as well. 39 had some nice angles as well.

[neolux]

Talking about storyboards. Wes made an interesting remark once on twitter, and said that Yashima's storyboards are actually really good . And he posted some shots of interesting angles storyboarded by Yashima. It's a shame I don't have those shots. I hope Wes can help me out on this one to exemplify this case.

[ArchedThunder]

Talking about storyboards. Wes made an interesting remark once on twitter, and said that Yashima's storyboards are actually really good . And he posted some shots of interesting angles storyboarded by Yashima. It's a shame I don't have those shots. I hope Wes can help me out on this one to exemplify this case.

I'm surprised Yashima doesn't storyboard his own episodes more, it'd certainly free up some resources.
If episodes do have more time in production for this next arc I hope we see him storyboard his own episodes more, maybe even get a new episode director that works exclusively with him.

[Shreyas_Singh]

I think Ryota Nakamura is the best on Super, his storyboarding and directing in 75 is probably the best in the series and 48, 57 and 65 are pretty great as well. 39 had some nice angles as well.

Awesome! Do you know about any other good story board artists outside of Dragon ball?

[Wezenheim]

Talking about storyboards. Wes made an interesting remark once on twitter, and said that Yashima's storyboards are actually really good . And he posted some shots of interesting angles storyboarded by Yashima. It's a shame I don't have those shots. I hope Wes can help me out on this one to exemplify this case.

So yeah, I definitely need to eat my words as far as Yashima's storyboards are concerned. At one point I was kind of indifferent to them, but then I actually watched his episodes again and found out that I was a total fool that doesn't pay enough attention.
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Yashima very much understands good framing, and he can deliver some gems. Ajay and I both began to realize to ourselves that Yashima might be better than we thought when we looked at episode 21 and joked about how he was able to deliver a better storyboard than the one in the 'F' movie. Kame Sen'nin's Kamehameha, for example, is framed much better in the Super arc to me.

Resurrection 'F' film:
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Resurrection 'F' Super arc:
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Yashima's version isn't overly flashy, but I adore that angle and the follow through is great. I'm not a huge fan of the slow pan-out after the Kamehameha in the film version. It isn't terrible, but I prefer how it looked in the arc. He hasn't storyboarded since episode 42 though, and that's kind of a shame. In an ideal world he'd storyboard/completely animate his own episodes, but I wouldn't be against him storyboarding more in general.

Ryota Nakamura can crank out an impressive storyboard for sure. I'd probably throw in Yukio Kaizawa and Morio Hatano as well. Kakudou Hiroyuki still pops up every now and again, and he's very good. He only worked on one episode, but I have to mention Iwai Koji's fantastic work on episode 55. Storyboards are one of the few things Super seems to have going for it from a production standpoint (even if they haven't been quite as consistent lately).

[JulieYBM]

Yashima is probably too busy having to work on multiple episodes to storyboard anymore. Your average board takes three weeks to draw, after all.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

So lately, we've been discussing about the importance of good storyboarding very seriously on this thread. Can you guys tell me who did some for the best story boards for Super? Also, do you know the names of some of the best story boarding artists(or episode directors) in the industry? Would really appreciate it.I wanna see their work and learn something.

Storyboards in DBS have been trash for the most part cause of the schedule. But, there are a few episodes that shine due to a good storyboard.

Nakamura Ryota's direction in #4 had some good shots. #4 was boarded by Yashima though. But, Toma Seizou and his thick lines were the star of the episode. #75 is where Nakamura showed what he is truly capable of. Even though, I still think Nakamura is far from his best.

Hatano Morio's #6 is another good one. That's Hatano style. His #66 also had some nice shots. But, Hatano rarely does an episode for DBS. Then there's Karasawa Kazuya, who has shown a lot of promise. #63 and #71 are some good examples of his style. Kakudou Hiroyuki, who is an amazing storyboard artist has done nothing good for DBS except #71.

Kaizawa Yukio, one of my favorites has pretty much all of his boards ruined cause the animators didn't translate it well enough. But, definitely watch his stuff in Digimon, Kyousougiga, PreCure and wherever he has popped up. He knows the strength of the medium.

As for the industry, there are so many great SB/ED's. To name a few, Matsumoto Rie, the superstar director of Kyousougiga, Kekkai Sensen is just brilliant. She has such an easily identifiable style. The cross sparks are present in pretty much all of her boarded episodes. Her framing and transition shots are also awesome.

Masayuki, who Sakuga Blog covered is a guy who does really complex boards which feature a lot of background stuff and the flow and transition of the episode is smooth as fuck. The blog explains his genius in detail.

Then there's Yuasa Masa'aki, who rose to stardom as an animator but is an equally great storyboard artist and director. I would recommend you to watch all of his works, but if you want to understand his style, watch Ping Pong. He boarded the entire series himself and despite the rushed schedule, his boards are unmistakably masterful.

Yama'uchi Shigeyasu, SD of DBZ in the Boo arc. His style is very strong. Full of close-ups and focus on random body parts. Watch his magnum opus Casshern Sins. The setting, the use of colors, lighting, shadows and of course his close ups is just unbelievable.

Tachikawa Yuzuru, Death Parade and Mob Psycho director is also a fine talent. He experiments a lot with unusual ideas. Just look at this, this and this.

Kyouto Animation being the director driven studio it is has geniuses after geniuses. Yamada Naoko and her infinite leg shots to display emotion or her understanding of how to create a sense of space is mind blowing. Kigami Yoshiji, animator turned director, Ishidate Taichi, Ishihara Tatsuya and more I'm forgetting. KyoAni has been the best group in the industry for quite a few years now.

Special mention to Ishizuka Atsuko(Madhouse's last good director left), Yamashita Shingo(self-explanatory), Natsume Shingo(pure action genius), Yoshinari You(watch Little Witch Academia), Oshiyama Kiyotaka( FliFla creator. Love his use of angles reflections.) I can go on.

My personal favorite and in my opinion the absolute best is An'no Hideaki. I won't show you anything. I would like you to watch Evangelion right now! His close ups will kill you. A true visual storytelling genius.

[Gog]

This has been weighing on my mind, ever since I watched the NEP.

The animation is consistent, and a joy to look at. The art isn't terrible as well.

What happened? Did they get new people? Was it the filler? I have so many questions.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

This has been weighing on my mind, eversince I watched the NEP.\

The animation is consistent, and a joy to look at. The art isn't terrible as well.

What happened? Did they get new people? Was it the filler? I have so many questions.

What do you mean? Other than the filter, the NEP is business as usual.

[ArchedThunder]

Storyboards in DBS have been trash for the most part cause of the schedule. But, there are a few episodes that shine due to a good storyboard.

Eh, Super generally has at least solid storyboarding.

This has been weighing on my mind, eversince I watched the NEP.\

The animation is consistent, and a joy to look at. The art isn't terrible as well.

What happened? Did they get new people? Was it the filler? I have so many questions.

The answer is... we don't know.
They've gotten really good with making sure to only show good looking stuff in NEPs, so the quality of the episode can't be told from 30 seconds.
The Supervisor is Yashima, he's been with the series from the beginning, but we don't know who might be working with him.

What do you mean? Other than the filter, the NEP is business as usual.

It looks unusually polished for a Yashima episode, but it could totally just be the clips they picked.

[Gog]

This has been weighing on my mind, eversince I watched the NEP.\

The animation is consistent, and a joy to look at. The art isn't terrible as well.

What happened? Did they get new people? Was it the filler? I have so many questions.

The answer is... we don't know.
They've gotten really good with making sure to only show good looking stuff in NEPs, so the quality of the episode can't be told from 30 seconds.
The Supervisor is Yashima, he's been with the series from the beginning, but we don't know who might be working with him.

Ah, thanks for telling me that. So we can only hope, and pray for the saga and episode to not look horrible, and be animated terribly. So I hope that this Yashima is being helped by someone, like Tate. Speaking of Tate, I've heard good things from his work. Is it true that he's constantly screwed over from the schedule?

[ArchedThunder]

Ah, thanks for telling me that. So we can only hope, and pray for the saga and episode to not look horrible, and be animated terribly.

There's been plenty of evidence during the 10 weeks to support the theory that they've been using the larger than usual time between arcs to work out some kinks in the production behind the scenes, but it must be stressed that it's still just a theory and we won't know for sure for a while.

So I hope that this Yashima is being helped by someone, like Tate. Speaking of Tate, I've heard good things from his work. Is it true that he's constantly screwed over from the schedule?

Yes, he's generally been dealt a pretty shitty hand in Super so we only get to see glimpses of what he can do.

[Jinzoningen MULE]

Speaking of Tate, I've heard good things from his work. Is it true that he's constantly screwed over from the schedule?

I wouldn't say constantly, but it happens. He's fast enough and talented enough that they tend to take advantage. Either way, his style is very divisive. I recommend glancing through episodes 38, 47, 56, and his cut in 63 to get a good representation of his better contributions to DBS, that'll let you know if you like him or not.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

Eh, Super generally has at least solid storyboarding.

It's far from consistent. A few isolated highlights which I mentioned are the only boards that are good. Not to mention Kaizawa and Kakudou who do exceptional work on other shows produce mediocre or sometimes average boards which is not what's expected from them. Chioka did nothing and Hatano barely has the time.Obviously, it's the schedule's fault and not theirs.

[Gog]

I just watched one of Ajay's episodes. This one to be exact. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXenwvA7Clg

When he actually showed the Tate Golden Freeza Vs SSB Goku. I got excited at it, it was simply stunning to watch. If this is Tate when he isn't getting screwed by the schedule, then I would love to see his work all aver super.

[ArchedThunder]

It's far from consistent. A few isolated highlights which I mentioned are the only boards that are good. Not to mention Kaizawa and Kakudou who do exceptional work on other shows produce mediocre or sometimes average boards which is not what's expected from them. Chioka did nothing and Hatano barely has the time.Obviously, it's the schedule's fault and not theirs.

I have to disagree, episodes pretty regularly have nice composition and angles.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

I have to disagree, episodes pretty regularly have nice composition and angles.

I would like to see some examples. Angles and composition don't mean a thing if they don't express what they're trying to express and besides the one I mentioned none stand out. Every show uses angles and compositions, doesn't mean they're all good in terms of boarding and direction. Good craftsman know how and why to use it. Nakamura Ryota did it in #75. Every angle used meant or expressed something in a good way.

DBS is also not a dialogue heavy or drama series. The core theme is action. So, automatically visually impressive action becomes necessary. A good board needs to be backed up by some engaging visuals in an action oriented series.

DBS rarely gets that back up. Case in point Kaizawa's #35. It was not a bad board, but the theme of the episode was action and it sucked hard at action. It's not that hard to see that due to time constraints people who've produced quality work everywhere else deliver sub-par work in it.

[Shreyas_Singh]

Thanks guys ,I've never watched Evangelion but I'll check it out. I'm fascinated by how interesting a scene can look with good planning. Hopefully this arc will have strong story boards and animation after getting 9 episodes of fillers.