What is your opinion about the artistic style of Dragon Ball Super?

[ronaldnorth_03]

The choices that Toei made for special effects, especially in ToP, catch my attention. It gets to the point of bothering you for not being able to see the fight or being too vibrant.

[Zestanor]

It looks very well done, but I don’t like looking at it. The limitations of cel animation always created a more pleasing image to my eye. It’s entirely subjective, I guess, and while I recognize this might be quality animation, I find it overpowers my viewing experience.

[Vijay]

"Glitzy, flashy" would be the term I'd associate Super based on the pics you've posted pal

It's like u wrap an ugly gift with colourful, expensive, gold box

Vibrant wud be pleasing to ya eyes. Those aren't vibrant. They look cheap in a way of masking poor artwork & animation (xcept DBS Ep 130 bein sole exception). Rest all falls under same category

Just luk at Jiren's aura in that 1st pic you posted...oh God....dude's literal, walking Sun

I have seen Frieza's aura...moment b4 he blew-up Namek's core....I have witnessed Cell's scary aura...upon acheiving his completion & his SPC KKH...I've been blown away by Fat Buu's Angry Explosion @ Majin Vegeta...those didn't have as flashy or glitzy animation as DBS did...and yet managed to convey the tremendous impact characters express via their auras.

Maybe it's their animation. Maybe it's their artstyle. Maybe it's their music. Maybe it's their dedicated artists or storyboarding....

Jiren's Fire aura look

[ronaldnorth_03]

Jiren had an aura in each episode. The last one looked like Ultra Instinct, only red

[ronaldnorth_03]

In the case of episode 130 it is almost a sin. The episode would be perfect if it weren't for this.

[JulieYBM]

The post-processing was really bad. The key animation drawings would always look their edge because of them. I much prefer the work on Movie #20. Broli's green aura especially has this gorgeous, solid, but also fiery color and constitution to it. I'm not really sure how to explain it but it's definitely how I prefer energy to be conveyed.

[emperior]

The special effects were almost always terrible and reached their peak of awfulness with the aura of Blue Kaioken, Blue Evolution, Mastered Ultra Instinct and Jiren’s aura. Not to mention the other lame ones such as Super Saiyan God’s or GoD Toppo’s.
Thankfully it seems like they fixed their depiction of aura in the latest movie, so hopefully the next animated thing will follow that style. It’s not certain because the auras were much better in BoG and RoF yet they were changed for Super. And Broly’s movie had the same effects supervisor from “Your Name”, so the gorgeous effects we saw there may have been due to his presence.

By the way there’s nothing wrong with that Kefla image in my opinion. The worst effects in Super were by far the auras. Not that the ki attacks were any good, but at least they didn’t completely ruin the pictures.

[Xeogran]

In DBZ, Goku used Super Saiyan Kaioken vs Paikuhan, and well.. he only had the Kaioken aura.



SSBKK stacking multiple auras on each other is just fanservice, but it's hard to stare at it without it hurting your eyes.

[Ajay]

Depends what aspect you're talking about, though I guess my answer is similar for both.

The show's composite (or lack thereof) in its pre-US arcs was painful, and left things looking sterile, and entirely lacking adequate atmosphere... not to mention the abysmal colour design. The Universe Survival arc attempted to overcome that by overhauling the composite, introducing a line filter, applying a layer of grain, and utilising more interesting lighting and camera effects on the most basic level. However, its application of auras in the ToP itself was beyond terrible, verging on some of the worst aesthetic decisions I've ever seen. Of course, the underlying colour design didn't change either, and throwing filters on top of it really didn't change much.

Tadayoshi Yamamuro's designs are not very good at all, and that's pretty much a dead horse at this point. The unappealing shape design, bizarre application of shading and highlights, and unwieldy detail just don't make for satisfying characters at their most basic level. Even the best drawings are still cursed by poor colour design, which really goes a long way in worsening things.

It's just not a great show, aesthetically. It's rooted in outdated design decisions on just about every front. It sucks given the impressive animation shown off in several sections, and sucks even harder when it only worsens the already iffy cuts. Dragon Ball Super Broly sure was a breath of fresh air that I hope to keep breathing into the future.

[zekken1]

Tadayoshi Yamamuro's designs are not very good at all, and that's pretty much a dead horse at this point. The unappealing shape design, bizarre application of shading and highlights, and unwieldy detail just don't make for satisfying characters at their most basic level. Even the best drawings are still cursed by poor colour design, which really goes a long way in worsening things.

I get the shape designs, but could you give an example of the bizzare shading & highlights. The staff are professionals, how can their application be seen as bizarre, when it comes from experienced hands? They know what they are doing.
I know that even proffesionals can make mistakes, creative as well as artsistic, but when done at such a consistent basis. Like how can it be wrong/bizarre?

[Polyphase Avatron]

It's okay.

[Grimlock]

I have a problem with those auras. But then again, they're terrible so it fits with everything else. I loved Super Saiyan God aura in Movie 14, it was very different from what we had back then. And in Dragon Ball Super it became that... weird and ugly thing that you can't see what's behind the character, it's like a solid aura or something. Terrible.



Super Saiyan God Super Saiyan would certainly look just slightly better with an aura like this too.

[ronaldnorth_03]

Depends what aspect you're talking about, though I guess my answer is similar for both.

The show's composite (or lack thereof) in its pre-US arcs was painful, and left things looking sterile, and entirely lacking adequate atmosphere... not to mention the abysmal colour design. The Universe Survival arc attempted to overcome that by overhauling the composite, introducing a line filter, applying a layer of grain, and utilising more interesting lighting and camera effects on the most basic level. However, its application of auras in the ToP itself was beyond terrible, verging on some of the worst aesthetic decisions I've ever seen. Of course, the underlying colour design didn't change either, and throwing filters on top of it really didn't change much.

Tadayoshi Yamamuro's designs are not very good at all, and that's pretty much a dead horse at this point. The unappealing shape design, bizarre application of shading and highlights, and unwieldy detail just don't make for satisfying characters at their most basic level. Even the best drawings are still cursed by poor colour design, which really goes a long way in worsening things.

It's just not a great show, aesthetically. It's rooted in outdated design decisions on just about every front. It sucks given the impressive animation shown off in several sections, and sucks even harder when it only worsens the already iffy cuts. Dragon Ball Super Broly sure was a breath of fresh air that I hope to keep breathing into the future.

Yes. I agree with everything I said.

[ABED]

I had no problem with telling what was going on. The art looks almost plastic at times. The best analogy I have is the old animation looked like the cheese you'd get at a deli counter whereas the art sometimes looks like those Kraft singles that come packaged.

At the end of the day, as long as I can tell what's going on and the story is enjoyable, I don't care that much. Great animation and art in service of a boring story is meaningless. Questionable art in an enjoyable story is tolerable.

[Ajay]

I get the shape designs, but could you give an example of the bizzare shading & highlights. The staff are professionals, how can their application be seen as bizarre, when it comes from experienced hands? They know what they are doing.
I know that even proffesionals can make mistakes, creative as well as artsistic, but when done at such a consistent basis. Like how can it be wrong/bizarre?

Being paid for something is all that constitutes professional; it has no bearing on skill or artistic quality. The animators responsible for things like this are still "professional". With the abundance of shows being produced in Japan, and the inadequate number of skilled staff available, you find a lot of weak artists entering into the industry where they otherwise wouldn't. Even if they do have a basic technical talent, that says absolutely nothing about their ability to produce aesthetically pleasing results. In the case of Yamamuro, he's been in the industry for a long time, and while he was very talented in his prime (and still is in many respects), his artistic decisions these days are questionable, to say nothing of his iffy anatomy that rears its head far too often in his promo material.

Anyway, in terms of bizarre shading and highlights, the issue comes from the application of them. Yamamuro essentially looked at Toriyama's dramatised illustrations and decided the highlights there were applicable in all scenarios. What this means is that characters, regardless of light source or time of day, will have these intense highlights all over them, which leads to that very unnatural glossy look that's been heavily criticised by the fandom for years. They don't take into account the environment or the shapes they're attempting to define... they're just there, and don't look very good. They clutter up the designs and some animators don't even know how to use them, as seen by randomly putting highlights on top of shadows.

Thankfully, Yamamuro does appear to have largely ditched this approach... to an extent. You don't really see them anymore at night, and if they do appear in daytime scenes, they're a bit more reserved. Either way, they're not necessary (even Naotoshi Shida says as much), and it was nice to see Shintani's designs get rid of them outside of specifically lit scenes.

[zekken1]

I get the shape designs, but could you give an example of the bizzare shading & highlights. The staff are professionals, how can their application be seen as bizarre, when it comes from experienced hands? They know what they are doing.
I know that even proffesionals can make mistakes, creative as well as artsistic, but when done at such a consistent basis. Like how can it be wrong/bizarre?

Being paid for something is all that constitutes professional; it has no bearing on skill or artistic quality. The animators responsible for things like this are still "professional". With the abundance of shows being produced in Japan, and the inadequate number of skilled staff available, you find a lot of weak artists entering into the industry where they otherwise wouldn't. Even if they do have a basic technical talent, that says absolutely nothing about their ability to produce aesthetically pleasing results. In the case of Yamamuro, he's been in the industry for a long time, and while he was very talented in his prime (and still is in many respects), his artistic decisions these days are questionable, to say nothing of his iffy anatomy that rears its head far too often in his promo material.

Anyway, in terms of bizarre shading and highlights, the issue comes from the application of them. Yamamuro essentially looked at Toriyama's dramatised illustrations and decided the highlights there were applicable in all scenarios. What this means is that characters, regardless of light source or time of day, will have these intense highlights all over them, which leads to that very unnatural glossy look that's been heavily criticised by the fandom for years. They don't take into account the environment or the shapes they're attempting to define... they're just there, and don't look very good. They clutter up the designs and some animators don't even know how to use them, as seen by randomly putting highlights on top of shadows.

Thankfully, Yamamuro does appear to have largely ditched this approach... to an extent. You don't really see them anymore at night, and if they do appear in daytime scenes, they're a bit more reserved. Either way, they're not necessary (even Naotoshi Shida says as much), and it was nice to see Shintani's designs get rid of them outside of specifically lit scenes.

Ahh ok, now i get it. Yeah i didn't consider the fact that due to high demand lesser talented staff are hired.

And also thanks for clearing up on the highlight stuff, a very educative response you gave there. Needless to say you're correct on your assessment. Thanks again mate

(edit: oh and btw, i get what u mean about yamamuro's anatomy part, i saw his and shintanis dokkan arts )

[Lord Beerus]

Ugly as fuck for a good 1/3 of the show. Even when there was noticeable improvement in the visual depart once the Future Trunks arc began, there were still some janky as fuck episodes that slipped under radar to serve as stark reminder of how fucked the production and scheduling of the show was.

The characters in the show themselves looking like looked plastic for 99% of the time, with Yamamuro being the main culprit of that with his weird and unappealing character designs. And as others have mentioned in this thread already, the auras in particular looked like dogshit.

The show only truly shined in the arstyle department when Takahashi, Tate or Shida were given free reign and had decent animators to back them up. And that only happened for a handful of episodes.

[Peach]

I really don't like it.

The "movie quality" animation from the Goku vs Jiren special was nauseating due to the after effects.

Yo! Son Goku and His Friends Return is what Super should have looked like

[ronaldnorth_03]

It seemed so nostalgic, but at the same time so current. I would define it as an animated manga.

[Planetnamek]

It's extremely hit and miss. Some episodes look great, others look very "off".