Favourite Art Style in the series

[Metalwario64]

Y'know... after going back and looking at this:


Yeah... "Triangle crap" animation was worse... I say that not because of this debacle, but because... just look at that! Her chest is made of triangles, her arms are very fat, and her face looks way too cartoon-ish and disproportionate. Everyone looks like they've put on a few pounds in the "triangle crap" animation. No offense to whoever the animator is though...

Also, I love Masahiro Shimanuki's animation. I thought that it added a certain intensity to the fight scenes, notably the Goku vs. Fr­ieza fight animation which was in the same episode that those Tomekichi Takeuchi animation screenshots I posted were from.

[BobZ]

Yeah... this particular art style did have its good moments and the cartoonish look was nice at times, but overall it just seemed inappropriate and unnatural. Especially in some fighting scenes.

[Metalwario64]

Yeah... this particular art style did have its good moments and the cartoonish look was nice at times, but overall it just seemed inappropriate and unnatural. Especially in some fighting scenes.

It mostly looked good during Dragon Ball, but during Z, its cartoon-ish look became more and more inappropriate and disproportional, especially during the fight with Fr­ieza and the Buu vs. Vegetto fight...

[kei17]

Y'know... after going back and looking at this:
*snip*
Yeah... "Triangle crap" animation was worse... I say that not because of this debacle, but because... just look at that! Her chest is made of triangles, her arms are very fat, and her face looks way too cartoon-ish and disproportionate. Everyone looks like they've put on a few pounds in the "triangle crap" animation. No offense to whoever the animator is though...

That "triangle crap" is the style of Yukio Ebisawa, the second worst animation supervisor in the DB series. His works are always crappy, but he got better a little bit in the end of DBZ.

Maybe you noticed that there are some better-drawn scenes in the episodes he worked. These scenes were done by Toshiyuki Kanno.

Like this:


Actually, he was way better than his boss Yukio Ebisawa, but never bacame animation supervisor until GT. It's for some kind of seniority rule, I guess...


Original keyframe drawn by Toshiyuki Kanno:


After "supervised" by Yukio Ebisawa:

[BobZ]

Exactly! Toshiyuki Kanno drew stuff for the same episodes Yukio Ebisawa had taken part in. And I really liked them, but as I mentioned above they weren't that much and we were mainly stuck with the cartoonish look.

Man, knowing some names of people who actually participated in the whole animation process makes me so strangely excited all of a sudden!
And those original keyfeames made me jizz in my pants!

Thank you once again for all that sacred information, kei17.

[kei17]

Exactly! Toshiyuki Kanno drew stuff for the same episodes Yukio Ebisawa had taken part in.

That's some kind of misleading, I think. Toshiyuki Kanno took part in the episodes in which Yukio Ebisawa did animation supervisor. Toshiyuki Kanno drew keyframes, and Yukio Ebisawa "modified" them. (Actually he did not modify but deteriorated them, though...) So "cartoonish look" is because of supervising by Yukio Ebisawa. It's his style.

[BobZ]

Yeah, I just wrote that pretty fast while being overexcited.
Again, it is super interesting to have this background information.

[Silver Sinspawn]

Round, simple, and pleasing to look at.

^This.

[jjgp1112]

There were actually about 3 different people who did the caveman art. The first one who did it for Episode 4 was probably the best one and was the most consistent. Then in episode 68 they had a new person who imitated that style and was more inconsistent (this is when the "caveman" style becomes more prevalent) and then in episode 98, another guy takes over. During the scenes that don't have "caveman" style, the drawing s are done very well, but once he starts doing that caveman thing it looks bad. The latter two guys alternated between each other for the rest of the series, and during the Buu saga the art got a lot more consistent.

[kei17]

There were actually about 3 different people who did the caveman art. The first one who did it for Episode 4 was probably the best one and was the most consistent. Then in episode 68 they had a new person who imitated that style and was more inconsistent (this is when the "caveman" style becomes more prevalent) and then in episode 98, another guy takes over. During the scenes that don't have "caveman" style, the drawing s are done very well, but once he starts doing that caveman thing it looks bad. The latter two guys alternated between each other for the rest of the series, and during the Buu saga the art got a lot more consistent.

As I said in the previous page, that "caveman style" animations were drawn by only one person, Tomekichi Takeuchi. Since you seem to not know how DB animations were drawn, I explain in a small way.

First, people called "Genga-man" draw keyframes.
Second, animation supervisor (Sakuga Kantoku) fixes keyframes. Supervisor draws keyframes, too.
Third, "Douga-man" draw in-between frames.

Each episode was drawn by many people work for the same company. All the scenes in which "caveman style" appears were drawn by Tomekichi Takeuchi. As I said, since he was already very old at that time, he relinquished his title as animation supervisor and his two disciples, Masahiro Shimanuki and Kazuya Kuda derived his title. Tomekichi continued drawing keyframes after that, so his "caveman style" art still appears in the episodes which were supervised by above two disciples.

[Cipher]

So, a quick trip to Kanzenban's episode guide reminded me that "Triangle Crap" features key animation by Studio Live. So everyone can go hate on that now.

My personal least favorite is Last House. I was actually surprised to see that their animation does an adequate job and blends well in DB and early Z episodes. But by the Buu arc and GT, it's a major eyesore and looks far, far worse than Studio Live ever did. It's like they never figured out how to evolve their style beyond the original round look, and then at a certain point they gave up on trying for fluid animation too.

[jjgp1112]

It wasn't just the fact that the main animation progressed past the round style. The Last House style just got progressively sloppier, too. A couple of episodes in the Cell saga are absolutely hideous (episode 156 and 169).

[Cipher]

It wasn't just the fact that the main animation progressed past the round style. The Last House style just got progressively sloppier, too. A couple of episodes in the Cell saga are absolutely hideous (episode 156 and 169).

That's what I thought. They didn't pick up on the new style, the drawings became worse, and the animation became atrociously stiff. It even looks like their outlines are needlessly thicker in some of the later episodes.

So much worse than Studio Live.

[goku the krump dancer]

How much do these animators get paid?