The Worst Looking Episode in the Entire Series?

[Bura]

Trunks looks cross-eyed A LOT.

[LeprikanGT]

can someone post a scene from GT where everyone is at the tournament watching 'papaya man' and like 6 of them are licking a lollipop and they ALL have the same eyes. Thats my worst episode ever.

[Blue]

So I was looking at Kanzentai's episode guide which happens to have details on the art and animation staff and it seems like you guys are rattling off animation members. Wouldn't that mean they had nothing to do with the art itself? I'm kind of confused about the specifics of things.

[Godo]

It seems like the food in Hell has contained too much Baata.
And made our alien friend really fat.

I am so funny.

[Hujio]

So I was looking at Kanzentai's episode guide which happens to have details on the art and animation staff and it seems like you guys are rattling off animation members. Wouldn't that mean they had nothing to do with the art itself? I'm kind of confused about the specifics of things.

The animation staff are the ones that make episodes look bad since they are the ones that draw/animate the characters. Typically, this falls on the shoulders of the "Animation Supervisor", who is in-charge of checking all the key animation. The overall look of the characters hinges on that staff member. The art staff is responsible for the backgrounds, or basically anything that isn't character related. You don't often hear someone complain about an episode because the backgrounds look horrible. It's usually something about the characters that looks "off", hence it is usually attributed to the "Animation Supervisor". Does that make sense? You might want to give this article a read.

[Blue]

Actually you explained it really well, thanks a bunch Hujo. I'll be sure to look over that article too, looks like a fun read.

[.:PoetikaL:.]

I have the feeling that if done correctly, this picture can be created into a new meme.

[Metalwario64]

*EDIT* Somehow made a double post...

[Metalwario64]

I think the driving episode was pretty awful, I don't have any screen shots on hand, but one minute Goku is a muscle-bound freak with a long neck and short arms, the next he's tiny! Chibi-fied!

I'm pretty sure that was for a humorous effect. They did the same thing with Mr. Satan many times in the Buu arc.

In a nut shell... most anything drawn by Uchiyama Masayuki. I know that isn't what's being asked, but you can pick one of the episodes where he's the animation supervisor.

Actually, I thought his work on Z episode 105: "Freeza Defeated!! A Single Blast Packed With a Totailty of Rage" was very good. But I always burst open laughing when Fri­eza starts laughing at Goku because his mouth was so huge!

Of course, his work after the Fri­eza arc just completely fell apart, and went from being overall somewhat decent, sometimes good to consistently awful!

At the start, Ebisawa Yukio's trangle crap was probably worse, but by the end of the Buu arc, I think it looked much better than Uchiyama Masayuki's work.

I noticed that frame over a year ago. Here are some others I found.
*snip*
*snip*

I cannot, for the life of me, figure out what is wrong with either of these images, excpet that the Vegeta one is mid-blink.

Same here. Those are actually from very well animated episodes. I fail to see how a in-between of Vegeta blinking is "bad" and makes the episode have the worst animation ever...

[Hujio]

Of course, his work after the Fre­eza arc just completely fell apart, and went from being overall somewhat decent, sometimes good to consistently awful!

At the start, Yukio Ebisawa's triangle crap was probably worse, but by the end of the Buu arc, I think it looked much better than Uchiyama Masayuki's work.

That's why I don't like either of them. At any point in the series, one of them is bad, and sometimes even both were.

Oh, and if you're going to write Japanese names, you might want to double check that your naming convention is consistent. It should be Uchiyama Masayuki and Ebisawa Yukio (family name, given name), or Masayuki Uchiyama and Yukio Ebisawa (given name, family name).

[Anarchistguy]

How...how is that image bad looking in any way? Sure, he looks off model but the animation in that episode was FANTASTIC!!!!!

[Metalwario64]

That's why I don't like either of them. At any point in the series, one of them is bad, and sometimes even both were.

Oh yeah, I agree. I somehow turned that post into one about my feelings on the animation because I got myself a tad off-topic.

Oh, and if you're going to write Japanese names, you might want to double check that your naming convention is consistent. It should be Uchiyama Masayuki and Ebisawa Yukio (family name, given name), or Masayuki Uchiyama and Yukio Ebisawa (given name, family name).

Thanks for pointing that out. I just suppose I got too Ctrl+V happy for a bit there!

[Khalid Shahin]

I wasn't being completely serious with the Tien and Yamcha shot, it is just that it was unexpected how different it looks compared to the rest of the series, but it probably doesn't qualify for this topic. The ones where it seem like Vegeta is in mid blink, Bulma still doesn't look right anyways, same goes with the one with Vegeta talking with Supreme Kai, but now it is Supreme Kai that looks weird as well as Vegeta. My other screencaps are pretty good though.

This screencap I posted before still looks so weird to me.

[Supreme Stephan]

The episode where Gohan goes 'mystic' is also not very nice to look at:





I mean, look at Goku's waist!

[Sanjiscool]

Any of the episodes done by the "Triangle Man" always look crappy to me.

[Gaffer Tape]

Oh yeah, Ebisawa Yukio is bad! I was saving him for later discussion, but he's probably my least favorite, although there are points when Uchiyama Masayuki is just as bad. Maeda Minoru is one of my favorites, but no one really compares except for a select few. I need to go through and come up with a list at some point. I have a mental one going, but that doesn't get me too far sometimes... and having a guide on the site would come in handy for situations like this...

So I'm curious, who on Kanzentai wrote the blurb that I quoted before? Was that you or one of the others? That's why I brought it up. I thought it was you who wrote that, but it doesn't seem to gel with your opinion on Uchiyama as seen in this thread. Or is what MetalWario said the reason? That his work fell apart after the Freeza arc? I've only been paying attention to the different animation teams through the DBoxes (and Kanzentai's episode guide), so I haven't been able to look too closely at the later episodes. Does his work get really bad later on?

For me, what I've seen so far I generally enjoy because the quality of animation seems to be just under Maeda, but it has a slightly less detailed but much rounder style. And while it's not necessarily in line with what Toriyama was doing at the time, it reminded me of earlier in the series before everyone got annoyingly beefy. For me I can usually tell the difference between supervisors based on how they draw the eyes. For example Shindou Mitsua is "evil eye" and Uchiyama is "round eye." But like I said, I haven't seen most of what's representative of their work, so does that roundish style seem jarringly out of place later on when the more angular designs take over? Or did they try to transition to the more angular style and fail miserably? Could anyone post of picture of his later work? Heh, I'm just trying to get some opinions.

[Choice195]

Oh sweet jesus, I can't stop laughing at that picture XD

[Hujio]

So I'm curious, who on Kanzentai wrote the blurb that I quoted before? Was that you or one of the others? That's why I brought it up. I thought it was you who wrote that, but it doesn't seem to gel with your opinion on Uchiyama as seen in this thread. Or is what MetalWario said the reason? That his work fell apart after the Freeza arc? I've only been paying attention to the different animation teams through the DBoxes (and Kanzentai's episode guide), so I haven't been able to look too closely at the later episodes. Does his work get really bad later on?

Yeah, I wrote that on Kanzentai. Basically, as the series progresses, Uchiyama gets worse and worse. The reason being is that he wasn't surrounded by as talented key animators later on in the series, which is true for both Ebisawa Yukio and Uchiyama Masayuki. We know this because the two are actually credited as key animators in later episodes, rather than just the animation supervisor, and the number of key animators in their specific episodes got less and less. This means they themselves were drawing the key animation cels, which were sub-par, rather than simply overseeing them. You have to remember that just because someone is an animation supervisor, doesn't mean they're really super talented themselves. A lot of the animation supervisors are only animation supervisors because they have seniority over younger, more talented, animators. And that's not to say that applies to all of the animation supervisors, just some of them. But that's the case with Uchiyama, which is why I don't like him that much. Anyway, the best example for Uchiyama I can give is DragonBall Z episode 161. You'll remember that in the comparison you were referring to earlier his animation wasn't half bad, and was actually quite good. So here's a breakdown/comparison between the two.


DragonBall Z Episode 029
Key Animation: Last House, Kobara Taiichirou, Shida Naotoshi, Katada Akio, & Saeki Tetsuya



DragonBall Z Episode 161
Key Animation: Last House, Kobara Taiichirou, & Uchiyama Masayuki




Now I'll admit, it really doesn't help that episodes 160 and 162 have superb animation that make 161 look like absolute shit, but I think you get the idea. Uchiyama got worse as the series progressed because he had to actually start drawing the animation himself, rather than having other animators do it. You'll notice that Uchiyama is listed as a key animator for 161, while he wasn't in 029, and that three of the of the other animators aren't listed at all in 161. This is something that if you don't dig through a ton credits, you'd never really notice. So I hope this answers your questions. (It's stuff like this that I want to do for the site, but it's so time consuming...)

Oh, and for the record, 161 is one my most hated episodes, animation-wise. It's just SO bad!

[Tanooki Kuribo]

In the next 20 years when all of the cartoons on TV are computer animated shows, kids will look back on these shows and wonder why these characters look different in every episode and scene.

On that note, I remember this episode wasn't really badly drawn but this one scene, Tienshinhann had this face... well, look for yourself...

[Goku100xKamehameha]

So I'm curious, who on Kanzentai wrote the blurb that I quoted before? Was that you or one of the others? That's why I brought it up. I thought it was you who wrote that, but it doesn't seem to gel with your opinion on Uchiyama as seen in this thread. Or is what MetalWario said the reason? That his work fell apart after the Freeza arc? I've only been paying attention to the different animation teams through the DBoxes (and Kanzentai's episode guide), so I haven't been able to look too closely at the later episodes. Does his work get really bad later on?

<span>Yeah, I wrote that on Kanzentai. Basically, as the series progresses, Uchiyama gets worse and worse. The reason being is that he wasn't surrounded by as talented key animators later on in the series, which is true for both Ebisawa Yukio and Uchiyama Masayuki. We know this because the two are actually credited as key animators in later episodes, rather than just the animation supervisor, and the number of key animators in their specific episodes got less and less. This means they themselves were drawing the key animation cels, which were sub-par, rather than simply overseeing them. You have to remember that just because someone is an animation supervisor, doesn't mean they're really super talented themselves. A lot of the animation supervisors are only animation supervisors because they have seniority over younger, more talented, animators. And that's not to say that applies to all of the animation supervisors, just some of them. But that's the case with Uchiyama, which is why I don't like him that much. Anyway, the best example for Uchiyama I can give is DragonBall Z episode 161. You'll remember that in the comparison you were [url=<a href="http://www.kanzentai.com/eps-dbk.php?id=012]referring" class="smarterwiki-linkify">http://www.kanzentai.com/eps-dbk.php?id=012]referring</a> to earlier[/url] his animation wasn't half bad, and was actually quite good. So here's a breakdown/comparison between the two.</span>


DragonBall Z Episode 029
Key Animation: Last House, Kobara Taiichirou, Shida Naotoshi, Katada Akio, & Saeki Tetsuya

<span>[img]<a%20href="http://www.kanzentai.com/uploads/hujio/ ... 029-01.png[/img]" class="smarterwiki-linkify">http://www.kanzentai.com/uploads/hujio/ ... 029-01.png[/img]</a> [img]<a%20href="http://www.kanzentai.com/uploads/hujio/ ... 029-02.png[/img]" class="smarterwiki-linkify">http://www.kanzentai.com/uploads/hujio/ ... 029-02.png[/img]</a> [img]<a%20href="http://www.kanzentai.com/uploads/hujio/ ... 029-03.png[/img]" class="smarterwiki-linkify">http://www.kanzentai.com/uploads/hujio/ ... 029-03.png[/img]</a></span>

DragonBall Z Episode 161
Key Animation: Last House, Kobara Taiichirou, & Uchiyama Masayuki

<span>[img]<a%20href="http://www.kanzentai.com/uploads/hujio/ ... 161-01.png[/img]" class="smarterwiki-linkify">http://www.kanzentai.com/uploads/hujio/ ... 161-01.png[/img]</a> [img]<a%20href="http://www.kanzentai.com/uploads/hujio/ ... 161-02.png[/img]" class="smarterwiki-linkify">http://www.kanzentai.com/uploads/hujio/ ... 161-02.png[/img]</a> [img]<a%20href="http://www.kanzentai.com/uploads/hujio/ ... 161-03.png[/img]" class="smarterwiki-linkify">http://www.kanzentai.com/uploads/hujio/ ... 161-03.png[/img]</a></span>


Now I'll admit, it really doesn't help that episodes 160 and 162 have superb animation that make 161 look like absolute shit, but I think you get the idea. Uchiyama got worse as the series progressed because he had to actually start drawing the animation himself, rather than having other animators do it. You'll notice that Uchiyama is listed as a key animator for 161, while he wasn't in 029, and that three of the of the other animators aren't listed at all in 161. This is something that if you don't dig through a ton credits, you'd never really notice. So I hope this answers your questions. (It's stuff like this that I want to do for the site, but it's so time consuming...)

Oh, and for the record, 161 is one my most hated episodes, animation-wise. It's just SO bad!

Are those DBox screen shots or you also clean the grain?

In the next 20 years when all of the cartoons on TV are computer animated shows, kids will look back on these shows and wonder why these characters look different in every episode and scene

Today it's already like that.