The Best Looking Episode In The Entire Series

[Innagadadavida]

I am continually amazed by the team who brought up Yamcha v. Tenshinhan. There's this shot where Tenshinhan dashes at Yamcha, who jumps into the air, but Tenshinhan uses his left arm and pushes up off the ring to reach after him. The camera angle is incredible.

In terms of outright visuals...Dragon Ball Z #199, #230, #279, and #280 are some of my favorite on-model and well animated episodes.

I've said it before and I'll say it again. That has to be the best animated fight in all 500+ episodes of the series. There's also a really great fight, I think its Goku vs. Krillin, where the "camera" spins around them. Extremely complex stuff for a weekly animated show from the 80s.

[Rory]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. That has to be the best animated fight in all 500+ episodes of the series. There's also a really great fight, I think its Goku vs. Krillin, where the "camera" spins around them. Extremely complex stuff for a weekly animated show from the 80s.

Choreography wise, perhaps.... the fighting does seem very fluid, but animation wise? I'd still say Vegeta vs Reacoom is far beyond this is terms of sheer (I hate to re-use a word, but) fluidity.... there are some moments when Yamucha and Tenshinhan just look really stiff when they're fighting, standing up straight, without their backs moving at all, yet their fists are flying all over each other.. and those combos Vegeta pulls on Reacoom are just gorgeous .

[omegacwa]

Whenever I think of good animation on the show, I always think of the Vegeta vs Recoome fight.

[Hujio]

I doubt it. I don't think Studio Cockpit started working on the series until the Android-arc.

Yeah, Studio Cockpit is first credited in episode 174, just before the Cell Games begin.

Studio Cockpit. Was it the studio that animated the episodes in which Mr. Satan makes his first appearance, Goku did an Instant Kamehameha on Cell, and Gohan went Super Saiyan 2? If so, Studio Cockpit gets my vote, followed by the Maeda Minoru episodes. and the people who did episodes 4, 31, 63, 98, etc....

Studio Cockpit did some of the animation in the episode with Gohan's Super Saiyan 2 transformation at the end. They also did Goku's Shunkan-Idou Kamehameha, or at lease animated some of the episode.

The episodes you listed were all animated by Seigasha, Takeuchi Tomeyoshi, Iiduka Youko, Misumi Masako, Shimanuki Masahiro, and Kuda Kazuya. They typically all worked together, that is until Kuda Kazuya became an animation supervisor.

Whenever I think of good animation on the show, I always think of the Vegeta vs Recoome fight.

That episode featured our main man Nakatsuru Katsuyoshi as a key animator, who is known for drawing like Toriyama.

[CashmanX]

I've said it before and I'll say it again. That has to be the best animated fight in all 500+ episodes of the series. There's also a really great fight, I think its Goku vs. Krillin, where the "camera" spins around them. Extremely complex stuff for a weekly animated show from the 80s.

Choreography wise, perhaps.... the fighting does seem very fluid, but animation wise? I'd still say Vegeta vs Reacoom is far beyond this is terms of sheer (I hate to re-use a word, but) fluidity.... there are some moments when Yamucha and Tenshinhan just look really stiff when they're fighting, standing up straight, without their backs moving at all, yet their fists are flying all over each other.. and those combos Vegeta pulls on Reacoom are just gorgeous .

You're both wrong.


Goku vs Cell(179) blows both of them out of the water in terms choreography and animation. :p

[Rory]

You're both wrong.


Goku vs Cell(179) blows both of them out of the water in terms choreography and animation. :p

Though that is my favourite fight of the entire series, I still think Vegeta vs Reacoom is just better in terms of animation.
Just looking at Vegeta's aura as he powers his ass up, it's just stunning.

[Choice195]

Gohan kills Cell.

[Hujio]

Gohan kills Cell.

Yep, he does.

[Metalwario64]

Gohan kills Cell.

Goku kills Buu.

[JulieYBM]

Yeah, the crew who did that Instantaneous Kamehame-Ha episode was really, really good. It punches hard, relentlessly.

[MR.Mark]

When I think BEST, what instantly comes to mind is the episode where Vegeta fights Recoom. I believe the episode where Vegeta is hit by the Genki Dama has the same style. Well drawn AND fluid, just all around good animation.

That's probability who I'm thinking off, I wish they did every episode...

I doubt it. I don't think Studio Cockpit started working on the series until the Android-arc.

I see, as nice as the later parts of the series looked, they never quite got as fluid as those episodes I'm thinking of, though I'm sure there's a few exceptions. Super detail is nice, but if the fluidity of movement is sacrificed, then to me that's not good animation.

[MetalMadness]

If every episode was animated like episodes 65, 77, 179, or 185, the show would have been nothing short of gorgeous.

But what were they thinking finalizing the Last House or Studio Live animations? Those are utter garbage, characters are disproportional, backgrounds are lazily drawn, everytime I see an episode animated by them I just don't want to watch it, even if it's a good episode!

[Choice195]

Gohan kills Cell.

Yep, he does.

I meant when Gohan killed Cell, He Went SHOOP DA WHOOP on Cell's face.

[jjgp1112]

If every episode was animated like episodes 65, 77, 179, or 185, the show would have been nothing short of gorgeous.

But what were they thinking finalizing the Last House or Studio Live animations? Those are utter garbage, characters are disproportional, backgrounds are lazily drawn, everytime I see an episode animated by them I just don't want to watch it, even if it's a good episode!

Well, animating a cartoon that airs week by week without seasonal breaks is a difficult task and would be next to impossible for a single studio to do, so they probably hire a variety of different studios to balance out the workload, and for budget reasons, they also hire lesser animators instead of just getting the best animators possible, because one would assume that the bad animators have smaller paychecks while the better animators demand a higher pay rate.

[Kid Buu]

Gohan kills Cell.

Goku kills Buu.

And Trunks kills Freeza!

[MCDaveG]

That's every episode going after the f**cked up episode which preceeded it for me...... But episode that really impresses me is the last one of Dragon Ball when Goku is goin' to Annin's furnace. Mostly because it looks like Z already and the 1st Movie of Z.
We got great animation and character drawings which is killed by first episode of Z with awfully plain and childish Goku.

[MR.Mark]

I still think Vegeta vs Reacoom is just better in terms of animation.
Just looking at Vegeta's aura as he powers his ass up, it's just stunning.

It's a lot of little touches too, Vegeta's kicking legs as Recoom grabs him etc, just beautiful work.

[Snail]

Vegeta Vs. Recoome

[Goku100xKamehameha]

SSJ3 Goku VS Majin Boo

[Kendamu]

The first instance that pops to mind when I hear "the best" is Vegeta vs. Reacoom. I can't really tell you whether there is something better out there or not, but that is what comes to mind. Sure, it's not a whole episode, but I don't specifically remember any horrible animation within that episode.