Last House?

[Attitudefan]

Is that the right name for the animation studio? Anyways that was the true question. What I want to say is:
Why was last house used so much over the better animation studios. During Demon King Piccolo saga, when Goku met him for the first time, his leg was way off. I notice this during most of their DB episodes. Body parts and all seem way off and out of proportion! Why would anyone want to hire someone to animate most of your series, whom suck real bad? Only sometimes do their episodes look good.

The triangle crap is for another day, they suck just as bad or worse....

[Savage68]

Simple answer: They're cheap.

You see the same jarring differences in art with plenty of long-running shonen anime. Art consistency doesn't really matter to me, though it used to be my biggest pet (anime) peeve. It's quite funny now, to watch one episode of Dragon Ball Z that looks... well, for lack of a better word, ~wonderful~, to go straight to the next -- which looks to be drawn and animated by Korean slave labor.

[Attitudefan]

I see. Well it bothers me so much! ARG! Recoome vs Gohan is just one of those eps where I want to blast my TV to bits!

[Metalwario64]

Recoome vs Gohan is just one of those eps where I want to blast my TV to bits!

That is actually one of my more liked animation styles; I just like how sleek everything looks. From looking at Kanzentai, I believe that studio's name is "Shindou Productions", unless I'm looking at the wrong things.

[Gaffer Tape]

In early Z at least I considered Shindou to be sort of the middle of the road style for me. At that time I placed Maeda Minoru at the top, followed by Uchiyama Masayuki (before the Cell arc started, and he got really bad), and Seigasha and Last House both as categorically bad. But Shindou Mitsua's stuff I found neither offensive or extremely great. Its "evil eye" characteristics didn't exactly remind me of Toriyama, and it somewhat annoyed me at times because of that, but I could always depend on it to deliver a decent performance. That said, I didn't exactly miss it when it left after Garlic Jr.

That said, I never really thought of it as "sleek" before. In fact, it seemed rather rough and gritty to me. But maybe you're referring to the animation itself rather than the actual drawings, and I guess I agree with you on that.

[Metalwario64]

That said, I never really thought of it as "sleek" before. In fact, it seemed rather rough and gritty to me.

Well, I dunno if "sleek" is the best term, but it's the closest I can think of. Maybe the characters look... I dunno, a bit slimmer? Less bulky? I suppose it does deviate from Toriyama's style a bit, but I don't think it does in a necessarily bad way. Though, I can understand the liberties taken could turn some people away from it, but I just think it looks pretty good on it's own.

But maybe you're referring to the animation itself rather than the actual drawings, and I guess I agree with you on that.

I actually was referring to the style of the drawings, as the actual number of animation frames seemed a bit low at times (especially noticeable in episode 97 - "The Destruction of Planet Namek?! A Demonic Flash Pierces the Ground" when Goku and Freeza's auras are drawing closer to each other), though it wasn't really stiff; I'd say it flowed pretty well despite having a sometimes lower frame count.

I'd would say though that I don't think it looked as good during early Dragon Ball, when everything was very rounded out. It wasn't bad, but it did look a bit rough there (there I would say it looked average). I'd say it peaked during the Namek arc when Toriyama's style started getting a bit more angular.

I'd personally say it is at least above average (not one of the best, but pretty good), and the faces seem smoother and sharper or something which I think looks pretty good:

I love the way Super Saiyan Goku's hair is colored here

[Attitudefan]

That said, I never really thought of it as "sleek" before. In fact, it seemed rather rough and gritty to me.

Well, I dunno if "sleek" is the best term, but it's the closest I can think of. Maybe the characters look... I dunno, a bit slimmer? Less bulky? I suppose it does deviate from Toriyama's style a bit, but I don't think it does in a necessarily bad way. Though, I can understand the liberties taken could turn some people away from it, but I just think it looks pretty good on it's own.

But maybe you're referring to the animation itself rather than the actual drawings, and I guess I agree with you on that.

I actually was referring to the style of the drawings, as the actual number of animation frames seemed a bit low at times (especially noticeable in episode 97 - "The Destruction of Planet Namek?! A Demonic Flash Pierces the Ground" when Goku and Freeza's auras are drawing closer to each other), though it wasn't really stiff; I'd say it flowed pretty well despite having a sometimes lower frame count.

I'd would say though that I don't think it looked as good during early Dragon Ball, when everything was very rounded out. It wasn't bad, but it did look a bit rough there (there I would say it looked average). I'd say it peaked during the Namek arc when Toriyama's style started getting a bit more angular.

I'd personally say it is at least above average (not one of the best, but pretty good), and the faces seem smoother and sharper or something which I think looks pretty good:
snip
I love the way Super Saiyan Goku's hair is colored here
snip

Well That episode was pretty well drawn but I do agree that the frame rate on these episodes are slower, it can become noticeable when it's beside a really good animated episode.
I guess that was my problem, it was the slow framerate, which is also noticeable on Last House's episodes.

Also, during the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai, that style really stands out. On the other hand I think they animated Ten vs Yamcha, and that was by far one of the best animated fights.

[Hoppey]

That said, I never really thought of it as "sleek" before. In fact, it seemed rather rough and gritty to me.

Well, I dunno if "sleek" is the best term, but it's the closest I can think of. Maybe the characters look... I dunno, a bit slimmer? Less bulky? I suppose it does deviate from Toriyama's style a bit, but I don't think it does in a necessarily bad way. Though, I can understand the liberties taken could turn some people away from it, but I just think it looks pretty good on it's own.

But maybe you're referring to the animation itself rather than the actual drawings, and I guess I agree with you on that.

I actually was referring to the style of the drawings, as the actual number of animation frames seemed a bit low at times (especially noticeable in episode 97 - "The Destruction of Planet Namek?! A Demonic Flash Pierces the Ground" when Goku and Freeza's auras are drawing closer to each other), though it wasn't really stiff; I'd say it flowed pretty well despite having a sometimes lower frame count.

I'd would say though that I don't think it looked as good during early Dragon Ball, when everything was very rounded out. It wasn't bad, but it did look a bit rough there (there I would say it looked average). I'd say it peaked during the Namek arc when Toriyama's style started getting a bit more angular.

I'd personally say it is at least above average (not one of the best, but pretty good), and the faces seem smoother and sharper or something which I think looks pretty good:
snip
I love the way Super Saiyan Goku's hair is colored here
snip

Well That episode was pretty well drawn but I do agree that the frame rate on these episodes are slower, it can become noticeable when it's beside a really good animated episode.
I guess that was my problem, it was the slow framerate, which is also noticeable on Last House's episodes.

Also, during the 22nd Tenkaichi Budokai, that style really stands out. On the other hand I think they animated Ten vs Yamcha, and that was by far one of the best animated fights.

I honestly don't know why so many people praise the animation during the Yamcha vs. Tenshinhan fight, sure the choreography is good but the actual animation is so slow and a lot of animation is reused.On the subject of Last House my opinion of them changes a lot throughout the series, I think their style worked well for the original Dragonball series although I find most of their Saiyan arc work to mediocore but really like a lot of their Namek era stuff, but once the Cell stuff comes around they pretty much remain craptastic untill the end of GT.

[Gaffer Tape]

Really? Because I feel almost the exact opposite. While I do think their work looked better in DB, I felt the Freeza arc was their definite nadir. But once the Cell arc came around, and Uchiyama Masayuki's work got terrible, Ebisawa Yukio's stuff seemed much better (or at least better by comparison). Too bad that studio never did seem able to learn how to draw a proper-looking Vegeta...

[Attitudefan]

Really? Because I feel almost the exact opposite. While I do think their work looked better in DB, I felt the Freeza arc was their definite nadir. But once the Cell arc came around, and Uchiyama Masayuki's work got terrible, Ebisawa Yukio's stuff seemed much better (or at least better by comparison). Too bad that studio never did seem able to learn how to draw a proper-looking Vegeta...

YEAH! They never learned to draw Vegeta just right. Their Namek stuff was actually decent though. Did last house do Kiwi vs Vegeta? That was pretty decent.... though not the greatest.

[Gaffer Tape]

Without checking, I think that's Uchiyama Masayuki, actually. Let me bop over to Kanzentai and see if I'm right.

EDIT: Yep!

[Attitudefan]

So what did you find out?

[Gaffer Tape]

I guess it's possible AttitudeFan didn't notice, so I'm just pointing out I long ago edited my previous post with the answer.

[Attitudefan]

I guess it's possible AttitudeFan didn't notice, so I'm just pointing out I long ago edited my previous post with the answer.

Oh I see it, so it is last house. That is probably one of the only decent episodes they did but, wasn't it this episode where Freeza had on big eye and one small eye?

[Gaffer Tape]

Oh, blah. I was getting my animation studios confused. I usually remember them by animation supervisor, not studio name. So all this time I was confusing Last House with Studio Live/Ebisawa Yukio/triangle man crap. So I guess we were both right about this episode since Last House is Uchiyama Masayuki.

But at any rate, I stand by what I said before: Uchiyama Masayuki/Last House is actually one of my favorites up until the Cell arc. This particular episode seems rather representative of what they were like around this time: not amazingly detailed but a nice, rounded design style reminiscent of Toriyama's earlier work. I don't know what the hell happened to them after Trunks visited, but it started looking like hell after that (oh, and special foreshadowing of this on the episode right after Goku turns Super Saiya-jin, and he suddenly has three foot tall hair... I guess that was a sign of things to come).

[Attitudefan]

Oh, blah. I was getting my animation studios confused. I usually remember them by animation supervisor, not studio name. So all this time I was confusing Last House with Studio Live/Ebisawa Yukio/triangle man crap. So I guess we were both right about this episode since Last House is Uchiyama Masayuki.

But at any rate, I stand by what I said before: Uchiyama Masayuki/Last House is actually one of my favorites up until the Cell arc. This particular episode seems rather representative of what they were like around this time: not amazingly detailed but a nice, rounded design style reminiscent of Toriyama's earlier work. I don't know what the hell happened to them after Trunks visited, but it started looking like hell after that (oh, and special foreshadowing of this on the episode right after Goku turns Super Saiya-jin, and he suddenly has three foot tall hair... I guess that was a sign of things to come).

Yeah, I really apreciate that they kept the rounder style when the other studios were changing. Here on the forum, if you scroll down you'll understand why it gets worse.
But I do have to say, Last House could do pretty good fight scenes.

[Gaffer Tape]

Here on the forum, if you scroll down you'll understand why it gets worse.

Heh, yep. I'm aware of that. When Hujio explains about Last House's evolution, you'll notice he's responding to my question.

But thanks for linking that. That has been several months, and I was due for a re-read of that.

[Attitudefan]

no problem, it was a good thread.

[Olympian]

I honestly don't know why so many people praise the animation during the Yamcha vs. Tenshinhan fight, sure the choreography is good but the actual animation is so slow and a lot of animation is reused.

Wasen`t slow at the time. I don`t think we have seen a fast paced and brutal fight like that until then. The part where Yamcha and Ten are just beating the crap out of each other, like they were on some street fight was awesome. Yeah, some scenes were reused, but you have that happening in most anime stories. At least those two wolf techniques that Yamucha showed were cool. I don`t know why they never implemented that in games..

[Attitudefan]

I honestly don't know why so many people praise the animation during the Yamcha vs. Tenshinhan fight, sure the choreography is good but the actual animation is so slow and a lot of animation is reused.

Wasen`t slow at the time. I don`t think we have seen a fast paced and brutal fight like that until then. The part where Yamcha and Ten are just beating the crap out of each other, like they were on some street fight was awesome. Yeah, some scenes were reused, but you have that happening in most anime stories. At least those two wolf techniques that Yamucha showed were cool. I don`t know why they never implemented that in games..

Yeah, and the style was neat, like when they scratch each others cheeks and it does the silhouette thing. C'mon that's just neat. DB was nothing like that until this point