"Pretty" Dragonball Animations

[Li'l Lemmy]

Each anime is crafted with its own unique style, and in the case of Dragonball we all know that this particular style is derived from Toriyama-sensei and how he illustrated the Dragonball manga . . . and though the varying production values are something to point out, there are nonetheless some beautifully animated stand-out sequences, a fair share of ooh-worthy moments and episodes which always managed to captivate me artistically.

I'll bet lots of us have a favorite scene or episode in that regard. What's yours?

My inspiration for posting: I was watching an episode from one of my Babidi discs today ("I Won't Allow the Revival!! A Kamehame-Ha of Resistance"/Buu Is Hatched), and there's a quick snippet of Goku and Vegeta fighting that somehow just never fails to amaze me. It opens with a dual headbutt, and the sequence that follows just seem to smack of effort. There's a lot of fluid, complicated movement, some exciting angles and lots of hand-to-hand. The sequence does its job in making me "feel" the struggle between the two powers, and the amount of detail appears to push the limit of Dragonball animation . . . but then, that's just what I think.

It opened the door to a topic that might be worth discussing, at any rate.

EDIT: Though the only experience I have is with the anime, that certainly isn't true of everyone here; there's no reason not to include the manga.


(Li'l Lemmy, the artist without a scanner.)

[Mr. Robot]

This isn't an animation I like, but my favorite arc is the Namek Arc. It's interesting, I tell ya. Not just 15-bajillion hour long battles, but some actual story.

[Bejiita]

I seem to like the episode where Gohan goes to fight super buu after Elder Kaioshin's training.

The way the episode is drawn is a lot like the manga, when I watch an episode of the anime I notice many artist flaws that look very un-Toriyama and sometimes I imagine myself being in he's shoes when he first viewed the episode and asking myself 'am I pleased with this?'

I think Toriyama would have liked this episode in particular because it is a bad ass episode. From when he first kicks Buu's foot and smacks him in the face until the end of the episode.

Also, the episode where Gohan goes Oozaru and takes out Vegeta. This is episode is drawn exceptionally well despite being an early episode and really captures the feel Toriyama inteded to give with he's manga. Every scene of this episode is wicked and the whole episode is full of suprises.

[Li'l Lemmy]

Also, the episode where Gohan goes Oozaru and takes out Vegeta. This is episode is drawn exceptionally well despite being an early episode and really captures the feel Toriyama inteded to give with he's manga. Every scene of this episode is wicked and the whole episode is full of suprises.

Pardon my language, but did that episode NOT just kick some serious ass? I like the way the blood and scratches are detailed throughout in particular; it's been a long, hard battle for some 20-odd episodes, and damned if it didn't look like it. Vegeta himself looks like he might die on the way back to the recouperation chamber when he spills back into the space pod.

The close-up we get of Vegeta one episode earlier when he's sprawled "dead" in the dirt was nice, as well. It looked very . . . hmm. "Anime-ish," for lack of a better term.

(Li'l Lemmy, who goes now to re-watch the Saiyan saga.)

[*PINHEAD*]

I liked the style of the Cell story arc the most, but as for storytelling and whatnot, definately early Dragon Ball.

[Duo]

I particularly enjoy the Animation for Goku using Kaiô-ken x3. Despite that wierd long pause of him right before punching Vegeta, that whole scene was done extraordinarily well, and was almost perfect in comparison to the Manga. A brilliant scene. I can't wait for the UUE Dvd on that.

My favorite Manga artwork...SS2 Gohan. Hands down.

[Bejiita]

Also, the episode where Gohan goes Oozaru and takes out Vegeta. This is episode is drawn exceptionally well despite being an early episode and really captures the feel Toriyama inteded to give with he's manga. Every scene of this episode is wicked and the whole episode is full of suprises.

Pardon my language, but did that episode NOT just kick some serious ass? I like the way the blood and scratches are detailed throughout in particular; it's been a long, hard battle for some 20-odd episodes, and damned if it didn't look like it. Vegeta himself looks like he might die on the way back to the recouperation chamber when he spills back into the space pod.

The close-up we get of Vegeta one episode earlier when he's sprawled "dead" in the dirt was nice, as well. It looked very . . . hmm. "Anime-ish," for lack of a better term.

(Li'l Lemmy, who goes now to re-watch the Saiyan saga.)

Yes, it did kick ass. And it still does.

Seriously though, it does. Everything seems to be done right, the voice acting isbeyond superb, it's spot on, you can tell how desperate Kuririn is when he's begging Gohan (Oozau) to get Vegeta instead of them, he says, ''Saiya-Jin wo yare!!!'', meaning 'get the Saiya-Jin!!!' I think I got the romaji correct didn't I? Vegeta's breathing when he's crawling to he's space ship really sounds as if he's struggling to even lift a finger.

And is it just me or is Kuririn's voice just so original? The woman who done him was very talented, like, in the dub, Yajirobe is a nobody to me, he is of no significance, some annoying fat man, in the Japanese version I like every scene with him in it, it's the voice that makes him unique, it's done by the same woman who does Kuririn too. He's voice just makes me laugh, especially when he laughs himself.

They were also clever to voice Kaio-sama with the narrator, since he's always got a lot of important information and things to explain, it was only natural to make he's voice the man who narrates the story, people will listen better.

[Chaos Saiyajin]

Yes, it did kick ass. And it still does.

Ditto! My favorite would have to be the animation from the Trunks/Android saga, the SSJ transformations also kick total ass.

[Li'l Lemmy]

I particularly enjoy the Animation for Goku using Kaiô-ken x3. Despite that wierd long pause of him right before punching Vegeta, that whole scene was done extraordinarily well, and was almost perfect in comparison to the Manga. A brilliant scene. I can't wait for the UUE Dvd on that.

My favorite Manga artwork...SS2 Gohan. Hands down.

Well, damn. That's an awesome scan of Gohan. I don't have any manga myself, so this is like a whole new world opened up to me.

As for the Kaio-ken animation, I'm certainly in agreement with you there. Though I think it turned out even better after he upgraded to x4, since the clash of energies that followed always struck be as very beautifully animated. The detail there is even better than the subsequent energy clash they would have during Goku's fight with Majin Vegeta years later, I think.

They were also clever to voice Kaio-sama with the narrator, since he's always got a lot of important information and things to explain, it was only natural to make he's voice the man who narrates the story, people will listen better.

Slightly off-topic nonsense: You're saying that the narrator and Kaio-sama were voiced by the same senyu, right? Because I'd always suspected that, but was never quite sure . . . if that is the case, though, it is indeed quite clever; Kaio-sama was in a position of omnipotence that made him the perfect narrator to guide us through the episodes one-by-one.


(Li'l Lemmy, who can be truly ignorant.)

[Duo]

Heh. I have quite a few more of my favorite scans if you'd like me to share.

I do agree that the beam struggle was done pretty well too.

[Panda]

I haven't seen all of any of the three series but out of all of the ones that I have my absolute favorite scene is Gohan's SSJ2 awakening. The contrast between the episodes leading up to it and then the actual transformation.



I've always thought this scene was beautiful and heart warming/breaking once #16 speaks his last wors followed by the music and Gohan realizing what he has to do.

[VegettoEX]

< snip image >

Holy CRAP, let me fix that for you.

[Panda]

Thank you Mike. I had just taken it from the first web site I could find.

Off-Topic: I've always noticed in this scene, (and it doesnt really happen anywhere else... maybe once or twice more) that Gohan's tears are glowling and I've always come up with the idea that they were like that because of the light he was "emitting". Any thoughts?

[Great Saiyaman]

To me an "oo" moment would be when Gohan is fighting the Cell Jr.'s. I am just watching this scene & I think Gohan looks awesome in it.

[Chaos Saiyajin]

Kick ass Gohan pic!

Off-Topic: I've always noticed in this scene, (and it doesnt really happen anywhere else... maybe once or twice more) that Gohan's tears are glowling and I've always come up with the idea that they were like that because of the light he was "emitting". Any thoughts?

I agree with you, Panda. Gohan's probably producing enough light to light up an entitre city.

[Bejiita]

I particularly enjoy the Animation for Goku using Kaiô-ken x3. Despite that wierd long pause of him right before punching Vegeta, that whole scene was done extraordinarily well, and was almost perfect in comparison to the Manga. A brilliant scene. I can't wait for the UUE Dvd on that.

My favorite Manga artwork...SS2 Gohan. Hands down.

Well, damn. That's an awesome scan of Gohan. I don't have any manga myself, so this is like a whole new world opened up to me.

As for the Kaio-ken animation, I'm certainly in agreement with you there. Though I think it turned out even better after he upgraded to x4, since the clash of energies that followed always struck be as very beautifully animated. The detail there is even better than the subsequent energy clash they would have during Goku's fight with Majin Vegeta years later, I think.

They were also clever to voice Kaio-sama with the narrator, since he's always got a lot of important information and things to explain, it was only natural to make he's voice the man who narrates the story, people will listen better.

Slightly off-topic nonsense: You're saying that the narrator and Kaio-sama were voiced by the same senyu, right? Because I'd always suspected that, but was never quite sure . . . if that is the case, though, it is indeed quite clever; Kaio-sama was in a position of omnipotence that made him the perfect narrator to guide us through the episodes one-by-one.


(Li'l Lemmy, who can be truly ignorant.)

I really did enjoy the first Goku Vs Vegeta fight more to be honest. And when he went Kaioken X3 was when the battle really heated up properly, I saw him start battering Vegeta and actually thought to myself ''Goku is fucking him up''.

Yes the narrator definately done his voice, he also did Bulma's Dad and Babidi. Here is a picture I found which tells you the voices, suprisingly Baba is the same voice as Kuririn and Yajirobe.

[Kirbopher]

Well, compared to a lot of animes of today that are aimed towards the same age group as Dragonball, I think DBZ has a lot of very fluid animation at almost all times. In a lot of today's anime's, with fight scenes, they use almost NOTHING but scrolling and zooms with still shots of the characters attacking, dodging or getting hit. Obviously not in every case, or in certain animes in general or certain episodes of said animes that use still shots.

Meanwhile, DBZ has prettymuch nothing but animations for everything. There's a bit of reused footage in certain places (most noticably in GT) but not to the point where its annoying. Even the fight scenes that tend to last for a large amount of episodes are wall to wall animation of everything...which people don't seem to notice when they get bored with watching a long fight scene ^^;;

As for me, I like a lot of the fight scenes with Buu's many incarnations from the Babidi Saga to the end of the Kid Buu saga. At that point, it looked like the art cells and drawings in each episode were better looking than any I had seen in the earlier sagas. Specifically I liked Super Saiyan 3 Goku vs. Fat Buu, Super Saiyan Gotenks vs. Super Buu, Gohan vs. Super Buu and Super Saiyan Vegeta vs. Kid Buu.

[DB_Fan]

I particularly enjoy the Animation for Goku using Kaiô-ken x3. Despite that wierd long pause of him right before punching Vegeta, that whole scene was done extraordinarily well, and was almost perfect in comparison to the Manga. A brilliant scene. I can't wait for the UUE Dvd on that.

My favorite Manga artwork...SS2 Gohan. Hands down.

Well, damn. That's an awesome scan of Gohan. I don't have any manga myself, so this is like a whole new world opened up to me.

As for the Kaio-ken animation, I'm certainly in agreement with you there. Though I think it turned out even better after he upgraded to x4, since the clash of energies that followed always struck be as very beautifully animated. The detail there is even better than the subsequent energy clash they would have during Goku's fight with Majin Vegeta years later, I think.

They were also clever to voice Kaio-sama with the narrator, since he's always got a lot of important information and things to explain, it was only natural to make he's voice the man who narrates the story, people will listen better.

Slightly off-topic nonsense: You're saying that the narrator and Kaio-sama were voiced by the same senyu, right? Because I'd always suspected that, but was never quite sure . . . if that is the case, though, it is indeed quite clever; Kaio-sama was in a position of omnipotence that made him the perfect narrator to guide us through the episodes one-by-one.


(Li'l Lemmy, who can be truly ignorant.)

I really did enjoy the first Goku Vs Vegeta fight more to be honest. And when he went Kaioken X3 was when the battle really heated up properly, I saw him start battering Vegeta and actually thought to myself ''Goku is fucking him up''.

Yes the narrator definately done his voice, he also did Bulma's Dad and Babidi. Here is a picture I found which tells you the voices, suprisingly Baba is the same voice as Kuririn and Yajirobe.

She only did Baba's voice in the Buu Saga.

[Bejiita]

Well, damn. That's an awesome scan of Gohan. I don't have any manga myself, so this is like a whole new world opened up to me.

As for the Kaio-ken animation, I'm certainly in agreement with you there. Though I think it turned out even better after he upgraded to x4, since the clash of energies that followed always struck be as very beautifully animated. The detail there is even better than the subsequent energy clash they would have during Goku's fight with Majin Vegeta years later, I think.
Slightly off-topic nonsense: You're saying that the narrator and Kaio-sama were voiced by the same senyu, right? Because I'd always suspected that, but was never quite sure . . . if that is the case, though, it is indeed quite clever; Kaio-sama was in a position of omnipotence that made him the perfect narrator to guide us through the episodes one-by-one.


(Li'l Lemmy, who can be truly ignorant.)

I really did enjoy the first Goku Vs Vegeta fight more to be honest. And when he went Kaioken X3 was when the battle really heated up properly, I saw him start battering Vegeta and actually thought to myself ''Goku is fucking him up''.

Yes the narrator definately done his voice, he also did Bulma's Dad and Babidi. Here is a picture I found which tells you the voices, suprisingly Baba is the same voice as Kuririn and Yajirobe.

She only did Baba's voice in the Buu Saga.

I see, now I remember certain similarities when she was talking to Enma Daio about Vegeta.

[Tapion]

Cell Games and Babidi.... beautiful animations, so smooth and clear. The colors are so bright.

By the way, am I the only one who's noticed the eps. on the dvd "Saiyan Pride", where the artists totally screw up Goku and Vegeta's face's??? lol