Animation quality of the 90's

[Unicorn_Bazooka]

When watching at the old clips from the anime, i've started to pay more attention to the animation quality.
Now i'm thinking, that how the animatiors' styles were a bit too distinctive from each other, and created a very low quality animation at some points, was the animation much less strict back then?
Nowadays they try to hire animators that have near identical styles, or just make one single animator do the whole work, depending on the series.

[sangofe]

When watching at the old clips from the anime, i've started to pay more attention to the animation quality.
Now i'm thinking, that how the animatiors' styles were a bit too distinctive from each other, and created a very low quality animation at some points, was the animation much less strict back then?
Nowadays they try to hire animators that have near identical styles, or just make one single animator do the whole work, depending on the series.

Do you mean animation or art style? I'm not really sure what you mean, because a lot of the anime from the 90's actually have better animation than some of the newer series that come out...

[Unicorn_Bazooka]

When watching at the old clips from the anime, i've started to pay more attention to the animation quality.
Now i'm thinking, that how the animatiors' styles were a bit too distinctive from each other, and created a very low quality animation at some points, was the animation much less strict back then?
Nowadays they try to hire animators that have near identical styles, or just make one single animator do the whole work, depending on the series.

Do you mean animation or art style? I'm not really sure what you mean, because a lot of the anime from the 90's actually have better animation than some of the newer series that come out...

I'm talking about both. There were much more errors in the episodes aside with the animation quality itself.

[samuraix123]

When watching at the old clips from the anime, i've started to pay more attention to the animation quality.
Now i'm thinking, that how the animatiors' styles were a bit too distinctive from each other, and created a very low quality animation at some points, was the animation much less strict back then?
Nowadays they try to hire animators that have near identical styles, or just make one single animator do the whole work, depending on the series.

Do you mean animation or art style? I'm not really sure what you mean, because a lot of the anime from the 90's actually have better animation than some of the newer series that come out...

Agreed except in my opinion anime has went down hill since the 80's and 90's.

[eledoremassis02]

When watching at the old clips from the anime, i've started to pay more attention to the animation quality.
Now i'm thinking, that how the animatiors' styles were a bit too distinctive from each other, and created a very low quality animation at some points, was the animation much less strict back then?
Nowadays they try to hire animators that have near identical styles, or just make one single animator do the whole work, depending on the series.

Do you mean animation or art style? I'm not really sure what you mean, because a lot of the anime from the 90's actually have better animation than some of the newer series that come out...

I'm talking about both. There were much more errors in the episodes aside with the animation quality itself.

Thats why I like it though. Anime now is too generic in style. The errors could be for time constraint and the fact that many of the animation done was still drawn by hand. Today, computers fix a lot of that. Look how many errors and quality differences there were in Batman The Animated Series.

[Vijay]

The recent anime's are all kinda generic "plastic-models" IMO.

Anime's in the 80's & 90's are much better. Not speaking of only Dragonball, but anime's generally during those period of time seems to have more effort put into which shines throughout. Unlike the recent half-baked one's.

[theoriginalbilis]

Thanks to the switchover to digital animation instead of cel animation, more modern anime tends to look/animate more consistently. That said, you also lose some of the special touches of an individual artist or studio gives a certain scene. Yes, there are some great-looking episodes in the original DB/DBZ, but I'd argue that there are more mediocre-looking episodes than great-looking ones.

I still love it, no doubt, but I see it for what it is.

With the newer digitally-animated DBZ stuff like the new specials and BoG, they all have a much more consistent look and animation style than the 80's/90's stuff. Though, with the exception of a couple outstanding key animators, they do feel more workman-like and slightly more lazy in certain areas (such as secondary action and character movements.)

I'm glad we have the new animation (I can never get enough DBZ), but the days of the drastically different styles of each episode/director/studio is a thing of the past for DBZ.

[DarkPrince_92]

I feel the ART styles of the 90's were better, the ANIMATION, the motions I can say have improved. Shouts out to Naotoshi Shida, this guy is ridiculously good.

[JulieYBM]

Not a lot has changed since the 1990s. While Yamamuro Tadayoshi and Ide Takeo tend to keep animators strictly on-model with Yamamuro's character designs you can still pick out the timing and drawings habits of a few Key Animators. Tate Naoki's Key Animation stuck out like a lovely sore thumb in the 2008 JUMP Super Anime Tour special. Oonishi Ryou's work in Episode of Bardock and Kami to Kami can't be missed, either. This is to say nothing of Shida Naotoshi's action cuts. The problems with sameness comes from Yamamuro acting as character designer and animation supervisor on damned near every Dragon Ball work these days. Toriko episode #99 and One Piece episode #590 are the only works he was not involved in recently (or at least credited for). Of course, those episodes have very few talented key animators who worked on them, so they look like trash anyway (aside from Shida Naotoshi's work in the latter episode).

This isn't even touching upon other daytime series, like Hagane no Renkinjutsushi: Fullmetal Alchemist or the big budget Naruto Shippuuden episodes. Late-night Otaku shows also blow 1990s television animation out of the water. Try sifting through a few of yamaneaki123's monthly Sakuga MADs for an idea of what modern animation is doing.

Look how many errors and quality differences there were in Batman The Animated Series.

The 1992 Batman series had quality issues because the American production staff screwed up a lot. Directors storyboarded episodes without knowing which animation studio was going to do their episode. If a director doesn't know who his animators are or what their skills are he is not going to be able to make a good work. The other big problem is that Warner Bros. Animation shipped out to bad studios. You can give a bad studio nine months to draw thousands of drawings but that is not going to make up for said studio simply being bad. The series would have been a lot better off if the weaker studios were allowed to draw less drawings per episode.

[MCDaveG]

One thing I noticed!
In the 80's and 90's drawing was way better than nowadays, but the animation was worse as it wasn't that much fluid but also felt more vibrant as when someone was scared, thanks to hand painting on cells, his all face was shiverring and felt alive.
Nowadays, picture is still drawn by hand, but processed in PC and looks quite cheap compared to the old ones, colours are not that vibrant, but shiny and full. But, animation is better, more fluid and more action going on, with additional effects done by CGI. I actually really love modern Gundam series with robots being drawn 3D models.

So for me, oldschool wins with drawings and new ones are better animated.

[samuraix123]

I just miss how the older Anime stuff looks more dark and spooky
shinjuku demon city

Vampire hunter D

I also think that's the reason why I love The Dead Zone(Ocean Dub with Japanese music) so much. because there's that spooky castle and the music is spot on,and the animation is spot on.

I guess I'll always just prefer the older stuff.
Trigun is another example of Rad animation haha

also not trying to turn this thread into what looks good and what don't haha

[Looneygamemaster]

Trigun is another example of Rad animation haha

No, Trigun has rather slipshod animation on the whole, especially as the show goes on (and especially considering what Madhouse has done afterwards). What it has is fantastic direction. And really, that's more important than actual animation quality--being able to use what you're given so that the story doesn't suffer. At least, I think so.

[Naughty Kinto Un]

Anyone wanting to see absolutely gorgeous, breathtaking 90s animation needs to check out Giant Robo: The Day the Earth Stood Still.

Speaking of which, I've been considering changing my avatar from Thorkell the Tall to Alberto the Impact.

Trigun is another example of Rad animation haha

No, Trigun has rather slipshod animation on the whole, especially as the show goes on (and especially considering what Madhouse has done afterwards). What it has is fantastic direction. And really, that's more important than actual animation quality--being able to use what you're given so that the story doesn't suffer. At least, I think so.

They did some great things with color on Trigun. In that respect, however, they were able to go further with it in Badlands Rumble thanks to digital.

[rereboy]

Anyone who thinks animation and artstyle of the current animes aren't very good compared to the 80s and 90s should watch Attack on Titan. That animation and art are amazing.

[JulieYBM]

Anyone who thinks animation and artstyle of the current animes aren't very good compared to the 80s and 90s should watch Attack on Titan. That animation and art are amazing.

Which is hilarious, considering all of the turmoil the production has gone through. Episode #7 was produced in just one month, according to Episode Director Tachikawa Yuzuru (Episode Director for Bleach episode #341). The schedule and the lack of animators on that series is devastating the industry. It's a fun series, nevertheless, though.

A lot of the "animation from the 1990s is so much better!" is just overly broad generalizations.

[theoriginalbilis]

Agreed. From older productions to modern ones, you'll always find some that look like crap, and some that look gorgeous no matter when they were made.

I love the older DragonBall animation, but the newer stuff is still always nice to see for me. Then again, I'm a crazy person who thinks Battle of Gods is up there with the best looking DragonBall films ever made, even it's imperfections are charming to me in their own way.