Why is Toei reanimating Sailor Moon but not DBZ?

[coola]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0Va228UhRs Serenity and Endymion parts are beautiful, but that CGI-walk part at the end was very creepy

[Kid Buu]

Ami actually being affected by the disc was not in the manga, and the anime removed Usagi using SAILOR KICK against the youma.

So which score is blander: Crystal or Kai 2014?

[Metalwario64]

So far I'd say Crystal's. It's just a bunch of generic, unmemorable chorus pieces that try to sound beautiful, but come across as droning instead. To me at least. Sumitomo has some good pieces in his Kai score at least.

I'm not too familiar with Sailor Moon, but from what I've seen, Crystal has toned down humorous moments like when Usagi's brother is introduced, which was mostly played straight in Crystal, and when Usagi clumsily barges into the jewelry store which was turned into a slow-mo generic girly strut. These things make me think it has less soul than the manga, but I'm not really too familiar so I can't say for sure. At least the second episode kept one silly expression.

I'm also not a fan on the style which isn't really that close to the manga. It looks more stretched and angular. Honestly, the original anime looks closer to me. I'm not a fan of the manga's art anyway, since it seems to lack depth and everything looks flat to me.


All of these things make me glad Kai reused Z's footage, because I'm not a fan of modern Dragon Ball animation either. I'd hate to have seen silly things toned down in a completely reanimated Kai.

[Kid Buu]

Well....I guess DBZ and SM both share the trait of having remakes that I decided to drop.

[coola]

So far i like Crystal, and with 3rd episode, it is almost 100% certain we gonna get closest manga adaptation so far. Most animation issues will probably get fixed in home releases, compare Madoka Magica for example. http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/4897/madokabd.jpg But, to not be completely offtopic. Classic Sailor Moon is getting released on DVD/BD, beside getting new English dub, there is another thing i wish recent Dragon Ball releases had, English subtitles for both Japanese and English dub. I wonder why Funimation decided to drop dubtitles from current releases? i know that DB don`t use sophisticated language, but sometimes characters talk so fast, i have to rewind and listen again, especially in Kai.

[ParkerAL]

Too bad Toei didn't reanimate Dragon Ball, am I right guys?

Spoiler:

Spoiler:

Battle of Gods might not have the best animation out there (even if I largely enjoy the look of the film), but Sailor Moon Crystal makes it look like a freaking Ghibli Film by comparison. The colors and shading look decent enough, but the character designs are atrocious. The animators must have gone to the stick figure school of anatomy. These are not issues that Toei could magically fix for the home media release. They'd have to reanimate almost every shot of the Sailor Scouts to correct their ridiculous proportions and soulless doll-eyed facial expressions.

[Vegard Aune]

These are not issues that Toei could magically fix for the home media release. They'd have to reanimate almost every shot of the Sailor Scouts to correct their ridiculous proportions and soulless doll-eyed facial expressions.

Not to mention Toei doesn't really do the whole "fix animation for the home release"-thing anyway. I mean I heard they did for the One Piece special Episode of Merry, but on the whole, derpy animation in a Toei-series tends to stay derpy forever.

But yeah, Sailor Moon Crystal looks bad. Like, I was never overly attached to the old series, but just watching brief clips of it I can still say, the old series had higher animation-quality than the new one does, and no amount of shininess will make up for the ridiculously shoddy and constantly off-model artwork or often notably cheap animation. This is not helped by how great the Moon Pride PV looked (well, aside from the CGI shots anyway). So what, they can go all-out and deliver some truly gorgeous art and animation for a music-video meant to promote the show's opening, but the show itself gets short-changed in such a blatant way that it makes DBZ movie 6 look like Spirited Away by comparison?


I can only cling to some impossibly faint hope that somewhere down the line they'll pull themselves together and give us some actually decent animation when the plot starts kicking into high gear... Or at least that the hypothetical second season I really hope they'll do someday because I really do not want this true-to-the-manga remake to end before they get to Sailor Saturn, gets treated better. But then again, TOEI. THEY CLEARLY DO NOT CARE.

[Kid Buu]

Spoiler:

@coola: I'm not sure why dubtitles have been removed, I guess anime companies just got lazy. I know this problem isn't exclusive to FUNimation because my InuYasha and Ranma sets don't have dubtitles, and those are Viz shows.

As for Crystal, yeah the animation fell off after Episode 1. I guess Naoko Togashi saw the huge paycheck for Episode 1 and stopped giving a shit.

As for Kai, yes I still think it should have been a reanimation of both DB and DBZ. However, it seems Toei Animation are just not as skilled as they once were, or they just don't give a fuck.

[Blade]

However, it seems Toei Animation are just not as skilled as they once were, or they just don't give a fuck.

I'm convinced that the skills are still there, but the budget and time needed for proper quality control are not.

The simple matter of fact is that modern digital animation techniques allow for a lot of corner cutting and cheap-skating, and this is something that is abused by the higher ups at Toei who want to churn out as much product as conceivably possible. These days Toei are producing far more titles simultaneously than they did in the past and they're doing so with fewer animation staff, and frankly the results speak for themselves.

If you ask any animator working in the industry today, they'll tell you they're overworked, overstretched and underpaid. I see so many people comparing recent examples of people's work with stuff from the early 90's and making comments such as 'Man, what the hell has happened to the guy?' and to be honest, it's ridiculously easy to answer. These guys haven't lost talent overnight, they're just not working in an industry anymore that allows them to turn in a proper job.

[Ajay]

Toei, please animate Dragon Ball with your all talent!



If there's anything Crystal has done since its first episode; it's rammed into my head that I 100% never want this series reanimated.

Maybe they should bring Uchiyama back and make him work in MSPaint.

[Doctor.]

I don't understand why Toei isn't willing to spend some more cash on new DB projects, when they're trying their best to milk their second most popular series. They've shown that they can produce quality animation before with the One Piece movies (Strong World and Film Z, to be specific), so I don't understand why BoG had an average (excluding the SSJ Goku vs Beerus in the sky segment) animation instead of the great animation it should have.

[Gonstead]

Does Toei even re-animate stuff for home releases?

[Blade]

I don't understand why Toei isn't willing to spend some more cash on new DB projects, when they're trying their best to milk their second most popular series. They've shown that they can produce quality animation before with the One Piece movies (Strong World and Film Z, to be specific), so I don't understand why BoG had an average (excluding the SSJ Goku vs Beerus in the sky segment) animation instead of the great animation it should have.

Dragonball is commonly referred to in their financial reports as being an 'evergreen franchise', which appears to mean that it's a product that can continue to generate revenue with only a little bit of preening, watering and feeding. They know they're going to see a gentle trickle of money from Dragonball without doing anything, and in releasing new Dragonballs film, they know that regardless of how it goes down domestically, the overseas return is going to be massive regardless of the quality of the product they ship.

On the other hand, One Piece is Toei's current flagship brand, and in the more recent One Piece movies, they've gone out of their way to make a bit of a statement with their production values. Toei knows that One Piece wont generate anywhere near as much as Dragonball will overseas, so any One Piece film release is more or less entirely domestic-release orientated. They see the One Piece brand as being something that they need to keep in tip-top shape, and are willing to invest into it accordingly to ensure that continues to be the case.

[JulieYBM]

Does Toei even re-animate stuff for home releases?

They almost never do. They did for One Piece Episode of Merry, but that's about it.

The problem here is that the production committee members did not allow enough time for the series to enter production. This would likely happen for a new Dragon Ball series, just as it is happening now for the 2015 Dragon Ball Z film. Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Crystal did not even have it's opening begin key animation until 01 June. Shida didn't even begin storyboarding for Episode #2 until 13 April.

The issue with this series is not the pay of the animators (if you have talent and skill you get good money and more than enough work opportunities), it's the amount of time they are allotted. Toei Animation has seven weekly TV series in production, this bi-weekly series, a 100+ minute One Piece special airing this month, a PreCure movie coming out this year, and a new Dragon Ball Z coming out early next year. There's no time to animate anything well unless you're a talented animator who doesn't need to do many cuts at once.

[coola]

From what i heard, Crystal is made by their branch in Filipino, it`s their 1st project, so no wonder there are some animation problems, but i agree, i don`t understand why they have to product so many shows at one time? Especially this year, becasue of that, almost every show is mess, Kai have this ugly green tint, Precure and SM have out of proportion characters...Sometimes i wish Toei would just get bankrupt, and other great studio, like Sunrise, bought their franchises. Oh well, i might be cruel, but, the best way is not to support show you don`t like, watch it, but don`t buy DVD/BD, figures, etc. Vote with your wallet, that`s the only way companies will listen.

[JulieYBM]

From what i heard, Crystal is made by their branch in Filipino, it`s their 1st project, so no wonder there are some animation problems, but i agree, i don`t understand why they have to product so many shows at one time? Especially this year, becasue of that, almost every show is mess, Kai have this ugly green tint, Precure and SM have out of proportion characters...Sometimes i wish Toei would just get bankrupt, and other great studio, like Sunrise, bought their franchises. Oh well, i might be cruel, but, the best way i not to support show you dont like, watch it, but don`t buy DVD/BD, figures, etc. Vote with your wallet, that`s the only way companies will listen.

Toei Animation Philippines (otherwise credited as TAP or Toei Phils.) does a huge amount of work for the PreCure franchise, as well as other Toei cartoons and other sub-contracting work for other studios' cartoons. On PreCure TAP even handles entire episodes of key animation themselves as well as animation supervision! It's interesting to see those Spanish names so prominent in the credits for a Japanese cartoon, especially when one usually thinks of outsourcing occurring in nations like China or South Korea.

So far, however, Toei Animation Philippines has not done much work for Bishoujo Senshi Sailor Moon Crystal. TAP received a key animation credit for Episode #3, but otherwise sub-contracting studios like Wanpack and Wombat do a lot of the animation.

Toei Animation has so many projects occurring at once because their production committee partners want to sell merchandise. Nearly 150 TV series are in production this year for the Japanese animation industry, so animation is very popular right now. Toei Animation is in the best shape of any studio thanks to megahits like One Piece and PreCure, so they can afford to make so many series and films even if the amount of time and staff are low.

[Blade]

they can afford to make so many series and films even if the amount of time and staff are low.

The finances allow it, and as do the logistics, but the equation doesn't add up unless you sacrifice the quality of the end product as the compromise. If you were factor in either more time or more staff, the sum just wouldn't add up - or should I say, the profit margins wouldn't be as large.

And I dunno, on our side of things as fans, it really sucks - but the directors don't see that, they just see the financial side of things, which at this moment depicts that business is roaring as usual. It's a shame.

[JulieYBM]

they can afford to make so many series and films even if the amount of time and staff are low.

The finances allow it, and as do the logistics, but the equation doesn't add up unless you sacrifice the quality of the end product as the compromise. If you were factor in either more time or more staff, the sum just wouldn't add up - or should I say, the profit margins wouldn't be as large.

And I dunno, on our side of things as fans, it really sucks - but the directors don't see that, they just see the financial side of things, which at this moment depicts that business is roaring as usual. It's a shame.

You can't blame 'the directors' for this. They're not the ones making those decisions. They are hired and told to get the series running and premiering on dates they have no control over.

[Kid Buu]

Toei Animation Philippines (otherwise credited as TAP or Toei Phils.) does a huge amount of work for the PreCure franchise, as well as other Toei cartoons and other sub-contracting work for other studios' cartoons. On PreCure TAP even handles entire episodes of key animation themselves as well as animation supervision! It's interesting to see those Spanish names so prominent in the credits for a Japanese cartoon, especially when one usually thinks of outsourcing occurring in nations like China or South Korea..

Speaking of which, this years PreCure started off great animation-wise, but it declined to the point where I just dropped it. Bleh.

[Blade]

they can afford to make so many series and films even if the amount of time and staff are low.

The finances allow it, and as do the logistics, but the equation doesn't add up unless you sacrifice the quality of the end product as the compromise. If you were factor in either more time or more staff, the sum just wouldn't add up - or should I say, the profit margins wouldn't be as large.

And I dunno, on our side of things as fans, it really sucks - but the directors don't see that, they just see the financial side of things, which at this moment depicts that business is roaring as usual. It's a shame.

You can't blame 'the directors' for this. They're not the ones making those decisions. They are hired and told to get the series running and premiering on dates they have no control over.

I was referring to boardroom company directors, the suits who stand to profit in yearly dividends - not animation, audio or feature directors.