Redrawn/Animated scenes throughout the years

[Tzigi]

I'm not too fond of the weird balloon like heads and huge noses and huge caveman like chins that character's have in the Buu arc period of art style. It's very ugly compared to the style we see in the Daimao to the end of the Saiyan arc art style.

That's funny - for me the Saiyan arc style (not to mention DB-not-Z style) looks horrible and the Buu arc style is the best Dragon Ball ever. I'd be severly disappointed if DB was reanimated in the early instead of the late style.

[Quebaz]

Episode 30 is actually one of my favourite episodes in terms of animation. Too bad it was the last episode for the guy, I just love how beautiful the characters look in there.

[ErikB]

I'm not too fond of the weird balloon like heads and huge noses and huge caveman like chins that character's have in the Buu arc period of art style. It's very ugly compared to the style we see in the Daimao to the end of the Saiyan arc art style.

That's funny - for me the Saiyan arc style (not to mention DB-not-Z style) looks horrible and the Buu arc style is the best Dragon Ball ever. I'd be severly disappointed if DB was reanimated in the early instead of the late style.

I prefer the later style as well, but I also think Attitudefan has a point about the chins; not to mention the sloped foreheads. Though I actually prefer the larger noses.
The chins are especially horrendous in GT and it largely comes from the fact that the characters rarely have any upper lip whatsoever to speak of. Going down their face, it's just nose then mouth.
Generally I prefer seeing the characters with the same standard of detail and consistency that's seen in the later arcs, but without the enormous chins and caveman foreheads; and I tend to draw them as such.

[Duo]

Every animation/style period tends to have strengths and weaknesses. It's really amazing to compare the manga from the start of one arc to the end:

Spoiler:

[sangofe]

I'm not too fond of the weird balloon like heads and huge noses and huge caveman like chins that character's have in the Buu arc period of art style. It's very ugly compared to the style we see in the Daimao to the end of the Saiyan arc art style.

That's funny - for me the Saiyan arc style (not to mention DB-not-Z style) looks horrible and the Buu arc style is the best Dragon Ball ever. I'd be severly disappointed if DB was reanimated in the early instead of the late style.

Agreed-

[Attitudefan]

I'm not too fond of the weird balloon like heads and huge noses and huge caveman like chins that character's have in the Buu arc period of art style. It's very ugly compared to the style we see in the Daimao to the end of the Saiyan arc art style.

That's funny - for me the Saiyan arc style (not to mention DB-not-Z style) looks horrible and the Buu arc style is the best Dragon Ball ever. I'd be severly disappointed if DB was reanimated in the early instead of the late style.

I prefer the later style as well, but I also think Attitudefan has a point about the chins; not to mention the sloped foreheads. Though I actually prefer the larger noses.
The chins are especially horrendous in GT and it largely comes from the fact that the characters rarely have any upper lip whatsoever to speak of. Going down their face, it's just nose then mouth.
Generally I prefer seeing the characters with the same standard of detail and consistency that's seen in the later arcs, but without the enormous chins and caveman foreheads; and I tend to draw them as such.

Oh man, don't get me started on GT's art style at all. It's truly the ugliest of the bunch! I'm glad they don't give the characters as huge of chins and as sloped of foreheads in the present art style, but the late 90's Dragon Ball had the worst of the worst, bar none; the characters were overly muscular and their faces were very primitive looking and very wide. It was just ugly.

The problem I also have with the later style, pertaining mostly to the manga, is how the characters also have their head slouched forwards. Their posture seems to get worse and worse. If you compare that to the earlier style of Dragon Ball, that slouching, hunchback posture is not present. Actually, the characters have very good posture! It bugs me to no end to see Dragon Ball that way. I long for the day someone comes by and overhauls the art style back to its roots.

However, I will say the backgrounds look way better in the later arcs of the show. So, in my perfect world, Dragon Ball would have Ma Jr art style, with Maeda/Aoshima quality of animation (except with special digital effects and techniques we see in new anime would be pretty sweet, especially for fight scenes), and modern background art. Boy, that is a wet dream.

You know, I really love how the artist drew Goku and Vegeta's hair and clothing too in the erly arcs, it just looks more natural to me. I also dig the sketchy like muscles over the shredded unnatural looking ones we see later.

[Cold Skin]

Every animation/style period tends to have strengths and weaknesses. It's really amazing to compare the manga from the start of one arc to the end:

Spoiler:

Careful, with such comparison shots (especially for the hair), people could start endlessly debating whether the "final" Future Trunks is a Super Saiyan or a Super Saiyan 2 regardless of the lack of lightnings, just like for Gohan VS Dabra!

[Quebaz]

Careful, with such comparison shots (especially for the hair), people could start endlessly debating whether the "final" Future Trunks is a Super Saiyan or a Super Saiyan 2 regardless of the lack of lightnings, just like for Gohan VS Dabra!

I always tought it was because his hair was shorter than that of his first appearance.

[DBZGTKOSDH]

Careful, with such comparison shots (especially for the hair), people could start endlessly debating whether the "final" Future Trunks is a Super Saiyan or a Super Saiyan 2 regardless of the lack of lightnings, just like for Gohan VS Dabra!

I always tought it was because his hair was shorter than that of his first appearance.

They look like this because he is still in the middle of the transformation. His actual hairstyle is the same as in the end:

[SingleFringe&Sparks]

I'm not too fond of the weird balloon like heads and huge noses and huge caveman like chins that character's have in the Buu arc period of art style. It's very ugly compared to the style we see in the Daimao to the end of the Saiyan arc art style.

I'm not to fond of the weird chunky bodies, the round pudgy muscle tones and rounded eyes. Nor do I like the rounded faces the characters have in the early Saiyan arc and end dragonball arc, it makes the characters look more moe. Characters dont like as strong as they claim to be when they look like man-babies.

You know, I really love how the artist drew Goku and Vegeta's hair and clothing too in the erly arcs, it just looks more natural to me. I also dig the sketchy like muscles over the shredded unnatural looking ones we see later.

I agree Goku's hair looked better in the earlier arcs where it was larger in proportion to his head and curved more upward as opposed to the smaller and sharper edged look it has now. Then theres the newer animation which looks terrible with the grey highlights in it, it doesnt even look like hair anymore. It looks like a hat.
......... However Vegeta's early hair looked weird to me, When it was bunched in tighter and more pointed upward, it looked like a tiny pine-tree.
Then the android saga which by far had the worst animation in the series, where Vegeta's neanderthal forehead was 30% of his face.. and the muscles looked literally like square bricks... at least the muscles in the Buu saga looked sculpted.

Ugh, just look at those comparison shots of Goku VS Vegeta... Goku's dogi, Vegeta's suit, their hair, the sky, the rock they stand on...
Well, those childish renditions are gone forever now, at least...

Goku looked real stumpy in the original scene, and Vegeta was tiny, and his huge forehead made him look like a kid.

[TheDevilsCorpse]

They look like this because he is still in the middle of the transformation. His actual hairstyle is the same as in the end:

Not really, the transformation was already done by the time the first page Duo posted appears. During his fight with Freeza and Cold, there are only a few panels where his hair kinda points down. With his test of Goku, almost all the panels have those downwards spikes. Not counting movement or ki attack panels, which blow hair back, Trunks' hairstyle is pretty much just whatever Toriyama feels like doing from panel to panel in the that earlier, less sharp art style.

[Attitudefan]

I'm not to fond of the weird chunky bodies, the round pudgy muscle tones and rounded eyes. Nor do I like the rounded faces the characters have in the early Saiyan arc and end dragonball arc, it makes the characters look more moe. Characters dont like as strong as they claim to be when they look like man-babies.

I wanted to address this specific portion of your post. I disagree that they look more moe considering that their pupils were far smaller when compared to present day DBZ's look. They have sharper faces in the old style where the new style is a lot more round and puffy. However, the characters do look a little 'fatter' in the old style, but I feel that is actually more of a realistic approach than compared to their impossibly shredded bodies to muscle size ratio (unless, in real life, could be achieved through 'help').

The old style has the big bads look way more fierce than what we see later on and into present day.

Spoiler:

Plus, the old style looks much more life like and, even in stills, looks like you can see it in motion:

Spoiler:

Don't tell me they look 'moe' here

compared to:

Spoiler:

My, he looks intimidating... hahaha


Looks really flat, but out of the bunch of keyframes from this OVA, it looks decent compared to the rest.


Look at dem eyes. I know, it's more likely an in-between, but it still doesn't stand up to the old style.

[TheAldella]

That Piccolo looks like he's fixin' ta romance someone.

[Tzigi]

The old style has the big bads look way more fierce than what we see later on and into present day.
[snip]

Man, I love all those pictures of the second part and I just can't look at the first. It's purely subjective but I can't help it and say that the second part is how DB should look like for me

[kei17]

It seems that being newly redrawn doesn't necessarily mean becoming better even if it's done during the first run.

[Vice]

The old style has the big bads look way more fierce than what we see later on and into present day.

Spoiler:

Plus, the old style looks much more life like and, even in stills, looks like you can see it in motion:

Spoiler:

Don't tell me they look 'moe' here

Every example you used here are from Maeda, of course his style is going to look great.

compared to:

Spoiler:

My, he looks intimidating... hahaha

And Studio Cockpit episodes are some of the best-looking episodes in the entire series. You're like literally the first person I've ever seen criticize them.

Spoiler:

Looks really flat, but out of the bunch of keyframes from this OVA, it looks decent compared to the rest.


Look at dem eyes. I know, it's more likely an in-between, but it still doesn't stand up to the old style.

These examples aren't even from the main series.

[kei17]

The old style has the big bads look way more fierce than what we see later on and into present day.

Spoiler:

Plus, the old style looks much more life like and, even in stills, looks like you can see it in motion:

Spoiler:

Don't tell me they look 'moe' here

Every example you used here are from Maeda, of course his style is going to look great.

Except for Toriyama's cover art, they're all Masaki Satou's drawings without Maeda's retouches.

And Studio Cockpit episodes are some of the best-looking episodes in the entire series. You're like literally the first person I've ever seen criticize them.

I've done several times, too.

[Attitudefan]

Studio Cockpit looks good in motion, but their style is really jarring and not very Dragonball like at all. I really hate how they draw their eyes since they make all the characters (and Piccolo is the wors offender in their episodes) of looking 'cutesy'.

Except for Toriyama's cover art, they're all Masaki Satou's drawings without Maeda's retouches.

And Masaki's art style compliments Toriyama's, and that's why I put the pictures the way I have done it. It really looks like the manga came to life during the period where Toriyama was at the top of his game in terms of his manga's story and art. I am really glad that we got at least that portion of the series to look like that with very talented artists and animators who were respectful to the original source material.

It seems that being newly redrawn doesn't necessarily mean becoming better even if it's done during the first run.

Heh, those screen are from around the same point in time when they were drawn but by two different studios, Shindō Productions and Seigasha. That is one of my preferred Shindō episodes. It looks fantastic and had really beastly looking art in the flashback Vegeta had with great animation. Seigasha's original take on that specific fight is timeless and holds up really well in terms of modern animation. Their art also looked fantastic too. Timeless looking episodes during that portion of the series.

That's the problem I have with a lot of the later produced episodes heading into the Freeza fight and beyond. The animation, even from the better studios look subpar when compared to their work a year or two earlier (1988 through to about 1990 have really good looking episodes). Their animation starts to look cheaper with fewer frames being animated and the art starts to look sloppy (the most exaggerated, but I find represents this period of time of production, the Mecha Coola movie having very weird looking designs and sloppy animation and much of the anime post-Ginyu starts to have this style).

While I do think the Buu arc starts to have wonderful looking episodes again in terms of animation, it starts to stray away from its source and has an art style I am not fond of at all.

Anyways, enough of my complaining. It is all subjective (but I will convert you all someday.... and I'll show you guys that I am the only one in the world today who draws DBZ in the old style. THE ONLY ONE. MUST. UPLOAD. AND. SHOW. YOU. ALL.)


Here's some more from the original syndication. Sorry, too lazy to go get my dvd's and get screen caps. enjoy these for now until someone replaces them.

[DarkPrince_92]

That last one of Vegeta is the worst. He looked much more sinister the first time (thanks to blessed Seigasha). In that Episode Vegeta's Repect is probably the only time I liked redrawn scenes (minus that Vegeta shot obviously).

[Attitudefan]

That last one of Vegeta is the worst. He looked much more sinister the first time (thanks to blessed Seigasha). In that Episode Vegeta's Repect is probably the only time I liked redrawn scenes (minus that Vegeta shot obviously).

I too really enjoy that episode and the redrawn scenes a ton.

But I do agree that the particular shot is better in the original as well. Though, the scene with Recoome looks much better in the redrawn scene from the flashback fixing the subpar art by the triangle crap group