Super Animation Catalogue 2.0

[FortuneSSJ]

The Champa arc was a similar length to previous tournaments in the series and was the same number of episodes as the BoG arc. The F arc was also 12 or 13 episodes (depending on if you count episode 15 or not).

Comparing episode numbers between arcs to say if they had good/bad pacing it's not a good idea, because they have different plots.
It's also not a good idea compare Champa arc to other tournament arcs because besides the fights, Champa arc included Goku/Vegeta/Piccolo training, Beerus/Whis search for Monaka, Champa/Vados search for their fighters and Super Dragon Balls.

The length of those arcs was likely down to Chioka wanting to keep each arc somewhere around 14 episodes each and then we got a longer arc with Future Trunks after he left.

If that's the case, I'm glad he left then.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

Chioka Kimitoshi is one of the finest Toei directors. He excels at conveying information to the audience through mood and environment. His use of camera angles is also quite dynamic.

He boarded and directed the early portion of the Kami to Kami(pics credit:JulieYBM) movie. The fear of Beers was so awesomely expressed through camera especially the Kaioushin sequence. He even managed to make a statically animated Super Saiyan 3 Son Gokuu vs Beers a little bit exciting.

Chioka not doing anything and quitting is still one of the biggest blows to the series, so I'm certainly not glad that he left. Luckily, he was replaced by another amazing director Hatano Morio and I hope he isn't planning on ditching us too.

[SaiyanGod117]

Chioka Kimitoshi is one of the finest Toei directors. He excels at conveying information to the audience through mood and environment. His use of camera angles is also quite dynamic.

He boarded and directed the early portion of the Kami to Kami(pics credit:JulieYBM) movie. The fear of Beers was so awesomely expressed through camera especially the Kaioushin sequence. He even managed to make a statically animated Super Saiyan 3 Son Gokuu vs Beers a little bit exciting.

Chioka not doing anything and quitting is still one of the biggest blows to the series, so I'm certainly not glad that he left. Luckily, he was replaced by another amazing director Hatano Morio and I hope he isn't planning on ditching us too.

Who would you say is better Chioka or Hatano?

[Saikyo no Senshi]

Who would you say is better Chioka or Hatano?

Ah.. that's a tough question. I like them both first of all. I could be wrong but both of them are very similar. Hatano is a master of dramatic scenes and so is Chioka.
If you put a gun to my head I'd say Chioka but only slightly cause I'm a little bit more familiar with his style.

But, I've yet to watch Saint Seiya Omega and from what I've heard Hatano blew everyone away with his direction in that, so my opinion could change.

[Wezenheim]

Hatano and Kaizawa Yukio both did excellent work on Saint Seiya Omega. I browsed through their episodes for the sake of research and they are very well done. I'd even go so far as to say that Saint Seiya Omega might've been where Kaizawa's modern style really blossomed. Fun fact: the two of them actually storyboarded episode 27 together, with Hatano directing. It was pretty great:
[spoiler]


[/spoiler]
I definitely wouldn't recommend watching that episode if you actually care about spoilers for the show, but it was executed very nicely, I feel. I'd honestly need to do a little more research on Chioka before I decide who I like better. The two of them are both superb.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

Oh wow. I really need to start watching Saint Seiya Omega. It looks good. If I remember correctly Chioka also boarded and directed some episodes of it.

[Araki]

I don't understand much about the subject, but I didn't see any difference between Chioka and Morio times. So most likely I won't see nothing different if we get a third one.
Some people here are always saying Dragon Ball needs new blood. Here's one. Let the guy try.

That's because i reaaaally doubt they ever had any kind of significative creative control over Super, as someone mentioned. The franchise has not only Toriyama now, but also Shueisha and Bandai behind it, so the director's input must be very limited. And i always thought that, when we're talking about long running shows, the head director style isn't something you'll easily notice in others' episodes. I mean, Hatano's episodes were great and recognizable, but you don't see a lot of his style elsewhere, like in SS Omega too. And don't be fooled, that show had a big chunk of terrible episodes.

That said, since Hatano directed 66 just now, i wouldn't rule him out yet, that's different from Chioka that didn't contribute with anything then vanished. We'll probably get a fair sequence of "filler" episodes that maybe another director is handling. But as far as he keeps directing occasional episodes, i believe we'll barely notice a difference, if any. One Piece keeps changing directors but that seems a lot less important to the show than whenever they change producers.

[JulieYBM]

Saint Seiya Omega Episodes #1-51 were also supported by a higher number of strong animators, a better production schedule and some of the finest directors at Toei Animation working on it. In fact, we know that production began just after the 11 March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, but the series didn't air until Spring 2012. This explains why Hatano had time to storyboard more episodes and Matsumoto Rie worked on the series as storyboard artist and episode director, too.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

After re-watching the Gokuu Black arc and paying more attention I have to say this arc had some really bad episodes. #49,#53,#55,#60,#61,#62,#64 come to mind.

#49: Utter waste of talent. Kuroyanagi Kenji, one of the finest Toei animators was present, but still wasn't able to produce a sakuga cut. I wonder why. It wasn't a bad episode but it was really disappointing to see despite having good animators on board it still ended up being nothing but an average Super episode.

#53: Zamasu introduction was handled poorly. The main villain deserved so much more. Son Gokuu Zamasu fight was nothing but a battle full of stills. All sorts of trickery were used. I don't remember who was the AD and if any good KAs were involved or not but it was disappointing.

#55: Toma Seizou was AD. I don't know what happened but after the wonderful episode #4 he has done nothing impressive. Did he lose his touch or something? The episode clearly needed expressive drawings since it was a Zen'ou centric episode and funny character art and expressions could've made it so much fun but it felt rushed.

#60: Pointless padding with unknown styles present throughout the episode. I do remember that Ohara Tai'ichirou popped up, but hell if I can tell what he did. This episode shouldn't have existed.

#61: I know everybody likes it but I don't. The characters were ill-proportioned and the animation was stiff. It lacked the necessary impact it needed especially considering how angry Gokuu was. It is after this episode I gave up on Shimanuki and I still stand by my opinion that he should quit.

#62: Kitano handled an important episode and the end result was as expected. Awful. I don't think I need to say anything more than that.

#64: This I felt was the worst. It didn't need Higashide or anyone else other than Yashima but it dragged Higashide into it. Another rushed episode which wasted good staff.

With all that said, I still think it is the best arc in Super and it's highs like #47,#63 and #66 are some of the best in the franchise. The pacing of the arc was all over the place and if that wasn't the case this arc would've been much much better. Both plot wise and animation/direction wise.

[kinisking]

^ I agree with a lot you have to say. What do you think about Trunks' transformation from a visual standpoint? I actually liked it a lot. The huge beam of light and his body contorting was great. I also liked the shaking effect when he walked. It was nothing super amazing, but I think it was one of the best transformations from a visual standpoint.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

^ I agree with a lot you have to say. What do you think about Trunks' transformation from a visual standpoint?

If I remember correctly Shimanuki handled Trunks' transformation. I thought it was okay, but forgettable. I only remember the good segments and #61 only had a 10 sec Karasawa cut which was nice. Other than that it was a pretty terrible episode.

[JazzMazz]

[spoiler]

After re-watching the Gokuu Black arc and paying more attention I have to say this arc had some really bad episodes. #49,#53,#55,#60,#61,#62,#64 come to mind.

#49: Utter waste of talent. Kuroyanagi Kenji, one of the finest Toei animators was present, but still wasn't able to produce a sakuga cut. I wonder why. It wasn't a bad episode but it was really disappointing to see despite having good animators on board it still ended up being nothing but an average Super episode.

#53: Zamasu introduction was handled poorly. The main villain deserved so much more. Son Gokuu Zamasu fight was nothing but a battle full of stills. All sorts of trickery were used. I don't remember who was the AD and if any good KAs were involved or not but it was disappointing.

#55: Toma Seizou was AD. I don't know what happened but after the wonderful episode #4 he has done nothing impressive. Did he lose his touch or something? The episode clearly needed expressive drawings since it was a Zen'ou centric episode and funny character art and expressions could've made it so much fun but it felt rushed.

#60: Pointless padding with unknown styles present throughout the episode. I do remember that Ohara Tai'ichirou popped up, but hell if I can tell what he did. This episode shouldn't have existed.

#61: I know everybody likes it but I don't. The characters were ill-proportioned and the animation was stiff. It lacked the necessary impact it needed especially considering how angry Gokuu was. It is after this episode I gave up on Shimanuki and I still stand by my opinion that he should quit.

#62: Kitano handled an important episode and the end result was as expected. Awful. I don't think I need to say anything more than that.

#64: This I felt was the worst. It didn't need Higashide or anyone else other than Yashima but it dragged Higashide into it. Another rushed episode which wasted good staff.

With all that said, I still think it is the best arc in Super and it's highs like #47,#63 and #66 are some of the best in the franchise. The pacing of the arc was all over the place and if that wasn't the case this arc would've been much much better. Both plot wise and animation/direction wise.

[/spoiler]
I agree with practically all you've said. Ep 61 definitely looked pretty meh during the major action scenes, but it had it's decent moments and redeemable elements(Trunks transformation was okay, the explosions were okay, Futoshi did like one decent cut, the cool rotation was cool, and the death moments also didn't look all that bad, Karasawa also did some decent stuff). I would say that it was a meh to average episode, instead of a flat out bad one.
This arc had a decent first act, a slow though substantial second and a shit third that highlights everything wrong with previous arcs.

[Ajay]

I only remember the good segments and #61 only had a 10 sec Karasawa cut which was nice. Other than that it was a pretty terrible episode.

You're grossly exaggerating. It's not terrible by any stretch of the imagination.

Both Higashide and Inaba's contributions, while not mind blowing, were absolutely fine. They came together to produce a perfectly competent action episode. Karasawa's cut was a nice way to round things off.

While Shimanuki's own contributions weren't great, his corrections were very well done. Some of the character art in that episode is the best the show has seen.

Need I mention how well directed it was?

[JazzMazz]

I only remember the good segments and #61 only had a 10 sec Karasawa cut which was nice. Other than that it was a pretty terrible episode.

You're grossly exaggerating. It's not terrible by any stretch of the imagination.

Both Higashide and Inaba's contributions, while not mind blowing, were absolutely fine. They came together to produce a perfectly competent action episode. Karasawa's cut was a nice way to round things off.

While Shimanuki's own contributions weren't great, his corrections were very well done. Some of the character art in that episode is the best the show has seen.

Need I mention how well directed it was?

I agree with Ajay, it definitely had it's ugly moments but it was decently directed and most of the stuff was serviceable, not good, but serviceable. Also, Shimanuki's explosions through-out the episode and his Trunks transofrmations were solid. Overall, not a very well-animated episodes, but far from a bad one.

[ArchedThunder]

Even some of the worst episodes like 62 ended up being half fine. 64 is honestly the only episode I'd call bad.
49 was mostly fine outside of the a few spots, 53 was totally fine outside of the fight, 55 was fine outside of a few really REALLY bad shots, I honestly like the styles in 60, 61 was a great episode that obviously could have been more polished, 62 was fine outside of the future stuff, and 64 is bad but has a nice cut at the beginning and quite a bit of nice art throughout that makes it at least somewhat enjoyable. I don't think any episode dropped as low as 24 and 45, even Kitano's rushed art in 62 and 67 is a little easier on the eyes, but still pretty bad. I'd say 49, 53, and 55 were more mediocre than bad.

[JazzMazz]

Does anyone else think that what we consider mediocre in this arc, is at the very least comparable to the mediocre episodes of Z or is that a totally baseless opinion. In terms of animation quality of course.

[ArchedThunder]

Does anyone else think that what we consider mediocre in this arc, is at the very least comparable to the mediocre episodes of Z or is that a totally baseless opinion. In terms of animation quality of course.

Art quality yes, animation is more debatable though. Z typically had relatively fluid animation on even its ugliest episodes. We'd have to define what's mediocre and what's bad for that comparison.

[JazzMazz]

Does anyone else think that what we consider mediocre in this arc, is at the very least comparable to the mediocre episodes of Z or is that a totally baseless opinion. In terms of animation quality of course.

Art quality yes, animation is more debatable though. Z typically had relatively fluid animation on even its ugliest episodes. We'd have to define what's mediocre and what's bad for that comparison.

If I were going to try define what mediocre for a series like Z and super means, I would say it would be episodes that look ugly and are a lot stiffer than the norm Z maintained (since thats what we're measuring Super against).
This would be a good example of an average action episode for Z.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

#61 isn't bad cause it's atrocious and doesn't have any good moments, sorry for not being clear enough. In fact it is better than #53, #55, #60, #62 and #64 but it is still bad in my opinion. It was a crucial episode and deserved more than what it got. Shimanuki's art improved but his animation was stiff.

The script by Tomioka was fantastic and the storyboard by Ootsuka Ken was also nice and exciting. But Iwai Takao's direction was nothing special. It wasn't bad as his direction in #34 and #55 but it wasn't as good as #11. The lack of cool camera angles in #61 was clearly visible to me at least.

I don't mean #61 was the worst thing ever but it failed to execute the script and storyboard perfectly.

[Gashif Aldi]

Hey guys! I'm new to this animation catalogue. I've been here since posts 198. And I thought, why not make an account to discuss with all of you. Sorry for suddenly appearing like this (also sorry if my english is bad).

So, I have a question in my head for a long time.
Who actually animated DB Kai opening?
The Saiyan Saga and Frieza Saga looked like it was animated by the same animators, some of the scenes remind me of Shida.
While Buu Saga seems pretty awesome, but not as good as the other ones.

And, why are these animators aren't working on DB Super? Atleast they should do the Opening, but the schedule might be the reason..

Except for the Yammamuro, his designs already made me bored overtime.