Super Animation Catalogue 2.0

[Saikyo no Senshi]

Now we all know that Toei outsources some of its animation to Philippines and South Korean studios to compensate for the work load. What I'm wondering is why don't they hire some INDIVIDUAL freelance animators more often ? For example, how studio Bones hired Bahi JD to do some animation for Space Dandy. I think if Toei hires more individual freelancers (like Shuichi Iseki in episode #16) it could help Dragon Ball Super get out of this current predicament.

Super is rushed as hell so the good freelance staff might straight away refuse to work on it. As it is, freelancers are busy working on other projects for like forever and working on a rushed show with little time would be unnecessary workload. That, or maybe they just don't want to work on Dragon Ball.

If the series director has connections with them then they can be brought on-board. I'm pretty sure Hatano Morio brought Higashide to work on the show for example. Hatano Kouhei, the current SD as far as I know isn't a big name and I don't expect him to bring any good individual freelance talent to the show.

Bahi JD was hired for Space Dandy by Natsume Shingo who doesn't work for Bones, but is a freelance animator and director. A top director with connections pretty much from all of the top talents of the industry and young web-gen animators like Oda Gosei, Bahi JD and many more. Natsume Shingo's projects are always special.

[Mazingerdestro]

Now we all know that Toei outsources some of its animation to Philippines and South Korean studios to compensate for the work load. What I'm wondering is why don't they hire some INDIVIDUAL freelance animators more often ? For example, how studio Bones hired Bahi JD to do some animation for Space Dandy. I think if Toei hires more individual freelancers (like Shuichi Iseki in episode #16) it could help Dragon Ball Super get out of this current predicament.

Super is rushed as hell so the good freelance staff might straight away refuse to work on it. As it is, freelancers are busy working on other projects for like forever and working on a rushed show with little time would be unnecessary workload. That, or maybe they just don't want to work on Dragon Ball.

If the series director has connections with them then they can be brought on-board. I'm pretty sure Hatano Morio brought Higashide to work on the show for example. Hatano Kouhei, the current SD as far as I know isn't a big name and I don't expect him to bring any good individual freelance talent to the show.

Bahi JD was hired for Space Dandy by Natsume Shingo who doesn't work for Bones, but is a freelance animator and director. A top director with connections pretty much from all of the top talents of the industry and young web-gen animators like Oda Gosei, Bahi JD and many more. Natsume Shingo's projects are always a special occasion.

Pretty much the best possible answer.
Shows with great animation are usually the result of a director with numerous connections in the industry. A great example was one punch man that the stuff (mostly the animation monsters) working on it were not part of Madhouse.
I doubt a freelance cares to work on a weekly tight schedule series unless someone invite/ask/beg him to do it.


Regarding this week's episode, I am happy to say that it was not awful. Pretty average compare to the masterpiece last week with a boring storyboard and the usual Tate, who struggled to draw an off model boring fight for some reason....? This guy is a mystery and the fact that suffers so much with his art, even in mediocre action packed scenes is weird. My speculations regarding whether Tate is a hidden gem or an average overhyped Joe were proven right.
What I really enjoyed in the episode were the dialogues and goku's character, who I finally feel is written right. Goku been the guy who hired hit was pretty clever. Even the fact that chichi said "This guy Frost must have something to do with this" was basically Toei joking with the fans.
There were some ok shots here and there looking good but nothing crazy. Last week the animation was limited but the storyboard was crazy. This week it was just meeeeh

[Saikyo no Senshi]

A great example was one punch man that the stuff (mostly the animation monsters) working on it were not part of Madhouse.

OPM was also a Natsume Shingo project.

[iAnimationLover_]

Corrected Tate is still the best Tate, his art is far too ugly to go uncorrected, it can work for One Piece because most characters are already badly drawn. For a series like Dragon Ball, which heavily relies on aesthetics, his style really wouldn't fit, I still would like him to stay for Super.

I would like to disagree with the "His art is too ugly to go uncorrected" This was a rushed episode mate. i dont really judge someone's bad art in a filler episode either.

when the next arc comes around and hes given enough time to actually work on his episodes, then i criticize the bad parts. Like he had to work on other episodes in-between 65 and 72 (assistant AS on 66 and KA on 69) so of course its gonna be rough.

besides this episode was filler xd Check out his episode 11 or 38. His art is not "Ugly"

[ArchedThunder]

I hope the next time we see Tate is in at least 8 weeks, preferably in 10 or more weeks though.

[iAnimationLover_]

I hope the next time we see Tate is in at least 8 weeks, preferably in 10 or more weeks though.

And i hope he doesnt have to help out in someone else's episode hah

[ArchedThunder]

I hope the next time we see Tate is in at least 8 weeks, preferably in 10 or more weeks though.

And i hope he doesnt have to help out in someone else's episode hah

When I say I hope we don't see him till then I mean I don't want to see him on an episode until 8+ weeks from now, regardless of who's episode it is.
Though I fully expect to see him in the credits for the new OP, but that's not too big of an issue.

[SansrivaaL]

January's gonna be a long month from the hype thats coming, new arc+new OP, at least the ED comes this Jan right?

[Baggie_Saiyan]

There were a lot of good SSGSS shots in this episode! These being among my favourite:
[spoiler]




[/spoiler]

Unfortunately I found Tate's work here pretty underwhelming tbh it was a decent but nothing to ride home about hopefully this means he was already working on some Universe Survival stuff.

[ArchedThunder]

I'm starting to wonder if maybe Tsuji should get her own section in the thread considering how heavy her input usually is and since she is one of the people really helping keep the show together.

January's gonna be a long month from the hype thats coming, new arc+new OP, at least the ED comes this Jan right?

Yes, the new ED is on the first episode in January. I'm betting it's Tsuji supervised again.

There were a lot of good SSGSS shots in this episode! These being among my favourite:
[spoiler]




[/spoiler]

Unfortunately I found Tate's work here pretty underwhelming tbh it was a decent but nothing to ride home about hopefully this means he was already working on some Universe Survival stuff.

Speaking of, does anyone know who did this one?
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Karasawa was my first guess, but I'm not so sure about that.

Also I love this Tate shot of Hit.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Ajay]

Speaking of, does anyone know who did this one?
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Karasawa was my first guess, but I'm not so sure about that.

That there be Mr. Higashide. His closeups were real good this week.

I'll probably add a section for Chief ADs and their styles, but quite happy just pointing them out in the episode entries for the moment.

[SansrivaaL]

January's gonna be a long month from the hype thats coming, new arc+new OP, at least the ED comes this Jan right?

Yes, the new ED is on the first episode in January. I'm betting it's Tsuji supervised again.

Was Tsuji the one doing the ED's recently? her art makes Goku look adorable as hell

[ArchedThunder]

Speaking of, does anyone know who did this one?
[spoiler][/spoiler]
Karasawa was my first guess, but I'm not so sure about that.

That there be Mr. Higashide. His closeups were real good this week.

I'll probably add a section for Chief ADs and their styles, but quite happy just pointing them out in the episode entries for the moment.

I can never get Higashide's style down, what exactly are the tells on it?

If'd like I can help you collect images from past episodes if you plan on doing a section for chief animation supervisors, though I'd only really be able to help with Tsuji as I still can't really spot Ide.

Was Tsuji the one doing the ED's recently? her art makes Goku look adorable as hell

Yep, the current ED (well today was the last episode for it) was supervised by her. She has a very cute style, though this results in Vegeta and Piccolo looking a bit off some times. She however can do some pretty serious looking stuff too.
Here's two from today's episode as an example.
[spoiler]
[/spoiler]

[DragonBallFan8001]

I liked this episode quite a bit. It was noticeable that the episode was not as polished as it could have been so they can focus on the next arc, but there were still some really nice animation cuts spread throughout. My favourite parts were Tate's action cuts, as well as the Higashide cut of Goku running and jumping across the debris and clapping in front of Hit. Tate's cuts might not be his best work in the series, but I still think they're really good. Tate's character animation was also a really nice addition.

This close-up was drawn by Lee Joo-hyon, wasn't it?
[spoiler][/spoiler]

It reminds me somewhat of some shots from the Goku vs. Zamasu fight in episode 53.
[spoiler]

(The cutaways from the fight in this clip were removed by Ajay.)[/spoiler]
The only other animators who worked on both episode 53 and 72 are Tatsuhiro Nagaki and Yoshitaka Kato.

However, I'm thinking it was drawn by Lee Joo-hyon instead of the other two, because it also reminds me a little bit of this shot from 45, although the shot from 72 looks a lot better.
[spoiler][/spoiler]

[Ajay]

This close-up was drawn by Lee Joo-hyon, wasn't it?
[spoiler][/spoiler]

That's a Karasawa correction, but you might be right about who had hands on the original KA. Those large slanted eyes are definitely reminiscent of that episode you mentioned.

I can never get Higashide's style down, what exactly are the tells on it?

I struggle to put it into words, I'm afraid. He's basically the 'on-model guy', but he's a little less bubbly than regular Yamamuro.

As for the chief ADs, I wouldn't be doing it episode by episode. I'd probably just do a page for each outlining their style.

[ArchedThunder]

Changing the subject a bit, does anyone else get a "solo animation job" vibe from the NEP? The art isn't exactly rough, but it also isn't exactly polished either and there almost no animation on display.
I hope it's a solo job by Sakai, it'll have been 7 weeks since the last episode he worked on and and it would make sense to do this as we are in the final stretch of filler now so Toei will probably be very selective about who's on the episodes. It'd also be a great way for us to get a feel for his style.
We have 4 more episodes till the next arc (counting 73) and we're probably in for another Yashima episode before the new arc as well as another Wanpack episode, so both of those will be great in conserving staff, the only real question is on the remaining episode.
So maybe;
73-Sakai, solo or tiny staff
74-Kitano with a small staff and heavy correction work from Tsuji
75-Wanpack
76-Yashima, solo with heavy corrections from Tsuji and maybe about two second key animators (maybe the exact same staff from 70?).

[DragonBallFan8001]

I can never get Higashide's style down, what exactly are the tells on it?

I'm not 100% sure if these traits are specific to Higashide, but how I mainly recognize him is by looking at the line-art around the jaw.
[spoiler][/spoiler]
His line-art looks very soft. In most Dragon Ball animator's artwork (especially the super on-model ones) the curve between the jaw and the rest of the head is usually quite pointy. With most of Higashide's work, it's a bit more rounded. Similarly, most other parts of his line-art that are usually very pointy are more rounded in Higashide's work.

[spoiler]
(Bottom right)

[/spoiler]

[cuartas]

Corrected Tate is still the best Tate, his art is far too ugly to go uncorrected, it can work for One Piece because most characters are already badly drawn. For a series like Dragon Ball, which heavily relies on aesthetics, his style really wouldn't fit, I still would like him to stay for Super.

I would like to disagree with the "His art is too ugly to go uncorrected" This was a rushed episode mate. i dont really judge someone's bad art in a filler episode either.

when the next arc comes around and hes given enough time to actually work on his episodes, then i criticize the bad parts. Like he had to work on other episodes in-between 65 and 72 (assistant AS on 66 and KA on 69) so of course its gonna be rough.

besides this episode was filler xd Check out his episode 11 or 38. His art is not "Ugly"

71 was rushed too then, 5 weeks since 66 and shimanuki never delivered terrible art shots from his part, to the contrary, he improved even more.
Tate is not rushed, it's just his style, OR... he's another kitano case, he can't work fine in short periods of time, quite ironic in a looser animator

[ArchedThunder]

This close-up was drawn by Lee Joo-hyon, wasn't it?
[spoiler][/spoiler]

That's a Karasawa correction, but you might be right about who had hands on the original KA. Those large slanted eyes are definitely reminiscent of that episode you mentioned.

The more I look at the shot from 45 and that new shot the more I think It's just straight Lee Joo-Hyun, the nose shape, head shape, neck shading and neck detailing are all very similar . Some other noticeable things are obviously the giant eye and the face shading looks like a more dramatic version of the very same shading used in the episode 45 shot, right down to the curved highlight that doesn't match the shape of the jaw and the shading having a strong horizontal line that connects to the eye on the right side of the image.

[Ajay]

The more I look at the shot from 45 and that new shot the more I think It's just straight Lee Joo-Hyun, the nose shape, head shape, neck shading and neck detailing are all very similar . Some other noticeable things are obviously the giant eye and the face shading looks like a more dramatic version of the very same shading used in the episode 45 shot, right down to the curved highlight that doesn't match the shape of the jaw and the shading having a strong horizontal line that connects to the eye on the right side of the image.

Nah, that's definitely had Karasawa's hands all over it. The eyebrows and ears are about as Karasawa as you get.