Favorite Animation Studios/Supervisors?

[jjgp1112]

Props to Kanzentai for the info on the supervisors and studios, and TimeTraveller and Metalwario for some of the caps posted ITT

As we all know, Dragon Ball is known for it's incosistent animation, as you can go from an absolutely gorgeous episode to a terrible looking one. There are several different studios that animate the show, all having their own style, and it seems to be the supervisor who really makes or breaks how the episode end up looking like. Here are the really notable studios and animation supervisors:

Maeda Minoru
This was the chief animator of Dragon Ball and the first 199 episodes of Dragon Ball Z. His animation is absolutely fantastic, and he seems to be the originator of the art style that Toriyama would use throughout the Z portion of the series. Here are examples of his stuff:







Shindou Pro
These guys are also known as the "evil eye type." Oddly enough, however, these exact same guys would be responsible for some of the best looking episodes of the Android and Buu sagas, thanks to a simple change in animation supervisors:

Under Shindou Mitsuo
Shindou Mitsuo just seemed to really like the pointy eyes and whatnot. He would take the key animators frames and adjust them to his liking:







However, Shindou Mitsuo stepped down after episode 116 and in his place as supervisor was Yamamuro Tadayoshi, one of the key animators from that studio. Under his wing, we got shit that looked like this:







Seigasha
Seigasha was another prominent studio. Throughout it's run, it had three different supervisors: Takeuchi Tomeyoshi, Shimanuki Masahiro, and Kuda Kazuya. They all had similar styles. It was basically similar to Toriyama, but with it's on twist. They had a really distinct way of drawing eyes, ears, and mouths:







Studio Cockpit
Ah, one of my favorites. These guys came around in the Cell Games saga, and they're fantastic. It's very different from Akira Toriyama, but the drawings and choreography are so great that it doesn't particularly matter:







Those aren't all of the studios, but those are all of the ones I felt like covering. We of course have some of the shitty studios too, like Studio Live and Last House, but we've discussed to death how awful those episodes are (although during the Namek saga, Last House's stuff was actually decent, but then thanks to understaffing and Uchiyama doing more stuff, it became an abomination)

[dbgtFO]

Studio Cockpit
Ah, one of my favorites. These guys came around in the Cell Games saga, and they're fantastic. It's very different from Akira Toriyama, but the drawings and choreography are so great that it doesn't particularly matter:

Snip

This one is my favourite. In the Buu Arc it really became its own thing.

[JulieYBM]

I actually really like Shindou's stuff. All of the teams up through the Namek arcs were all great, each with their own distinctive look, but never being overly ugly. It was around episode #108 that Last House/Uchiyama's episodes began to break from the pack, though, and it was from there that they slid into the terror of their work during the Artificial Humans arc and beyond.

[kei17]

Maeda Minoru
This was the chief animator of Dragon Ball and the first 199 episodes of Dragon Ball Z. His animation is absolutely fantastic, and he seems to be the originator of the art style that Toriyama would use throughout the Z portion of the series.

I said this on the other topic, but let me say this again. Episodes supervised by Maeda always look better than others because they were drawn by brilliant key animators: Nakatsuru, Satou, Eguchi, and Ide. Maeda just retouched their works slightly. Not to speak unfavorably of him, but I have to say that Maeda's art style had already got some kind of dated around the Freeza arc, and that must be the reason why he stepped down before Cell Game. In my opinion, he is a little bit overrated. For your information, that Angry Goku was drawn by Eguchi Hisashi, who supervised the animation of Spriggan. SSJ Goku was done by Satou Masaki, and the others are all Nakatsuru Katsuyoshi's key animations.

Shindou Pro
These guys are also known as the "evil eye type." Oddly enough, however, these exact same guys would be responsible for some of the best looking episodes of the Android and Buu sagas, thanks to a simple change in animation supervisors:

All of those shots except the first one do seem to be done by Yamamuto Tadayoshi.

Seigasha
Seigasha was another prominent studio. Throughout it's run, it had three different supervisors: Takeuchi Tomeyoshi, Shimanuki Masahiro, and Kuda Kazuya. They all had similar styles. It was basically similar to Toriyama, but with it's on twist. They had a really distinct way of drawing eyes, ears, and mouths:

They are Takeuchi Tomekichi and Hisada Kazuya.

It was around episode #108 that Last House/Uchiyama's episodes began to break from the pack, though, and it was from there that they slid into the terror of their work during the Artificial Humans arc and beyond.*snip*

Yeah, that shot is awful... It is a fact that things got really worse around the middle of the Android arc when Shida Naotoshi left Last House, even after that, however, I personally think that Last House's episodes still look good when you look them in motion. I prefer badly-drawn episodes look good in motion over cleanly-drawn episodes look bad in motion (like Hakamada Yuuji's episodes). To me, what matters is nothing but action.

[mysticboy]

Seigasha is my favorite.

[kei17]

Seigasha is my favorite.

Me, too. It's a shame that most of their flashing effects/high-speed fights got redrawn and slowed down in Kai. Such speedy motions cannot be shown on Japanese TV anymore because of the Pokemon incident.

[Cipher]

I personally think that Last House's episodes still look good when you look them in motion. I prefer badly-drawn episodes look good in motion over cleanly-drawn episodes look bad in motion (like Hakamada Yuuji's episodes). To me, what matters is nothing but action.

Are we thinking of the same Last House? Last House's episodes have always seemed to have by far the worst animation in the series to me, at least after the Android arc. Not only are the drawings bad, characters barely move.

Studio Live, however, which is often criticized here for its angular drawings, always seems to animate just fine. It's never exceptional, but it's always more fluid than Last House's later stuff. It's for this reason that I always place their episodes a notch or two above Last House. As bad as the drawings can be, the animation is fine. Not so for Last House.

[jjgp1112]

Hmm...is there some sort of site or guide that gives info on which person drew a particular cel, or can you just tell from how they're drawn and which guys were credited for the key animation for that episode?

[JulieYBM]

When Kei speaks about how Uchiyama's stuff looks in motion, he means this. If there's one thing Last House did very, very well even at this point in the series, it was their fluidity and their choreography. Trunks' flipping here looks impeccable!

EDIT: That reminds me, on that very same channel I have Kei's Dragon Ball animator AMVs reuploaded for anyone who wants to know what techniques to look for in each specific animator.

[Saago]

Me, too. It's a shame that most of their flashing effects/high-speed fights got redrawn and slowed down in Kai. Such speedy motions cannot be shown on Japanese TV anymore because of the Pokemon incident.

So, I'm curious, what about the original Dragon Ball Z recent reruns? Unless I'm mistaken, Z is still broadcast unchanged these days, so why did they have to change the effects for Kai when they were exactly the same?

[Cipher]

When Kei speaks about how Uchiyama's stuff looks in motion, he means this. If there's one thing Last House did very, very well even at this point in the series, it was their fluidity and their choreography. Trunks' flipping here looks impeccable!

Trunks' flipping is the only thing in that entire video that looks incredible. Everything else in there is, while I grant you not terrible, very, very standard. That Trunks animation is a second or two long and gets repeated later in the same clip. I'm sure I can pull out a great five-second shot from any animation studio to work on the series.

And that's about as adventurous as Last House ever gets. They're very conservative with camera angles and generally try to stick to as little motion as possible. This was a more favorable example, but their episodes in the Boo arc and GT are stiff, stiff, stiff. At least compared to all the other studios working on the series at the time.

[JulieYBM]

There's a few other spots, actually. One of my favorite shots in the series is this one where Tenshinhan charges Yamcha and pushes off the ground with his arm. This is all Last House. Gokuu's hair after he beat Freeza is also gorgeously animated. I actually think Last House's work during the Garlic Junior arc isn't bad, either. It's starting to break away from everyone else, but it's still pretty good.

Of course, Hisada, Yamamuro, and Masunaga take the cake as the series progresses. Even Ebisawa's stuff begins to look really good in the late Cell episodes (save for episode #198, which looks as bad as a Last House episode).

[jjgp1112]

There's a few other spots, actually. One of my favorite shots in the series is this one where Tenshinhan charges Yamcha and pushes off the ground with his arm. This is all Last House. Gokuu's hair after he beat Freeza is also gorgeously animated. I actually think Last House's work during the Garlic Junior arc isn't bad, either. It's starting to break away from everyone else, but it's still pretty good.

Of course, Hisada, Yamamuro, and Masunaga take the cake as the series progresses. Even Ebisawa's stuff begins to look really good in the late Cell episodes (save for episode #198, which looks as bad as a Last House episode).

Ebisawa also had a very good key animator under him, which explains why those episodes would oftentimes alternate between the triangle crap and stuff that rivaled Shindou Pro.

[dbgtFO]

^@YBM
But Cipher did say he mostly refers to their Android Arc work and onwards:

Are we thinking of the same Last House? Last House's episodes have always seemed to have by far the worst animation in the series to me, at least after the Android arc. Not only are the drawings bad, characters barely move.

[Shiyonasan]

Of the animators listed, I think I'd have to say that Maeda Minoru's animation is my favorite. The animation is very detailed and clean. I like how in the third screencap that's posted, it literally looks like Goku's vain is popping out of his head. Brilliant stuff.

Seigasha is a close second.

[CODii]

However, Shindou Mitsuo stepped down after episode 116 and in his place as supervisor was Yamamuro Tadayoshi, one of the key animators from that studio. Under his wing, we got shit that looked like this:
-snip-

When you say "shit that looked like this" are you saying you don't like it? I'm not quite sure why, but I really quite like to look of those images. Especially the two with Vegeta.

[jjgp1112]

I'm saying it looked good. I have a pretty haphazard/rough way of speaking

[CODii]

All right, I just wanted to clarify. I was thinking it looked really good, but wasn't sure if there was something glaringly wrong about the images that I was somehow missing.

[BobZ]

What a spledid thread. Loving the info. I remember trying to do a similar one a while back (http://daizex.fanboyreview.net/viewtopi ... =7&t=12870), but this one is way more consistent and offers solid information.

I would definitely go for the Maeda Minoru stuff. They seem perfect to me. I would have loved it if DBZ was drawn like that all the way from beginning to end.

But still, having different art styles isn't all that bad. Apart from the episodes that are barely bearable to watch. Funnily enough though, that doesn't botter me anymore, as I've gotten used to it by rewatching the series too many times.

[kei17]

Are we thinking of the same Last House? Last House's episodes have always seemed to have by far the worst animation in the series to me, at least after the Android arc. Not only are the drawings bad, characters barely move.

Sorry, since I'm poor at speaking English, I do not understand what "after the Android arc" means. Does that sentence includes the Android arc itself as well? If it does, I have to say you are wrong.

Studio Live, however, which is often criticized here for its angular drawings, always seems to animate just fine. It's never exceptional, but it's always more fluid than Last House's later stuff. It's for this reason that I always place their episodes a notch or two above Last House. As bad as the drawings can be, the animation is fine. Not so for Last House.

I have exactly the opposite feeling about Studio Live. There is no fluidity in their animations. Even the key animations done by Kan'no Toshiyuki, the best animator in Studio Live, look bad in motion IMO.

So, I'm curious, what about the original Dragon Ball Z recent reruns? Unless I'm mistaken, Z is still broadcast unchanged these days, so why did they have to change the effects for Kai when they were exactly the same?

All the recent reruns are full of blur, which almost ruins the show. Here is a sample from the current rerun on BS Fuji.