So who exactly animated the DBZ series?

[Smooth Criminal]

This has been discussed before, but I don't think specifics have ever been given. Perhaps they aren't even known?

In the DBZ show, there are clearly 3 distinct qualities of animations- it has been determined that each quality represents the work of a different animation company from Korea. Well... Who were they?

The highest quality animation was rarely used. It was used primarily for the most important episodes... However, and this really kind of ticked me off, there were many key episodes that were done by the shit-animation team.

The mid-quality animation was used a lot, I'd say about 60/40 with the shit-quality eps. (High-quality aside...) I had no qualms with this team. Not amazing, but got the job done without making me cringe.

OK, so we've got those two out of the way. Now we come to the lowest of low. Whoever did the animation for these eps must've been pumping them out fast, that's the only logical reason I can come up with for TOEI keeping them onboard. The details on the characters are minimal, and often they barely resemble who they're supposed to be. Their hair/faces are fucked up, and overall it just pisses me off to even look at it. They half-ass their way through the action scenes, as everything looks stiff and cheap. Anyone who disagrees that these episodes look abysmal just need to re-watch the episode where Vegeta reveals himself to Semi-Perfect Cell as "Super Vegeta." Watch the last 30 seconds as a horribly-drawn, unproportionate Vegeta smirks and points to himself with a grin on his face. This is supposed to be intimidating?? Good god...

So where did this madness begin? TOEI never used this unsatisfactory level of animation in the Saiya-jin Saga. I believe the first episode to use this team was later in the Namek saga. Does anyone have a specific number?

So, basically, here are my questions, summed up nicely:

What were the names of the different animation companies that handled DBZ? Are we sure there were only 3?

Why did TOEI start using the sub-par, low-level animation team? No episode before the Namek saga had anything this bad

Was the team that animated the high-quality episodes the same team that animated the movies?

[Bejiita]

I can't be certain, but the bad animators have actually been there since Dragonball started. Since the old artwork is less improved than the later episodes, it is actually more difficult to tell who the crap artists are, the episode that you talk about with Vegeta being drawn horribly is done by the Toriyama wanabbe, he also did base form Vegetto Vs Super Buu, I would think it was due to him getting the episodes done quick, but this guy also did the episode where Kuririn shakes Goku's hand before fighting Vegeta in the Saiya-Jin saga.

Let's see, the episode of Dragonball where Roshi send Goku out to find him a nice girl would have eben done by their best animators(Who also did the last Z episode, Mystic Gohan Vs Super buu, etc). So these animators have been there since the start. But Toei must have used the bad studios because they had no other choice, these people sign contracts and they have to keep their part of the deal, I wouldn't be suprised if the people at these cheap studio's got angry because they kept getting boring episodes, like filler, or ones that have not much importance, so when they get a good episode it's like a blessing(i.e. the Trunks killing king Cold episode), they take it upon themselves to make it acceptablem, and in the 80's they had less technology they can use, so they were probably rushing.

Maybe you've only realised where the art has gone down as late as the Namek episodes because it where the art started taking a turn for the best, the style started changing, and the bad animators have clearly come out of the dirt and haven't been able to retain the good style.

As for the movies, I said in my thread that the best animating studio deals with them, but that's only what I think, if they got a new guy in for the movies I don't know.