Is the Buu Saga the most well animated?

[Trickster]

In terms os consistency and fluid moviments, I always have the perception that Buu Saga was the most well animated in the whole franchise. Maybe because of the popularity of the series. In that time, DB may have been started to be exported to many other countries, and video games became more popular in people's houses (what made more games been produced). All of this proporcioned more money to the producers, so they could invest more in the animation.

Anyway, I think there is much more design errors in the other sagas (mainly, Freeza and Cell) than Buu, and I would like to know if this is just my perception or if other people also share with this opinion.

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[Deathbringer]

I think it's because they knew the manga had already ended so they could sort of plan out episodes better because they didn't have the assumption that it would go on for ages (particularly for the Kid Boo fight)

I remember the Bleach anime did a similar thing where it ended the story way before the manga ended but that final anime arc was much better looking than what came before it.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

Yes, the Majin Boo arc was the most well animated but not cause of money. The change of designs, Yama'uchi Shigeyasu leading as uncredited series director, Studio Cockpit becoming a part of the regular rotation, Kan'no Toshiyuki elevating Studio Live's work to name a few and the staff doing more ambitious work overall. It's all cause of the staff and better planning and handling of resources.

I'd say it still has it's lows, but for the most part it was pretty damn good. My favorite arc in the anime series by far.

[Trickster]

Yes, the Majin Boo arc was the most well animated but not cause of money. The change of designs, Yama'uchi Shigeyasu leading as uncredited series director, Studio Cockpit becoming a part of the regular rotation, Kan'no Toshiyuki elevating Studio Live's work to name a few and the staff doing more ambitious work overall. It's all cause of the staff and better planning and handling of resources.

I'd say it still has it's lows, but for the most part it was pretty damn good. My favorite arc in the anime series by far.

Oh, it looks like we have and expert here

So, what's the thing about Studio Cockpit? I don't know exactly how all this works. Does Toei have contracts with many small studios, and wich one of them animate a part or more of the episode? So, Minoru Maeda, Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, Masahiro Shaminaki, etc were not professionals vinculated directly to Toei, but to these another studios?

[8000 Saiyan]

Yeah, probably. I really love the animation during the fight between Goku and Majin Vegeta.

[Saikyo no Senshi]

Oh, it looks like we have and expert here

So, what's the thing about Studio Cockpit? I don't know exactly how all this works. Does Toei have contracts with many small studios, and wich one of them animate a part or more of the episode? So, Minoru Maeda, Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru, Masahiro Shaminaki, etc were not professionals vinculated directly to Toei, but to these another studios?

Hey, I'm no expert. But, from what I know Studio Cockpit was one of the best working on Z. They joined during the Cell Games stuff and stayed till Z #279. With Masunaga Keisuke as the animation director and a group of talented key animators under him -- they did some good work. The Gokuu Cell fight in #179 and Gokuu Boo fight in #279 are best examples. They brought a fierceness and intensity to the drawings which made them stand out immediately.

In short, Toei Animation didn't have much in-house staff to do all the work by themselves -- so, they distributed work to different studios like Live, Last House, Seigasha etc. Shimanuki was from Seigasha for example. They all worked in rotation following a schedule. Nakatsuru, Ide, Satou are some of the Toei animators who worked on the series by the way.

You can check this site's amazingly well documented animation styles guide for a more detailed info about each animator and which studio they're affiliated with.

[Metalwario64]

I think it was Yamamuro at his best:

[JulieYBM]

I think it was Yamamuro at his best:

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the only reason this scene was any good was because it was storyboarded and directed by Yama'uchi Shigeyasu, one of the best Toei alumni. Yamamuro's never done anything nearly as good and has continued to show that he learned nothing from Yama'uchi, despite having worked with him on multiple projects.

Hell, for all we know this isn't actually Yamamuro's key animation, just something he heavily corrected.

[sintzu]

Not only was it the best animated but it also fixed a lot of the issues the manga had at the time like the short fights.

[Metalwario64]

It's nice to have people who are so well versed in the animation scene on these forums, because I've learned more about animation through this site than I have anywhere else. Also, I forgot to check Sakugabooru to see if that scene was WebM'd on there.

As to your speculation, that is a good point. His work in RoF was very indicative that he has trouble with interesting angles and making action flow properly. These things also make me wonder why Toei insists on keeping him at the top in terms of Dragon Ball animation management, though it's probably seniority alone.

Nonetheless, I feel his art style in the Buu-arc at least was fantastic. Even if his animation might not have been the best, it's still the nicest to look at in my eyes.

[JulieYBM]

It's nice to have people who are so well versed in the animation scene on these forums, because I've learned more about animation through this site than I have anywhere else. Also, I forgot to check Sakugabooru to see if that scene was WebM'd on there.

As to your speculation, that is a good point. His work in RoF was very indicative that he has trouble with interesting angles and making action flow properly. These things also make me wonder why Toei insists on keeping him at the top in terms of Dragon Ball animation management, though it's probably seniority alone.

Nonetheless, I feel his art style in the Buu-arc at least was fantastic. Even if his animation might not have been the best, it's still the nicest to look at in my eyes.

My crack theory is that, other than seniority, Yamamuro has connections with Morishita Kouzou, the senior producer for the franchise and someone that Morishita has consistently worked with since the early 1990s and even asked to help storyboard for the first BUDDHA film, which Morishita personally directed.

[DBZAOTA482]

Yes,,, and I think it's mostly because of art evolution and some great talents (Studio Cockpit, Studio Carpenter, K-Production) becoming part of the regular circulation.

[floofychan333]

I agree that the Buu saga is the best animated in Z. Also, Fusion Reborn has amazing animation, though inconsistently.

[Son_Gohan]

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the only reason this scene was any good was because it was storyboarded and directed by Yama'uchi Shigeyasu, one of the best Toei alumni. Yamamuro's never done anything nearly as good and has continued to show that he learned nothing from Yama'uchi, despite having worked with him on multiple projects.

Hell, for all we know this isn't actually Yamamuro's key animation, just something he heavily corrected.

If you compare the key animation with other episodes Yamamuro is credited in or with his promotional artwork, his style appears rather consistent. I don't think Yamamuro's issue is talent, I think it's more a lack of passion for the series and the medium; I believe he said in an interview that he doesn't even watch anime anymore and views it as a job essentially. So his perspective is probably more insular than others; simply based off his own work experience, and lacking in creativity.

[JulieYBM]

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the only reason this scene was any good was because it was storyboarded and directed by Yama'uchi Shigeyasu, one of the best Toei alumni. Yamamuro's never done anything nearly as good and has continued to show that he learned nothing from Yama'uchi, despite having worked with him on multiple projects.

Hell, for all we know this isn't actually Yamamuro's key animation, just something he heavily corrected.

If you compare the key animation with other episodes Yamamuro is credited in or with his promotional artwork, his style appears rather consistent. I don't think Yamamuro's issue is talent, I think it's more a lack of passion for the series and the medium; I believe he said in an interview that he doesn't even watch anime anymore and views it as a job essentially. So his perspective is probably more insular than others; simply based off his own work experience, and lacking in creativity.

I've read that interview and it definitely spells out why his work is so boring. That he expresses no remorse for hindering the work of those younger and more passionate than him is truly disheartening.

[Gaffer Tape]

I agree as well. While the art style they're emulating isn't my favorite, the series was back on track in terms of having a mostly consistent, talented team of animation studios. In my opinion, the era of Z between the middle of the Freeza Arc until around the Cell Games was when the series was at its worst from an art and animation perspective, hitting its nadir around the Freeza battle itself and slowly starting to get better overall throughout the Cell Arc.

From the beginning of Dragon Ball up until around the end of the Saiyan Arc, the series had had a pretty consistent rotation of animation studios. Around the Freeza Arc, Studio Junio, supervised by character designer Maeda Minoru, began doing episodes less and less frequently. I assume (and someone feel free to correct me) that that was because of the additional workload of things like two movies every year and then the Bardock Special as well pulling him away from the series for those higher profile projects. By halfway through the Cell Arc, he'd bow out of the series entirely. Freelancer Aoshima Katsumi, who pumped out some of my favorite-looking episodes, also stepped back at the end of the Saiyan Arc (his last episode was the first episode of the Goku/Vegeta fight that everyone loves to screen cap), only working on the next few movies. That would have forced the remaining studios to have to pump out episodes more frequently.

Then, around the middle of the Freeza Arc, the aging supervisor of Seigasha, Takeuchi Tomekichi, stepped down. And while his replacements would ultimately keep Seigasha in the top tier, I definitely feel there were growing pains in the late Freeza Arc, and I honestly can't look at a lot of Seigasha's work in the late Freeza Arc. It's at its worst at that point of the series.

Couple that with the fact that Last House lost almost all of its key animators around the end of the Freeza Arc, resulting in a studio that was once pretty good churning out some of the most ridiculed art from the Cell and Boo Arcs. The only bright spot during this period is that Studio Live, which, in my opinion, had always been the crap studio from Day One, actually started occasionally putting out stuff that was pretty... decent.

But by the Cell Arc, Seigasha was definitely in top form, and Shindo Pro had significantly improved after Yamamuro took over as supervisor, despite his output being less than impressive nowadays. By the Cell Games, with the additions of great studios like Studio Cockpit and Studio Carpenter, it meant they had enough studios again to handle the workload, and it left only Last House and Studio Live as the weak links in an otherwise pretty solid chain.

[Son_Gohan]

I've read that interview and it definitely spells out why his work is so boring. That he expresses no remorse for hindering the work of those younger and more passionate than him is truly disheartening.

Yeah, I've heard he's particularly arrogant and draconian behind the scenes in his treatment of others' works. Hisashi Eguchi had complained on Twitter about how he redrew his entire cut in Resurrection F; a person with the skill to animate a sequence like this from Cowboy Bebop:

[8000 Saiyan]

I think it was Yamamuro at his best:

I could watch that piece of animation all day.

[Trickster]

Hey, I'm no expert. But, from what I know Studio Cockpit was one of the best working on Z. They joined during the Cell Games stuff and stayed till Z #279. With Masunaga Keisuke as the animation director and a group of talented key animators under him -- they did some good work. The Gokuu Cell fight in #179 and Gokuu Boo fight in #279 are best examples. They brought a fierceness and intensity to the drawings which made them stand out immediately.

In short, Toei Animation didn't have much in-house staff to do all the work by themselves -- so, they distributed work to different studios like Live, Last House, Seigasha etc. Shimanuki was from Seigasha for example. They all worked in rotation following a schedule. Nakatsuru, Ide, Satou are some of the Toei animators who worked on the series by the way.

You can check this site's amazingly well documented animation styles guide for a more detailed info about each animator and which studio they're affiliated with.

I've already read some pieces of this article, but not all of it. I didn't know they also wrote about the studios the animators were connected to.

I'll check it later. Thanks.

[Trickster]

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that the only reason this scene was any good was because it was storyboarded and directed by Yama'uchi Shigeyasu, one of the best Toei alumni. Yamamuro's never done anything nearly as good and has continued to show that he learned nothing from Yama'uchi, despite having worked with him on multiple projects.

Hell, for all we know this isn't actually Yamamuro's key animation, just something he heavily corrected.

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What jobs did Yamauchi Shigeyasu do, in DB franchise, as animator?