Why don't anime studios do this?

[Seekeroftruth]

I've heard people say the reason some episodes in an anime have a dip in quality compared to others is due to the studio not having enough time to animate the episode and often having to skimp corners to rush it out.

Example- See bad animation in DB Super.






So my solution to all this is just animate all the episodes properly before a show is even released. In the time period that studios are self promoting for a show, make sure all episodes top quality animation as seen below.



https://youtu.be/9d6ls6rlmUE

This will not only keep current fanbase happy but attract new viewers to the series. Good quality animation can also be use to offset episodes where the plot was lackluster, and would increase likelihood of people purchasing blue-ray and dvd of the show.

[VegettoEX]

That's incredibly ideal and utopian, but doesn't align with the reality of these situations.

Series like Dragon Ball are intended to be continuously-running shows, which means there's always something in production, and always a looming deadline for any given aspect.

Think about even the original series: it was concurrent with the manga! They couldn't animate episode 153 of Dragon Ball along episode 1 because the underlying content for it didn't exist yet. (Which is, of course, why things like filler exist in this ecosystem.)

Production companies choose to do continuously-running shows for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is to capitalize on the booming and growing success of the underlying source material (read, again: the manga) and hit things from a multi-point marketing and production blitz: you get the manga, the anime, video games, films, toys, etc. all supporting each other and further driving interest. This can work if there are breaks in production (see forthcoming situation), but it's not necessarily ideal if the thing you're working on seems like it might be a flash in the pan success kind of thing, and on the other end of the spectrum, if it's a gigantic all-encompassing cultural touchpoint institution.

So then you have things like seasonal break anime, which has really shot up in popularity over the last couple decades. You would think that it would allow for higher production values through things like pre-production and planning, properly scoping, allocating resources, etc. But it still has its own challenges.

I fell off Attack on Titan after a single season. I fell off Dr. Stone after a single season (and this is one I was actively following and loving in the manga!).

Heck, look at what happened with One-Punch Man: different studio/animation approach turned off a huge portion of the audience after its break, which itself already caused a bunch of people to forget it exists.

Out of sight, out of mind... and children (the actual intended audience) can be even more fickle. Oh that show? That's old hat. That's two years old.

So really, you're not going to get a gigantic franchise like Dragon Ball fully conceived of and planned and produced before it airs. It just can't work that way. Even the manga artist and manga company are flying by the seat of their pants.

And that's to say nothing of the situations where "oh no the manga author mysteriously got ill and welp there's no end to this story now!" (see: Nana).

And at the end of the day, these television series are still less "the product" than international fans tend to think they are. By comparison (like, by volume of population), "nobody" actually buys these shows. People watch them for free on TV, and support it all through merchandise. That's tough for, say, American viewers to understand sometimes, when you don't have pencil boards and erasers and desks and folders and hats and socks necessarily in your face.

Hopefully you can see why it's impossible to compare a 30-second commercial with a long-running continuous television series.

[kemuri07]

Well it's not that simple. I'm sure there are a lot more people who are a lot more knowledgeable in how anime gets made on here, but the problem with your example is that you're pointing to a piece of promo that, because of its short length, they have a bit more leg room to pump money into that sakuga to make that shit spark.

Now imagine trying to do that quality for multiple 20 min episodes, and I guarantee you you'll have a couple of dead animators on your hands.

It's also important to note that studios have multiple projects that they're working on so I don't think making the anime as a whole before release date works either.

[M16U3L2015]

Besides, animation studios and the production committee can't afford to take the time to animate everything at once, they have contracts with the TV stations and if they don't meet the deadlines they are given, they run the risk of losing the time slot on the TV station's channel.

[Shorty GZ2]

TLDR: big can of worms about the state of anime production in the industry

[ClutchBangstrip]

NEVER agreed with the industry and how they treat their workers and their operations, especially Dragon Ball.

I always felt like Dragon Ball had gotten too massive to still be moving like it's just another anime and it's not fair to the people who work on it.

[coola]

And that's to say nothing of the situations where "oh no the manga author mysteriously got ill and welp there's no end to this story now!" (see: Nana).

Or author pass away (Highschool of the Dead, and especially Berserk, story begun in year 1989, and unfortunately, never gonna see conclusion )

As for anime, maybe in 20 or so years, we will get another manga adaptation Captain Tsubasa/Fruits Basket style? Preferably by another studio, like David Productions

[Aim]

Capitalism.

[Saiya6Cit]

I said it around at some post already, I believe the time for anime in 2D style has passed and from now on all of the anime we will be getting will be as in the latest DB movie, which is not something bad per se. The mistakes of the cheap animation you are pointing out here would be eliminated since it does not require true artistic skills but only to place the inputs correctly into a software. Excuse me I am un familiar with 3D animation process otherwise I could better explain myself.

Capitalism.

oh yes indeed

[M16U3L2015]

I said it around at some post already, I believe the time for anime in 2D style has passed and from now on all of the anime we will be getting will be as in the latest DB movie, which is not something bad per se. The mistakes of the cheap animation you are pointing out here would be eliminated since it does not require true artistic skills but only to place the inputs correctly into a software. Excuse me I am un familiar with 3D animation process otherwise I could better explain myself.

Capitalism.

oh yes indeed

I don't think so, actually the number of anime with CGI animation is still low compared to series made in 2D.

Also, I don't think doing it the traditional way that costs more than doing it in CGI even if it takes less time.

I don't know, there's a reason why the Japanese are still making anime mostly in the traditional way and haven't made a massive leap to CGI animation like in the West.

[DBZAOTA482]

A seasonal anime runs the risk of losing popularity after its initial run.

Remember how everyone made a big deal about One Punch Man during the first season while the second one is hardly talked about by comparison.

Dragon Ball is just too popular to let that happen.

[VegettoEX]

I implore folks to please read existing responses before making your own -- thank you!

[Cursed Lemon]

I mean I figure it's economics more than anything? High-quality animation teams command a high price and I don't know what the margins of producing anime are but I'll bet it's pretty slim.

[Aim]

This is something that can really only be “fixed” per say with proper planning of series without insane deadlines. Artistic style isn’t hard to come by, it’s that people aren’t given enough time to develop, most people who are artists I’d say can reach high levels of production with enough experience, that would be preferable rather than relying on niche talent which is extremely hard to come by.

[Anonymous Friend]

Remember the old saying: You can do things fast, you can do things well, and you can do things cheap. But you can only pick two at the same time.

[Jord]

Remember the old saying: You can do things fast, you can do things well, and you can do things cheap. But you can only pick two at the same time.

That's not what my girlfriend says.

But I don't blame the studios. Financially it works out well for them.