Why does DBZ Movie 6 look so visually inconsistent?

[taikufuru]

It's not absolutely horrible. There are still some great animated sequences in this film. But why does the quality fluctuate so much from one scene to the next? It's as if the animation supervisor didn't have time to correct some key frames. And not only that, some moments so simple seem so rigid.

[Rafa Fast]

It's not absolutely horrible. There are still some great animated sequences in this film. But why does the quality fluctuate so much from one scene to the next? It's as if the animation supervisor didn't have time to correct some key frames. And not only that, some moments so simple seem so rigid.

Don't know, people like to say that it's likely because of the animation process for the movie being rushed, which I think can be true, as the credits show a few frames that are different from how they look in the final movie.
A lot like to say that it was too hard to animate Metal Coola too, then adding more to the problem, but...I personally have to disagree, you and other people may disagree with me now, but I have to say that I think that Movies 5 and 7 face the exactly same issue, it's not Movie 6 only, there are veeery weird sequences and a lot of very bad frames in these two movies too, their animation is very odd when you compare them to first 4 movies and the latter 6 movies and how consistent they are (specially the latter 6, which are pretty much perfect)
My guess is that this could be because of Minoru Maeda's supervision losing power after Movie 3 to the end of Freeza Saga, Tadayoshi Yamamuro and Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru were slowly starting to take over, specially starting from the Android Saga, Nakatsuru in particular, had a major role in the supervision for Movie 4 and the Bardock Special.
Nakatsuru and Yamamuro made the Android Saga until the Perfect Cell introduction (where Maeda left) look more consistent in animation than these 3 last movies featuring Maeda, the last time where you would see a better supervision from him would be Trunks special.
But that's all just a guess

[jjgp1112]

Having to pump out two movies a year instead of one like in the original series was clearly taking its toll on production - probably the same reason the movies turned into 40 minute punch-fests after movie 4 (with the exception of 8 and 13) - and then on top of that, Maeda's style gradually got worse starting from the Frieza saga. He struggled with the angular style. Movie 7 had similar inconsistency.

On top of that, Yamamuro and Nakatsuru are a lot more heavy-handed in their corrections, which is why Movie 4 (the one Nakatsuru helped supervise) is also the most visually consistent of the Maeda-era movies. Because even in Movies 1-3 and 5, the styles jump around a bit in a similar vein to DBS Broly.

[JulieYBM]

If I remember correctly, it was confirmed at some point that Director Nishio Daisuke was really late in turning in his storyboard for the film, so that messed up the production schedule a lot.

[taikufuru]

Interesting. I didn't know that. I imagine it would be hard to juggle a weekly TV series and two movies a year.

[GokuHater]

It's exactly the same reason that Super animation flopped at the beginning.

Even the best , most talented animators can produce ugly animation of there are made to work 12 hours a day, underpaid without given time to polish their work and correct mistakes.

Anime industry was and is quite cruel to such employers.

[GhostEmperorX]

Having to pump out two movies a year instead of one like in the original series was clearly taking its toll on production

Honestly, I wonder whose bright idea this was, maybe the Saint Seiya anime staff that were brought over? Though Koyama did say they didn't know they would be doing 13 of them while talking about why the first one was just called "Dragon Ball Z" (which I'm not sure I get since the first Dragon Ball movie wasn't just called "Dragon Ball").

[VegettoEX]

Though Koyama did say they didn't know they would be doing 13 of them while talking about why the first one was just called "Dragon Ball Z" (which I'm not sure I get since the first Dragon Ball movie wasn't just called "Dragon Ball").

From our "Movie Guide" page:

When the movie premiered in December 1986, it was at that point officially titled “Dragon Ball”, and all official promotional items and materials prior to the movie’s premiere utilized this title as well. The sub-title “The Legend of Shenlong” was used during the movie’s promotion and did appear in the movie’s opening animation, but was not actually included as part of the movie’s official title until it was released as a film animation comic in 1995. This updated title was carried through into the movie’s re-release on VHS and LaserDisc in 1996, and has remained the movie’s official title for all subsequent manga and home video releases.

So it's six of one and half dozen of the other -- it both did and didn't have an official sub-title at launch.

Backing that up, see for example the original theatrical pamphlet, where there's no "Legend of Shenlong" anywhere here on the cover (or within the main content pages inside), whereas the other movies definitely prominently list their sub-titles:

[GhostEmperorX]

So it's six of one and half dozen of the other -- it both did and didn't have an official sub-title at launch.

Thanks for clarification, that seems like such a strange place to be in. Not quite having the only name be the series of the title as with the first Z movie, but not going all the way with actually having a sub-title.

True, the movie titles are there for everything except DB, I guess they just jumped into the production (or added that part in) without making a logo for it?

[coola]

"Ok, fight with robot minions looks great, how much budget we have left?" "We have a budget?" Lanipator during one of conventions after TFS DBZ Movie 6 screening