One staple of Kanzenshuu has always been our authoritatively detailed guides, many of which cover the various animation aspects of the Dragon Ball franchise. When we were first piecing together the “Episode Guide” nearly 15 years ago, the inclusion of complete episode credit listings was a priority, and as time went on we began compiling them in our “Production Guide”. This system worked for quite some time; however, the advent of the Dragon Ball Super TV series quickly made it apparent that this system was not only hard to maintain and organize, but difficult to navigate and search for specific information.

So in 2016 we went back to the drawing board and began working on a new guide, with the main emphasis on functionality. We wanted to create a guide that would be easy to navigate, search, and update, as well as provide easily shareable links to specific animators or pages. In fact, some of the functionality developed for this guide has already been incorporated into other areas of the site, namely the “Translations” archive. At the same time we also wanted to combine most of the site’s animation production related guides, sections, and pages under one roof. Thus, the “Animation Styles Guide” and “Production Guide” have both been removed from the site and incorporated into the new guide. And so, without further ado, I am super excited to unveil my labor of love, the “Animation Production Guide“!

The guide is divided up between general production information and our new Animation Staff Database, which serves as the backbone to the entire guide. This database provides listings of individual episode credits and the main animation staff involved with the Dragon Ball franchise, including a searchable list of all individual staff members stored in the database. In addition, the new Animation Supervisor Catalog provides a more detailed listing and discussion of the various animation studios and supervisors involved with the franchise.

While the guide as it sits now is up-to-date with the most current information, we do want to stress that this is a living guide that will continue to be updated as new information becomes available. It is also a massive guide that is far from being complete with everything we want to include, so bear with us as we continue to add more material. In the meantime, the guide has been added to the main navigation and is live for your viewing pleasure! Also, huge thanks to Ajay for his recommendations, review, and insights!

Each month, Toyotarō provides a drawing — as well as a brief comment — on the official Japanese Dragon Ball website. Thus far, Toyotarō has provided drawings of #8, Lunch, Chapa with Oob, Tambourine, Man-Wolf, Tapion, Janenba, Broli, Ozotto, Ginyu, Bardock, Paragus, King Cold, Bardock’s original television special crew, Onio with his wife, Shiirasu, Great Saiyaman, Nail, Toninjinka, Zarbon, Pui-Pui, Slug, Vermoud, and Tapikar. For his December 2019 entry, Toyotarō has contributed a sketch of Thouser:

Thouser.

He’s the leader of the Coola Armored Squadron.

Apparently he’s from the same solar system as Jheese from the Ginyu Special Force!

I hear that Bonyu, who appears in the game Kakarot coming out this January, is also from Jheese’s system, which gets you wondering what kind of relationship the three of them might have had!

Thouser originally appeared as one of Coola’s henchmen in the fifth theatrical Dragon Ball Z film from 1991, performed by Shō Hayami (also having played Zarbon in the television series). With the shift to Hiroaki Miura for Zarbon since Dragon Ball Kai, Thouser remains Hayami’s sole (very occasional) Dragon Ball voice role. Thouser has appeared as a playable character in various video games over the years, including Dragon Ball Z: Sparking! NEO and Dragon Ball: Raging Blast 2.

The tidbit of Thouser hailing from the same solar system as Jheese comes from the special “Attention!! A Super Announcement of 3 Great Jump Anime!!” column in the 1991 No. 25 issue of Weekly Shōnen Jump, released that May, promoting upcoming films. The fifth Dragon Ball Z theatrical film screened alongside two other movies from the Magical Taluluto and Dragon Quest series that July.

This drawing and comment set has been added to the respective page in our “Translations” archive.

Each month, Toyotarō provides a drawing — as well as a brief comment — on the official Japanese Dragon Ball website. Thus far, Toyotarō has provided drawings of #8, Lunch, Chapa with Oob, Tambourine, Man-Wolf, Tapion, Janenba, Broli, Ozotto, Ginyu, Bardock, Paragus, King Cold, Bardock’s original television special crew, Onio with his wife, Shiirasu, Great Saiyaman, Nail, Toninjinka, Zarbon, Pui-Pui, Slug, and Vermoud. For his November 2019 entry, Toyotarō has contributed a sketch of Tapikar (with a special guest reappearance by Tapion):

Tapikar.

One of the contestants in the Afterlife Tournament. He’s a character who doesn’t really get much of a chance to shine, but I got the feeling that this was his last chance to bask in the spotlight (because of his name…).

Tapikar, a fighter from the Western Galaxy, appears exclusively in the Dragon Ball Z television series’ Afterlife Tournament filler arc. Both Tapikar, as well as Tapion in the background (a former inclusion in Toyotarō’s series here) have names sourced from the word “tapioca”; Japan happens to be in the midst of a bubble/pearl tea fad at the moment.

This drawing and comment set has been added to the respective page in our “Translations” archive.