A Study of One Piece Animation

o-chan

Just to give you guys a heads up the way I'm covering the animation directors is I'm going from the most prolific (Inoue, Tate, Koizumi, Maniwa) to who has done the most episodes (Hisada, Ide, Takagi, Yokoama). So I'm not going to get to Ishizuka for a bit because he's towards the bottom of the list.

Another thing, people have been guessing all over the place for the OP and ED animations. Use Crosswords pictures and my reviews to help pinpoint some animators since it's alot of guess work and I could use some more accurate input.

O-chan

o-chan

Hideaki Maniwa (37, 45, 53, 60, 67, 74, 81, 88, 95, 102, 108, 117, 125, 135, 140, 146, 152, 158, 166, 193, 199, 205, 211, 218, Possibly ED 7, 9, 10, 11, 14)

Hideaki Maniwa is a personal favorite of mine because of his excellent animation work on episode 67. This particular episode, ending the Whiskey Peak arc, stands out in early One Piece because of the use of lighting. The animation in this episode alone is what made me take notice of this animator with it’s near theatrical quality. But rewinding it back a little his first episode is one that made many people fans of the show. The historic Nami’s breakdown/ March to Arlong Park episode (37). While his style is similar to Noboru Koizumi’s his characters tend to have slightly stiffer expressions (this is very obvious with Ussopp), wide shoulders, and smaller heads. But in his first episode he was masterful with capturing the expressions of Nami’s anger, pain, and suffering and his use of camera angles (influenced by the manga’s layouts) made the “Luffy…Help me…” scene very compelling. Surprisingly, the episodes he does between this and the aforementioned 67 have decent animation but once this episode comes about it’s like he stepped up his style and direction several notches creating a great episode to look at. Some of the changes is that his facial designs became rounder and the bodies were better proportioned to the heads. He also seemed to improve on the expressiveness of the characters faces and attention to detail. By this point one of the signatures to his style was how he gave bigger eyes to the characters. From 67 on his style stayed consistent and he became one of the A-list group of animators as his artwork was one of the better ones. Like others his artwork did take a slight downgrade during the Post- Alabasta and Jaya/Skypiea arcs but it was mostly just a slight lack of detail. His first episode after the animation upgrade was actually quite different from anything he did before. Taking place in the G8 arc (199) he seemed to experiment with color, depth, and animation movement. Because of this this particular episode has a unique animation style almost resembling a TV version of Movie 6. Maybe that’s an exaggeration but the animation in this episode kind of sticks out because of it’s unique style. His familiar style returns in episode 205. Unfortunately his last episode was the Davy Back Fight and has since gone on to greener pastures.

Key Episodes: March to Arlong Park (37) Luffy gets his first bounty (45) Luffy “dies”/Dragon appears/Final Loguetown episode (53) Vivi joins the crew (temporarily) and Robin appears (67) Dr. Kureha and Chopper first appear (81) Luffy reunites with Ace (95) “Mr. Prince” appears (108) Nami uses the Clima-Tact (117) Pell “dies” (125) Mock Town (146) Going Merry rides the Knock Up Stream to Skypiea (152) Upper Yard Campfire Festival (166) Skypiea Epilogue (193) Zoro and Sanji’s Davy Backfight (211) Afro Luffy vs. Foxy (218)

O-chan

Next Up! Kazuya Hisada

o-chan

Kazuya Hisada (1, 7, 22, 29, 36, 43, 51, 56, 63, 70, 77, 84, 91, 97, 113, 120, 129, 136, 142, 148, 154, 161, 170, 177, 183, 189, 200, 208, 215, 224, 227, 232, 240, 243, 248, 253, 258, 261, 268, 274, 285, 291, 297, 303 (w. Shinichi Suzuki), 310, 321, 328, 338, 348, 356, 366, Movie 1, Possibly ED 15)

Kazuya Hisada has the special honor of not just being one of the few animation directors who have been on the show since it’s inception and still currently present, but also being the animation director of the 1st episode. In the beginning while I would say his artwork isn’t painful to look at it doesn’t necessarily seem remarkable either. His designs stay on model and the animation for his early episodes are easy on the eyes. But around Arlong Park his animation was responsible for two of the most intense moments in that arc. The murder of Nami’s adopted mother was done in a very theatrical fashion and Hisada’s direction of that episode made that particular moment so riveting that one would find themselves at the edge of their seat. The other episode is the one where Luffy defeats Arlong, declares Nami his “nakama” and Nami tearfully accepts. In this episode Hisada’s use of close-ups and even a slight increased frame rate for Nami’s “yes” are what made this episode memorable. Hisada seems to be one of the few animators that can also draw Usopp expressively (Inoue, Koizumi, and later on Maniwa can do it as well). Throughout subsequent arcs Hisada’s artwork is consistent. While lacking in detail he does a good job of staying consistent and not straying too far from Koizumi’s anime designs. Over the course of Skypeia his character designs do take on more Oda-ish traits but still remain grounded in Koizumi’s foundation. Even after the animation upgrade his work is still very recognizable.

One thing that I want to point out is when in a previous thread someone said that Hisada worked on the openings since 5. This is WRONG! After following Hisada’s work over the course of the series the only credits he worked on are possibly ED 15 “Eternal Pose” since it’s done in that “good but not great” style. His artwork is around the A-/B+ level and the openings tend to go to the more A listy type animators (even if people tend to disagree what’s A-list material). He is above average but his art is still not top tier movie material like the previous animators were. Overall, he’s a good roundabout animator.

Key Episodes: 1st Episode (1) Don Krieg appears (22) Nami’s Flashback Part 2 (36) “Nami you’re my NAKAMA!” (43) Laboon’s backstory (63) First Little Garden episode (70) Final Little Garden Episode (77) Chopper’s Flashback Part 1 (84) Final Drum Island episode/ Chopper joins (91) Final Alabasta episode/Vivi’s farewell (129) Arrival on Angel Beach/ Conis appears (154) Gomu Gomu no Baka (183) Final Norland flashback (189) Beginning of the Davy Back Fight (208) Final Ocean’s Dream episode (224) Robin “leaves” the crew (240) Franky flashback Part 1 (248) “Nice change” (258) Zoro vs. T-Bone (261, the episode not the fight which was done by Naoki Tate) Gathering on the Enies Lobby roof (274) 2007 New Years Special (291) Spring Special (303) Going Merry saves the day (310) Birth of the Thousand Sunny (321) Arrival on Thriller Bark (338) Usopp is “negative” (356)

O-chan

Next Up! Takeo Ide

Crossword

@o-chan:

Question. Why do you insist on using "Heavy Point" Chopper when "Brain Point" is the common form to judge him (animation wise) by since it's kind of the mascot focus.

Well, my initial reasoning was that I thought that there were more differences between the styles in Heavy as he's more human-like. That's kind of come back to bite me in the ass as it's becoming harder to find screencaps of him in that form, but I'm kind of stuck at this point. Anyway, here's…

Hisada:

!

And as to the openings controversy, after studying Jungle P I'll concede defeat and say that it looks more Ishizuka than Hisada, though in my defense, there were several shots of Luffy and Zoro in Jungle P and 2008 We Are! that synched up pretty well, and their styles are similar…

I have no idea why those shots of Luffy and Sanji are so flippin' big, because I didn't do anything different when taking those. And yes, I took that cap of Chopper on purpose.

o-chan

@Crossword:

Well, my initial reasoning was that I thought that there were more differences between the styles in Heavy as he's more human-like. That's kind of come back to bite me in the ass as it's becoming harder to find screencaps of him in that form, but I'm kind of stuck at this point.

But the problem is it's harder to differentiate the different animators in his monster form compared to his cute form. Inoue and Tate tend to draw him in his current "stuffed animal" (bigger head, bigger eyes, look like something you want to cuddle) incarnation as Oda draws him while Koizumi tends to base his artwork off of the way he appeared first in the manga drawing him taller and making him fatter looking. The majority of the animators unfortunately take more after Koizumi's method.

O-chan

o-chan

Takeo Ide (6, 12, 25, 32, 71,87, 94, 100, 106, 115, 122, 132, 138, 144, 159, 167, 176, 182, 187, 203, 207, 213, 221, 230, 236, 247, 251, 256, 264, 270, 277+278 (w. Naoki Tate), 283, 288, 296, 300, 307, 314, 317 (w. Kenji Yokoyama, Masahiro Shimanuki, Katsumi Ishizuka), 322, 329, 337, 344, 351, 362, 373)

Takeo Ide originally won no special awards from me in how he drew the One Piece characters. His style was average at best but then again any animator who can make Usopp being hit with a baseball bat (115) look painful wins some kudos with me. It was not to say he was bad, similar to Hisada he was consistent and his characters stayed on model. The difference is that while Hisada’s signature is in the “roundness” of his designs Ide’s just seems to overall come off as not quite hitting the mark in his designs. His artwork did seem to gradually improve during the Jaya/Skypiea saga where his design begin to look less jagged and have smoother lines. Post the animation upgrade his style takes on the typical Oda/Inoue effect even though Chopper is still drawn in his “Koizumi” design. What really changed my opinion of him was one specific episode, we all know what it is, Luffy vs. Usopp (236) is not only a riveting episode but as an animation director it was an episode that “separated the men from the boys”. His choreography and animation direction in this specific episode is nothing less than perfect putting him more towards the A list group (Inoue, Tate, Koizumi) than anything he did previous to this episode. Still his animation remains rather stiff looking in future episodes but he does a commendable job.
Key Episodes: Ace’s introduction (94) Vivi’s flashback (100) Luffy vs. Crocodile Round 2 (122) First Jaya arc episode/Funimation’s first episode (144) “Never prayed to God”/ Zoro’s Tarzan (159) First appearance of the Going Merry’s spirit (167) Beginning of Luffy vs. Eneru (182) Beginning of Norland’s flashback (187) First Long Ring Island/ First HD Widescreen Broadcast (207) Luffy vs. Usopp (236) Going Merry “dies” (251) Beginning of Enies Lobby arc (264) Robin’s Flashback (277-278 w. Naoki Tate) Luffy’s father revelation (314) Franky joins (322) Brooke appears (337) Oz awakens (351) Luffy beats Oz (373)

O-chan

Next Up! Masayuki Takagi

o-chan

Masayuki Takagi (4, 10, 15, 21, 28, 35, 42, 50, 55, 62, 69, 76, 83, 90, 98, 103, 109, 118, 127, 133, 139, 145, 151, 157, 165, 173, 180, 186, 191, 198, 204, 210, 216, 222, 229, 235, 241, 246, 252, 257, 260, 265 (most of it), 269, 276, 287, 294, 301, 308, 316, 324, 332, 340, 346, 355, 363, 370)

Masayuki Takagi falls somewhere around B+/B- with his episodes. When it comes to the characters he’s on par with Hisada but not at the level of Ide/Inoue/Tate/Koizumi/Maniwa. In the early episodes a good indicator of his style is how he draws hair, he tends to give the characters slightly mussed up and angular hair. He tends to draw his female characters with smaller and rounder eyes and occasionally gives light shines in males pupils (he does this quite a bit with Shanks in episode 4 making the character really expressive). Going towards the Grand Line episodes his characters began to get very slender looking eventually resulting in the often criticized style of episode 62 which had a lot of exaggerated camera angles and seemed very experimental in a few places (Nami traumatized, Luffy’s reaction to his “favorite seat” being damaged). His artwork did seem to clean up by the time the end of Chopper’s arc came about. He seemed to adjust his character proportions and draw with cleaner lines. He keeps this standard throughout the series having a few standout moments (Luffy vs. Bellamy, 151).

Throughout Skypiea and G8 arcs his animation style is consistent and clean. During Davy Back Fight though his designs become very off model in many scenes, but he seems to get his artwork back together for the episode where Luffy and Usopp argue over the fate of the Going Merry (235). In this episode he really does a great job on showing the intensity in both Luffy and Usopp’s expressions and well as using lighting effectively to convey the dramatic atmosphere of the episode. After this his designs return to their usual inconsistent nature where some episodes look better than others and this continues through Thriller Bark. Overall I think Takagi’s art direction was stronger in the earlier portions of the series than the later. While far from bad he seems to be somewhere in the middle in terms of art quality.
Key Episodes: Luffy’s flashback (4) Sanji’s introduction (21) Nami’s flashback Part 1 (35) Laboon’s introduction (62) Koby and Helmeppo’s training (69) Cherry Blossoms (90) Tornado Tempo (118) Alabasta Epilogue (127) Bellamy gets pwnd (151) Strawhat crew reunited on Upper Yard (165) the Strawhats arrive at Water 7 (229) Luffy and Usopp falling out (235) Sogeking appears (257) Robin’s Flashback Part 2 (276) Buster Call (294) Sogeking’s Sniping saves Robin (301) Shanks meets Whitebeard (316) Coup de Burst (324) Strawhats meet Hogback (340) Nightmare Luffy (370)

O-chan

Next Up! Kenji Yokoyama

Crossword

So he's the one responsible for all of those times when the perspective was taken to THE XTREME MACCCKKKKSSS circa Jaya/Skypiea.

Anyway, today I bring work by the newest edition to the animation team. The rookie Masayuki Fujita.

Fujita:

!
And this time, just for you o-chan, I went the extra mile and took caps for both of Chopper's forms.
Hm, I guess I'll do Takagi next. I'm not going to cover anyone who isn't currently working on the show, so I'm nearly done.

o-chan

Hello,
After my last series of posting I was getting overwhelmed and I decided to take a bit of a break before posting the last of the "monster" animation directors. Luckily, I've covered all the animators who worked on a good number of episodes so after this one most of the animators from this point on would have worked on 12 episodes or less. I'll probably post the rest later in the week.

Kenji Yokoyama (3, 8, 13, 20, 27, 34, 39, 46, 54, 61, 68, 75, 82, 89, 96, 101, 107, 116, 123, 131, 137, 143, 150, 156, 164, 172, 179, 185, 194, 195, 201, 209, 217, 223, 234, 242, 250, 255, 262, 267, 272, 286, 299, 305, 313, 317 (w. Takeo Ide, Masahiro Shimanuki, Katsumi Ishida), 320, 327, 335, 343, 350, 354, 360, 368)

Kenji Yokoyama sticks out from all the animators I previously described. If there was one word I could use to describe his design style it’s “stiff”. In the early episodes this made very little difference as a lot of animators were still getting their grounding, but a good indicator of his style is the way he draws Zoro. He tends to give Zoro more narrow eyes and simplifies his design by giving Zoro a more rounded look. Which overall is how he tends to design his characters giving the animation a C quality to it. His design style seems to reflect Oda’s earlier exploits with the manga before he honed his craft at how to draw the characters. This is not to say that the animator is “bad” but his style is very average and changes very little over the course of the series. His character design style tends to be more plain and less eye catching compared to the other animation directors. Still his style is consistent and doesn’t suffer any glaring oddities outside of a more rounder style and less detailed look. Post the animation upgrade he didn’t really start to take advantage of the new budget until the Davy Back Fight episodes but outside of increased shading there’s nothing else that really changed at this point. In the Thriller Bark episodes his animation style has seemed to improve somewhat in terms of use of light and dark, and actual animation but his design style is still overall plain.

Key Episodes: End of the Morgan arc (3) End of the Buggy arc (8) Beginning of the Baratie arc (20) Buggy’s Side Story Part 1 (46) First Apis episode (54) Entering the Grand Line (61) Koby and Helmeppo’s side story (68) Kung Fu Dugons (96) Robin betrayed by Crocodile (123) Chopper vs. Gedatz (172) Robin’s Poneglyph’s revelation on Skypiea (194) Final Skypiea episode/last of the “classic” animation style (195) Appearance of Afro Luffy (217) Luffy, Zoro, Sanji, and Chopper pwn the Franky House (234) End of Franky’s flashback (250) Reveal of Gear 2nd (272) Kaku reveals his devil fruit (286) Lucci’s Flashback (305) Garp appears (313) All the Strawhats get bounties (320) Moria appears (343) Reminiscing about Laboon (354)

Next Up! Everybody Else…

O-chan

Captain Brooke

@Crossword:

And with perfect timing I come with examples of Tate's work.

Tate:

! http://img368.imageshack.us/img368/3693/ntluffyvd2.jpg http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/5105/ntzorovr3.jpg http://img525.imageshack.us/img525/3641/ntnamisq3.jpg
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/2968/ntusoppau7.jpg
http://img204.imageshack.us/img204/9486/ntsanjiph5.jpg
http://img120.imageshack.us/img120/5181/ntchopperix3.jpg
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/933/ntrobinuj0.jpg
http://img113.imageshack.us/img113/3651/ntfrankybj8.jpg
I'll try to get Ishizuka done tomorrow, and then I guess I'll move on to Ide, as I have ep. 300 on me.

Great job Crossword

I really don't like Tate's work, sometimes the characters look too F?&K up!

Crossword

I'm back, with caps from the latest episode, done by Masahiro Shimanuki. I'm nowhere near as familiar with him as I am with the more well-known animators, as he's only done three other episodes solo, but I didn't find his stuff bad. Wouldn't mind seeing more of him in the future. Also, no Heavy Point Chopper in this set; you'll have to make due with his disgustingly cute, heavily-marketable form. Appreciate this, because I had to sit through the Straw Hats' horribly low standards of humor multiple times to get these! (Not a fan of Brook being a loon. Sorry.)

**Shimanuki: **

!

Week after next we have a guest animation director, Yukiko Nakatani. According to ANN, she's worked on Binbou Shimai Monogatari, a slice-of-life show in 2006, and Hakujaden, which is a movie from 1958. Which would mean that she's around 70:blink:.

o-chan

@Crossword:

I'm back, with caps from the latest episode, done by Masahiro Shimanuki. I'm nowhere near as familiar with him as I am with the more well-known animators, as he's only done three other episodes solo, but I didn't find his stuff bad. Wouldn't mind seeing more of him in the future. Also, no Heavy Point Chopper in this set; you'll have to make due with his disgustingly cute, heavily-marketable form. Appreciate this, because I had to sit through the Straw Hats' horribly low standards of humor multiple times to get these! (Not a fan of Brook being a loon. Sorry.)

Shimanuki:

! http://img58.imageshack.us/img58/5430/msluffyzd5.jpg http://img401.imageshack.us/img401/8816/mszorock9.jpg http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/9126/msnamiwf1.jpg http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/3640/msusoppzz9.jpg http://img125.imageshack.us/img125/6/mssanjien2.jpg http://img119.imageshack.us/img119/6331/mschopperke0.jpg http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/6172/msrobinlw3.jpg http://img218.imageshack.us/img218/6516/msfrankyfw9.jpg
Week after next we have a guest animation director, Yukiko Nakatani. According to ANN, she's worked on Binbou Shimai Monogatari, a slice-of-life show in 2006, and Hakujaden, which is a movie from 1958. Which would mean that she's around 70:blink:.

I just finished the episode (and I'm rewatching 380 because I'm ADDICTED to Bink's Sake) and his work is pretty consistent with some Ide-ness to his style. So next week we're getting a vetran newbie from the caps I've seen his style looks nice but seriously…hot springs, a waterpark, and Foxy?!

I'll return soon to finish the rest of the animators I'm working on a few art projects right now before my college campus town closes down and I don't have access to Photoshop for a few weeks.

O-chan

XMURADX

If I'm right about the rota being 2 good, 2 bad…Then I think the guest supervisor is gonna be good.

Crossword

Actually, this week we have Ide (who's apparently begun to incorporate Tate-esque movement in his work), and then the week afterwards, the 27th, we have Nakatani.

XMURADX

I know…Indeed the preview looked promising with nice animation.
Ide's improvement is not because of him, but because there is new animators who are working under him. Even Inoue have new animators who are working under him and you saw the result of the improvement in his Thriller Bark episodes.
Plus the budget have increased.

Supervisors that saw major improvement in TB:
Eisaku Inoue = Great improvement, specially to animation and details (347)
Naoki Tate = Great improvement in animation (369).
Takeo Ide = Great improvement in animation, his art is still average (373).
Masayuki Takagi = Great improvement in animation (370)
Masayuki Fujita = Animation improvement, his art still sucks (372).
Kazuya Hisada = Animation improvement, his art degraded a bit in 374 but saw major animation improvement. (346)
Kenji Yokoyama = Little improvement to his animation. Art is still the same.

Naoki Murakami = his art is decent but his animation is still really bad.

So, TB Animation have really improved compared to previous arcs of One Piece, ignoring some ugly episodes at the middle, but they were not that important anyway.

What One Piece lacks at the moment is great art. The absence of Katsumi Ishizuka is really worrying me. Since He is the one who did the last 2 openings.

Crossword

All right, new animator. Yukiko Nakatani, who did 383. Her style is best described as a watered-down version of Tate mixed with Inoue's shading ~~and boobs~~. Tate was also a key animator for this episode, which explains why Luffy's Gigant Ax looked like it was 100% Tate.

Nakatani

!

[![]([color][size][font][url][img]http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/1341/ynrobinlc6.jpg[/img][/url][/font][/size][/color]
[color][size][font][url][img]http://img88.imageshack.us/img88/1672/ynfrankyem9.jpg[/img][/url][/font][/size][/color]
[url][img]http://img27.imageshack.us/img27/8871/ynbrook.jpg[/img][/url]
[size][size]
[color]There weren't any good shots of Chopper at all, so I had to make due with what I got. Same with Robin, though she came out better. There was another shot of Sanji that I wanted, but I couldn't find it, so I gave up and went with what I had.[/color]

[/size]

[/size])](http://imageshack.us)

Chibi Luffy

Wow you guys are all amazing. I have noticed a ton of variations within how the characters look. And it's always strange watching flashbacks. I like the way the art has evolved though. Especially Luffy.

Okay, so sometimes, I don't know specifically when, Robin is drawn so strangely. Like her forehead grew or the top of her head. That bothers me a lot.

I'd like learn more about this. Haha, I had no idea how animation worked in most anime and that the animators switch between episodes.

XMURADX

I hate it when people nitpick about Naoki Tate and say Fujita have better art and animation than him…

Looks like the majority of One Piece fans have no idea about animation.

Crossword

Okey doke, we had a new guy for 387, Shigefumi Shingaki. Will he stay, or is he just another one-shot wonder? I hope he sticks around. He wasn't bad and had some good expressions. He used some noticeably jagged lines, and Luffy and Usopp looked a bit scrawny without their shirts at times.

Anyway, there weren't any good shots of mini-Chopper, so there's just Heavy Point in here. He looked like a plush toy though. More than usual.

Shingaki:

!

Next week we have Takagi, and I haven't taken any caps from him yet, so I guess he'll be next. Then I get a nice break~

Psycho_Kenshiro

I have a question about One Piece art/animation quality in general.

I have up to episode 339 from various groups, ending with VegaPunk. It all looks good.

Then, starting with 340 I've watched subs from Instantz and Nakama. I notice starting with 340 the lines all look much thinner, and less smooth. Everything looks a bit more "high contrast" in general.

I've currently downloaded up to around 370, and I've noticed from both of those groups that this somewhat diminished quality is still there, with the thinner odd looking lines. It's sort of like the lines before looked smooth, like they were on the "anti-aliased" setting in Photoshop. Now they look jagged, the lines looking like they are not anti-aliased, so to speak.

Anyone know if this is a problem with the raw files the groups are using, or if this is just a change that happened with the art between episode 339 and 340?

It's just interesting that this change in art quality also coincided with a change in sub group.

Thanks.

Goten2255

i had no idea on so many teams and head animators worked on each epsiode wow thats really awesome.

anyways yeah i noticed that One Piece once it went to HD it became more brighter and more usage of colors.

i also have to wonder when does this change happens from the regular style to the wonderful colorful bright almost movie quality HD and was this a good change or not?

also was this also a change because of Oda's art style has improved i heard something about that?

i am sorry for the many questions but this impressed me.

Crossword

Anyone know if this is a problem with the raw files the groups are using, or if this is just a change that happened with the art between episode 339 and 340?

It's just interesting that this change in art quality also coincided with a change in sub group.

Hm, if there's a contrast difference, I'm going to guess it has to do with the RAW used. While I'm not familiar with the technical terminology, I think I get what you mean about the jagged lines. I'm going to guess that it's because Vegapunk uses the HDTV quality RAWs, while Nakama Fansubs and Instantz used the regular HQ RAWs. We usually get multiple RAWs each week, some better than others. I suppose they just took the first decent-looking one availible.

I'm sorry if this doesn't help or is confusing. This isn't my area of expertise.

On the art front though, I can answer without trouble. 339 was done by Masayuki Fujita, while 340 was done by Masayuki Tagaki (Whom I have yet to add here…), and Tagaki is the stronger of the two. Though really, the beginning of Thriller Bark wasn't drawn all that well all across the board, if I recall.

Psycho_Kenshiro

It's kind of subtle, but here's a comparison, episode 339 on the left and episode 340 on the right. Looking at the lines on Nami's nose for example, much more jagged in 340 and beyond, for whatever reason.

Crossword

Okay, that definitely looks like differences in RAW quality to me.

Psycho_Kenshiro

Someday there'll be a giant Treasure Chest boxset of the entire series, and I'll buy it.

goty

Yeah, 340 was definitely better looking than 339. There's obviously some quality issues in the 2nd pic. It's not the encode, but probably due to different codecs.

Psycho_Kenshiro

They both use the H264 codec, and are 1280x720. 339 definitely looks a lot better than 340 though.

I hope if Vegapunk catches up, they use their magic to make these episodes look as good.

goty

@Psycho_Kenshin:

They both use the H264 codec, and are 1280x720. 339 definitely looks a lot better than 340 though.

I hope if Vegapunk catches up, they use their magic to make these episodes look as good.

This is how subbed 340 looks here:

!

and raw pics by Crossbones

!

Both art and animation are easily better than on 339, there's not even comparison really. Judging by the pic you posted, the issue could be on your end.

Psycho_Kenshiro

I'm just comparing the release of 339 from Vegapunk to the release of 340 by Instantz.

The implication I'm thinking here is that Instantz uses worse RAW files than Vegapunk does, or they just don't re-encode them as well.

Since all of the groups use the H264 codec for their HD releases, there's no way my personal configuration would make one group's releases look better than the others. The problem is not on my end. I don't have a problem, honest.

Also, I blew up the pictures in that comparison to make the jaggy effect on the nose in 340 that I was talking about more noticeable, which is also how they'd look fullscreen on my monitor. Here's a straight up comparison, it's subtle I know, but the difference is there:

! 339 from Vegapunk

! 340 by Instantz

I'm not saying the new releases are terrible or anything, but the thin lines just don't look as good as they do in Vegapunk's releases for whatever reason.

XMURADX

396: Tate (A)
397: Takagi (B)
398: Fujita (D)
399: Shimanuki (C)
400: Yokoyama (C)

Back to average and bad animation…Just right when the action starts. -_-

Credits to Geg.

Crossword

Eh, at least I can get my caps for Takagi this time around. I'm still holding out for Fujita to pull out something as good as 372 again, but it is nice that Shimanuki is finally being allowed to do solo work. Hopefully he'll continue to improve as time goes on.

Ah, Sabaody has been doing pretty well as far as animation goes recently, so I hope the trend continues. Hopefully the animators got some more cash to work with seeing as One Piece is part of Dream 9 now.

TLC

@Crossword:

Eh, at least I can get my caps for Takagi this time around. I'm still holding out for Fujita to pull out something as good as 372 again, but it is nice that Shimanuki is finally being allowed to do solo work. Hopefully he'll continue to improve as time goes on.

Ah, Sabaody has been doing pretty well as far as animation goes recently, so I hope the trend continues. Hopefully the animators got some more cash to work with seeing as One Piece is part of Dream 9 now.

What's Dream 9 and how would being part of it give One Piece more cash?O_o

Crossword

Dream 9 is the name of the Dragonball Kai/One Piece programming block. You can see the logo during the One Piece eyecatches in 395. Since Dragonball is so famous in Japan I wouldn't be surprised if the ratings get a nice bump and Toei eventually pumps more money into the show. It'll be interesting to see what the ratings for this week were.

XMURADX

I'm just worried about Fujita…I really hope all of them get higher budget than usual.
Anyway, I'm hoping for Naoki Tate to handle two chapters as the title suggests, cause chapter 503 have epic scene at the end.
And Chapter 504 and 505 are filled with action, makes me wonder if Takagi will also handle 2 chapters, since most of the content of these two chapters can fit in a few minutes of animation, and not to forget less dialogue.

About the ratings...Dragonball beat OP by a couple of points taking the 4th spot with 11.3. OP got the 5th spot with 9.9.

Kuminator

Well first off I say Inoue is the best - Not only does he give the women massive tits,
but he adds a shiny quality which I really like.

Secondly, Inoue is the best at matching Oda's style.

Also I don't see why everyone hated Movie 8's Animation.
Movie 8 had the Background detail that went into Movie 6 (Which apparently everyone now loves), and in some scenes it even had Movie 6's Paper-esque animation (Which everyone apparently loves now)

Movie 8 also had Inoue animation in there two & was nice & 3D in some scenes, so I don't see why everyone complained about Movie 8, It had Movie 6 & Inoue Animation combined with 3D shots & yet some people still complained at it, Man,

Maybe it's more like they hated the fact that it was a retelling so they trashed the Animation to make up for it them not getting the new plot that they wanted …

Crossword

All right, here's my beef with Movie 8's art.

First off, it had this very weird bipolar quality to it. One moment, things would look great, and the next, like utter garbage. Watch the scene where Luffy tells Crocodile that Yuba will never succumb to the sands, or the entirety of the 4 fight. The only characters that really had any consistency were the Alabasta ones such as Crocodile, Vivi, Chaka, Koza, etc. The Straw Hats looked awful half the time.

The backgrounds. The CG desert looked cheap enough, but who on earth was in charge of the sky? It was a flat dark blue color without any clouds or anything to it. It looked as if they had simply forgotten to render anything in it.

Third, and most importantly of all, INOUE CAN DO MUCH, MUCH BETTER! It should be shameful that episodes 312 and 377, produced on a much smaller budget than a movie, looked superior to Movie 8 in every way. Better detail, consistancy, everything. Movie 7, boobs and Legoman Zoro aside, was very fun to look at and contained some very beautiful images like the moss cave and the temple atop the turtle's shell. To go from that to crappy CG deserts and empty bluescreen skies is just inexcusable. Now, that's not to say Movie 8 didn't have any good stuff, like Mr. 2's runny mascara and Storm was still executed wonderfully, but the bad so outweighed the good, and that on top of a horribly paced beginning and an overall mediorce adaptation is just a kick to the groin.

LordMelkor

Who drew the sequence of Luffy/Zoro vs. the Pacifista in the most recent intro? I thought that looked really nice– but then again it all was moving very fast.

Psycho_Kenshiro

I really enjoyed the animation and art in movie 8. My only complaints would be with the pacing/adaptation, I do like the movie though.

Crossword

Who drew the sequence of Luffy/Zoro vs. the Pacifista in the most recent intro? I thought that looked really nice– but then again it all was moving very fast.

For now I'm leaning towards a cleaned up Yukiko Nakatani. She's done 384 and 394 so far, and her style has changed a fair bit in between (probably in part due to Tate doing some key animation and inbetweening on 384, not to mention that episode using thinner lines and a seemingly different coloring style). Zoro at 0:26, Sanji at 0:39, Law at 1:21, and Luffy at 2:02 look rather Nakatani-ish to me with their jawlines and such, and the shading style matches up fairly closely, though I'm not ready to rule out someone else entirely new. It's certainly not Ishizuka, who's been doing them since Kokoro no Chizu, at any rate.

goty

Yeah, Nakatani is the safest bet, although some scenes are quite different from her (or his?) style. For instance, when Zoro and Sanji run towards the Pacifista, Zoro's face looks more like Inoue's than Nakatani's. It's like there's a combination of styles all over the opening sequence.
It's also curious how some people are mixing Sanji with Luffy in this scene, heh. Luffy doesn't do his move until the Px-4 deflects Zoro and Sanji.

shinpanman

Parts of the opening looked very Ide to me. Could be Nakatani I suppose, but I feel like she follows Oda a little more closely and has a more sophisticated style.

Well first off I say Inoue is the best - Not only does he give the women massive tits,
but he adds a shiny quality which I really like.

Secondly, Inoue is the best at matching Oda's style.

I'm always saying this but, again, I disagree. Early on, Inoue followed Oda very precisely with the only noticeable difference being more detail in the eyes, but more recently and especially since movie 8, his style has irked me. His facial proportions and, obviously, body proportions are significantly off model in a way that bothers me more than the other animators for some reason. I think he tries to apply too much detail and "realism" to a style that is extremely cartoony and best suited for 2 dimensions. And the shiny quality is probably my biggest gripe of all. For an anime like One Piece where the main cast of characters have realtively simple clothes and facial features, that level of shading and highlighting is just pointless and garish. There's not enough to work with so he really stretches the bounds of what should be highlighted, giving the characters a very plastic-y look, not to mention making it look a lot more like other generic anime styles out there.

I'm favoring Tate and Nakatani right now because they keep some very subtle nuances of Oda's style while adapting it to create fluid movements in animation.

XMURADX

The pacifista sequence is Inoue.
Luffy's fight in ID is Takeo Ide.
The supernovas still shots is Naoki Tate or Nakatani.

BTW, I'll see if I can find info about who did the opening.

Crossword

Hm, I suppose Zoro does look a bit Inoue in the beginning, but Luffy doesn't really look Inoue at all to me there though. Hm. I think Tate can definitely be ruled out, since his style is visible from a mile away, even with some diluting.

I dunno, now I'm leaning more towards someone completely new whom we haven't seen do an episode yet, maybe whoever took Ishizuka's place, since he used to do the complete openings and hasn't done an episode in a year. This is tough!

shinpanman

That's weird, I don't really see any Inoue in it anywhere. The beginning shots (ship shots and Pacifista fight) are hard to place, maybe Ide or Hisada, I get those two confused a lot. The freeze shots look like Yokoyama as weird as that sounds, especially in Nami's case. Surfing scene, again, Ide or Hisada. I agree that the Supernovas look pretty Nakatani. The rest looks like a mix of Nakatani and Ide. Not spotting any Inoue or Tate.

Crossword

Okay, after watching it again, NOW I'm starting to lean towards the whole thing being done by Ide. The art is pretty consistent stylistically (bar the palette of the Pacifista fight), and Nami, Zoro, and Sanji match up pretty closely to him at multiple points, plus we all know that Tate has been rubbing off on him lately, so I don't think it's that unlikely.

XMURADX

That's not how Zoro is drawn by Ide. The whole style feels new to me too, probably it's supervised by someone new. but the specific action scenes are not done by him.

Unless the animator who is working under Inoue (377-Shishi Sonson), and the new animator under Ide (382- First 5 minutes of filler) are the definitely the ones used to animate the action scenes.
There is more than one animator working under each supervisor, the supervisor's job is to keep the style of all the animators consistent through out the whole episode.

In openings, they bring different animators to work on it, it's not done by the same person.

Darkstorm

Indeed. It's some of the most fluid I've seen.

Darkstorm

That's weird. I just posted the above, but somehow it became post #97. X_X

–edit

Hmm, crossword too. Some sort of forum error I guess.

Crossword

Art and animation, two different things. The art can be mediocre but the animation can be great, as my experience with the work of animation director Masayuki Nomoto attests. The art can be decent but the animation can suck, like the case of Yukari Kobayashi of One Piece episode 302, where I remember the art as being largely passable but the animation blowing huge chunks.

Tate's style works because the less detail and lines allows for far more movement, expression, and fluidity. It's stylistic suck, if you want to put it in those terms. I will admit when he first started evolving his style around G8 into what it is today it did look off because the fluidity wasn't really there yet, and the other artists were still closely following Koizumi's designs (though we seem to be gradually moving away from them at present) but when we got to the Fukuro fight he started to get things together, and we have the unique, funky artstyle that we have today.

EDIT: Uh, what the fuck just happened?

shinpanman

Yeah, no offense Kuminator, but I feel it's a very western point of view to think of more detailed art as better drawn than simpler, more streamlined styles. In Japan, the most revered animation studios often use the loosest and most deceptively simple styles, take Ghibli or Gainax for example. It's the movements and subtle aspects of line quality that really give those characters a living quality, and I personally feel that Tate excels at that. Also, I'm not sure if I'm just crazy or something but I feel that he follows Oda's style (the style of the manga) more closely than the majority of the animators who tend to stick more to Koizumi's designs (not to knock Koizumi, he's fantastic). I swear, some of his frames look like Oda drew them himself. The only big difference I notice is the hands and sometimes the posture of the characters.