Reviewing Dragon Ball Z's Best & Worst Animated Episode
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- čas přidán 22. 06. 2024
- Dragon Ball Z had a lot of great-looking episodes and its fair share of below-average ones, but what was its best and worst one? Well, join me today as I deliver the verdict in today's video.
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ssj2 goku vs kid boo gets me every time. the effects, the environmental feedback, the colours, and the shading and expressions on the characters. when they get hit hard they REALLY show it on their face
Keisuke Masunaga + Tadayoshi Yamamuro at their prime, the peak of animation
Yeah, the the art was beautiful, even as a kid, I noticed the drastic change, compared to the previous episode. I always loved that fight, more than the SSJ3 one, I think because it felt more grounded with better cheography, while the SSJ3, felt like your more traditional DBZ fight, not making that a negative.
Same! It felt like they were pulling all the stops - always dialed me in!
Also one of the coolest dokkan units now
yup
Fun fact: Goku SS2 vs Kid bu is anime exclusive, in manga Goku went SS3 straight against Kid Buu while he was sleeping
I think there are times when the anime exclusive content enriches the experience of the story. That SSJ2 Goku VS Kid Buu scene is a positive example in my opinion.
@The Examiner Ehh, not here. The fight was awesome, but I felt that it made SSJ3 pointless, sense he was already matching him in SSJ2. I thought Buu should've been above that. They also had that line that Kid Buu was the strongest Buu, which made it more confusing, that SSJ2 was holding it's own, sense Buuhan was stronger than SSJ3, confusing the fans on who's the strongest Buu also.
@@j04370859 yes
@@j04370859 Idk, when I was first watching it, for me it always seemed kinda clear that Buu was still holding back and playing around just like Freeza or any villain for that matter. The guy completely ignored Goku when he first went ssj2 and kept beating his chest as if nothing happened after being kicked and kneed in the head, so it was kinda clear that even if Goku could get some hits in, it wasn't a powerful enough form to actually defeat Buu.
Can't disagree though with the statement about the strongest Buu.
and it was brilliant
What I like about Z's progressing art is that you can actually notice how much Goku has grown up. In the Buu arc he genuinely feels like an adult, a man, a father, an experienced fighter with tons of charisma.
YESSSS! That is exactly the feel I get from goku on the buu arch. He acts like a proper adult (for the most part). Not the stupid man child they decided to turn him on db super.
@@thirteen8582 yeah, notice that in Super EVERYONE seems younger, dumber or just stayed the same, like Goten and Trunks.
@@turbotrup96 it’s not that bad in DBS. I liked most the characters in DBS. DBS biggest issue is the clear lack of time they had to work on it. Cause it has these moments of genuine greatness.
@@sun332s7 Every potentially good moment in Super was destroyed with dumb writing, sooner or later, yes, but it's not like Toriyama can write much better these days, himself, either. Have you been following the Manga? It's not great by any means. It has some interesting moments, but they're overshadowed by recycled plot and fight choreography, bad power scaling, over the top plot armor (you know shit's bad when a raging SSB+ level villain is unable to KO or kill a Base Vegeta or Goku), bad pacing, etc.
And I'm not a big fan of characters' personalities there either.
As far as we've seen NOBODY working on this franchise is competent enough to satisfy the actual fans, by FAR.
@@turbotrup96 I disagree the granolah arc is one of the best in the franchise we’re seeing goku actually use most of the moves in his arsenal and them introducing characters that can bypass MUI is great stops making the manga more predictable and the fight itself goin on is crazy as hell it’s lit
Pretty much the whole fight with Kid Buu looked great. The consistency got a lot better in the Buu saga.
Less studio last house = more consistency
The irony of that statement is that the storytelling by Toriyama got less consistent in Buu Saga, funnily enough.
@@mooganify it was good just worse then the other ones
@@mooganifyIn recent years I’ve wondered wtf happened to South Supreme Kai, since Buff Buu just turned into Kid Buu without him being released. Shin’s entire role and plan for finding Babidi are idiotic in hindsight. The guy should be clowned worse than Yamcha for letting Frieza’s family commit centuries of genocide while having the power to stop it immediately. Destroyers in DBS seem like a subtle retcon for Supreme Kais being fighters at all
Wait, one of the best fights in the entire franchise was filler?! Damn, it's a shame we don't get more of them.
Yes, in the manga, Goku went straight to SSJ3.
Fuck yeah! We need more filler!
Are you crazy? The fillers were making the show unwatchable. It was taking 10 years to throw one punch. Thank God in super they focus mainly on the story and don’t branch out too much.
@@dn22pkkdd476 woah, calm down tiger
@@MS-dc2tt Dude, I can just tell that you're trying to get people riled up lol
I used watch the kid buu fight through the vhs tape. It’s crazy how much they created when the manga didn’t dive too much into the fighting visuals. Great work!
Yeah man the staff did an excellent job!
Its crazy to me that you know every animator/studio involved. All these years I had no idea so much of one episode has so many hands involved
Stupid kid me thought Akira painted everything 😅
Watching this as a kid it didn’t matter how bad the animations were, it was amazing, lol.
Same lol
It was hand drawn
z kai is better
Because they really weren’t that bad. I actually still like them. Compared to the really bad animation and art of many episodes of super this don’t seem bad at all.
@@victorgallegos9858 That's nostalgia talking. Super hands down has far better animation than Z.
Episode 279 is definitely one of the best-looking episodes of the Majin Buu Arc/Kid Buu Saga. I honestly love the smirk from Goku to Vegeta and the thumbs up too!!
Goku and Vegeta will be featured in textbooks many years from now. It’s only inevitable 📚
Y'all remember how awful the beginning of the Vegeta vs Perfect Cell fight looked?
Masayuki uchiyama ruined it
They looked like steroid egplants
Ebisawa's might not look the best, but it always seems to make me smile😅... But man, masunaga is a beast. Awesome video man
Ebisawa often gets good animation for some reason.
I love this channel cause of breakdowns like this , the attention to detail and deep dives into covering these topics. I leave with so much and it's extremely fascinating to finally have answers to questions like "why's Goku's earlobe so big but just in like these 2 episodes?". Keep up the great work man, your videos are awesome!!
I like that Ebisawa did minimum to no corrections to Kan'no's work. It makes it easier to identify the animator's art. Plus Kanno was the superior artist so it made sense to not worsen it. DB should never have less than four animators per episode. The proper corrections to the art and animation can be made if needed since the proper amount of staff would be present and the main animators wouldn't have to rush with their drawings. Studio should've had more than two animators.
It's why I prefer Ebisawa over Uchiyama when it comes to supervision, at least he let the animators under him shine more.
@@forgottenrelics1197 I learned about that from your Ebisawa vs Uchiyama video. His corrections did get stronger as the series went on. As I was watching his GT episodes; I could barely identify Ohara's work. It was practically non-existent! I thought Uchiyama did the entire Studio Last House episodes by himself. I wish Shida stayed with the studio and Uchiyama backed off of him and Ohara.
God I feel so bad for the staff near the end of the freeza arc. They were clearly absolutely SWAMPED in work.
If I recall correctly, when the namek storyline in the anime was being produced toei decided to start making 2 dragon ball z movies a year instead of just 1. And along with the anime being closer to the manga release than ever the freeza fight was when the production suffered the most in the entire series and half of the episodes were pretty much filler. Like after the ebisawa episode we got an episode from one of the better studios studio junio and even with key animation from names like takeo ide and masaki sato the episode just looks mediocre.
Spot on dude, I completely forgot about the increase of movies, and yeah that Studio Junio ep was pretty stock.
I think the Frieza fight was one of the best animated!
@@jakylangabriel1307 it has its moments, but most of the episodes aren’t even them fighting. There’s maybe 20 minutes of honest good fighting amongst 20 episodes.
@@fitzhugh7463 That's why I prefer the Cell fight: unlike the battle with Goku and Frieza where the two of them just do the same stuff over and over again until the ssj transformation (which is like 20-30 episodes), the Cell games were constantly introducing new things and evolving the fight, like Goku vs Cell leading into Gohan stepping in, the Cell juniors and 16 self-destructing causing the ssj2 transformation, and then the end with everyone jumping Cell at the end. IMO, they really just needed to cut the Frieza fight in half, just like Trunks did.
Dumb question maybe, but how do you know which studios/animators worked on given scenes?
the limited animation moments make me think of retro video games after a while
10:15 “…And speaking of flat, there’s the storyboard.” GODDAMNNNNN
This art style is extremely distinct, it inspired an entire generation. There’s something about DBS animation that feels way more… generic? All the round shapes and super bright colors make it feel like a cartoon instead of an anime. Somethings just a bit off nowadays and it’s heartbreaking in a way to know we might never see this particular art in the franchise again. The only thing so far in DBS to kinda come close to this were fights like Goku and vegeta vs Jiren.
for me I don't really like how saturated the colors and how shiny everything is
18 minutes 👏🏽! I am not lying or anything but your knowledge about animation is amazing favorite animation breakdown channel
He's a Growing Legend. Lots of time and Effort. This is a W Channel right here 💯💯💯
Yep the rare 18 minute vid 👀
This is my favorite animation channel, can’t wait for you to really blow up!
The breakdown is awesome, it's sad that studio cockpit never came back on dragon ball after z
Dude the buu vs goku ssj2 fight was sooo well animated ! 🔥
That ish with Frieza holding a pose while only moving his leg is HILARIOUS.
I’m going to have it stop the video so I don’t spit out my food or cough up a lung. 😂
This is a beautiful video. The aesthetics of the background as well as the identification of the animators scene by scene were so great. As an animation student and content creator this was a great study on all levels.
Buu Saga art style was/still is my favorite.
Hell even for the English Dub they came together during that aswell. Voice actors got comfortable by then and that Team Faulconer SSJ3 theme tho 👌
Really loved the background music. Other wise real good video and really enjoy your commentary and explanations.
Really loved this kind of video, wouldnt complain to see more like it.
I kinda love when people act like DBZ is this holy grail when there was a lot episode that did look like shit.
I'm always impressed at how you and other folks who analyze anime episodes/fights are able to pinpoint which artists worked on which scenes. It speaks either to how diligently the anime production teams document their work, or to how thoroughly you research for these analyses.
Another personal favorite of mines was goku vs majin vegeta fight, along with the build up to it at the tournament. Top tier artwork and animation
Yessa
Honestly, the first episode didn’t even seem that bad. Goes to show how high quality dbz is even at its worst.
I don't think that was the worst looking episode. For me, it's probably the first episode of the Perfect Cell vs Vegeta fight.
Lol. That fist episode was terrible. It was a poorly drawn slide show.
Ebisawa's art might not be the best, but his supervisor work are no less entertaining to watch by how odd it is. Masunaga"s work is absolutely stellar with how he conveys the motion of Kid Buu vs Goku's fight.
Wow, this content is amazing. I always wondered why some episodes look poorly animated. Trunks's second episode was a prime example.
It was even more noticeable because the episode prior was one of the best animated especially with the SSJ transformation, possibly the best looking one out of them all
@@shadowpersonoftheunknown6245 to be honest, Nakatsuru as a supervisor is mostly stock poses and expressions, and pretty heavy on corrections too. He does have a far better style than Ebisawa, but I wouldn't say the animation is the strong point of the episode, but rather the art style.
L Take @@BladeXRG
I loved the action in 279, easily my favorite episode. And the fact you picked it makes me happy
I always thought the beat animated episode, was the one where Goku faced off against Cell. It's really amazing.
You have to watch Goku vs Janemba at 60 fps
@@HelloSirHowCanIScamYouToday That's a movie, it's obvious the animation quality is going to be far better than any episode
@@HelloSirHowCanIScamYouToday bruh thats literally a movie 💀💀
@@HelloSirHowCanIScamYouToday Why would you ruin animation with motion interpolation?
179 is definitely up there.
This video is really making me love the Majin Boo arc as most of the animators have matured or have some great correcting to make fights and reactions more dynamic!
I really do your enjoy your videos of these behind the scene animation and art-style breakdown vids. Is possible in the future that you’ll do these same breakdowns vids with other anime titles?
Thanks and I would like to, but the channels DB focused so I'm kinda hesitant to randomly switch it up haha
@@forgottenrelics1197 Understandable. Thanks you for taking the time to answer.😄
Relic uploads :🙂
The video is a animation breakdown:😄
The video is 16+ minutes long 😁
It has Ebisawa in it: 😎
Ey been a while since I saw one of your videos. As a animation students your channel is fun yo watch keep em up
Thank you!
Honestly the kicking of goku at 5:09 is super nostalgic for me because it reminds me of 90s animation and even at the time I thought it was cool (probably because it seemed like animation even I could pull off lol)
You would do this style of analysis on different anime! This would be so cool to see on more recent shows!
This is why I always liked the Buu saga. It had some of the best animation & key framing of the whole series. I used to record vhs tapes of these last dbz episodes and play Hoobastank music over it to sync up with the action lol. That was before I knew about AMVs lol.
awesome Breakdown once again!
Really love your work on braking down dragon ball animation, im making a drawing for you as I type this
Awesome, keen to see it :)
Though some studio's had struggles with Akira T. style changing, most of the choreography was still good even in the less visual appealing episodes, the fight scene was mostly good. Piccolo vs 17 was mostly the 'cheaper studio' animating the episode but the choreograhy was one of the best.
I would like if you do part 2,3 and so on, great vid.
Yeah, the worst looking episode, of Z, GT and Super, all have Frieza in it 😂
A third of GT episodes looked like sheit. The entire Dragons Arc looked like it was running out of budget, even the storyline was milketoast.
This is the "best" review of the worst episode. Awesome work!
My small nitpick: its sad buu saga opening visual in dbz is not updated when buu is introduced.
Yeah I guess it woulda been kinda cool to have Buu in there
been watching this channel for awhile and just barely noticed i wasnt subbed!
I enjoy these animation breakdowns.
It's all subjective, but I'd say episode 161 (the start of Vegeta vs Perfect Cell) is far, FAR worse than 89 in terms of overall animation, consistency with Toriyama's artwork, etc.
In terms of artwork it's definitely on par, although in terms of actual animation, there's some nice stuff by Ohara at least. This episode on the other hand had really nothing in that department.
Would be cool if you also did DBZ's Best Storyboarded episode and worst, or DBZ's Best Directed Episode and Worst. You could also do it with the other parts of DB like OG, GT or Super. Maybe the movies too, Metal Cooler has to be the most disastrous movie but I wonder what the best movie is, IMO Movie 13 and Path to Power were very good in terms of direction and storyboard.
disastrous is bio broly, shit ass movie
Are you serious? Path to power is the worst thing besides dragon ball evolution, it's just dragon ball first episodes with the horrible dragon ball gt soundtrack and animation plus terrible changes to the story.
Makes me realize just how much music and sound effects really make a few simple frames come to life
I feel like there were quite a lot of Frieza Saga episodes that had decent to good animation and art direction, but for some reason, there is a noticeable drop in quality that kicks in from around episode 79 to episode 105 or 106.
Basically the moment Frieza enters his second form, to the entirety of the fight against Frieza, to the moment Namek Explodes, the animation quality looks like it declines considerably and it doesn't really improve until a few episodes into the Garlic Jr Saga.
Actually, almost all of SSJ Goku vs freeza was beautifully animated.
I really like your animation commentary, how are you able to determine what artist is drawing and when? Interview, dizenchu, released storyboard notes? Anyways if you or anyone could fill me in I would appreciate it
A great analysis, thank you!
My fave is 120, but more because of design and order of events choices, rather than actual dynamic animation. Trunks' SSJ transformation is very satisfying.
This is a great video my guy
Man I love all the episodes of Studio Cockpit. I still remember how jaw-dropping this was when I watched it as a kid. This ep and Shinchiro Watanabe from Macross Plus inspired my drawing style.
That Goku drawing that appears in the background at 11:16 looks amazing
The 35 seconds of staring was amazing, I remember as a kid wondering what they were thinking while staring at each other, it gave episodes something special
I'd love to see this done for Super as well since that series had its ups and downs for animation
yeah would be really interesting to see why some episodes looked horrid and some looked phenomenal
Worst were probably either 24 or 67 because production crashed again during those episodes. 33 was also pretty bad. The most animated episode was 130.
Yeah it’s mostly caused by the art style tbh.
@@aidanshowers8366 exactly
3:35 it's because the backflip gives goku invincibility frames.
Has anyone decided to reverse the hue on a DVD or Blu-ray player to -3 and changing a standard TV hue/tint from 50 to 35 along with the natural colour setting of a TV from 50 to 40 and tried the DBZ Kai Final Chapters equivalent of time part 11:17 of their HD episode to see how gorgeous it looks in 1080p?
They really hit it out of the park for the Buu Saga in the anime considering how mid the manga was compared to previous arcs, SS2 Goku vs. Majin Vegeta didn't even last a full chapter and the art & paneling left much to be desired.
Agreed, there was so much that the Buu Saga anime art improved, compared to the manga. Gohan vs Super Buu was the best example and the episode when Vegeta killed the people at the Tournament, when you look at that shots of SSJ Goku.
I’m gonna see that back flipping loop in my nightmares
I wouldn't be surprised if I did, considering how many times I had to when making this video lol
279 happens to be one of my favorite episodes so now I know why.
In my opinion, the best looking episode of Z that WASN'T fight-based is 229 "Vegeta's Pride" when Majin Vegeta destroys part of the Stadium. That entire episode is writhing in tension and ultimate rivalry. The buildup to the legendary rematch is unmatched, and the animation and drawing style is downright GORGEOUS. I recently drew a Majin Vegeta that reflects this style, on my website.
Oh yeah, that episode looked beautiful.
In my opinion, the episode “No More Rules” which features Goku vs Cell was the best animated episode. The fight is full of adrenaline and still feels sooo fluid.
I didn't know about the 1000 drawings to be a key animator.
That ontop of the fact they get paid by the drawing is pretty impressive.
agree the zooming in and out in the freeza saga is hilarious whenever they do it(vegeta stealing the dragonballs was the best time they did it)
When a filler episode has the best animation in DBZ, lol (another filler episode whit great animation was when Goku and Piccolo learned to drive).
But I think DBZ episode 179 (matsunaga was the animation director) could have been the best action episode from DBZ, but so many dialogues made that episode half great.
Kinda ironic haha and yeah that was a Seigasha ep which were one of the best Studios next to Cockpit. Definitely agree with 179 as well 😅
Nah goku looked like a giant and had a huge neck not saying it’s bad I seen better
@@iamyourdaddythereisnodenyi2669 He's referring to the animation itself, not the artwork
@@forgottenrelics1197 understandable but is still believe that there is much better work also thanks for commenting I don enjoy your work and how you don’t shit on dragon ball supers animation and give fair criticism so I will subscribe
@@iamyourdaddythereisnodenyi2669 That's fair enough dude and I just remembered that Goku did look pretty big at times in the driving episode (Seigasha), did you mean that one or the Cockpit one? And thanks for the sub!
That SSJ1 Goku Douga at 36 seconds in is absolutely fantastic.
Now I understand why SSJ2 Goku VS Kid Buu was my favorite fight
One of the best episodes in the Buu Saga in terms of fight animation.
bro ur so underrated, you need to try to collab with someone bigger to get ur name out there
I did a collab with Geekdom, dunno when the video will drop tho haha
I'm not that much into Dragon Ball animation, so a lot of the names I don't recognize, but I closely followed the animation of Naruto and Pokemon, also some One Piece and Precure and I always like when Masaaki iwane gets mentioned - he was one of my favorite Pokemon animators, especially pre-XY, where we didnt have all those big names on the series yet and you could always easily recognize his style by how detailed he drew the artwork for the characters, how 3 dimensional the action looked with him not being scared of adding difficult camera angles, and how recognizable his effects are with the timing and increased framerate.
0:08 ayo freezie pops arching that BACK 😩
Still amazed how it can be possible to recognize both styles directly as Goku. How do they do that?
You should make more of these kinds of videos
I would say there’s worse animated episodes.
The one after cell becomes perfect and messes with vegeta was awful.
The ones afterwards with the final flash was beautifully drawn though.
the fight with kid buu is Goku at his absolute chaddest, thanks to Cockpit
279 so true!!! So smooth!!!!!
I remember watching that Goku vs. Freezer episode as a kid but not being able to pay attention to its bad animation. It was amazing for me at that moment.
Would like to see this again but with original DB and Super
7:29 Yeah to me that’s supposed to represent her riding across the surface of the water… but as you pointed out, it dies look to show water spray backwards before she’s completely off land.
I love the art style in this arc it looks so good lol
When I was a kid I always preferred the sharper art style that became dominant in the cell saga and beyond but I lately find myself preferring the softer look of the older stuff, and preferring Dragon Ball over DBZ for this and other reasons.
Yeah this repeated movements did make me sometimes really maa when i was young! And the timefiller scenes too... dragonball did feel many times as if it would stay still in some episodes,but thats propably how youll feel when you see to many timefiller scenes in a short amount of time😑
That fight with kid buu in the anime is cemented in my brain for the rest of my life..the animation was so peak just the way goku is draw n portrayed makes him feel like a true badass hero✊😮💨
Didn’t know my favorite fight in dragon ball z was filler
just saved my sunday :)
Filler? Haha that's a good one! Piccolo and goku racing was very necessary for humanity!!
13:31 this shot of goku is one of my favorites, it just goes so hard.
Masunaga although great at animation, is plagued with rubbery, super deformed, just unattractive and off model art. Genuinely surprised you'd consider his the best episode when theres episodes like Vegeta vs Recoome, Goku vs Nappa, Trunks vs Freeza, etc. But regardless to each his own. Huge fan and much respect to your channel and encyclopedic knowledge of the production🙏
They were great in terms of artwork, but this comparison was more so focused on animation, choreography and direction which this episode sits far above in. Also glad your enjoying the content :)
Yes! Especially, with Goku vs. Nappa. That whole episode, I believe it's titled "The Return of Goku," up until after Goku hit Nappa clean in his stomach, followed with Goku saying "That's for my friends. All four of them," was the best animation, in my opinion. The animation for episode 279 and all other episodes with that same animation are just unattractive and very deformed. It looks as if the animators just didn't want to take the time.
Are you serious? Masunagas artwork is incredible. He's the only animator i'd argue did better when he went off model. We got some of the best looking Goku shots in the whole series. Masunaga was amazing at emphasizing certain aspects of characters. Male characters looked masculine and strong.
I bet this is actually a relic video when did u actually record😎❓
With how much animation and stills they reuse, I can never wrap my head around why they didn't do half length episodes and play last week's episode as the first half.
To be fair, the people making this had no idea it was even possible that they would one day be subject to such harsh public scrutiny. These dudes had a deadline to meet and they got the job done, which is particularly hard to do when you have to fill 3/4 of an episode with fighting.
Yeah I figured why there was a reason I only go back to watch the abridged version of frieza saga after first viewing, but kept rewatching all the buu episodes with real fight scenes.
Great analysis of Episode 89. It was decent with Spanish voices & Kikuchi score. Unwatchable with FUNimation actors & Faulconer score.🤢