Anime Staff Thread: BW Edition

[Mijumaru]

November 11's episode seems to have some great animation as shown by the preview. But I'll have to wait until the episode's airing before I can give an answer.

November 18's episode has Natsume! As well as Iwane? It's funny how for the second region in a row, Iwane's first episode in a region would be the second rival battle in that same region.

Alright! Tamagawa animates December 2's episode! It's his first episode in 46 episodes. I thought he was retired (in animation, not in life) like Takeda, if he really was retired from animating. I hope this doesn't mean Takeda is coming soon.

I would have expected December 9's episode to be Shimura's episode, as you could tell by Ash's face in the scan that it was her animation.

 

[J J M]

Animation Director - Akihiro Tamagawa (!)

Thank Arceus he didn't wait until BW039 to animate an episode like for DP. Though, out of all the Gen 5 Pokémon to get the guy, it has to be the hermit crab. XD

Iwane/Natsume episode for the second time in a row...

Alright! Tamagawa animates December 2's episode! It's his first episode in 46 episodes. I thought he was retired (in animation, not in life) like Takeda, if he really was retired from animating. I hope this doesn't mean Takeda is coming soon.

Tamagawa isn't really the most frequent animator around. He's only animated a handful of episodes even though he's been here from the beginning. 'Tis a shame though.

He does animate almost all the Pikachu shorts if that's any better.

 

[Froakie]

It says here that Yuji Ueda (voice of Brock etc.) is now a Storyboard and Episode Director? Is this true?

 

[Quagbert]

It says here that Yuji Ueda (voice of Brock etc.) is now a Storyboard and Episode Director? Is this true?

Negative; the Storyboarder/Director's name is Shigeru Ueda.

 

[Froakie]

Yeah, I did notice that. I wonder why they reported it otherwise.

 

[Blue_Drifblim]

BW010 - Rival Battle! Strong Opponent Pururiru!
Screenplay - Shinzō Fujita
Storyboard - Hiroyuki Yamada
Assistant Director - Kazuomi Koga
Animation Directors - Kunihiko Natsume & Masaaki Iwane
(I guess they're a team now)

Nice. Guess it's not a complete surprise to see them as a team, seeing how Iwane has worked on so many Natsume episodes.

I do wonder if they'll go back to doing seperate episodes sometime in the future, though.

BW011 - Ishizumai! Take Back Your House!!
Screenplay - Yukiyoshi Ōhashi
Storyboard, Assistant Director - Kazuomi Koga
Animation Director - Akihiro Tamagawa (!)

OH. YES.

This made my day.

 

[ehh123]

In Puplup, Up, and Away, I saw a lot of facial gags. Is this the work of the screenwriter, the storyboard artist or the animation director? I mean, how do I know by looking at credits that this episode is going to have more sweatdrops and facefaults than usual?

 

[Electivirus]

I've just noticed that, apparently, DP 185 (the Ash vs. Conway battle) was animated by... Kinoshita?! What?! I couldn't even tell!

 

[Quagbert]

Final Update Bump for 2010:

BW013 - Chillarmy is a Neat Freak!?
Screenplay - Junki Takegami
Storyboard, Assistant Director - Yūji Asada
Animation Director - Masaaki Iwane
Iwane's first solo episode...unless Natsume shows up in the onscreen credits

BW014 - Shippou City! Big Adventure at the Museum!!
Screenplay - Shōji Yonemura
Storyboard - Hitoyuki Matsui
Assistant Director - Yoshitaka Makino (BW004)
Animation Director - Takashi Shinohara (BW004)

BW015 - Shippou Gym Battle! VS Gym Leader Aloe!!
Screenplay - Atsuhiro Tomioka
Storyboard - Hiroyuki Yamada
Assistant Director - Hirokazu Hanai
Animation Director - A new one by the name of 小野和寛 Kazuhiro Ono. Turns out he's worked on quite a few anime series, mostly as a key animator.

 

[Quagbert]

First update bump of 2011:

BW016 - Shippou Gym Rematch! Explosive New Move!!
Screenplay - Shinzō Fujita
Storyboard - Tetsuo Yajima
Assistant Director - 岩崎友和 Tomokazu Iwasaki
Animation Director - 原田峰文 Minefumi Harada (profile on ANN)

BW017 - The Wild Child that Hatched From The Egg!
Screenplay - Yukiyoshi Ōhashi
Storyboard, Assistant Director - Kazuomi Koga
Animation Director - Kunihiko Natsume

BW018 - Yaguruma Forest! Kurumiru and Arti!!
Screenplay - Shōji Yonemura
Storyboard, Assistant Director - Yūji Asada
Animation Director - Masaaki Iwane

DP Special 1 - Hikari, Setting Off on a New Trip!!
Screenplay - Junki Takegami
Storyboard - Hideaki Ōba
Assistant Director - Nobutaka Chikahashi
Animation Director - Kazue Kinoshita

DP Special 2 - Nibi Gym - The Greatest Crisis in History!
Screenplay - Shinzō Fujita
Storyboard - Hitoyuki Matsui
Assistant Director - Kazuomi Koga
Animation Director - Akihiro Tamagawa

 

[Cybersai]

LOL, the Dawn special got the worst animator yet the Brock one gets the best one.

 

[Musashi]

The Hikari one also got the worst writer. :/ Maybe Takegami will surprise me.

 

[Cybersai]

I am surprised Tomioka is not writing the Dawn special, he was basically in charge of her entire character and story.

 

[J J M]

So this is where Kinoshita's been all this while. Still, 18 episodes into BW and since she still hasn't animated anything (not to mention all these new animators), maybe this DP special is her last ever episode for Pokémon?

 

[marshiyanmisuta]

To be fair, Kinoshita's work isn't really that bad now...

And Junki Takegami is one of best writers in the anime.

 

[J J M]

So, I watched that special that aired before the start of Best Wishes and they interviewed a few behind the scenes people (not talking about the VAs, that's pretty obvious)

Norihiko Sudo (Director)
Toshiya Yamada (Character designer)

Shame there are no Iwane and Tamagawa pics floating around...

 

[Emboar]

I dont really know who Akihiro Tamagawa is but imo the Takeshi special looked really good.

 

[ehh123]

Atsuhiro Tomioka seems to be the head writer for Pokemon. He has had a good track record of shows. Did anyone notice any changes to the anime when he came in to do Series Composition for DP? I also notice he wrote a fair number of episodes before DP. Anyone have favorites among the list?

 

[Musashi]

Atsuhiro Tomioka seems to be the head writer for Pokemon. He has had a good track record of shows. Did anyone notice any changes to the anime when he came in to do Series Composition for DP?

The continuity of the seems seemed to much tighter under his watch. He seems to enjoy putting in many references to previous episodes/series to really make everything feel connected. He also seems to love foreshadowing (Aipom/Buizel trade) and character development (Musashi's Contest career and Hikari's ehole arc).

I also notice he wrote a fair number of episodes before DP. Anyone have favorites among the list?

I could list episodes, but I'd rather say I love him for fixing the Rocket-Dan after Jouto's "We have no idea what to do with them anymore" and AG's Zoppification of them.

 

[Cybersai]

Tomioka was pretty much in charge as soon as Shudo left.

I imagine late Johto and all of AG was done by Tomioka. The fact that May's entire Contest arc was handled by Tomioka shows he handled all the changes in the series from day 1.