The Animation Director Thread

[Habunake]

FUTURE EPISODE ANIMATION DIRECTORS:

11/29 Spiritomb's Keystone! - Makoto Shinjō
11/29 Bibarel Understood! - Masaki Iwane
12/6 Probopass! Burning Spirit! - Kōichi Taguchi (New Director)
12/13 Luxray's Eye! - TBD
12/20 Unown of the Solaceon Ruins! - TBD
12/20 Pokemon Contest! Solaceon Convention!! - TBD
​

Since people ask, here's a thread for all the Animation Director's who've worked on DP so far. Plus personal comments, episodes worked on, and an example. (can anyone confirm genders and could a mod sticky this? I think it'd be helpful).

Hiromi Funatsu- Joined the team as of the Deoxys Special. Hiromi is pretty average IMO, but her episodes have alot of smooth animation.

Did DP 3, 9, 14, 20, 29, 35



Toshihito Hirooka- Chimchar's Tears was his only DP episode so far, but he did alot of AG episodes though. His art and animation is pretty good IMO, plus he actually had blood drawn.

Did DP 53



Masaki Iwane- Considered the best quite often, he's been around since the Magmar Battle in Kanto! He was also responsible for Mewtwo Returns, widely regarded in quality of art. He tends to make use of heavy outlines, and very solid character designs.

Did DP 6, 11, 16, 21, 26, 31, 33, 39, 42, 46, 52, 57



Kazue Kinoshita- Considered the worst usually, Kinoshita joined the team in DP and is about tied with Iwane in terms of episodes she animated. Her main flaw is her often akward character designs and very washed out coloring. Nando has also been animated by her in every appearance so far.

Did DP 4, 10, 17, 24, 30, 36, 43, 49, 55



Kunihiko Natsume- Joined the team recently with DP 32, but apparently he was worked on the Lucario Movie. Natsume sometimes lacks in character designs, but his backgrounds and animation are quite good. He's probably my favorite next to Iwane

Did DP 32, 38, 44, 50



Kōichi Taguchi- Won't start till the Probopass episode, and has done nothing else.
[NO EXAMPLE]
Did DP 58



Yukihiro Makino- Helped Kinoshita with DP 4 apparently. Bulbapedia has two listed, so I guess that's the case. Hasn't done anything else yet.

Did DP 4​

 

[Habunake]

Izumi Shimura- A very good animator whose been around since episode 11 of Kanto and did both premieres of AG and DP. On occasion her art is very stylistic.

Did DP 1, 5, 8, 12, 15, 18, 23, 27, 34, 37, 41, 45, 51



Makoto Shinjō- A decent animator joining near the end of AG whose animation seems to fluctuate, sometimes he is great while other times he's kinda lackluster especially with character models.

Did DP 2, 7, 13, 19, 25, 50, 56



Yūsaku Takeda- Next to Kinoshita, he's probably the worse due to his often flat looking characters. However, he does have some nice art to balance it out. He's been a long time animation director since episode 19 of Kanto.

Did DP 22, 28, 40, 47, 54



Akihiro Tamagawa- Been around since episode 3 of Kanto, he's only done one episode of DP and did it extremely well. Look foward to him in the future. He also worked on Mewtwo Returns like Iwane. Also responsible for the infamous "Dawn Panty Shot".

Did DP 39​

I will continue to add Animation Directors as they are revealed (usually with the summaries that come with future episodes).

 

[csuvorke]

You really messed up the genders. Let's see:
Masaki Iwane - he
Kazue Kinoshita - she
Kunihiko Natsume - he

Edit: Tamagawa is male too

 

[Water Pokémon Master]

Good idea for a thread.

I was wondering why the Mewtwo Special looked so awesome compared to everything else, despite the digital color. It's because that one guy did it!

 

[Nando]

Interestingly, Kinoshita's episodes don't usually bother me. DP049, Pokémon Contest! Hearthome Convention!! was the only one I thought was really bad....gave us gems like this, Zoey's flat face:

 

[cassius335]

That's a good nose, though.

 

[Nando]

I think Glameow's eye is miscolored too, now that I look at it. Shouldn't there be yellow where it's white?

 

[Quagbert]

A number of things I'd like to note, mostly regarding the key animators (原画), i.e. the people who actually draw the animation rather than just direct it...

• The credits on Pokeani show that episodes done by Shimura, Funatsu and Hirooka share a lot of the same key animators.
• All but two of Iwane's DP episodes have the same two key animators: Iwane himself and someone by the name of 森出剛 (not sure how to romanize that) who has also been a key animator on all on Natsume's episodes so far.
• One key animator by the name of 案浦達哉 (Tatsuya Annōra according to a Google search) has worked on Tamagawa's one DP episode, 5 of Shimura's, 2 of Funatsu's and all of Natsume's.
• Iwane was a key animator for three of Shinjō's episodes
• Speaking of Shinjō and Natsume, there are three people who have done key animation for every episode that those two directed.
• Shimura, Kinoshita, Takeda, Funatsu, and Hirooka have not done any key animation for the episodes they directed (at least in DP), though the latter two have worked on each other's episodes as well as Shimura's.
• Likewise, Shinjō and Natsume have been key animators for each other's episodes, but never their own until they directed DP 50 together.
• Taguchi, who's doing DP 61, has been an animation director for Movies 2, 3, 6, 9, and 10, and [bp=Lucario and the Mystery of Mew]according to Bulbapedia[/bp] was an assistant executive animation director for the Lucario movie.
• If I'm not mistaken, Hiromi Funatsu is a she.

 

[anonymous920314]

So what does the animation director do? They animate the majority of the episode, right? This is actually something I've always been wondering . .

 

[Habunake]

They're in charge of how it is drawn though, and I highly doubt they do much of any of the actual animation. However, some of them seem to have possibly better workers AND/OR higher budget. Also, I suspect they probably help with storyboards maybe?

 

[Quagbert]

So what does the animation director do? They animate the majority of the episode, right? This is actually something I've always been wondering . .

[wp=Animatior director]According to Wikipedia...[/wp]

An animation director is the director in charge of all aspects of the animation process during the production of an animated film or animated segment for a live-action film. This may include directing the character design, background animation, and any other aspect of animation.

Here's something it said specifically about Japanese animation:

...the animation director oversees all characters, actions, and sequences, unless his or her duties are split among one or more other animation directors. The animation director in these sorts of productions is expected to supervise sequences, not characters, and often draws many of the key frame poses that are the basis for the creation of the rest of the scene.

 

[Habunake]

Ah, so I guess the Animation Director's own drawing skills DO come into play.

Usopp? Is that you in the back right!

 

[Water Pokémon Master]

Who is the person that did the Shinx / Psyduck episode? That person should be fired.

 

[Zhen Lin]

森出剛 (not sure how to romanize that)

I'm guessing Takeshi Moride, but it does seem to be an unusual name.

 

[Habunake]

Who is the person that did the Shinx / Psyduck episode? That person should be fired.

Kinoshita.

But I thought that was one of his better ones.

 

[anonymous920314]

It appears as if Iwane is animating the contest episode, judging from the preview.

 

[Habunake]

Cool, it was stickied.

I'll update the first page on Thursday when I can get a good pic of the Probopass episode, and judge this new guy.

 

[Quagbert]

From looking at DP 58's credits, it appears that Kōichi Taguchi is another AD that shares staff with Shimura, along with Hirooka and Funatsu.

Now, judging by the preview for DP 59, it looks to me like Shimura is directing that episode. As for DP 60, I'll take a wild guess and say Hirooka.

Edit: Thanks to Newtype, we now know the animation directors for DP 59-61:
DP 59: Izumi Shimura (as I thought)
DP 60: Akihiro Tamagawa (!)
DP 61: Masaaki Iwane (Pianoplaynfool was right)

Edit #2: Pokeani has Kunihiko Natsume as the AD for DP 62 (the Miltank Episode).

 

[Trainer Lisa]

I'm curious about something.

Does anyone know why Kazuhisa Kosuge has only animated two episodes?


Well, according to Bulbapedia, he's only done "Hocus Pokemon" and "Outrageous Fortunes". O.O

http://bulbapedia.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Category:Episodes_animated_by_Kazuhisa_Kosuge

 

[anonymous920314]

The same question could be asked for the many, many directors who have only directed one episode. That's either all they wanted to do, or all OLM wanted them to do.