Well animated scenes from the anime

JazzMazz

JazzMazz

‎
#1
#1
Here was the original opening to the thread on Orojackson posted by ToBeThriller.
ToBeThriller said:
So basically since the latter half of Dressrosa, the animation quality of OP has been extremely inconsistent, and because of that, the anime has pretty much ruined my impressions on several character due to their poorly drawn designs and poorly directed scenes.

Examples: Cracker, his clap sounds, his slideshow style movements ruined him for me. I thought he was pretty cool in the manga. And the average animation quality for the final move that took him out was the nail in the coffin for me.

Big Mom, she looks very scary and intimidating in well animated scenes, but the animators sometimes draw her so badly that it kills the mood.


So I made this thread where we can share well animated scenes in OP so we can get our feels back up when the bad animation ruins them.

So go ahead and start sharing well animated OP scenes, especially recent ones.
Click to expand...
Here is my post about the latest episode.
Episode 898 dropped, and while the first half was literal ass, the second half, although slow, sort of benefitted from having less action, as generally the action was stronger in the first half. Masahiro Shimanuki's scene wasn't the greatest thing ever, but for him, and his output on the show, its a pretty solid contribution that does a decent enough job of selling the moment.​
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The real highlight this episode came from Tu Yong Ce in his strawman transformation scene, which was greatly padded out by repeating the animation, but in of itself, its quite an impressive scene, and still definitely worth some praise for the really nice morphing animation.​
Hopefully he handles some solid action animation next episode(which he confirmed he was working on).​
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899 dropped, and while the action in the first half, did have it fair share of janky animation to it, there were still some cool scenes.​
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Tsuyuki, who has been an animator rising in prominence on the show, contributed an overall really solid action cut. His frayed smears, and his frayed eye shots are becoming a tell of him for me, not to mention, lots of impact frames.​
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The main highlight of the episode was easily Ishizuka's Zoro finisher, which is just absolutely nutty, and again demonstrates why Ishizuka is the best animator on the show, with his extremely modern timing and effects work.​
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Although more minor, Tsuyuki closed off the episode, with a very effects based scenes, demonstrated his frayed smears in the lightning effects, and hyper detailed impact frames, as well as a fantastic eye zoom on Kaido.​
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Overall, a mixed bag of an episode, but one with cool stuff nonetheless animation wise.​
Click to expand...
Feel free to post here your thoughts, opinions and questions about the animation of the anime, particularly its highlights(in keeping with the original intent of the thread).
 
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JazzMazz

JazzMazz

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#3
#3
Update for the last 2 episodes.
901 dropped. Not much in terms of actual animation, but there was a nice(if controversial) scene, animated by the former character designer for the show, Kazuya Hisada, which involved Batman blocking Luffy's attack. I really appreciated Hisada showcasing his more snappy timing, and I enjoyed the effects work during the scene.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/1d82879185b60f6048d8bd1c17142e58.mp4

902 just dropped as well, and Tu Yong Ce handled a very nice bit of action where Zoro and Luffy lay the smackdown on Urashima's followers. Love the use of smears and kinetic choreography of the scene. Easily one of my favourite scenes to come out of Tu Yong Ce in a while.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/eb54ad07c050aaed070a9a03d18a7c7f.mp4

We also had some nice stuff in adapting Luffy countering Urashima's arm thrust. Far more effects based, but still nice enough in terms of line work and impact. Next episode, Tsuyuki Tesoro looks like he'll be handling some extensions to the fight.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/df3556348ad1e9be1ac4f73d0fbfb899.mp4

Seems like Tsuyuki may have also done this scene on the episode. Does have his smears.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/a5c082de376964929785b62ea46a596b.mp4
 
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JazzMazz

JazzMazz

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#5
#5
I think I'll just cover the latest episode of the anime.

For 924, Tu Yong Ce, who has been the resident work horse animator for Wano, having contributed to some of the biggest action episodes in the arc, nearly animating all of the action in 915 for example, returns to try his hand at solo animating an episode. Considering his commitments though, he didn't manage to pull it off, only handling the first half and 50 cuts from the second. In saying that, its still an incredibly impressive feat. His work on 924 is relatively pretty conservative, but still has some nice movement to it, and the animation supervisors did do a good job making the episode feel pretty polished art wise. In say that, Tu's movement still is extremely nice, with lots of camera work, smears, and some genuinely nice effects and character acting.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/16cbabbf556e3355ac6253b3b808146b.mp4
Some of the highlights include Kaido's surprisingly animated declaration of war, which is has a nice weight, with some cool smears highlighting the character acting.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/ae6f99ff9f5c1f190bcb7cd707de7c99.mp4
King Vs the Big Mum pirates is also pretty nice. Apparently Tu Yong-Ce was extremely fond of King's character design, so him having the opportunity to animate his main scene so far must have been an experience. Although it is a bit conservative in places, some of King's manoeuvres while flying has some nice timing to it, and the kick, while not his greatest work, still has the necessary oomph to sell King's power.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/58bdad3df9802774981edd5eb447e18a.mp4
In saying that, arguably the best scene Tu handles from the episode is in the second half, where he handles Sanji's diable Janbe attack against Page One, which has nice fire effects, as well as some nice impact frames for the follow through of the kick.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/dde0c944651516796a8e5073402fd68c.mp4
The star impact frames seem to be coming a recurring thing for Tu, with him doing a similar thing for Luffy's combo finishing punch on Kaido in 915.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/22558b3a5d45bda3ff8307316bd7d95b.mp4

Overall, while 924 was still conservative in its animation, it still moved with a fair bit more nuance to it than other episodes, and its action scenes delivered a satisfactory amount of spectacle. Definitely the most animated episode act 2, if nothing else.

Next episode seems like its definitely going to top this one, with O Soba mask going into action. From the preview alone we saw Naotoshi Shida handling Sanji's raid suit transformation, Katsumi Ishizuka and what seems to be Tetsuro Nireki, all big animators on the show.
Katsumi Ishizuka is a veteran animator on the series, whose handled many of the shows most climatic and notable moments. His latest work was the excellently extravagant elephant gun on Kaido in 914, and by the looks of the preview he'll be handling the finisher on Page One.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/de4d0a09bfd9a855f7ef70ce348c63a4.mp4
Tetsuro Nireki is an animator whose resurfaced on the show during Wano, handling several noticeable bits of action animation. His last contributions, on 913 and 914 respectively, were incredibly impressive, with him animating the flame breath segment on 913, as well as a nice bit of action on 914. In the preview he appeared to be animating the scenes where the raid suit is showing off its speed and is turning into delightful smears.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/9c000a819c107a6d9992dfed9098d70d.mp4
https://sakugabooru.com/data/6e2b65932fabf22a7eae0d6bd85eed3a.mp4

Overall, next episodes looks like it'll be shaping up to be the strongest animated of act 2 yet, so definitely something to look forward to at least in the visual respect.
 
JazzMazz

JazzMazz

‎
#6
#6
925 dropped and it was a pretty nice looking episode. If there are any complaints, its that the action got kind of repetitive, though that could easily be due to the fact that there was really nothing going on in this fight to really expand upon in terms of the manga. Considering that, I think the anime staff did a very solid, with there being a crap ton of animation highlights, with the action in this episode all being fairly well done.

First off, Sanji's henshin transformation sequence was handled by Naotoshi Shida, who also handled the original germa transformation sequence a little under 100 episodes ago in 839. His dynamic poses, fantastic smoke, and intricate camera work and effects that create extremely smooth motion are all on display in this cut.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/4d6954867bbc67c40a8e03bab079efba.mp4

A real star of the episode was animation director Kenji Yokoyama, who also managed to be top key animator, handling the largest amount of animation in the episode. Apparently he animated a load of the notable bits of action on the episode, but my favourite scene from him is the fantastic bit of character acting Sanji does when giving himself his name. Its this sort of wonderfully lively and energetic character acting that I think One Piece could really benefit from.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/9f4dbcf439d463feca887c861c871777.mp4
He also did some nice, though fairly limited bits of action.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/4f802d7a0432ec296e5b07b9c39a84f8.mp4
https://sakugabooru.com/data/90ac48ea148612c3eeb739e16d0637d3.mp4
Considering his 20 year history on the show, its nice to see he can still produce decent stuff. He even did quite a nice smeary scene here.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/826ec8fab041d013f060800cb8394166.mp4

Tetsuro Nireki also handled some nice bits of action. Returning from his back to back work on 913 and 914, Nireki's scenes this episode are filled with lovely smears and effects work. Not exactly his best work on Wano, but still really good.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/2f096e7d196e444df69551e64dc8bb26.mp4
https://sakugabooru.com/data/43ed67d099f6e74916b6148f7005fa61.mp4

The episode also had a plethora of free lance animators who handled scenes on it. Rondeseo, an animator who did a neat scene on 914, also returned to do a nice though fairly conservative scene on this episode, that still had some nice smear and effects to it, and some really nuanced movement as well.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/fbdb52019e663107d3553499ce3089b7.mp4

Meng Sun, a Chinese animator who worked on the OP, funnily enough, on the raidsuit reveal in the opening, also handled a brief little kick, which was still nice and impactful.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/5829007bd12f9cc1e83d5f543dbed959.mp4

A few scenes we don't know who handled, include the opening skirmish between hybrid Page One and Sanji, as well as arguably the most well choreographed bit of the fight. I really like the attention to detail given to the smoke effects in the last cut of the opening skirmish.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/5357b1fd16b50558f51882b302400687.mp4
The really nice scene where Page One and Sanji clash is also unknown, however, past 8 seconds of the clip, where Sanji's leg is grabbed and he turns into a lovely smear as his thrown through several buildings was handled by Mitchell Gonzales, another freelance animator.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/9cd2040911a67955c04c1ccb777b8eed.mp4

Overall, the freelance animators on this episode contributed a lot of short though impactful bits of animation that really made the fight consistently animated throughout the episode.

In saying that, the obvious action highlight, again, comes from finisher climax One Piece god, Katsumi Ishizuka, who returns from handling the insane elephant gun in 914, to handle the just as insane finisher Sanji uses on Page One. Its an absolutely insane scene and One Piece is lucky to have him.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/d7ce3cb42bd3ab5716feda55912203ad.mp4

Overall, while perhaps a bit limited in the storyboard department, 925 definitely delivered on the animation front thanks to a mix of freelancers and consistent animators coming together.


EDIT: Shuu Sugita confirmed this was his scene.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/2c9e2c79d201f789a8ee6df4a1d5f2fa.mp4
This was Mitchell Gonzales scene.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/0e690b432b392e107ac945632ba7858e.mp4

EDIT:
Takahiro Watabe, another freelancer animated the beginning of the Page One hybrid form fight.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/4eea2ce3169e218e83c5e10e176c604d.mp4
 
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JazzMazz

JazzMazz

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#7
#7
In 926 Yoichi Mitsui animated a nice little segment of action with Robin and Orochi's ninja force. Not his most impactful scene, but the art and effects were nice.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/0c0bf5a0141015db08bb7d707bc4f03a.mp4

928 featured the return of Katsumi Ishizuka, who animated Kyoshiro cutting down Hiyori. Even though its not as flashy as his prior work on the arc, I appreciate his attention to detail while animating a slow motion Hiyori getting cut down, and it still has a really nice impact to it.
https://sakugabooru.com/data/da1eed402944019ab14c1e19d10e1a6f.mp4
 
JazzMazz

JazzMazz

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#9
#9
Zoro D Goat said:
One of the best animated scenes for sure:steef::steef::steef:
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First two gifs are by Naotoshi Shida, an animator extremely familiar with the show, having walked on episodes since Enies Lobby.

Not really sure who did the third gif, but I can say the final gif was animated by Shuu Sugita, who is a big name in the industry, and is a newcomer to One Piece, with that scene being his debut on the show. In Wano, its been great seeing amazingly talented guest animators popping up to contribute, even if it is just for short scenes like that.
 
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