Favorite Animation Director

[PokeDot517]

My favorite has to be Akihiro Tamagawa. I like the style of the episodes he directs are animated. =)

For example:

Black and White Ep 20 - Dancing With The Ducklett Trio.

 

[JacobYBM]

Although Tamagawa Akihiro is good, I'm going to have to place my hat in the ring for Iwane Masa'aki. Mister Iwane's work as an animation supervisor has become less "correct other key animators' drawings" and more "draw all the key animation for a single episode's three hundred cuts myself." When you consider how much work this is, it's a Hell of a thing. Iwane has to meet with the episode director, usually Asada Yuuji, although he does work under other episode directors, help the episode director define the look of the episode, then translated the storyboard and any notes from his conversation with the episode director into layouts. His layouts have to be approved by the episode director and quite likely Chief Animation Supervisor Hiro'oka Toshihito and Series Director Yajima Tetsuo. After he's had the okay he then has to go about drawing each cut (shot) of the episode, usually doing multiple key animation drawings, and then going back to double check his work. The average key animator can handle two cuts per day. Iwane has about a month to do all three hundred or so cuts in an episode himself, meaning the high number of episodes he manages per year is rather astounding.

The most important part, of course, is the quality of Iwane's work tends to be about the same. He is also the only key animator to employ distinctive and emotive faces to express a character's feelings. There's a stronger sense of active engagement from Iwane than the other key animators and animation supervisors, something that can usually save an episode.