How to identify different animation supervisors

[Jared DiCarlo]

I’ve been browsing this thread on the Dragon Ball forum Kanzenshuu about the different animation supervisors of Dragon Ball Super and how to tell their styles apart. I thought it would be cool to do something like that with the Pokémon anime. Pictures would be well appreciated!

The only ones I can positively tell apart at the moment are Masaaki Iwane, Izumi Shimura, Akihiro Tamagawa, and Yusaku Takeda, all pretty prominent animators on the show.

For this first part, I’ll stick with Iwane. His episodes are among the best looking of the series. One tell-tale sign of his work is when characters have dark, heavy shading to show that they are angry or otherwise dismayed, like this one of May, for example:

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Another shading technique he loves is drawing a kind of “t-shaped” shadow under the eyes and on the nose. I’ve actually got a few examples of this one:

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This next trait is usually seen when characters are surprised. Their mouths take on a peanut or jelly bean shape, and it sometimes makes their noses disappear:

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This next one is the last one I’ll talk about for now. It’s a bizarre pose that his characters make while they run:

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[RetroPokeFan]

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Akihiro Tamagawa's style is rather distinct too. He's another animator that's been around since the beginning and his first major episode was the 3rd episode where Ash catches Caterpie.

He's another highly acclaimed animator for the series being on Iwane levels to the point where we even got one or two episodes where both Iwane and Tamagawa did animation (I think it was around the Battle Frontier series). *those episodes were like a gift from heaven to me*

Unlike most of the other animators Tamagawa has been missing in action. His last major ep was around XY with one of the Mega Evolution episodes and his last ever ep was one done with another animation director (he did the second half).

Speaking of Iwane, here are some other images to show off his distinct style whether it be comedic or serious:

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[Jared DiCarlo]

Tamagawa’s earlier episodes mostly looked like this:

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Lots of wacky arched eyebrows and long mouths. (EDIT: These long mouths are actually Iwane’s handiwork, but the eyebrows are Tamagawa)

By the time of the digital era his style started to have thick lines in wacky scenes:

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Now we come to Yusaku Takeda. His episodes are among the worst in the series, the Pokémon equivalent of Yukio Ebisawa or Masayuki Uchiyama. At first he wasn’t so bad. But by the time the animation switched to digital, his episodes got sloppier. Have you ever seen that Hoenn episode where Ash fights Norman? It’s a good episode, but it’s marred by the horrible animation. And who supervised that episode’s animation? Why, Takeda, of course! By the time of Diamond and Pearl, his style didn’t fit with the rest of the animators on the show, and he hasn’t supervised an episode since then.
Anyway, his episodes look really primitive at times:

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You can’t tell from these stills, but these two frames of the Wooper are looped back and forth for this entire shot. Incidentally, this is one of his better episodes.

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He loves drawing these boxy faces and eyes.

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His characters often suffer from “Dull Surprise”.

 

[Almonds]

Speaking of Iwane, here are some other images to show off his distinct style whether it be comedic or serious:

Spoiler



Not gonna lie; some of those styles make gorgeous results

 

[kantoskies]

I'm certain it's partially because of my bias, but I've always been able to tell the animation director by looking at Musashi:

Spoiler

No one can seem to draw her hair consistently. Sometimes the front is more pointed and other times it's round. Sometime's it's really tall with no shading and other times the shading is rounded. Her and Kojiro's eye shape also seems to cause the animators some trouble.

The animation directors were much easier to distinguish during OS, AG, and DP. It almost seemed like each one had their own model sheet for the characters. Starting with BW things got more consistent and by XY, save for some shoddy one-off ADs (and Tamagawa/Iwane) most episodes looked consistent. With Sun&Moon I'm only really able to distinguish Iwane's work but that's more from the animation itself rather than the art. Some ADs that stand out to me:

Iwane is, in my opinion, the consistent, reliable AD who draws the characters most "standard". What I mean by this is I view how he draws each character as the default and anyone else is a deviation. This isn't to knock his animation-- on the contrary he has been the most reliably good animator this series has. He's able to find the balance between staying on-model and having fluid animation.

Tamagawa is my personal favorite AD. He manages to make even the most mundane episodes pop with how he can easily add flair to body language and facial expressions. By Bulbapedia's count, he has animated 33 regular episodes. Ten of those episodes were in the Kanto saga. I believe the fact that 1/3 of his work has been done in Kanto (and roughly 1/8 of Kanto was done by him) is at least somewhat responsible for Kanto having that unique, comedic feel. More mundane episodes like Pokemon Victory Manual and Fushigidane's Mysterious Flower Garden were brought to life with Tamagawa's work, and on the flip-side more iconic scenes were made even more so with the help of him. Can you imagine Sing! Purin! being animated by someone else? Would Musashi and Kojiro's Ganguro schtick in Battle on the St. Anne have worked nearly as well if Takeda had been assigned that episode? I've heard reports that his health is declining, and his last episode was XY050, which was three and a half years ago. It's a shame that he seemingly hasn't the strength to keep working on the show, I would have loved to see what he could do with Sun&Moon's more fluid art style.

Takayuki Shimura stood out to me as having the best capture of the original, early Kanto art style that was found on the model sheets and in early promo art. The difference is his work is smoother and he was able to take that style and alter it to better fit animation. The banned Porygon episode was is last episode and, had he not done two Side Story episodes years later, part of me would have considered the idea that maybe that episode got him blacklisted from the show.

Yūko Inoue, according to Bulbapedia, has only ever done three Side Story episodes and the Legend of Thunder. This is a shame because I love how their work captured the essence of the old Kanto style. I know I just said that Shimura captured this style the best, but I think Inoue found a good way to "modernize" it without losing its essence.

Izumi Shimura, based on art alone, hasn't been one of my favorite ADs. Something about how he draws the characters, especially Kasumi, is off-putting to me. However he had two notable examples of surprisingly fluid animation. One was in EP023 when Musashi was scared by Ghos and fell through the floor and the other was EP082 when the Rocket trio was scared by Purin under a sheet. So much care was put into how these scenes were keyframed and it really shows.

My absolute least favorite AD was definitely....uh....well I can't find the name (and this might be more than one AD) but whoever they were they were responsible for these abominations during the DP days:

Spoiler

Spoiler

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People shit on Sun&Moon's art style for being unflattering towards the Rocket trio and while I can see how their designs wouldn't be for everyone I can't see how more people don't talk about how poorly they were drawn during Diamond&Pearl.

And Yūsaku Takeda....well I think @ii kanji could handle this better than I could

 

[RetroPokeFan]

I'm certain it's partially because of my bias, but I've always been able to tell the animation director by looking at Musashi:

Spoiler

No one can seem to draw her hair consistently. Sometimes the front is more pointed and other times it's round. Sometime's it's really tall with no shading and other times the shading is rounded. Her and Kojiro's eye shape also seems to cause the animators some trouble.

The animation directors were much easier to distinguish during OS, AG, and DP. It almost seemed like each one had their own model sheet for the characters. Starting with BW things got more consistent and by XY, save for some shoddy one-off ADs (and Tamagawa/Iwane) most episodes looked consistent. With Sun&Moon I'm only really able to distinguish Iwane's work but that's more from the animation itself rather than the art. Some ADs that stand out to me:

Iwane is, in my opinion, the consistent, reliable AD who draws the characters most "standard". What I mean by this is I view how he draws each character as the default and anyone else is a deviation. This isn't to knock his animation-- on the contrary he has been the most reliably good animator this series has. He's able to find the balance between staying on-model and having fluid animation.

Tamagawa is my personal favorite AD. He manages to make even the most mundane episodes pop with how he can easily add flair to body language and facial expressions. By Bulbapedia's count, he has animated 33 regular episodes. Ten of those episodes were in the Kanto saga. I believe the fact that 1/3 of his work has been done in Kanto (and roughly 1/8 of Kanto was done by him) is at least somewhat responsible for Kanto having that unique, comedic feel. More mundane episodes like Pokemon Victory Manual and Fushigidane's Mysterious Flower Garden were brought to life with Tamagawa's work, and on the flip-side more iconic scenes were made even more so with the help of him. Can you imagine Sing! Purin! being animated by someone else? Would Musashi and Kojiro's Ganguro schtick in Battle on the St. Anne have worked nearly as well if Takeda had been assigned that episode? I've heard reports that his health is declining, and his last episode was XY050, which was three and a half years ago. It's a shame that he seemingly hasn't the strength to keep working on the show, I would have loved to see what he could do with Sun&Moon's more fluid art style.

Takayuki Shimura stood out to me as having the best capture of the original, early Kanto art style that was found on the model sheets and in early promo art. The difference is his work is smoother and he was able to take that style and alter it to better fit animation. The banned Porygon episode was is last episode and, had he not done two Side Story episodes years later, part of me would have considered the idea that maybe that episode got him blacklisted from the show.

Yūko Inoue, according to Bulbapedia, has only ever done three Side Story episodes and the Legend of Thunder. This is a shame because I love how their work captured the essence of the old Kanto style. I know I just said that Shimura captured this style the best, but I think Inoue found a good way to "modernize" it without losing its essence.

Izumi Shimura, based on art alone, hasn't been one of my favorite ADs. Something about how he draws the characters, especially Kasumi, is off-putting to me. However he had two notable examples of surprisingly fluid animation. One was in EP023 when Musashi was scared by Ghos and fell through the floor and the other was EP082 when the Rocket trio was scared by Purin under a sheet. So much care was put into how these scenes were keyframed and it really shows.

My absolute least favorite AD was definitely....uh....well I can't find the name (and this might be more than one AD) but whoever they were they were responsible for these abominations during the DP days:

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

People shit on Sun&Moon's art style for being unflattering towards the Rocket trio and while I can see how their designs wouldn't be for everyone I can't see how more people don't talk about how poorly they were drawn during Diamond&Pearl.

And Yūsaku Takeda....well I think @ii kanji could handle this better than I could

First two D&P images are Kunihiko Natsume's style, third might be Takeda but I'm not sure.

 

[ii kanji]

Nah, third is Natsume too IIRC.

Probs should be posting this in Controversial Opinions, but I'm actually a fan of Natsume's DP art - I thought it was pretty quirky and fun compared to the mountain of shit we got from the likes of Takeda and Kinoshita.

Spoiler: Kinoshita for those who don't remember...

 

[Pkmndub]

Who was responsible for the ugly Misty eyes during late Season 5? You know, where the eyes were like 5 feet apart

 

[KyseL]

I generally can tell an Iwane episode by it's timing, he tends to hold breakdowns for longer than usual in jumps and things like that.

 

[Jared DiCarlo]

I'm certain it's partially because of my bias, but I've always been able to tell the animation director by looking at Musashi:

Spoiler

No one can seem to draw her hair consistently. Sometimes the front is more pointed and other times it's round. Sometime's it's really tall with no shading and other times the shading is rounded. Her and Kojiro's eye shape also seems to cause the animators some trouble.

The animation directors were much easier to distinguish during OS, AG, and DP. It almost seemed like each one had their own model sheet for the characters. Starting with BW things got more consistent and by XY, save for some shoddy one-off ADs (and Tamagawa/Iwane) most episodes looked consistent. With Sun&Moon I'm only really able to distinguish Iwane's work but that's more from the animation itself rather than the art. Some ADs that stand out to me:

Iwane is, in my opinion, the consistent, reliable AD who draws the characters most "standard". What I mean by this is I view how he draws each character as the default and anyone else is a deviation. This isn't to knock his animation-- on the contrary he has been the most reliably good animator this series has. He's able to find the balance between staying on-model and having fluid animation.

Tamagawa is my personal favorite AD. He manages to make even the most mundane episodes pop with how he can easily add flair to body language and facial expressions. By Bulbapedia's count, he has animated 33 regular episodes. Ten of those episodes were in the Kanto saga. I believe the fact that 1/3 of his work has been done in Kanto (and roughly 1/8 of Kanto was done by him) is at least somewhat responsible for Kanto having that unique, comedic feel. More mundane episodes like Pokemon Victory Manual and Fushigidane's Mysterious Flower Garden were brought to life with Tamagawa's work, and on the flip-side more iconic scenes were made even more so with the help of him. Can you imagine Sing! Purin! being animated by someone else? Would Musashi and Kojiro's Ganguro schtick in Battle on the St. Anne have worked nearly as well if Takeda had been assigned that episode? I've heard reports that his health is declining, and his last episode was XY050, which was three and a half years ago. It's a shame that he seemingly hasn't the strength to keep working on the show, I would have loved to see what he could do with Sun&Moon's more fluid art style.

Takayuki Shimura stood out to me as having the best capture of the original, early Kanto art style that was found on the model sheets and in early promo art. The difference is his work is smoother and he was able to take that style and alter it to better fit animation. The banned Porygon episode was is last episode and, had he not done two Side Story episodes years later, part of me would have considered the idea that maybe that episode got him blacklisted from the show.

Yūko Inoue, according to Bulbapedia, has only ever done three Side Story episodes and the Legend of Thunder. This is a shame because I love how their work captured the essence of the old Kanto style. I know I just said that Shimura captured this style the best, but I think Inoue found a good way to "modernize" it without losing its essence.

Izumi Shimura, based on art alone, hasn't been one of my favorite ADs. Something about how he draws the characters, especially Kasumi, is off-putting to me. However he had two notable examples of surprisingly fluid animation. One was in EP023 when Musashi was scared by Ghos and fell through the floor and the other was EP082 when the Rocket trio was scared by Purin under a sheet. So much care was put into how these scenes were keyframed and it really shows.

My absolute least favorite AD was definitely....uh....well I can't find the name (and this might be more than one AD) but whoever they were they were responsible for these abominations during the DP days:

Spoiler

Spoiler

Spoiler

People shit on Sun&Moon's art style for being unflattering towards the Rocket trio and while I can see how their designs wouldn't be for everyone I can't see how more people don't talk about how poorly they were drawn during Diamond&Pearl.

And Yūsaku Takeda....well I think @ii kanji could handle this better than I could

Ah yes. Posts like this are what I expected when I started this thread. I love the Jessie comparison, by the way, although it would have been helpful to label each picture with the name of the animator.

I've heard reports that his health is declining, and his last episode was XY050, which was three and a half years ago.

That is a shame. His episodes were always so cartoony.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

Nah, third is Natsume too IIRC.

Probs should be posting this in Controversial Opinions, but I'm actually a fan of Natsume's DP art - I thought it was pretty quirky and fun compared to the mountain of shit we got from the likes of Takeda and Kinoshita.

Spoiler: Kinoshita for those who don't remember...

Buizel looks like it's suffering....

 

[ii kanji]

Buizel looks like it's suffering....

A crop of that picture focusing on Buizel was an oldskool meme on these forums circa 2008/9 before some of the animation deadwood was cut away.
*nostalgic sigh*
Not that much to complain about these days, 'huh?

 

[Jared DiCarlo]

Buizel looks like it's suffering....

Spoiler

I guess Dawn traded him because she was tired of him going off model.
By the way, these aren’t inbetweens. They’re key drawings. If your keys look like this, chances are you shouldn’t be working on this show.

 

[kantoskies]

Those screenshots also remind me how downright bad the early DP backgrounds looked....

 

[Jared DiCarlo]

Here’s another Iwane trademark; when his characters legs are moving really fast, they look like this:

Spoiler

 

[Johtohfiller]

Those screenshots also remind me how downright bad the early DP backgrounds looked....

That plus the VA change kept me off of watching DP at first. Glad I gave it another chance.

 

[Jared DiCarlo]

For this post I’m gonna do something a little different. I’ll try to break down some scenes from Pikachu’s Vacation.
Masaaki Iwane says that he started working on the anime during Pikachu’s Vacation. I found a couple of scenes that definitely carry his style:

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There are those circle-smears that he loves using for when his characters run really fast.

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I’m pretty sure most of the scenes of Ash’s Pokémon arguing with the mean bullies are his work, too. Those mouths are a big giveaway.

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I think this cut might be by Akihiro Tamagawa. Squirtle’s face at the end of the gif reminds me of James’ “COOL!” face in the St. Anne episode, which Tamagawa supervised.

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This looks looks like another Tamagawa cut. Charizard’s angry face reminds me of a scene from Pikachu Re-Volts. Guess who supervised that one?

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masaaki iwane pokemon pokemon: diamond & pearl animated background animation effects fighting smoke | #10609 | sakugabooru
This cut sums up everything I love about Masaaki Iwane's artwork: Beautiful choreography, perfectly composed shots, and the shading. I love that shading!

Iwane's art style from AG to early BW was my favorite part of his career. Don't get me wrong, the stuff he turns out today is easily the best out of all the show's animators, but the era I just described is when he rose above all of the other animation directors. Nowadays, pretty much all the animators are turning out high-quality work....except for whoever did SM020. That guy should get fired.

 

[RetroPokeFan]

except for whoever did SM020

Shuhei Yasuda and Satoshi Murata.

 

[Flynn]

Nowadays, pretty much all the animators are turning out high-quality work....except for whoever did SM020. That guy should get fired.

What's wrong with that episode?

 

[KenzeyEevee]

What's wrong with that episode?

Kind of boring but nothing bad othetworse