What's Up Next? #8 (Pixiv Fanbox)

Hey there, this is B with another update on the next set (and a little bit of me complaining…).

The DBGT set is about 60-70% finished; here's a little sneak peek of how things are going:

I will be using subtitles for this one as well, so, let me know if you like the idea. I hope to have it ready by this Friday, if not, I'll have to ask for an extension, haha.

Now, speaking of other things; What's wrong with the DB fandom when it comes to the "Z style"? Let me explain myself, recently I found out that my redraws were shared in a compilation video on YouTube, which doesn't bother me at all, but I found it curious to see the how the other works shared in that same video used a… "peculiar" style, and the comments hating on DBS while they praise the fanart shown. It reminded me of the day I discovered GMR and the reason why I decided to follow him. GMR made a post about "DBZ STYLE", in which he explained what it actually was, Wich for me, was coherent enought to make me think about it carefully.

And with that being said, since when did this become the standard for the "DBZ/90s style"?:

The animator responsible for the style above, is Keisuke Masunaga. If you gather all the animated and drawn scenes by him, you probably won't even manage to form 1 or 2 complete episodes; that's NOT the Z style, it's not even the style shown in the model sheets, which look more like this:

And that's just for some movies and the Buu saga, which is only about a quarter of all Dragon Ball Z, as it generally looks like this (considering those times when they were poorly drawn):

And not to mention these goofy boys:

And you could argue that Keisuke's looks better to you, but the reality is that his style doesn't even come close to Toriyama's, which is the intended look and it looks something like this:

If is not Toriyama's style, is not Madea's, is not Nakatsuru's, is not Yamamuro's, then… HOW IS THIS DBZ STYLE!!???

It was just some random animator's style, not DBZ's!

Large goofy Irises; lifeless, empty, flat eyes; a big, droopy, parrot's beak-like nose; a gigantic and poorly-proportioned chin, non-existent foreheads; and an abnormal preference for exaggerated muscles + bad anatomy, summarize what DBZ style has become within the fandom thanks to this style and its misinterpretation. And don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about those fanarts, they're as good as intended to be, everyone is free to make fanarts as they please, I'm not a supreme judge and I can't, nor won't, force people to stop using the style they like. I'm not blaming Keisuke either, he did what he had to in order to complete his job, it's not his fault or anything. But it bothers me that there're people calling and sharing them as "Z/90s style" when it doesn't even resemble what DBZ actually was back then. Not even people like me, who have mostly used Nakatsuru's style (which has been around longer than Keisuke's), feel 100% comfortable calling it that way. Worse still, I don't feel comfortable saying that's how DBZ looked either, since that style was well-drawn only at specific moments in the series/movies.

If you add to the mix the lack of respect towards the animators of DBS, considering that a bunch of them worked on Z, it only makes it more uncomfortable; they've been calling Super a cheap and poorly animated product, when, in reality, the animation is more fluid than in Z, plus, the budget has nothing to do with the quality. Animes are still hand-drawn but production times are shorter than in the 90s, which is the main reason why the beginning of DBS looked wrong. Yet the Tournament of Power is better animated and drawn than the biggest part of Dragon Ball Z. Likewise, the animations done by Kubota and Yuya Takahashi for the movies and the tournament respectively, show how good DBS can look if given the necessary production time. There's a lot of hate for no reason.

I don't know how my opinion on this topic will be received, but it's really something that the more I think about it, the less I agree with. I'm not willing to be part of that world, I don't want my stuff to be used to hate on professionals, since I know nothing about animation. It takes me hours to finish a single drawing, while they have to complete tons everyday; the animators of DBS deserve more respect. Anyways, I just wanted to show you how the set is coming along and rant a little, hahaha, sorry for using these posts to complain, I'll see you next time! (⁠＾⁠∇⁠＾⁠)⁠ﾉ

~ B