#what about that choreography I've watched 2 billion times

[beatriceportinari]

Fuck it strawberry squid doing Béjart’s choreography for Ravel’s Bolero

[57plusthree]

Hiya so sorry if this sounds like I'm asking incredibly too much but can you tell me what you think are the best animated scenes in the entire series? Besides Super Broly of course cause that's just too beautiful. The only moments that immediately come to my mind for every part is the Krillin v Goku, ChiChi v Goku, that part you reblogged with Vegeta shooting a ki blast in the saiyan saga, Cell v Goku, some parts or Kid Buu vs SSJ2 Goku, parts of Baby Vegeta v SSJ4 Goku, SSJB Goku and Trunks v Goku Black and Zamasu, Vegito V Zamasu and Goku with Co v Jiren. Sorry again if this is asking for way too much, feel free to skip this even if it is! I just have been reeling over db as whole this past week and I've been having conflicting thoughts.

You're good! I like receiving super detailed asks tbh <3

Disclaimer: I haven't actually watched the anime all the way through, so I probably do not have as solid a grasp on where all the good animation is lol. That being said, I think I can at least say I've seen most of the well known fights as well as just... random stuff. I've also seen some of the movies (DBS Broly, Dead Zone, World’s Strongest, Tree of Might, Lord Slug, and Super Android 13) as well as the Future Trunks and Bardock specials. In other words, I have a feeling that in answering this, I'm gonna miss things, sorry.

That being said, you've given me the perfect opportunity to talk about a few specific scenes in DB animation that I think about a lot, so thanks! This is gonna be a long answer cause I can’t actually talk about anything without going off for a billion years apparently. Sorry ᕕ( ᐛ )ᕗ

So. First of all, I want to describe what I think of when I think is "good animation". Generally speaking, I judge animation to be “good” kinda like this:

Context. because I’m just Like That and can’t enjoy something if my suspension of disbelief is challenged lol. But this also means what a scene is setting out to do and what it communicates. There’s things you can do with cuts, speed changes, tempo, etc that can really sell and add layers to animation

Creativity. Probably speaks for itself. If an animation does something unique or creative, I like it a lot. I like seeing things I haven’t seen before and being surprised

Basic animation principles. You know... timing, impact, etc. If you’ve seen any posts on animation, you probably have a general idea of what this means. I’m not trained in animation, but I’ve animated a little and have looked at the usual guides and videos

Cinematography: Just like how you can’t separate comic quality from paneling and dialogue, I believe you can judge animation similarly to how you judge live action, because how the animation is framed is also a conscious decision in how its drawn and thusly animated

Brain go bbbrrrrr. Cause sometimes I just like stuff and it’s hard to explain why. We can’t be objective about everything, it’s quite literally impossible

This also means that not all of the best animated scenes in DB are action scenes to me. Character acting and so on are important too. 

Okay now on to me talking about stuff. There are lots of really well animated parts throughout the whole series including all the scenes you mentioned, so I’m going to limit myself to uh... Not as many as I could name. Let’s go!

Piccolo jr. ripping his arm off

You know how I mentioned character acting being really important in a scene? Yeah. Honestly this whole fight is my favorite in the series not just because of its choreo and intuitive combat, but also because of the character-focused sections like this one. It’s raw. It’s gritty. The incredible, pushed-to-the-limits expressions Piccolo makes and how they framed the scene are incredible. Even the usage of color is on point! 11/10 easily.

(This gif’s of them fighting but as said, the combat during this is also fantastic. Also shout out to Goku’s meteor combo. I watch that almost every day.)

Goku vs Ginger, Nikki, and Sancho (Dead Zone)

Hi I think the first two DB movies are some of the best ones actually.

In my opinion, fights where we can see the limb movement > fights where we can’t see the limb movement, so the early DBZ films have a leg up over the later ones. Goku does some really well choreographed and animated dodging when it’s just Ginger and Nikki in particular, with impeccable character acting on top. Shout out to when he gets his hair cut.

This is also where I’ll mention what I like to call injury choreography, which is a part of a fight scene that I think is very important but not talked about a lot. This refers to how taking injuries is framed during a fight, such as how the impact feels and how the injury was choreographed. This is just as important to an animated fight scene as it would be a live action fight scene, and so I count it when I think of what the “best” animation is in the series. There’s really good injury choreo in the first two DBZ movies in particular, and I’d recommend everyone watch them.

The Whole DBS Broly Movie

Because it is.

Whenever UI Goku is on screen

Yeah I haven’t even watched Super but I know gorgeous animation when I see it. I don’t think there’s a single DB fan alive that can make a valid argument against UI being stunning, let alone anyone who thinks it isn’t jaw dropping. I also don’t think there’s much I could say that hasn’t already been said, i just thought it was worth listing because. Yo.

Goku vs. The Goons from World’s Strongest

Okay I saved this one for last because I have the most to say about it. World’s Strongest is a movie I have conflicted feelings over, but one thing I am NOT conflicted on is the scene where Goku confronts the two remaining lackeys of Dr. Wheelo. To see which parts I’m going to talk about, click here and go to about 0:45.

I won’t do a full breakdown, but I am very impressed with this scene. Besides having amazing choreo (the injury choreo in particular for both Goku and the goons is????? incredible I love it), it also answers the a question that I believe to be important to the whole franchise’s animation: how do you convey speed when characters are supposed to be moving too fast for the eye to register?

These scenes answer that question with: Comparison.

Man, Goku looks great in this still doesn’t he? Anyway, what I mean by comparison is that this scene takes Goku’s actions and uses either creative shot comp or interspersing of something happening simultaneously to inform the audience of how fast he’s going. The parts that do this are:

The initial stare down scene. In it, we basically blink and Goku’s smacked this guy in the face with his elbow. It uses shot composition and timing to show that Goku went really damn fast when he hit this guy. The usage of establishing shots in particular made me “oooh”.

Everything from 2:12-2:33. To put a blanket summary over it, everything happening in those seconds happens in the span of how long it takes the guy Goku punched to fly into the wall and collapse into the rubble. The animators interspersed shots of that with the rest of the fight in order to convey how fast Goku was moving using kaioken. That’s bonkers ridiculous fast

I believe that good animation can convey the meaning of a scene clearly, but a great animation can convey not just that but subconscious information that viewers can enjoy on repeat watches. That’s what this scene did for me and it blew my whole mind. 

Go Goku go go--

Alright I’m cutting myself off there. One day I am going to just rip apart this scene by the seems, and maybe do the same with other scenes, because I may not be trained in animation but damn if I don’t have a lot of thoughts rattling around in my skull.

Thanks again for the ask!