Adventures in bad animation

[Lego]

So I'm talking to Mendinso this morning, and we got to talking and watching these two clips.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=C3Gw_L7BbEE&feature=related

One from the infamous "episode 4 of Slayers: Lost Universe", and one from everyones favorite, Musashi.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=5EohpXyhe5o


Now those are some extreme examples of animation gone horribly, horribly wrong, but they all can't be award winners like those two(thank god). Most of the time "bad animation" comes during TV runs of a series. Characters can be off model, background details left out, animation choppy, and a number of other "we did this to save time and money" blights can be seen. So while we could sit here and bash certain studios or shows, why not put a positive spin on it and have a good laugh?

It leads me to the question, what are some of your favorite "bad animation" moments?

[Sensuifu]

Boys be... A couple of the episodes had the characters looking like Chunk from The Goonies.
Negima Lots of sloppy art splattered over various episodes.
TinT The designs were already bad enough but they topped it with crappy consistency throughout the show.

[Lego]

Negima Lots of sloppy art splattered over various episodes.


Ah, do I remember seeing the comparison pictures for the first series. It was so bad that they actually went and changed animation studios in the middle of it.

[Mazinkaizer]

I recall that there were some Eps of Hakkenden where the characters became close to looking like Beavis and Butt-head's :sweat:

[Serial Experiments Nobue]

In Princess Nine, I think each animator had different character model sheets. :sweat1:

[jlazar]

Welcome to the NHK had some particularly bad animation in the middle. Does anyone know if they ever cleaned that up for the DVD releases (R2 and R1)?

[Suwako Moriya]

One from the infamous "episode 4 of Slayers: Lost Universe", and one from everyones favorite, Musashi.

Ah so that's what the Lost Universe scene looks like it.... Scary as heck.

[The Adventurer]

Most intense action scenes in Noein when the art went all "sketchy".

though that might have been intentional.

[Panko]

lol that Lost Universe clip looks like they just animated all the key frames and forgot to do the tweeners!

I recall that there were some Eps of Hakkenden where the characters became close to looking like Beavis and Butt-head's :sweat:

that was terrible, almost made me shut the dvd off.

Most intense action scenes in Noein when the art went all "sketchy".

though that might have been intentional.

i liked those parts :bigsmile:

[Lego]

Welcome to the NHK had some particularly bad animation in the middle. Does anyone know if they ever cleaned that up for the DVD releases (R2 and R1)?


In the name of Gonzo, nope. They just left it as is on the R2 DVD's and it carries over to the R1 DVD's.


One from the infamous "episode 4 of Slayers: Lost Universe", and one from everyones favorite, Musashi.

Ah so that's what the Lost Universe scene looks like it.... Scary as heck.

I'm more amazed that they could even air the damn thing like that. I used to have a webpage showing all of the edits they had to go back and make but seeing it in motion?

...

Woh boy..

*edit*

Here is the site
http://nyo-nyo.hp.infoseek.co.jp/ysigani/yasigani1.htm

[Talyn]

Samurai 7 when Shichiroji is dancing at the Inn... like dear god... there was a similar scene in NHK with like no detail in the characters against a great background... or sequence that could have been really pretty if that corner hadn't been cut....

[O-chan]

Ranma 1/2 Season 3: Hard Battle had some really really sad looking episodes. There's also an episode in Season 7 where the Chinese Guide makes an appearance and the episode starts off good looking then halfway through it's like the budget went to crap.

O-chan

[CGord]

Samurai 7 when Shichiroji is dancing at the Inn... like dear god... there was a similar scene in NHK with like no detail in the characters against a great background... or sequence that could have been really pretty if that corner hadn't been cut....
Samurai 7 was my first thought, where the style takes such a sudden shift you go WTF? This happened for a bit in the middle of FLCL, too. Looked very similar.

A couple of the Bleach Bounto filler eps looked horrible.

[Westlo]

Most intense action scenes in Noein when the art went all "sketchy".

though that might have been intentional.

It's intentional, Satelight did the same thing with Macross Frontier episode 4.

[Lego]

Most intense action scenes in Noein when the art went all "sketchy".

though that might have been intentional.

It's intentional, Satelight did the same thing with Macross Frontier episode 4.


Noein also had something where the first episode looked almost completely different from the second or third, an abrupt character design change.

[mrjk]

I recall that there were some Eps of Hakkenden where the characters became close to looking like Beavis and Butt-head's :sweat:

Yeah but that was because they gave several different teams the different episodes - it was an experiment. I know a lot of people were put off, but actually, individually, the animation is excellent in most of those episodes. The designs just don't match. The one that people complain about that I see, was a quite realistic design that I think has actually influenced more than a few series since '94 -- about when those experimental episodes were made.

I love Princess 9, but yeah, second the bad animation. There are some scenes where it looks like layers are moving independently, just cheap.

[StudioZEL]

I remember my sister showed me a little of something called "Afterschool in the Teacher's Lounge" because, while I'm not a yaoi fan, I am a a fan of laughably bad animation. There was this running animation that was not only horrible, he looked like he was running in place rather than moving anywhere.

Angel's Feather was also a case study of "how many still images can we not animate?"

[daymare]

Most intense action scenes in Noein when the art went all "sketchy".

though that might have been intentional.

In a way, it's similar to Gainax's trademark style of using low cel count (not 1-cel count) during intense action scenes. It makes the action scene flow well with a distinct style while not costing too much. You can think of it as their existence's phasing in-and-out when they get the beat-down :)


To me, the most memoribly-disappointing animation is the Lodoss War TV series. Every time an action scene is about to start, it continues on with the SAME CEL. They don't even repeat animation or use flashing swords or anything. They simply show like one cel, without or without panning. To think that I was conned into buying the series with just the OP...

[theAMAZINGboo]

I thought the "sketchy" scenes in Noein looked awesome and were well animated.

Though it seems I'm in the minority quite a bit.

[Kouji Tamino]

Most intense action scenes in Noein when the art went all "sketchy".

though that might have been intentional.

It's intentional, Satelight did the same thing with Macross Frontier episode 4.


Noein also had something where the first episode looked almost completely different from the second or third, an abrupt character design change.

Actually, it was the other way around. Episode two looks NOTHING like the rest of the series. It looked really nice, but not quite as unique as the rest of the series. Really shiny, too. :P

[geotrio]

Musashi Gundou: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7urUYFjLUk

Shinkyoku Soukai Polyphonica: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o7fDTd4tWrE

[Splitter]

I can forgive a lot of bad animation, Gurren Lagann 4 included, but this is unexcusable (http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v230/Mataji/26_54.jpg).

I want to know who deflated my Nipah, and I wanna know now!

[Fencedude]

Not naming any names, but some people need to learn the difference between "art", "animation" and "style"

Further on topic, season 1 of Higurashi had some seriously wonky art (though occasionally it was intentional) and thoroughly average animation. and the TV Airing of Nanoha StrikerS had some truly atrocious animation in episodes 4 and 7.

[Talyn]

One thing being missed here...

One person's idea of art is as varied as a person's opinions. What some think is treasure, is trash to others and vice versa.... I don't think anyone needs an education in what they perceive is good and bad. That's ultimately an individual's decision...that's just the way the world works....

[Lego]

One thing being missed here...

One person's idea of art is as varied as a person's opinions. What some think is treasure, is trash to others and vice versa.... I don't think anyone needs an education in what they perceive is good and bad. That's ultimately an individual's decision...that's just the way the world works....


Well with something like the "stencil shots" in Gurren or Noein, that I can agree with you on and go "wow, that really worked right there". The same can be said for other big time directors who have their own style. The purpose of the thread really wasn't about a certain style, but more about times when it's universally agreed that the anime is "off" or "bad" in a comical way.

The two examples I used in the opening post are great examples of that heh.

[Serial Experiments Nobue]

The purpose of the thread really wasn't about a certain style, but more about times when it's universally agreed that the anime is "off" or "bad" in a comical way.

Yeah, I was thinking in terms of the physical process of animating the show when I was deciding what to mention.

[Critic Chris]

A lot of shonen shows (Naruto, Bleach, Blue Dragon, Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece) often get screwed over in terms of animation. This is odd, since you'd think you'd want to make at least the fight scenes, the main attraction of these shows for some, look good. And Naruto and Bleach have pulled out some great fights when Studio Pierrot (who also animated Hakusho and Dragon) got a proper budget to work with... but I can't even watch Yu Yu Hakusho anymore. Seriously, that animation is piss-poor. The same goes for Blue Dragon, which is one of the worst-animated shows in recent memory, and poor One Piece (especially the early episodes) often looks choppy and stilted.

[Lego]

A lot of shonen shows (Naruto, Bleach, Blue Dragon, Yu Yu Hakusho, One Piece) often get screwed over in terms of animation. This is odd, since you'd think you'd want to make at least the fight scenes, the main attraction of these shows for some, look good. And Naruto and Bleach have pulled out some great fights when Studio Pierrot (who also animated Hakusho and Dragon) got a proper budget to work with... but I can't even watch Yu Yu Hakusho anymore. Seriously, that animation is piss-poor. The same goes for Blue Dragon, which is one of the worst-animated shows in recent memory, and poor One Piece (especially the early episodes) often looks choppy and stilted.

You could make a whole thread for Naruto alone :devil:. It gave us such classics as this (http://img143.imageshack.us/img143/6835/headlessnarutowd4sl3.jpg)

[The Adventurer]

I know the difference between "style" and "technique".

I just find things like panning across static images (images with people and things you'd think should be moving and milling around) and the sketchy linework as "shortcuts" rather then just "style"



Also, constant reuse of stock shots. Noein had a few of those, most CG shots too, that could have (relatively) easily been shot from multiple angles instead of running the same shots over and over again. (the house and the reappearances of the dragontork's choker specifically)

[nakimushi]

The last couple of episodes of Aura Battler Dunbine.

It looked like they used the entire animation budget for those episodes for the mecha battle scenes (which did look nice) and farmed out all the character animation to a bunch of high school interns. :)