Thread: 5D's Episode Animation Chronicle & Directors

Cool, thnx for the list been looking for something similar.

I think these are the best!

01. Episode(s) 01, 07, 14, 26, 33, 41, 49, 57
05. Episode(s) 04, 06, 09, 12, 15, 24, 31, 37, 45, 48, 51, 58

I think 16 needs to be moved down, that was crappy animated episode. Probably the worst animated episode of the Fortune Cup arc. 46 could be moved up, the animation was better then that. 49 could also be moved down, it wasn't a Haranimated episode unless I slipped up.

Good idea for a thread, Jake. I'm surprised nobody's done this before. And if they have, I'm sorry for not looking.

Although the screenshot you chose for #10 doesn't look all that bad considering its ranking.

Yusei looks like a kid in pic #7 XD

How cute, lol.

The animation in the Team Satisfaction flashbacks in ep 34 gave me the shudders.

That animation was just...bleh D:

Let me see if I can name these off.

The sakuga directors involved in each of these examples are as follow:
1. Ken'ichi Hara
Did sakuga for Duel Monsters and for the GX openings (1-4.) Him, Takahiro Kagami, and Kazunori Takahashi were among the best DM sakuga.

2. Choi Hoon Chel
Korean outsourcer sakuga director. Probably did some tweener stuff in DM and GX.

3. Shin'ichirou Minami
Did some stuff really really late into DM--like towards the Memory Arc. The first ep he did was 201 and the last he did was 224.

4. Ichizo Kobayashi
I believe he did some DM stuff, off the top of my head. Can't give any specific numbers.

5. Yuuji Kokai
Don't recall his name from any DM credits, but he is in charge of mecha design for 5D's.

6. Satoru Minowa
The episodes on this part of the list are actually three different people with two people working together. Ep 46 are by two (I believe) Korean guys by the names 李敬秀 and 朴致萬. (I could give Japanese approximations, but I wouldn't be too sure on the accuracy.) 55 was done by the one I listed above, Satoru Minowa.

7.
8.
9.
10.

I'll finish just as soon as I fix my computer fgsahfff

Perhaps we should, ah, not rank the animation so much as "sort" and categorize it? Hands down, Hara has the most appealing animation style, and few will disagree that Episode 40 had the, er... least appealing animation, but anything in-between would be highly debatable. Personally, I happen to think 3 and 5 have some of the loveliest animation, though the OP would seem to disagree. Why don't we play nice and not let this devolve into an animation-quality argument, shall we?

Hey Jake If u had to put the Opening in those Wat would they be

Plus Horoko didnt finsh his Post x)

I have a feeling that 73 belongs to #8, really.... The animation looks like the beginning of the last Kiryu-Yusei duel (beginning only).

Originally Posted by Beejay1231

I have a feeling that 73 belongs to #8, really.... The animation looks like the beginning of the last Kiryu-Yusei duel (beginning only).

Well its down to 10 =/

I dont think it was that Bad prob a 8 or 9 at most

To me, it felt like 73 was shifting between animation styles; going from something like #2 to Hara, then to #2 for a bit before going to something like #4-#6, then Freedom/Ozone-style stuff, and then Hara to finish. It was kinda jarring. XD

As for the openings/endings, up until Season 2 (or 3 for those who count the DS arc as Season 2), it looked more like #3. Freedom and Ozone, while they have awesome monster designs in it (being animated by the Monster Design guy), the faces...eh, not so much. Jake, you should probably add that level of animation in there. XD

I've watched episode 17 and it looks like is Haranimation

17 was not sakugaed by Kenichi Hara. Park Chi Man and Lee Kyoung Soo (both who did a plethora of GX episodes) did it.

Are the animation teams that are working on 5Ds currently the same as the ones that worked on YGO DM & GX?

Hara's is by far the best & I wanna know is he the one that did episodes like 140 in the original YGO DM. If it is that they shared the same animation team.

I'd like to know who did 127 and 128 in DM.

Originally Posted by SaiyanDragon

Are the animation teams that are working on 5Ds currently the same as the ones that worked on YGO DM & GX?

Hara's is by far the best & I wanna know is he the one that did episodes like 140 in the original YGO DM. If it is that they shared the same animation team.

I'm pretty sure that the animator for episode 140 and others are made by Takahiro Kagami, who also is one the people who animated Death Note.

I'm bumping this thread because it's almost twenty episodes behind, and I'm curious as to most of the animation teams for the episodes that haven't been listed.

Wow... I realized the difference in animation, but not like this. Very cool thread, awesome for you to share 8D
(Sorry, I also forgot to put my name in the rep xP)

Aren't Risshi Namikaze (波風立志) and Tateru Namikaze (波風立流) the same person? Who just changed his name.
Their style seems to be the same.

Congratulations Jake for the thread. The idea is quite good and useful. It would've been great if DM and GX also had such thread.

I'm not a big fan of animators #3 and 18. Interestingly, The worst part is, animation team #3 has animated more episodes than any other team. It pays to be the worst, I guess. I dream of a world where every episode is in Haramation... (Haranimation is too long for me...)

Also, imo, I think episode 50 instead of 49 should have been Haramation, because of its relative importantce to the plot, while 49 was tackled by another animator.

Oh yeah, I didn't know 1 and 26 were Haramation at first, but after rewatching, I could recoginize Hara's detailed strokes. : )

This thread is still awesome. I'm hoping for Kagami to give us one episode.

17 | Mitsuru Natsukawa

Now I finally know who this animator's name is. This animator I noticed tends to draw the characters with sparkly shojo eyes, it amuses me so.

Aren't there like 3 different animators for episodes 73, 80, and 94? I saw 3 different art styles.

I wonder in which 5D'S episode the animation is/will be directed by Keiji Shigesawa. As far as I know he/she has/will have some staff in 5D'S. (http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/ency...e.php?id=15103) I want to make a comparison between it and episode 183 of DM someday.

10 looks like the worst. The other ones are basically the same Yusei, except 1, 6, 12, and maybe 19. I know 1 is Hara, and it looks pretty defined.

Originally Posted by cohenmarioman

10 looks like the worst. The other ones are basically the same Yusei, except 1, 6, 12, and maybe 19. I know 1 is Hara, and it looks pretty defined.

Aww but chubby Yusei's just the cutest. For serious though, I actually prefer 10 to most of these (exceptions of course being Hara and In Tea Sun, which are the gods of 5D's-imation. Minami and Namikaze look pretty good too)

Originally Posted by fishyofpain

Hara and In Tea Sun, which are the gods of 5D's-imation. Minami and Namikaze look pretty good too)

I wouldn't call In Tea Sun a "God". His monster designs can get relatively bad. See Nitro Warrior, ep. 86.

Awesome work! Thanks so much for this!
It's so convenient to simply click on this thread when I want to see what director animated which episode.
(Mutou's Jack is the best Jack!)

Originally Posted by Jake759

Keep on dueling, everyone. =D

OK, just wait to put a duel disk on each arm. xD--- J/K --- I didn't notice that you've indeed started this thread a year ago. x) Happy Birthday to the thread then. x) It gave the basic idea for the other 2 Animation Chronicle threads after all.

Looking at this thread for the first time and I gotta say...

Although it's inevitable, it's freaky in a strange way to realize that these people all look different when under different directors. D=

15 is doing the next episode, 110, and he seems to draw his girls ok (Aki, Ruka, Rua, for all intensive purposes, he is drawn as a girl) but his others seems to be kind of lacking.

Originally Posted by Jake759

So I've been wondering, does an animation director's art style influence any of you at all to watch certain episodes of the series? I'm curious.

Obligatory Hara of course. It makes me look forward to an episode with excellent animation and plot since he always signs up for the plot heavy episodes. Crappy animators (Mitsuru Natsukawa I am looking at you) put a damper on it, but it won't stop me from watching it as always.

Originally Posted by Starry

Obligatory Hara of course. It makes me look forward to an episode with excellent animation and plot since he always signs up for the plot heavy episodes. Crappy animators (Mitsuru Natsukawa I am looking at you) put a damper on it, but it won't stop me from watching it as always.

I think Mitsuru's style is HILARIOUS. "Screw the character sheets!" His Jack is especially funny to look at.
His actual 'animation' (the movement) is mostly fluid, I'll give him that.
His style is so far removed from all the other directors, I think he got a wrong idea in that 5D's is suppossed to be a shoujo anime.
I can't take any episode he's animated seriously, I'm just laughing at any 'serious' moment.

1st: Kenichi Hara (animation is always awesome)
2nd: Kimiharu Mutou (solid animation and is always welcome, just look at ep 63 it is a solid presentation throughout and I'm glad his a regular)
3rd: Shinichirou Minami (I like how he/she did ep 38, I think they should return)

I still hope for Kagami but, if the 3 I mentioned animated every episode in a periodic sense then, we would have a wonderfully animated show. Good animated show are crucial in the world we live today, its all about eye candy among other things.

Honourable Mentions:
Ichizou Kobayashi (pretty good ep 109 animation)

Really a good job ^.^
These screenshots are all so handsome >.<

I really would like it more if Studio Dice was to animate an episode (what are they doing now?) but Hara is quite good instead. I still love Takahashi's style however.

Who directed Close to You? Was it a Haramation? How about Freedom and Ozone? And the other OP and ED?

I think Believe in Nexus may have been a collab... I'm not sure, but the very beginning, with Crow, Yusei & Jack riding on a road made of light looks like the style of Masahiro (who did ep. 107) more than anyone else. The scene with Bruno, Aki & the twins, then Sherry & Mizoguchi definitely look like Hara, along with the ending picture. The credits kind of get in the way to determine the rest, and it's hard to tell solely by style anyway.

I wish I could read Japanese just so I could understand the credits.

I think the first two openings and endings were done by Shuuji Maruyama, who also animated Yusei's eyecatch for the 10th anniversary movie.

I thought it was something that needed to be added. Weird, I thought Believe in Nexus was all Hara, but I guess not. I really never recognize differences in design when there is so much action.

Originally Posted by Jake759

Freedom and Ozone were done by the same guy, specifically the monster designer for the series, but I have no clue what his name is.

Futoshi Higashide?

Originally Posted by Jake759

Also, Hara has begun doing the box art for the most recent DVD releases, too.

Whelp, that explains this nice copy and pasta.

Links are underlined btw

Futoshi Higashide is accredited with the role of main sakuga director, but if you look closely at the credits, Kenichi Hara is accredited with "Character Animation." Essentially, he gave the opening and endings a look over and made revisions to any of the characters, so if some of the characters look Hara'd out (especially noticeable in the ending,) that's why.

Thanks for the info Horoko!

So Hara is in charge of character revisions, a few plot-important episodes (which often include lots of action), and did the newer DVD and Sound Duel 3 covers.
It's like they're squeezing out as much as they can out of Hara. I hope they don't drain him into sheer exhaustion.

Does Hara's studio happen to have a name? Haranimaton?

Originally Posted by Starry

Futoshi Higashide?



Whelp, that explains this nice copy and pasta.

Links are underlined btw

That's some beautiful copy/paste i'll tell you what.

Just a question...
The name of the Animation director of episode 114 wouldn't it be Kojima instead of Mori? These are the kanjis 小島

Originally Posted by cohenmarioman

Does Hara's studio happen to have a name? Haranimaton?

I believe that's just what fans call it.

The closest equivalent would be Yu-Gi-Oh's animation studio, Gallop.

Originally Posted by YYugi

Just a question...
The name of the Animation director of episode 114 wouldn't it be Kojima instead of Mori? These are the kanjis 小島

It actually might as well. I went for Mori out of six different possibilities, but I now think that Kojima's probably the way to go, especially since those kanji make the word "kojima" (which means "inlet/small island"). Unless someone who's good with names can chime in.

Chika Kojima (female)