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Animation Style Change? *spoilers*

Spinor

<i><font color="b1373f">The Lonely Physicist</font
  • 5,176
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    • Seen Feb 13, 2019
    Today, as you all know we have obtained another preview for Best Wishes. A lot of us are further excited, and are glad how the Sinnoh league is coming to a close.

    However, something notable to point out, would be the change in the animation style.

    I'll describe in text and in pictures. Firstly, the first moment you notice Ash's official pose picture, you notice something is completely different. First obvious thing is his eye. In the past his iris was a simple filled dark long oval with the simple lighting. Now you notice that his brown eye color, which has been shown in rare close ups, is much more defined, and his eye as a whole increased in size.

    Another thing with observation is the drawing style of his eye. The eyes is most of the Pokemon characters are drawn with the pencil border except for the inwards border, which goes directly from white to skin. This time, it's closer to a more classical style. In which only the bottom and the eyelash part of the eye is bordered. Leaving the inwards sides the same and doing the same border absence for a bit of the outer sides. Also notice this is approximately the same style used for Iris.

    Even the eyebrows have a slightly notable difference. It's that average angle that changes every season or two, but also it's drawing style, which I think stayed about the same until now.

    A few shots in the preview reveals many more details. His nose is more defined in a few shots, you can tell intuitively that some body proportions are different.


    Now, these are merely observations. No conclusions can be drawn up yet, but there still exist a few hypotheses.

    What I think is the most likely, is that there is a different animation team altogether. No more Satoshi Tajiri or Ken Sugimori or whatev, total difference. In support to that, it's not really that hard to imitate Pokemon's animation style. It's probably one of the most basic styles if anything. Imitating it can be a breeze for professionals if even people from around the internet have done.

    Another thing, which I actually find a tad more reasonable, yet less likely, is that it will be implied that Ash is going to age. We're going to skip a year or two after the Sinnoh league, and Ash will appear to show some aging. Although a lot of the animation change points to that, the trends show that this is not exactly likely.

    I think, that I may prefer the previous style better. This may be a classy case of beginning nostalgia, but I have to lay down that it is a simple change. New comers to the show that see that Ash first then the previous style will wonder "Who the **** is that?". It's a matter of first seen, first liked.

    I would for sure like to hear what others think. This may not seem major at first. But, one thing is for sure, it is drastically unreasonable to change the style for no reason. Clearly one thing has to be going on, but at this point it seems difficult to determine anything.

    tl;dr : Why do you think Ash looks different this upcoming saga?
     
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    Bloothump

    the Sea Fungi Pokemon.
  • 254
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    Personally, i love Ash's new look as a whole, I see it as a huge improvement over his style in the Sinnoh league. His clothes aside, which I happen to like a whole lot more anyway, I think this new art style shoes a lot more effort and skill in general when compared to what we currently have. Ash's shoulder span, I noticed, in that last episode was barely wider than his head. I personally don't like those proportions. So I think that the new Ash is big improvement.
     

    okjoek

    Hoenn champ
  • 465
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    I dont know what the new ash is supposed to look like, nor do I know where to see your sources, I just watch the show around 11 in the morning which is currently near snowpoint city 0_o

    Where can I see these images/ previews?
     

    RedBattler

    Dexholder
  • 40
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    • Seen Dec 31, 2012
    @okjoek: images are up at bulbapedia


    Wow...neat observations AdvancedK47! Perhaps this could really be a sign that Ash is finally maturing!!! :shocked:
    Or it could be that the animators tried to incorporate from Black's design, as Ash now has several similar features.
    Whatever it is, any change in the anime is greatly appreciated! xD
     

    Totaldile

    appeared! Totaldile used RAWR!
  • 122
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    The attacks, such as Iron Tail and Volt Tackle look so much more detailed. Rather than just glowing white, Iron Tail actually looks like an Iron Tail. Wiht Volt Tackle, instead of just being yellow and black, there's some gold and various shades of orange mixed in. very cool ^^.
     

    Vernikova

    Banned
  • 4,039
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    Different style of animation doesn't mean different Animation Directors. It could just be a different style and nothing more.

    Also, LOL @ Tajiri and Sugimori. At least look up one AD.
     

    joacen

    Starter Pokemon: Oshawott
  • 85
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    • Seen Aug 8, 2011
    But, one thing is for sure, it is drastically unreasonable to change the style for no reason.

    These style changes aren't drastically unreasonable. They're good for the show. I think these animation and style changes are a major improvement, and it makes the anime a lot better. When you have a show like Pokemon that's been going on for 14 years or so, major change is bound to happen somewhere along the way.
     

    PearlShipper4Life

    Ash fan girl
  • 807
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    • Seen Aug 13, 2016
    I love Ash new style, he's so cute ^^ His eyes and clothes, every thing just too cute. I am really looking forward to the series, I mean no Brock, new look, new characters.
     

    Jorah

    What do I put here?
  • 4,215
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    There is a reason for the eye change, though: they're using Sugimori's new style (that he's actually been using since Ruby and Sapphire). They only started using Sugimori's new style in the anime since DP, though.

    Sugimori's old eye style - Anime's old eye style
    Sugimori's DP eye style - Anime's DP eye style
    Sugimori's BW eye style - Anime's BW eye style

    Sugimori's eye style just got larger this time around, and the animation team probably decided it was time to update the old cast, too, since this generation is supposed to be so different and fresh from the last. Neither Sugimori nor Satoshi Tajiri are part of the anime animation team o_O They're just using more CGI to keep things modern. I don't think either of these things have to do with a new animation team o.O
     

    okjoek

    Hoenn champ
  • 465
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    I looked it up on bulbapedia and watched a video someone sent me and It looks pretty cool. I like how the hat has a more classical theme to it. maybe because its backwards? or maybe its just his face but it looks great! I cant wait till the series comes out in english. I would learn japaneese speech for the sole purpose of pokemon. but spanish is hard enough currently as it is.

    Estoy muy emocionada!

     

    fenyx4

    HOENN CONFIRMED!
  • 1,761
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    There is a reason for the eye change, though: they're using Sugimori's new style (that he's actually been using since Ruby and Sapphire). They only started using Sugimori's new style in the anime since DP, though.

    Sugimori's old eye style - Anime's old eye style
    Sugimori's DP eye style - Anime's DP eye style
    Sugimori's BW eye style - Anime's BW eye style

    Sugimori's eye style just got larger this time around, and the animation team probably decided it was time to update the old cast, too, since this generation is supposed to be so different and fresh from the last. Neither Sugimori nor Satoshi Tajiri are part of the anime animation team o_O They're just using more CGI to keep things modern. I don't think either of these things have to do with a new animation team o.O

    Yikes, WTF happened to Ash's eyes?! :laugh: Lol, I guess it fits with the evolving BW art style, but IMO, the BW eyes are essentially the same as they have been since FR/LG player art surfaced... I kind of prefer Ash's Advanced/DP Generation art style, but I'll watch BW for a while to see whether the new style grows on me...

    I haven't really watched that many DP episodes, so I can't judge the CGI yet... However, I do like how certain attacks like Volt Tackle and Roar of Time are rendered in the anime...

    EDIT: I like how Ash's clothing is semi-original, although it is still too reminiscent of Black's (male BW player character) clothing from BW. I wish it was more creative, like his Kanto/Johto and Hoenn outfits. And now I really wish that Black had those black fingerless gloves that are being worn by Ash! Ugh...now Black's hands look way too bare... :(
     
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  • 1
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    • Seen Sep 7, 2010
    In addition to the reasons that durg_tis mentioned, TV series often use many different studios to produce different episodes of the series. This is much faster than having just one studio working on a whole series; you can have various studios each working on a different episode at the same time. Individual studios may have different styles or levels of talent and sharp eyed viewers can often tell which studios worked on which episodes of a show.
     
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