Episode 118 Breakdown When the staff lists came out for this month
of Super, this episode was the one to really look forward to.
Not only did it mark the return of Naoki Tate, the animator and supervisor who last blew
us all away in the second half of the special, really giving Ultra Instinct's debut some
unique and memorable movement, it also brought about the return of Masato Mistuka, the director
of the aforementioned episode, and one of Super's absolute best.
An animator capable of conveying great impact, and a director capable of bringing it all
together.
Two universes that we've had characterisation for being erased.
On paper, this should be the perfect episode.
And… it's not.
It's very much an episode of two halves, but it's certainly up there as one of the
strongest episodes of this tournament anyway.
So let's jump in with that first half, which is undeniably the weaker of the two.
It comes from Toei Animation Philippines – Joey Calangian and Noel Ano-Nuevo being the two
supervisors, here.
Their presence is honestly pretty minimal.
While you can spot them in some close-ups throughout a few scenes, the chief animation
supervisor, Miyako Tsuji, has pretty much put her entire focus on this first half.
The vast majority of scenes here feature her redraws, and I'm actually pretty happy with
her work here.
I've mentioned across a few recent videos that Tsuji's style has started devolving
a little after such a strong output in the Future Trunks arc.
This episode definitely feels like a pretty reasonable return to form.
Some of the shots of Goku look absolutely gorgeous.
They look like they're drawn with real confidence, and the shading definitely backs it up.
It's a stark contrast to her rather rough output only a few episodes ago.
This tournament's certainly tough on the chief supervisors, so I can't complain too
much, but with Ide really strutting his stuff, it'd be nice to have both of them at a consistent
level.
The major sequences in this first half are actually the ones that let it down the most.
This half is packed with reused or repurposed animation, to the point that it was actually
really distracting.
I honestly haven't been this pulled out of an episode by reused scenes since the first
two episodes of this tournament.
You've got a tonne of cuts from episode 103.
Tate's Gohan vs Obuni was reused with him redrawing Obuni as Saonel.
Piccolo's Hellzone grenade was repurposed.
Higashide's #18 cut from episode 99 is recycled.
Miuma's work in episode 112 was reused and touched up by Tate.
Huge chunks of Mitsuka's storyboard from 102 were thrown in, too.
They also went all the way back to episode 88, and reused Piccolo's training scene
with Gohan.
The only new scene that really stood out to me was the scuffle scene between Piccolo and
Pirina.
I really liked the extreme smears on the impacts, and of course, that shading is gorgeous.
Not sure who pulled that off, but they did a great job.
As far as reused scenes go, it's a little depressing to have so much recycled content
on an episode that's of great importance like this.
I can certainly forgive the parallels to episode 102 since that works as part of the magical
BOYS gag, but the action scenes were just too much.
It's a bit of a lose-lose situation – the alternative are some presumably poor scenes
from Toei Animation Philippines, so this is certainly better than nothing, but with many
of these cuts coming from episodes in the past few weeks, it's hard to push them out
of your mind.
As much as I'm harking on about this, I have to say, I'm not that upset.
In the grand scheme of not only the episode, but this tournament as a whole, it's a pretty
minor setback that I appreciate occurs to allow this tournament to even exist at the
quality it does right now.
Since Dragon Ball Super's special, the series has been on a real roll as far as its production
goes.
It's looking incredibly good for a weekly battle shonen – far beyond my expectations.
Not only was the special pretty remarkable, but episode 112 allowed for Miuma to produce
scenes with his gorgeous effects on full display, episode 113 showed us that Tu Yong-ce is great
when it comes to scenes that require powerful imagery, 114 gave us Takahashi whose work
doesn't even need a description.
116 reminded us that Higashide is one of the best, and we got a great surprise from Ken
Otsuka.
117 should have been a nothing Yashima episode, but Ryo Onishi appeared and gave us an amazing
farewell to Ribrianne.
The series is on fire right now.
And as we move into the second half of this episode, that streak continues in full force.
The half begins with a lovely scene from Osamu Ishikawa, where Nail and God appear before
Piccolo.
Ishikawa's a great artist so there are no complaints there.
The real strength of the scene is in Mitsuka's storyboard and direction.
This is such a lovely way of honouring the series' lore, and the role reversal of Piccolo
stepping in front of Gohan back in the Saiyan arc is really powerful way of finishing up
the master/pupil plotline that's been running through this arc.
This follows up with the first of Tate's contributions in this episode, and holy hell,
is it powerful.
Gohan's punch on to Saonel carries so much weight.
I really love how his head turns into a smear on the impact.
As they fly up into the air, the seamless transition into the rotation as Pirina joins
the fight is seriously impressive.
Major props go to Tate and Mitsuka for the storyboard and layout here.
Saonel joining back into the fight once again hammers home something I've been pointing
out for weeks.
Characters moving in and out of fights within a single cut is the best way of showcasing
the format of this tournament.
Following this scene, we head over to Tu Yong-ce and Osamu Ishikawa ping-ponging cuts back
and forth between one another.
Ishikawa handles many of the stills as Goku defends himself from one of the magical boys
– and yes, I'm sticking with that name.
As the action kicks in, Tu takes over, and much like the last scene, it features multiple
characters bouncing in and out of the frame.
Tu's contributions continue as the magical boys begin to create the black heart and 17
blocks it with his barrier.
Once again, you can see the same lightning effects that he's become quite fond of over
the past few months.
Like the last time they appeared, they match the first time they really stood out in the
Super Saiyan 3 scene in 113.
The black heart itself pinging around comes from Naoki Tate.
It's so nicely done.
I really love morphing effects animation like that.
It offers so much freedom when it comes to squash and stretch.
The next big scene is of course the series of Kamehamehas, and unfortunately for me,
this is where it gets very confusing as far as identifying animators go.
I asked Tu Yong-ce exactly what he did on episode, and aside from the stuff I mentioned,
which he clarified very specifically, he vaguely said he did "the bit before Tate's part".
Considering the bits before Tate's other parts are from Ishikawa, the only thing left
over is Goku's Kamehameha, which comes before what looks to be Tate's Gohan scene.
Either way, it looks absolutely fantastic.
I love how creative the storyboard is here.
Saonel reaching around the beam and coming through with one hell of an expression is
amazing.
Especially as the camera then seamlessly pans up from Gohan and onto Piccolo.
That's such incredible camera work.
Again, Mitsuka is just a phenomenal director.
That essentially wraps up this action.
You can find Ishikawa towards the end, and again, in amongst some other styles throughout
the episode that are likely from the few other animators on board here.
This was a pretty small staff list as far as in-house Toei goes, which would explain
the reused animation and heavy reliance on Toei Animation Philippines here.
Before we wrap things up, I have to once again point out the background art here.
Bun-sun Lee is far and away Super's strongest art director.
The detail in his backgrounds is outstanding and the choice of colours do such a good job
of creating atmosphere.
I pointed this out in the contrast between Takahashi's episode and one that followed
it – 114 and 115- and once again, you can see it here compared to the episode before.
There's depth to the imagery, and again, that atmosphere is just night and day – almost
literally.
It's nice to see all of Super's best come together for single episodes.
On the whole this episode really did just about live up to my expectations.
Like I said, no, it certainly wasn't as perfect as it sounded on paper, but as far
as delivering a great looking fight and actually making me feel something as two universes
were erased, it certainly did its job.
Next week is half outsourced once again, this time to Tsutomo Ono and his team.
We're seeing the return of Yasuhiro Namatame, who we last saw in episode 111.
I wasn't hugely impressed by his last efforts and the NEP doesn't exactly fill me with
hope, but I'm cautiously optimistic all the same.
Ono's team is certainly capable of producing good work, and with regards to Toei's team,
we haven't seen Kenji Miuma for a while!
Lots of potential there.
But that's it for this week.
Unless there's some groundbreaking revelations in the upcoming issue of Animage, it seems
the return of Yuya Takahashi will be the big episode to look forward to in the next month's
worth of episodes.
For all the details on that, be sure to check out the video all about that that I released
this morning.
Let me know how you enjoyed this episode!
Did it live up to your expectations, were the universes erasures handled as you liked,
and what are your hopes for next week?
Be sure to rate the video, subscribe if you're new, and as always, I will see you next time.
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