The Evolution of Tadayoshi Yamamuro's Art Style (Part 2)

Dragon Ball like many franchises has its fair share of much-loved animators. Names like Yuya Takahashi or Naotoshi Shida are more than familiar to fans. However, one animator that has earned the most notoriety out of them all is Tadayoshi Yamamuro.
His approach in Dragon Ball Z helped usher in a new and cleaner look to the series visuals while simultaneously hampering it many years later. So join me today for part 2 as we continue to track the evolution and somewhat devolution of Yamamuro's art style!
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💿Music credits:
Emil Rottmayer - T.I.M.E (Part 2)
Emil Rottmayer - Elevate
Krosia - Azur
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[@NIMPAK1]

I think it also goes to show how important color palettes are. If you took a still of GT and gave it more modern saturated digital coloring it'd work way worse. Say what you want about GT, but I feel like the look of that show in general is somewhat underappreciated.

[@SonEntry]

I agree. The subdued colors of the DBZGT era are what makes its best cuts look so good. I’m glad the skin tone in the show is often more pinkish than that fleshy yellow

[@bk-sl8ee]

Exactly!

[@wolfdragox5563]

While I’m not a fan of GT, there’s a lot of great stuff underrated in that show, the music, the character designs, even the ideas behind the enemies and transformations are great, it’s so sad that GT had so much potential wasted

[@Jayfym912]

@@SonEntrynah it’s gross

[@largemilk]

that Bardock at the end made me happy and sad, you mean he can still invoke that old style and just chooses not to?? 😩

[@forgottenrelics1197]

it seems so :(

[@forgottenrelics1197]

@Minh Le It's definitely him and I believe Yamamuro supervised it.

[@ZZtheDark]

YAMAMUROOOOOOOOOO!! kzbin.info/www/bejne/bJfRf2d9hN9nhLM

[@santiagomoralesgarcia1802]

It is like he is forcing to apreciate his new style that the old one, because that Bardock looks great and we don't know why he doesn't want to go back to his old style

[@trunk4810]

Not to mention that the shiny thing on the skin is completely missing here.

[@FlocksFigs]

to me it seems more like a devolution, he has its moments in SDBH but his older work is just far superior imo

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Well "The devolution of Tadayoshi Yamamuro's artstyle" was going to be the original title haha so I don't disagree

[@j04370859]

@@forgottenrelics1197 Have you seen the character sheets, for Fusion Reborn? That Gogeta picture, looks like his modern work, stiff, dull and shiny, I think his downfall started there, even though Movie 12 and 13, looked amazing.

[@vlexz97]

Most anime nowadays are animated worse and more bland than many from the 90s and 00s.

[@4bros352]

His work in the buu saga can NEVER be topped!! He's the reason ssj3 is my favourite form because of the way he drew goku in SS3. His work in gt was great too, especially the way he drew goku (and vegeta) in SS4!

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Yeah his SSJ3 goku was excellent, the poster he drew for movie 13 is still one of my favourites!

[@anton_lezama_art]

@Esp_M The hair is supposed to get longer every ssj transformation.

[@anton_lezama_art]

@Esp_M ssj4 isn't canon and ssjg are used with God ki. Ssb is just ssj with God ki.

[@anton_lezama_art]

@Esp_M Toriyama didn't design ssj4, but they might bring back the original design in dbs. the God forms are fused with ssj, but ssjg could be only god ki considered the hair is the same as base form. UI might have its own type of ki, probably angel, but idk.

[@anton_lezama_art]

@Esp_M Bruhhh chill, it's not that deep. All you said is that it's canon, changes have been made to things that have been confirmed to be canon.

[@RisingFist]

Was so confused when the first image of the video was of Kim Jong Un, but this was a good one 👏

[@y-animator8897]

Agreed

[@Babatunde_69420]

Lmfao

[@wormHD]

hi checkmark

[@bloodfinity]

Hey Fist

[@forgottenrelics1197]

haha thanks man👍

[@RexVergstrong]

I can't understand how uneven his work in the 00's is. Still, his 2008 designs are my favorite of his. I don't know if he also chose the color design but it's way better than what Super would get too. The filter at the beggining of the Tournament of Power in Super helped, tho.

[@user-xp3ku1oo5t]

I don’t like dragon ball super .

[@ChromedDomes]

@@user-xp3ku1oo5t ....But Who asked?

[@thechosenone2342]

@Damon Driver that has no relevancy to what the person is talking about

[@lancewinchester1000]

The production time was on hurry up mode for DBS and we know the result until some Nice episodes in Zamasu arc and Migate No Gokui moments. I still prefer his 94 art style which is on toplevel, 2000 era was good with Nice colors but more childish than the serious tone of Majin Vegeta fight for example. The Frieza resurrection was also very beautiful with cool animation works. Yamamuro never disappointed in the movies. Gogeta and Tapion are just intouchable and still fantastic.

[@RexVergstrong]

​@@lancewinchester1000 DBS used practically the same awful designs as FNF. Some of his worst work.

[@ThisHandleSystemCanGetNicked]

It's really interesting, we know he can channel his older designs still because of the Son Goku Special, yet he _chooses_ not to. How does a world class artist look at what he's doing now and go, "yeah, this kicks"? Truly baffling.

[@Garland846]

it should be called “the devolution of Tadayoshi Yamamuro’s artstyle”

[@hankosanko]

his artstyle in the dbz are the best. i wish they kept the indented cheek shade, there where some moments the character look flawless. happy to see shida and takahashi kept the style in super.

[@vinceamaro1382]

Shuichi Iseki did the indented shade as well

[@dinosaurus598]

Yamamuro's Artstyle barely changed after 1995

[@black2785]

If it wasn’t for this channels I would’ve thought there was many other artists and not just one man changing his style.

[@88Grimmjow]

His art in buu arc was the best ever of all the animators.

[@lancewinchester1000]

For me Yamamuro's 90 Art Style was so beautiful and near to perfection in Dragon Ball Z. (Android Arc/OAV and movies include are already very beautiful, and even more in Buu Arc). Times change but this DBZ era still just unforgettable.

[@9VK7]

Yamamuro: So anyway, I started highlighting.

[@KirbyLinkACW]

Even though I'm not too familiar with Dragon Ball (I'm more of a One Piece fan myself), I always love watch behind-the-scenes and the technicalities of a creative project, especially animation. Can't wait to see where you go from here!

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Thanks man glad you're enjoying the content :)

[@Waqas_Khan02]

Same bro it very interesting to watch these behind the scene I love to watch how this is animated who is the voice over of this character etc. Its very interesting.

[@Milos15GameplaysYT]

Same here. Even though I'm more of a Yu-Gi-Oh! fan myself, I like watching what's behind-the-scenes of Dragon Ball Z (Kai in my case, after watching the initial run).

[@ihateanatomy2169]

Already know this is gonna be a good video

[@karen9517]

I remember as a kid when I first discovered DBZ on the morning run [my first experience with anime] I was intrigued by the animation change in every episode. Being used to Western cartoons that are always the same, I would anticipate the art change. When an episode started instead of thinking ‘oh cool whats this episode about’, I would think ‘what art style will this episode have?’. This became apparent more in the Android & Cell arc. I enjoyed the series as a whole, no doubt about that, but I had ‘favourite’ art styles that made me enjoy an episode more than others. I found myself critiquing episode art styles compared to others, resulting in missing the magic of the story in general. No one I knew enjoyed DBZ [or anime for that matter] so I couldn’t discuss this topic. I did bring it up with my parents once but they just said ‘it all looks the same to me’. Okay, to be expected [lol]. Sometimes I thought I was weird for noticing these style changes, but after discovering the internet I wasn’t the only one who noticed this. Thank you for making these videos for putting in the research and analysis. I still have my favourite art style, but I still love every episode no matter what. DBZ started my love for anime and animation, I’ll never forget that and appreciate all the work put into the series of my childhood.

[@mechajay3358]

Even up to GT Yamamuro work was still pretty good, but after the show ended his art took a drastic turn. He relied on the highlights too much that the characters came off as stiff and plastic. He improved somewhat with the Yo Son Goku Special which where some of his best work in modern Dragon Ball, but when it came time for Battle of Gods and later Super, any lessons he learned went out the window and his art work have decline in quality ever since.

[@ms.antithesis]

Every tragedy needs a downfall and a tragic hero who starts out so noble

[@xxdeathxx9836]

I think z and even Gt had a better art style than super. The characters in super are too shiny and often look like action figures in super and that is because they kinda are. Z did have toys and the cell ark had a lot of weird art style choices especially with vegeta he looked weird as a super saiyan in the cell saga. There are a couple of exceptions in super where the art was good like in the top and the broly movie but besides that it is a downgrade from Z from my perspective.

[@vandalsavage2074]

I never realized it but this man defined the foundation of my artstyle.

[@Bloodhurl67]

Amazing video and now I fully understand why I love the old artstyles over scenes from Super. Too much highlights give it an unnecessary plastic feel and I love that the older artstyles don't have such a sharp look to them(One of the reasons why I hate XV2's cover of Goku).

[@halol537]

Was waiting for this one Amazing job as always!

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Thank you!

[@Sativa989]

The thumbnail 1994 /2003 are night and day like wth happen. Always give your content a watch start to finish you hit every nail on the head. Excellent takes break downs/presentation. And you even learn along the way! I hope this channel achieves success.

[@unknownplayer10k]

He is devolving.

[@TheKanckesco]

It's incredible how can you see the devolution year by year.

[@whenyounutinhermouthandshe]

Everything got better in the top arc but still, I hope super season 2 comes back looking really good.

[@TheGreenManiac10]

I feel like the round cheek shading should be used on Female Characters since they do have rounder designs

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Yeah it complements them rather well :)

[@themegacatoverlord9626]

Yo I'm glad to see the part 2 broski!

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Yep this one took some time and effort to put together so I'm glad it's finally done haha

[@AlphaProto]

It's strange how some of the artists who made my favorite Dragon Ball animations gradually change their style to something I'm not impressed with. I would like to blame the model sheets and the deadlines.

[@jasonone8726]

Well what you liked was over 20 years ago, eventually their work would change.

[@devilskind92]

@@jasonone8726 But they didn’t have to change for the worst…

[@Ruldolphmaker]

It's mostly just because Yamamuro hasn't expanded his horizons as much as other animators. He stayed on dragon ball and apparently only watches shows he's worked on. How is that supposed to breed dynamic results? Meanwhile people like Yuya Takahashi had their hands in series known for very stylish designs like Lupin III.

[@JeromeProductions]

@@devilskind92 agreed

[@ItsOver9000Productions]

i love the yo son goke designs. i wish super looked like that

[@csciabar]

Keep up the content! Twelve year old me thanks you! For real excellent work.

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Thanks Curtis! I appreciate it :)

[@Gaming_Hub_UK]

Yamamuro's consistency of staying close to Toriyama really showed how talented he was and still is.

[@Gaming_Hub_UK]

@Minh Le yeah. People don't always look too deep into DBZ

[@alexawef]

..."still is"?

[@Gaming_Hub_UK]

@@alexawef Welp 2 years back I had a different look on it. Nowadays I hate his art style

[@alexawef]

@@Gaming_Hub_UK XD

[@israelgabriel1989]

Just naised on this video this artist is by far my favorite

[@zilion]

Tadayoshi is the best

[@AkatsukiClash]

Thank you. I appreciated this a lot.

[@forgottenrelics1197]

no problem :)

[@Emanny360]

I'm so glad you finished part 2😄 This was an awesome breakdown. But I'm curious was it actually yamamuro who did that Bardock cut in super dragon ball heroes or was it just supervision?

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Quite sure it's him and he worked as a supervisor on it :)

[@aagamer43]

Yes, finally!

[@salvatoreocello]

That newer bardock picture towards the end is how it should be IMO 🥵

[@artssenindeiii]

How I wish he went with the Designs from. The Yo Son Goku and his friends returns special, in DBS. At least SDBH has an improvement.

[@ThisHandleSystemCanGetNicked]

Very minor though.

[@jasonone8726]

Nah, Heroes just looks poor.

[@JustAsh001]

@@jasonone8726 true

[@joshwilliams6517]

Super is such an obvious regression from DBZ’s style I don’t understand it

[@akil5695]

I glad that toriyama was the one that chose shintani rather than toei animation doing that

[@truegamer_007]

He has good judgement about his successors, even Toyataro is pretty awesome with the manga.

[@akil5695]

@@truegamer_007 shueisha chose toyotaro to be Akira toriyama's successor

[@9VK7]

I wish Fenyo would have drawn the manga instead of Toyotaro (not a knock against Toyotaro, Fenyo can just replicate Toriyama's style better) but I don't know how possible that would be.

[@akil5695]

@@9VK7 that would have been awesome

[@marcusmemelord5589]

Next time do Masahiro shiminuki

[@AbusingGfuel]

I love dragon ball regardless of mistakes or not grew up watching it and it’s amazing and will always be amazing 🔥🔥

[@batsuichimonji1623]

Liked how’d the characters shadings starting to changed just from gt and why it ended up plastics Feel bad for yamamuro actually cos he’s getting old and quite changes been made from him and other’s tries to at least makes it better Like for examples yuya make better than fan expectations and not so polished and plastic and it was so balanced to show the shading between black and some few colour shades

[@Waqas_Khan02]

Takahashi is better when he comes to draw characters he atleast captures old Yamamuro and some Keisuke Masanuga animation. And I think that Yamamuro should stop adding highlight to hair when a character is in base form just like how he did with Goku Black.

[@zojirushi1]

I love your channel since no one else covers dragon ball animation besides you and AnimeAJay but he doesn’t upload anymore and when he does it’s super infrequent with long droughts oof.

[@aagamer43]

Btw,poor guy once he was a hero now everyone despises him.

[@Mr5lapp]

fr

[@batsuichimonji1623]

fr

[@aagamer43]

Also GT made his future character designs suck

[@rory6483]

Thanks!

[@gIokk]

ngl i went back to rewatch gt recently and i had to skip a few episodes but, i love the way the animation is on there idky but it gives me nostalgia.

[@Mr5lapp]

wow, the quality for GT looks so good! what release are they?

[@forgottenrelics1197]

They were from the Dragon Box release with exception to the screencaps from ep 19 :)

[@Mr5lapp]

@@forgottenrelics1197 the dragon box really is THE BEST version of dragon ball

[@ItsOver9000Productions]

looking at modern yammamuro goku gives me scoliosis

[@Vishnu_Karthik]

Angular Jaws with smaller eyes are the best styles in the franchise. Its one of the main reasons why Masaguna&Takashashi's styles look so good. I'm not saying Sato&Maeda's softer styles aren't great but the angular designs just SCREAM 90s, you can take Yamamuro's design and put them on Image comics. It doesn't look anything like mainstream anime. Idk what caused him go in the exact opposite direction with his wide jaws. GT looks decent due to Nakatsuru's sheets, it balances out the wide jaw but yamamuro fell off after Yo Son GOku Special.

[@That_One_Guy-.]

Highlights powers, Activated!

[@Lssj]

And his animations were fantastic. Wish his work was shown across the whole show.

[@sheeti4467]

Just found your channel, you're going to blow up dude. I'm currently making shit post to learn how to edit and produce videos, hoping I'll be able to present like you one day.

[@crazypanda9870]

11:38 The Vegito SSB's character sheet is draw by Miyako Tsuji btw

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Oops haha thank you for letting me know

[@fromakspov8396]

The Title should be "The Devolution of Tadayoshi Yamamuro's Art Style (Part 2)".

[@forgottenrelics1197]

It was originally lol but since I was following on directly from a prior vid I wanted to keep consistency in the title.

[@jbrfr94]

Damm GT is so beautiful

[@Abdul48716]

Someone take his highlights away from him in dbs 😂

[@PsYDaniel]

The de- evolution

[@IJC144]

Oh yess💯 Everyone Go watch pt 1. If you Haven't 🔥🔥

[@chenzan]

I actually acquired a dbz cel and douga this week and wondered is this a Yamamuro sketch? It is a Shindo episode and he is the supervisor on it but would he do the douga parts?

[@illu0022]

The involution

[@9VK7]

You know you played a lot of Budokai 2 as a kid when you instantly recognise that frame in the thumbnail

[@keepmovingforward261]

I love highlights especially in dbgt

[@supersubatomicsonicgenerat4688]

You know I wonder what his style never decreased

[@ninjagrime4287]

I wonder if Yamamuro looks back at his older work.

[@batsuichimonji1623]

Prob wonder why people hate him now

[@theopulentone1650]

I'm sure he does, most artist do, what I don't understand is how he can be satisfied with the work he's doing right now.

[@Hellsing7747]

His work for me was the best next to Masunaga .

[@hyperkaioken4982]

i think my favourite look was how it looked during the Cell saga

[@forgottenrelics1197]

same :)

[@hortinus]

@7:52 SSJ Gotenks looks a little different from hat I remember... lol

[@yurko1]

Ayyyy

[@wormHD]

It was interesting to see his really recent stuff at the end of the video because I hadn't seen much of his new work because I don't watch dbs heroes, good video. Also 3:49 is so cursed

[@vinceamaro1382]

Buu did that as well, only failed.

[@trunksthesaiyanroyal5373]

Please post more

[@yamete7u7]

Do you know who did the cover for the SNES game dbz hyper dimension?

[@user-yb6df9mm5l]

Z Cell saga and Buu saga(First half) Yamamuro＝Art style faithful to Akira Toriyama Z Buu saga(Medium) and GT Yamamuro＝Original art style with solid feeling Although I was off from the art style of Akira Toriyama from the middle of the Buu saga, I liked it. The Illustration of gendamama that he painted the next year after the end of the GT broadcast was almost the same as the Lately art style.

[@ItsOver9000Productions]

8:01 Do you mean budokai 2 and 3? Budokai 1 was a cg recreation of the DBZ opening if i remember correctly

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Yeah I did actually, I didn't even realise I said that😅. And you are correct!

[@MinhLe19303]

@@forgottenrelics1197 But he worked on a lot of promo arts and sprite for Budokai 1, right?

[@LMPS5]

id call that devolution

[@AEAE-]

Gonna be honest. I never want to sw him animating or designing ANY future characters in dragon Ball

[@crazynoob159]

Yeah I love Yamamuro but his style has definitely devolved. Let’s let Shintani do his thing lol

[@ZZtheDark]

2:54,god I miss serious Goku. 7:00,to quote AnimeAjay 'This looks more like an oiled up action figure rather than a person'' 9:56,what the...Launch? 0_o 10:07,god I want this style. 11:41,my boi Vegito got nerfed!! 11:49,when fenyo does a much better job than the supposed master himself. You know you're doing something wrong. 12:15,I can honestly say...the Plan to Eradicate the Super Saiyans (2010 ver.) is probably one of the worst of the specials visually. 11:36,ok..one last thing...Bulma looks pretty good here.

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Yep that Bulma was excellent :)

[@SuperSaiyanDate]

The best look of his work is Cell arc, absolutely. I would say that the evolution was only through the time of Z and GT - then it's only devolution.

[@luKas.art_]

8:40 Does someone know where can I find this full image?

[@channelforcomments4430]

I think Yamamuro's style was also used for the opening animation of Chrono Trigger.

[@UneasyTortoise]

there is an alternate uninverse where all of super looks like Yo son goku and his friends return and that makes me sad

[@grenade_guy]

In dbs the hair was the biggest issue. That thing looking shiny and stiff was the worst

[@Ali93430]

Yamamuro doesn't want light in his drawings for the anime. It's the toei who requires it to stick to the artistic direction of their other anime (precure, onepiece). He says it in an interview for "AnimeLand".

[@soyakat]

But he started using them way before even there was an anime.. Also PC barely has highlights and One piece just doesn't have those.. it's just Dragon ball and whatever Yamamuro is involved where he choses to use them

[@alexawef]

I see some highlights in One Piece here and there, and I get that. I already have no respect for Toei, and this just adds onto it. But that has nothing to do with the other awfully stiff character design choices that he's made. Sounds like an excuse. I hear he's arrogant. I'm starting to believe that more and more

[@xMiRAZ94]

When did he redraw bardock in his old style? I've never seen that before

[@forgottenrelics1197]

Early last year Here's the trailer where it appeared in kzbin.info/www/bejne/n2akp2hmpq17ntk

[@xMiRAZ94]

@@forgottenrelics1197 Thanks for the link, without any context that particular screenshot you took looked totally different, I would never have thought it was his newer style and not a revamp

[@dbz287]

Does anybody have the link to that db heroes bardock commercial?

[@osman2674]

Did he do anything for dbz kai? Mainly theme songs and endings but I kinda liked that era

[@forgottenrelics1197]

He did the eyecatches and some other promo work

[@nandernugget]

11:52 what Heroes commercial is that?

[@anjello562]

I need to know too man….

[@forgottenrelics1197]

This one :) kzbin.info/www/bejne/n2akp2hmpq17ntk

[@anjello562]

@@forgottenrelics1197 thank you so much :D

[@Tomi-berry]

What about the artist that did the DBZ Kai openings?

[@Waqas_Khan02]

I think that was Yamamuro doing all that

[@punk640]

How does one become a featured artist:(

[@specialnewb9821]

Wow, Bulma character sheet looks really cool. Feels like it would look really lithe properly animated. The interesting thing to me about the changes are that so many of the individual changes in style are ok, or even look good in isolation (like say straighter noses in GT) but put together the whole eventually gets to the modern not good look.

[@ChibiSteak]

12:26 fin.

[@benbobby7598]

Bros favourite word is "furthermore" 💀

[@michaelcosplay652]

his 3 shade is good , just that his should pick more lighter shade instead of straight go to white

[@miamigangbanger]

I just want to see Uub again

[@UnifiedEntity]

GTs artstyle had some moments where I didnt like the artstyle with the glossy shine but overall I did enjoy it. Certainly more than freaking Super. But what is his obsession's with the shine on the cheeks on characters faces? Sometimes it worked but ALOT MORE times it doesnt.

[@forgottenrelics1197]

It's something he picked up from Toriyama's illustrations, although back in 2019 he did say something along the lines of "it's an attempt to compensate for Toei disbanding the secondary compositing department" so I guess that plays a role as well. You can check more of the interview out here if you're curious :) threadreaderapp.com/thread/1199316968442138624.html

[@SuiMuiOyiOyi]

i think yamamuro can get back to his old style if he wants but i think due to his age or maybe him getting used to the stiff style as it is very fast and easy for him to get done remain that is my point as you said he does not have that consistence

[@ThomasWilliamson]

Great video! I know art is subjective but damn the quality in his work deteriorated dramatically over time. Those DVD box arts look so bad, especially compared to the older art works. I will never understand the appeal of the shiny plastic and rigid character designs. Fingers crossed they still with the DBS Broly look from now on.

[@akil5695]

What does highlights add to these characters I don't get why he stuck with them

[@forgottenrelics1197]

It's a trait picked up from Toriyama

[@vinceamaro1382]

@@forgottenrelics1197 in order to be consistent.

[@MissingPikaNo]

@@forgottenrelics1197 Not to mention he likely did this because Toei disbanded the secondary compositing department. I think at least. twitter.com/AnimeAjay/status/1199340468607152128

[@truegamer_007]

@Minh Le Apparently without the highlights the characters would look too flat.

[@nossiro]

Sad, Goku has scoliosis now 10:56