Sailor Moon Art Director motifs

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Sep 19, 2022
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#1
Specific things each art director does. It doesn't mean they always do this or that they're the only who does it. It just stands out to you when they specifically do it.

Masahiro Ando: Vertically long pupils, Panty shots, big heads, hatching for cleavage, slightly opened toothy grins, the face Ryo's making. sharp/simple limbs

Cresent beam
Spoiler: show

Tachi Nakamura: relatively small eyes, sharp chins, the way blushing is drawn, jittering in certain movements.


Mari Tominaga: Lots of black on the pupils or practically none at all, sickle and zig zag shining on the hair, something about the hair shape, Usagi's face in the last picture.


max pictures reached in post.
 
Sep 19, 2022
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#2
Ikuko Itoh [mostly season 1]: Cat face Usagi [long eyes and pupils], how she draws dude faces, the heads form the sides, boobs.


Michiaki Sugimoto: Large droopy eyes, long necks, diagonal scream/yell position.
 
Sep 19, 2022
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#3
Mamoru Kurosawa: White lighting along the edges of the hair, thick outlines for reaction boxes, something about the legs, the eyes
 

Talentless Fool

Aurorae Lunares
Jan 23, 2023
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#5
Ikuko Itoh [mostly season 1]: Cat face Usagi [long eyes and pupils], how she draws dude faces, the heads form the sides, boobs.

Very satisfactory shot, great shape and curvature, worthy of the grand Michiru-sama.
Jokes aside, I really like how Itoh drew the front bow getting squeezed and it's physics. Generally, pass the 1st season, the detail level on the hair/uniforms fell while the characters became more expressive.
 

Talentless Fool

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#7

Rika-Chicchi

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May 7, 2009
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#8
Kagawa on the other side excels at 'Shounen-like' expressions - big but very expressive eyes, sharp lines on the nose, 'aggressive' mouth shapes.
His fingers are also very 'Shounen'-like. He tends to draw very small hips though :unsure:
Narrow hips are also a feature of the male anatomy, as compared to the female one. :)
 

Talentless Fool

Aurorae Lunares
Jan 23, 2023
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#10
Shinya Hasegawa is a peculiar one.
Not only would his style fluctuate throughout his time on the series, but sometimes his style would drastically change within a season itself!
I'm more fan of his late R-early S style - though his 'rougher' S style has it's charm too.
He managed to give a sense of elegance and erotism to the characters without overtly sexualizing them.
His style during this time was also crisp, precise and the characters look quite aged up.
https://flic.kr/p/2oFCdiR https://flic.kr/p/2oFDrfg https://flic.kr/p/2oFCdiF
This shot of ep.77 with AD Hideyuki Motohashi greatly reminds me of Hasegawa's aesthetic.
https://flic.kr/p/2oFCdfp https://flic.kr/p/2oFBtEw
 
Sep 19, 2022
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#11
I also just remembered how thick Ikuko makes the eyelashes, I swear you could feel those things blink, imagine the butterfly kisses they give.


Also with Mari Tominaga the way the hair points down along w/ how shiny and rough it looks make it look slick and wet. Like the character were in the rain or just came out the shower.

Only one of these is actually wet I believe
 

Talentless Fool

Aurorae Lunares
Jan 23, 2023
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#12

Talentless Fool

Aurorae Lunares
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#13
Jul 6, 2012
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#15
Speaking of Hasegawa, I'm pretty sure he animated this stunning sequence coz this ain't looks like Itoh :P

https://flic.kr/p/2oFFuNh https://flic.kr/p/2oFDbbV https://flic.kr/p/2oFDUYw https://flic.kr/p/2oFDbf7 https://flic.kr/p/2oFA798
PS no.1: I love how Rei is always the closest to Usagi! Friendshippu Pawaa :bow: They did her so dirty from S-Stars.
PS no.2: This design is superior to Sakou's :zoid:
From my understanding, Hasegawa did himself the S opening (contrary to popular belief), I’m not even sure it was corrected by Itoh. He released a doujinshi in which he shows some roughs from this OP and they are like the final product. He also probably did the ending.

As you said in an earlier post, he had at this time the ability to really adapt his style and blend it with other animators ^^ He also did genga for the R opening but they had lot of corrections by Itoh, they are visible in the R opening (fan) book they released, it’s very interesting to see !
 

Rika-Chicchi

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#17
It’s kinda funny. You usually assume people only improve with time but Tadano, Takeuchi, etc seem to have regressed from the 90’s.
Hence Tadano is the best anime-version "spokesperson" for Takeuchi, because the former faithfully follows the latter. :lol:
 

Talentless Fool

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#18
From my understanding, Hasegawa did himself the S opening (contrary to popular belief), I’m not even sure it was corrected by Itoh. He released a doujinshi in which he shows some roughs from this OP and they are like the final product. He also probably did the ending.

As you said in an earlier post, he had at this time the ability to really adapt his style and blend it with other animators ^^ He also did genga for the R opening but they had lot of corrections by Itoh, they are visible in the R opening (fan) book they released, it’s very interesting to see !
Very interesting!
I would say the S Op is a combo of both - some shots are corrected by Itoh while some are left as Hasegawa's.

I'd say these shots for example are pure Itoh as well as the 'Planet' attacks sequence.
https://flic.kr/p/2oFPNJQ https://flic.kr/p/2oFS91P
Itoh' style (which is my favorite of hers btw ^_^ ) during this time (early S) looks like this:
https://flic.kr/p/2oFQyw2 https://flic.kr/p/2oFQyw7
The R Opening looks pure Itoh to me except the part of the Black Moon Clan and Pluto's - must have been heavily corrected.
 

Jawshx

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Dec 1, 2020
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#20
What I always wonder about, and what doesn’t really happen that much nowadays is,

They had a chief character designer/animator, yet many of the animation directors chose not to stick to said designs. Ando being the biggest example. I wonder if no one really cared about consistency back in those days? Obviously you have animator quirks but to go completely your own way? It doesn’t happen that often anymore. Like Ando was correcting other animators works to his OWN style despite if not being the ‘official’ style from Itoh or Tadano.