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KinnoHitsuji — Sailormoon Character designers
Published: 2010-03-03 02:55:22 +0000 UTC; Views: 4581; Favourites: 45; Downloads: 46
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Let my insanity continue...Tadano Kakuko
Character designer: for Sailor Moon, Sailor Moon R and Sailor Moon S (first half).
- Stylistically known for:
1. Thick lines, often with little tapering. (she, herself called them "male".
2. lines that were often of even width when drawing them.
3. Clearly defined dimple marks.
4. Bright saturated colors.
5. Classic examples:
- [link]
-[link]
- [link]
-[link]
Not that Takeuchi-sensei often follows Tadano's style... however, if you look at the line work, the line work is lighter in character and often has little bits of pastocity in it, giving it a lighter feel. An example of that is:
[link]
Itoh Ikuko
- Worked on Sailor Moon Super (second half) to Sailor Moon Sailor Stars (Nehelenia arc).
- Stylistically known for:
1. Thin lines for the outlines.
2. Lines of even width and value. (though on posters she sometimes did a very minute change in pastocity)
3. Often dropping dimple marks in favor of simplification at a distance.
4. Less saturated colors than Kazuko, often favoring lighter yellows for Usagi's and Minako's hair.
5. White highlights for the hair on all characters.
-Examples:
- [link]
- [link]
- Best known for that series of images.
Tamegai Katsumi
- Worked on latter half of Sailor Moon Sailor Stars.
- Stylistically known for:
- Following pretty much Itoh Ikuko's design, however, is better known for her rounder eyes, and plain differences in drawing males. Best bet is to look for the starlights. That's her work.
- She tended to use a touch more saturated colors than Itoh-san.
- Examples:
[link]
[link]
- [link]
-[link]
Overall, though, I dislike her work on male characters, which I found the designs a little weird for...
; So I tend to avoid her style.Takeuchi-sensei's style fluctuates quite a bit, so I won't go over her style at all during this. I'd have to go through all five arcs plus two more series, which people don't have scans posted for.
Fans tend to choose...
Fans seem to copy pretty much Ito Ikuko's style. I think because they find the light line work and the angle in the eye appealing, as well as the color work.
This tends to be followed by attempts at Tadano's style.
Some people breed the previous two in interesting ways.
Lastly is Tamagai's style. I think some people have the same aversion to the male eyes in Tamagai's style that I do... but the line work tends to reflect Itoh-san's style.
I should clarify and say that when I mean male, I mean male eyes, as supposed to the Sailor Starlights/Three Lights. I mean male eyes on Mamoru. And this would be a personal preference, but one that you probably would get used to.
Let's see if you learned anything... (if you post the answers, I'll hide them) Who drew the following...
1. [link]
2. [link]
3. [link]
4. [link]
5. [link]
6. [link]
7. [link]
8. [link]
9. [link]
10. [link]
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Comments: 18
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I always thought the white highlights were from Katsumi
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Huh? They all had white highlights....
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I dunno about Ikuko later on being stuck in season 1 but most of the later shot of Katsumi in the later seasons has white highlights yet the older ones (During the weird eye tumour style stage) don't
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Usually fans get confused because they forget about things such as lighting. So for example, people argue in the anime that Diana was lavender, pink, etc, but forget that there are light issues--making her still gray. If you look at the later episodes of BSSM SailorStars, most of them are at night, meaning that you have to influence the color palate to make it work... I suspect some of it is that.
White usually becomes blue at night, or picks up reflecting colors.
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Yeah I know about lightings and all.
Still most of the white highlights/shines(at least for Usagi) only appears once that artist Mari Tominaga appears, most of the artist don't really use any highlights (Masahiro Ando and Taichi Nakamura comes in mind)
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Eh, but Mari Tominaga didn't do Sailor Stars... and that's animation direction which is different from character design. Katsumi Tamagai did the latter half of Sailor Stars in character design--so they do not mesh. If you read the previous comment about key animation directors, that probably will make more sense.
Directors did little bits of drawing, but they really don't do the majority... that's left to the character designers and the key animation people (and also the tweeners--but that's a different department, usually done in Korea.). Directors help with the storyboarding, coordination between people, etc. In Japan, they do overlook some of the drawing, and in some cases do the majority (as in Miyazaki in the early days), but in general, they don't really do that much.
Series directors would have more influence... that's your Ikuni, Junichi Sato, Takuya Igarashi etc.
[link]
Theory is confusing because it doesn't seem the hold. Most of the decisions on how the art is going to result is usually done on the character designers and the series director... art directors do coordi stuff.
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Of course Character designers...
That explains why some of the S and Super S episodes are so shiny compared to stars
Still why does Masahiro Ando look so different everytime(more chibi) anyway?
Kinda prefer Katsumi based on those group shots thinking about it
PS I like to note that the JP wiki says that Katsumi Tamegai is male
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Katsumi is usually a female name. Katsuyoshi is a male name and Yoshimi is a female name. [link] Wikis lie. No picture online, though the handwriting is girly... (Volume 16)
BTW, Masahiro Ando is an animation director... he wouldn't deal with the majority of the drawing direction. He's deal with putting together the episode and coordinating it. Not everyone in animation actually does drawing--that's a big fat lie. Some of them end up doing the people stuff.
If you want drawing direction, it's still as I said, character designer(s), background designer, series director have the most input, if they have it, the storyboarder will deal with the angles--though the series director in Japan tends to deal with the majority of that. Art director and animation director tend to do less... more coordination and dealing with getting the episode together. Key cell animators is something to look for. The F-ed up drawing in one of the R episodes it became very apparent.
Did you look up their resumes properly? Or did you copy from Hitoshi Doi without knowing anything?
If you want to talk Sailor Moon hardcore, then you should be able to talk about camera angles Ikuni-style v. Satoh-san style. 
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Oh, what about this style (it's pretty common in the anime...or at least in R, S, and SuperS...) :
(Oh, and I didn't post screenshots from every single episode this style appeared in, because there's too many episodes...and too many screenshots...
Episode 23 (this is when it first 'appears' ) :
[link]
[link]
Season 1: Episodes 23, 27, 33, 40
Season 2: Episodes 49, 54, 55, 60, 65, 71, 75, 78, 83
Season 3: Episodes 90, 96, 99, 101, 108, 114, 119, 122, 127
Season 4: Episodes 132, 138, 144, 150, 153, 160, 164, 165
Season 5: Episodes 170*, 171** (hm...funny...I could've sworn I've seen that style more than this in this season...)
So...did the animators just get lazy or something...?
* It seems that it starts out with the Itoh Ikuko style, then moves on to this other style...
** This one alternates between the two styles too...(it starts out with that other style, then goes to the Itoh Ikuko style)
Also, who the heck did this one?! --> [link] (from Episode 68)
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The character designers are as I listed them, however, the directors and the key cell animators tended to vary. There is a disaster of an episode in R with some really fugly key cell animation. (Look in the author notes for the corresponding one)
That said, the character designers for the season and the style of eyes stayed consistent for the most part.
It is wrong to say that Character designers in animation tend to vary episode to episode. Even in American animation there isn't that scheme. Usually there is an overall character designer in the American scheme, plus someone who does the objects and then another one who does the smaller smaller characters. Larger productions may have several character designers where the character designer is responsible for certain characters production to production. In Japan this is done by one person only and their job is to make sure the designs stay consistent. Those designs can change slightly with the director or the producer as they make demands. (Director does not change episode to episode either.)
But most of the changes are minor with key animators. (Shorter faces, etc.)
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Ok. 
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I had an ex in the animation industry so we'd have discussions about it, etc when I was dating him.
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lol
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I was curious about that. Very interesting. I do find the last more appealing as far as the anime is concerned but very much agree on the male eyes.
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I think the changes were for them to look older,i guess.
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Actually the changes are part of the character designer's style rather than anything to do with the series itself. If you look at their other work most of the things I pointed out are pretty consistent with their style.
For example, you can look at Neo Queen Serenity v. Usagi and see that though she looks older in Tadano's and Itoh's style the things I pointed out still hold consistent.
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