Dragon Ball Super Animation Credits

## Main Credits

* **Series Director**: Kimitoshi Chioka (地岡公俊, *Chioka Kimitoshi*), Morio Hatano (畑野森生, *Hatano Morio*), Hatano Kouhei (羽多野浩平, *Kouhei Hatano*), Tatsuya Nagamine (長峯達也, *Nagamine Tatsuya*), Ryōta Nakamura (中村亮太, *Nakamura Ryōta*)
* **Story**: Akira Toriyama (鳥山明, *Toriyama Akira*)
* **Original Creator**: Akira Toriyama (鳥山明, *Toriyama Akira*)
* **Original Character Design**: Akira Toriyama (鳥山明, *Toriyama Akira*)
* **Character Design**: Tadayoshi Yamamuro (山室直儀, *Yamamuro Tadayoshi*)
* **Music**: Norihito Sumitomo (住友紀人, *Sumitomo Norihito*)

### Series Director (シリーズディレクター)

The series director is responsible for the overall look and feel of the series and oversees almost every aspect of the production process. Almost everything must meet their approval before moving forward. They are also responsible for creating storyboards, which are sequential drawings detailing the major scenes of the series, essentially a visual script. These storyboards include information about dialogue, music, camera work, and serve as a basis for the animators to create their layouts and key drawings.

### Series Composition

The series organiser is the person who determines the overall plot of the series. They will typically acquaint themselves with the story material by reading the manga. Many meetings are held with the director, mangaka, and other relevant personnel of the source material to chart the direction and feel they would like the anime to take. Following this, they will draft an overview plot of the series, broken down into episodes. When the overall series plot is finalised, the series organiser tasks the scenario writers, which often includes themselves as well, with writing scripts for each episode. As the manga progresses, the series organiser oversees the creation of filler stories to ensure that the mangaka has plenty of time to develop more original material, which will later be incorporated into the anime.

### Character Design (キャラクターデザイン)

The character designer is responsible for creating detailed character, set, and item designs. The designs must be very specific and detailed, including facial expressions, colours, and clothing, to ensure that the animators know exactly how a certain character or item should be drawn. The chief designer will create or update "design packs" and distribute them to all of the animators. This also helps the animation supervisor, as the animation is more likely to be uniform, making their jobs a little easier.

### Animation Supervisor (作画監督)

Literally translated as "drawings supervisor". Animation Supervisors are responsible for leading and co-ordinating the animation team. They may also be involved in the recruitment of that team, to ensure that the selected artists have the appropriate animation and drawing skills for the production. They interpret the brief from the director, and from other relevant departments, and communicate information to the animators.

The animation supervisor is the person who oversees, checks, and corrects the key animators' drawings. The changes can be for many reasons but are most often to bring the characters "on model" so that they more accurately reflect the original character designs. They often work closely with the Chief Animator and Chief Designer, but overall, the final look of the episode hinges on the artistic abilities of the animation supervisor. You'll most often see this credit translated as "Animation Director", but since they only oversee the key animation aspects it is more appropriate to give them a title of supervisor which is also an accurate translation of kantoku.

**Chief Animation Supervisor**: The main job of the Chief Animation Supervisor is to check the character drawings. This role is always assigned to a skilled artist to oversee a less skilled Animation Supervisor, who generally has off model or bad artwork.

### Storyboard (絵コンテ)

Literally translated as "picture continuity". Storyboard Artists illustrate the narrative, plan shots, and draw panels to demonstrate action, and to maintain continuity between scenes. They may need to revise and update their work to reflect a changing script or comments from the Director. More often than not, the storyboards are drawn by the series director, but when they are too busy someone else must step in and complete the task. However, the series director still supervises them and has the ultimate say in what is on the storyboard. The staff member credited is simply the person drawing, and more or less makes no real decisions toward the progression of the series.

### Episode Director (演出)

Literally translated as "production (e.g. play) / direction". The director, often referred to as the episode director, is one of the most difficult and most important jobs in the production process of a single episode. They are the go-between for the series director and the rest of the staff. They are responsible for checking and supervising the show throughout the production, from initial story to the final released product, and in many cases, have almost total control over it. They typically check the animation drawings as they are being worked on, set up each scene before it goes to photography and supervises the sound, voice recordings, and all of the editing, amongst many other jobs.

**Note:** "Series Director" is not to be confused with "Episode Director". *Dragon Ball Super* has always only had FIVE series director, and they are Kimitoshi Chioka (地岡公俊, *Kimitoshi Chioka*), Morio Hatano (畑野森生, *Morio Hatano*), Hatano Kouhei (羽多野浩平, *Kouhei Hatano*), Tatsuya Nagamine (長峯達也, *Nagamine Tatsuya*) and Ryōta Nakamura (中村亮太, *Nakamura Ryōta*).

**Assistant Director:** The assistant director is an extension of the episode director, attending to tasks that the director does not have time for. They will often run errands for the director and do whatever they can to make the director's stressful job easier. Many assistant directors are also episode directors and switch between the two roles as they are needed.

### Screenplay (脚本)

Literally translated as "Script" or "Scenario". A scenario writer is responsible for the script of a specific episode or movie, most notably including the character and narration dialogue. These writers are supervised by the series organiser and director to ensure that the episodes scenario fits within the overall scope of the series plot. An episodes script is often revised numerous times before it is finalised and handed over to the episode director to begin work on the animation process.

## Episode Credits

Notes:

* In cases where there are two people listed for one job, it means that each person did one half of the episode. Or in some cases, one third.
* **(C)** next to a name means they served as "Chief Animation Supervisor".
* **(A)** next to a name means they served as an "Assistant" for the specified job column.

## Notes

1. ↑ From episode 1 to episode 46
2. ↑ *Dragon Ball Super*, episode 33 to episode 67
3. ↑ *Dragon Ball Super*, episode 68 onward
4. ↑ *Dragon Ball Super*, episode 77 onward
5. ↑ Dragon Ball Super’s “Universe Survival Arc” to Debut New Series Directors
6. ↑ *Dragon Ball Super*, episode 77 onward
7. ↑ Dragon Ball Super’s “Universe Survival Arc” to Debut New Series Directors

#### Sources

* Kanzenshuu Production Database
* Kanzenshuu Dragon Ball Super Episode Guide
* Animator´s Corner - Dragon Ball Super

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Dragon Ball Super Animation Guide
2. ↑ http://www.kanzenshuu.com/episode/super/eps-033/