Dragon Ball Z Animation Credits

## Main Credits

* **Series Director**: Daisuke Nishio (西尾大介, *Nishio Daisuke*)
* **Original Author**: Akira Toriyama (鳥山明, *Toriyama Akira*)
* **Series Composition**: Takao Koyama (小山高生, *Koyama Takao*)
* **Chief Animator**: Minoru Maeda (前田　実)
* **Character Designer**: Minoru Maeda (前田　実) and, from episode 200 to 291, Katsuyoshi Nakatsuru (中鶴勝祥)
* **Music**: Shunsuke Kikuchi (菊池俊輔, *Kikuchi Shunsuke*)

### 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, overseeing almost every aspect of the production process, including attending voice recording sessions, and are heavily involved in the pre-production process. Almost all aspects of production must meet their approval before moving forward. They are also responsible for assisting in the creation of storyboards with the episode director.

### Series Composition (シリーズ構成)

The series composer is responsible for determining the overall plot of the series. Many meetings are held with the director, original author, and planning production staff from Toei Animation and Fuji TV to chart the direction and feel they would like the animated adaptation to take. Following this, the composer will draft an overview plot of the series, broken down into episodes. When the overall series plot is finalized, the series composer tasks the scenario writers, which often includes themselves as well, with writing scripts for each episode. As the manga progresses, the series composer oversees the creation of filler stories to ensure that the original author has plenty of time to develop more original material, which will later be incorporated.

### Chief Animator (チーフアニメーター)

The chief animator is in charge of all aspects of the animation side of the series’ production and serves as its character designer. Unlike the animation supervisor, who only checks and corrects the key animation for a specific episode, the chief animator is responsible for checking and correcting all of the series’ animation and ensuring the final product looks as uniform as possible. Once the chief animator has approved a set of drawings, they can finally be traced onto celluloid sheets. Beyond this point, no more corrections to the animation will be made. This position is held by an animation supervisor and in some cases they perform both roles on a single episode.

### Character Design (キャラクターデザイン)

For the later portion of Dragon Ball Z, the “Chief Animator” position was re-titled to “Character Design”. The roles are nearly identical, with the credit change merely being a shift in verbiage.

### 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 z* has always only had ONE series director, and that is Daisuke Nishio (西尾大介)

**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". Details of this role can be found under the Animation Supervisor job description below the table.
* **(A)** next to a name means they served as an "Assistant" for the specified job column.

## Notes

1. ↑ Following episode 199, the “Series Director” credit was no longer used in Dragon Ball Z for some unknown reason. However, the credit was later brought back and listed in Dragon Ball GT. It is assumed that Daisuke Nishio retained the position thru episode 291.
2. ↑ Takao Koyama was the series composer for the entire series, but was merely not credited as such until episode 132.
3. ↑ Following episode 199, the “Chief Animator” credit was no longer listed and instead replaced with the “Character Design” credit (shown below). However, Minoru Maeda was actually listed under the “Character Design” credit for both TV specials as opposed to the typical “Chief Animator” credit that was still used at that time.

#### Sources

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