[00:02] masterpiece. It's one of the most technically complicated and competently executed anime I've seen in a while and in an industry where most shows tend to look unremarkable and the few that don't gravitate towards a specific look, a
[00:14] project like Dorohedoro is simply refreshing. Dorohedoro season 2 is what happens when an extremely competent director with decades of experience, a highly accomplished 3D team and a group of insanely talented animators and
[00:27] background color and photography artists all come together under somewhat conditions to create something special. It's a passion project for the ages and as you can probably tell, it's a show I think very highly of. As such, in this
[00:40] video I'll go over Dorohedoro season 2. Of course, it's impossible for me to go for that matter but I'll try to delve as deep as I can. Let's jump right into it. Make sure to subscribe. No clever call to action this time, just do it. Why
[00:54] not? You can also become a member of this channel. Members get two exclusive videos per month, custom badges and emojis, shout-outs and more. Just go down there and press the join button. As always, let's kick things off by
[01:07] going over the staff starting with the man of the art, the goat himself, director Yuichiro Hayashi. Now, I'm sure all of you know this already but I'm a massive, massive fan of Hayashi so much so that I recently made a members-only
[01:20] breakdown of his entire two and a half decade-long career just in case any of you are interested. Anyway, Hayashi is an incredible artist. Obviously, he's a true director in more ways than one. What do I mean by that? Well, to explain
[01:33] I'll have to go on a bit of a tangent. You see, an average anime fan's idea of misguided because they tend to evaluate a director's skill purely based on the creative choices that make it to the final product, completely ignoring the
[01:47] management position as it is a creative production assistants end up becoming directors. A director doesn't just come up quirky ideas. He or she manages a project at a
[02:00] hyper-specific instructions or hands-on involvement. They are the final line of defense. They are a pillar, the pillar of anime production. With all that in mind, director Hayashi's ability to maintain a project
[02:13] is truly remarkable. Be it the extremely visually complicated Dorohedoro or the Titan, his ability to maintain a project, to keep it afloat, is genuinely unbelievable. The reason why a show like Dorohedoro can make so many ambitious
[02:27] decisions, besides the staff themselves, is Hayashi's rock-solid supervision and copious amounts of storyboards. More about both in a bit. have been a few switch-ups in the core staff. While character designer Tomohiro
[02:41] Kishi, CGI director Fuminori Nanmoto, and director of photography Hong Yu Park are all the same as season 1, color designer Tomoko Wakeshima and art that means, Shinji Kimura have been replaced by Ikuo Nishii and Mihoko
[02:54] Sugiyama, respectively. Kimura is still credited as the world designer, but I believe that's a legacy credit. He didn't actually do anything. Another thing worth mentioning is the fact that the CGI team for season 2 is
[03:06] more in-house compared to season 1, let's put it that way. For season 1, Studio MAPPA handled the CGI for four episodes, 1, 6, 7, and 12. The rest were handled by studios like Correct, Lark's Entertainment, V-sign, and Graphinica.
[03:20] For season 2, however, MAPPA has handled the CGI for two episodes, which might the case, because one, Studio MAPPA every single episode, regardless of which studio's in charge, and two, only
[03:33] other studios so far. The rest have effectively been co-produced by other studios and MAPPA. Now, why does any of that matter, you complicated production. It's one of those projects that needs close
[03:47] departments, and the more in-house things are, the better that There's a reason why predominantly in-house studios like Ufotable can utilize insanely complicated workflows. It's the same concept.
[04:01] start talking about the actual show. But thing I need to mention. For those of you who don't know, there's this articles highlighting the behind-the-scenes workflows of shows
[04:15] that make heavy use of CGI. They released one about Dorohedoro season 1 certainly do the same for season 2. Unfortunately, by the time they do, the meaning I'll almost certainly get caught up with other topics. And since I didn't
[04:29] want to skip a project as interesting as Dorohedoro, I decided to cover it now instead of waiting for the article. I'll try to update the description with a now, just know that I'm making this video without any strict knowledge about
[04:42] the behind-the-scenes workflow. Anyway, let's start this breakdown with the elephant in the room, but in a good way. Let's start this breakdown with the season 2, the aspect that has improved the most across seasons. Let's start
[04:56] with the CGI. Now, let me preface this by saying I'm not as knowledgeable about CGI as I'm about 2D animation. I do know the basics, but there's only so much technical jargon I can throw your way.
[05:08] Despite that though, it's quite obvious even to my somewhat inexperienced eyes that the CGI used in Dorohedoro season 2 is nothing short of stellar. It was 1, but the quality has somehow skyrocketed since then.
[05:21] A brief overview of how CGI models in Dorohedoro work, besides the usual modeling, rigging, and animation steps, the team puts a lot of effort into the texturing process. Instead of leaving that stuff up to the photography team,
[05:33] they implement textures and 2D touch-ups and details directly on top of the called Substance Painter, making them look more detailed and bringing them usually looks like. Besides that, the Dorohedoro team also
[05:47] directly implements the corrections made by the chief animation director onto the reducing the number of corrections needed in the subsequent steps. I believe the correction rate for season 1 was around 47% compared to the nearly
[06:01] 100% you see in traditionally 2D shows, and much like the addition of 2D details and textures, this steps brings the 3D models closer to that 2D anime look without needing any elaborate, time-consuming compositing setups.
[06:14] are really good-looking. Were good-looking, I should say. They were good-looking back in season 1. That's not the case anymore. The models in Dorohedoro season 2 aren't just good-looking, they are phenomenal. I did
[06:27] that classic reality show judge thing. Each contour, each outline, the way form and visual information is conveyed, the models look insane. Organic is the word I'd like to use. They look organic. The aforementioned 2D details, individual
[06:41] components like hair strands and scales, outfits, every aspect looks organic to the point where an image from the 3D is practically indistinguishable from hand-drawn animation. On paper, this is probably as close as you can get to that
[06:53] 2D anime look using 3D models. I know CGI improves with time, but I'm improve on something this perfect. I guess I'll have to wait for season 3 to The most impressive thing about the CGI this season, however, is neither the
[07:07] texturing nor the modeling, it's the actual animation, the movement. I cannot stress this enough. It's insane how natural the team makes the CGI look. Be or the more expressive cartoonish type,
[07:20] the 3D animation in Dorohedoro is simply phenomenal. Of course, the fact that the models themselves look very 2D, for lack of a better term, is an important part regardless of how good the animation was, the scenes would look awkward. But
[07:33] that doesn't mean the animation is irrelevant. Absolutely not. It's just a collaborative effort. Because of both the detailed and richly textured models and the incredible animation the team can afford to have consistently
[07:45] much so that even the scenes that feature both 2D and 3D characters in the same frame don't look awkward, a remarkable feat that's rarely seen in Now, like I said, the CG World article is in doubt, meaning I have no idea what
[07:59] guess, I'd say they made three different workflows, one for fully 2D shots, one for fully 3D shots, and one for 2D 3D hybrids. And this arrangement was the script writing stage, which comes before the storyboards. That's how
[08:13] surprised if this season did something similar. Also, based on what I can tell, even the shots that were 2D featured a significant amount of 3D base usage, which probably helped them blend in better. Fantastic stuff.
[08:27] Moving on, the next most obvious thing we need to talk about is the 2D animation component, the hand-drawn stuff, and there's a lot to cover. First off, the season saw a noticeable spike in drawing quality. Unlike season 1,
[08:40] animation director rotation with character designer Tomohiro Kishi and Ryo Kaneda acting as sole CADs in alternating episodes. Kaneda handled episode 1, Kishi handled episode 2, Kaneda handled episode 3, Kishi episode
[08:54] which featured both Kishi and Kaneda as Now, Kishi being fantastic at his job isn't exactly a surprise. He's a highly decades of experience and multiple character design gigs under his belt
[09:08] when he actually feels like working, but I was blown away by the relatively newer artist Ryo Kaneda. Her work was genuinely mind-blowing. It was almost as good as Kishi, which is an insane feat. Hats off to her.
[09:20] Dorohedoro is a show that doesn't believe in minimalism. It's very much a more is more show, and that philosophy is best exemplified by the drawings. copious amounts of 2D texturing and details, the drawings also feature a
[09:35] disgusting amount of lines. They are so intricately detailed that even the thought of drawing them makes my wrists hurt. Thanks to many of the shots being 3D and the production presumably being more healthy behind the scenes, season 1
[09:47] had a production period of a year and 4 months if I remember correctly and this season probably had more. The two CADs could supervise everything leading to the base drawing quality being extremely high. Yes, some of the episodes did
[09:59] feature long AD lists, but that tends to happen when the drawings are so is a bit of a perfectionist who's liberal with retakes. Again, on the from me. The show, however, is an anime, meaning
[10:14] it's animated, meaning it actually needs to move and it does. But, look, I've been very positive so far, but this is the one aspect I'll need to critique a bit when it comes to 2D animation, not drawings, animation movement, the season
[10:27] Let's start with the positives though. This season featured plenty of incredible recurring animators who effectively acted as pillars. The two main animators, Konami Yoshida and Naoki Otsu, for example, did a lot. Yoshida
[10:40] was a designer for multiple episodes and Otsu was an important AD plus both of them obviously did a lot of key animation. Besides them, the team went all in with the effects animation. Artists like Taiki Furumata, Naho and
[10:53] Aditya acted as important effect ADs and key animators. They basically ensured that regardless of what the scene was, the effects looked spectacular. The problem, however, was that that was kind of it when it comes to 2D animation.
[11:05] Most of the quote unquote sakugas limited to effects animation, the character animation was a bit lacking. Season 1 of Dorohedoro featured regular participation from extremely strong animators like Gosei Oda, Yoshihide
[11:18] Dewa, Sayaka Koiso and more, as well as one-off appearances from legendary names like Shinji Hashimoto and Kou Yoshinari and season 2 simply did not have that. It did feature a Takafumi Horie sequence in episode 5, but it was far from its
[11:31] best and the Kou Lucky Coco sequence in episode 11 alone couldn't live up to the mentioned. Of course, it's not a big deal. It didn't ruin my viewing experience or anything dramatic like that, but every
[11:43] a bit more from the 2D animation department, especially during the action scenes, which were predominantly 3D with a few 2D close-ups thrown in here and there. Of course, that doesn't mean the action scenes were bad. They were well
[11:56] CGI animation was smooth and well executed. They were great, but I especially because I remember how cool the 2D action scenes from season 1 were. Still, despite all that, it was a very impressive production from a 2D
[12:11] animation POV. We had disgustingly detailed drawings. We had top-notch effects, and we had the occasional small burst of character animation. Cool stuff. Moving on, let's talk about the actual
[12:23] words, let's glaze Hayashi for a few minutes. storyboarded everything for this project, every episode, the OP, and the because he did the exact same thing for season 1. In fact, he did more because
[12:39] season 1 had 12 episodes instead of 11 and five endings instead of one. How Hayashi's boards aren't as overtly quirky as, say, Shota Goshozono, but upon closer inspection, you'll notice a phenomenal sense of space and
[12:53] composition, a hypnotic sense of rhythm when necessary, dynamic framing, and they surprisingly strong depiction of abstract ideas and concepts. Hayashi and he's skilled enough to board a large number of episodes without any
[13:06] noticeable dips in quality or creativity. Plus, I loved seeing some of those classic Hayashi-isms, such as those highly detailed eye close-ups, high-speed background pans. Also worth mentioning, Hayashi did a
[13:20] phenomenal job boarding scenes that fit that traditional horror archetype, so horror anime directed by Hayashi someday. The storyboards were really tell. Now, while Hayashi storyboarded
[13:33] everything, he didn't actually direct any of the episodes. They had their own episode directors with Kazuomi Umeki acting as the lead ED handling three episodes and Atsushi Nakagawa and Yuki Yamamoto handling two episodes each. And
[13:45] that's quite odd because series directors directing a few episodes, the norm, but I have a theory about this. You see, since the show has such a uniform visual identity and workflow,
[13:57] supervision, that he probably didn't need to personally step in and direct anything to get the point across. The pre-established visual look was probably enough. Think about it. If a director had the time to storyboard every single
[14:09] episode, he or she probably had the time to direct an episode or two as well, project Hayashi will work on is the third season of this very show, meaning it's not like he moved on to some other project. I'm reasonably confident that
[14:22] his absence as an ED was intentional, although I'm willing to be proven wrong. The point remains though, ED participation or not, Dorohedoro is Hayashi's project. It's his vision being realized without any major compromises
[14:34] and I love that. It's quintessentially Yuichiro Hayashi and that's the best thing about it. There is, however, one small complaint I have. Those "as video editing is my passion as transitions", they look so
[14:47] bad. It is just a nitpick at the end of the day, but I genuinely believe they especially given how frequently they were used. Like it wouldn't feel out of KineMaster" logo on top of them and that's never a good sign. Pretty good
[15:01] all things considered, but please never do that again. The next thing I'll talk about is the background art {slash} color work {slash} photography. I'll just wrap all of these aspects up into one neat
[15:13] section. The art direction was surprisingly nearly as good as season 1 and that's a surprise because as I mentioned earlier, the legendary Shinji Kimura is no longer the art director. As I said earlier, Dorohedoro is very much
[15:25] a more is more show and that's true for the backgrounds as well. Shinji Kimura's a master of cramming a ridiculous amount of detail into each backdrop without the and I think the new art director Miho Sugiura did a fantastic job of
[15:39] recreating that style. Also loved that colored outline thing they added during they're part of the background or added by the photography team, but regardless, they look great. Speaking of photography, both the color
[15:51] design and the compositing saw a noticeable spike in quality this season. You had more ambitious lighting choices and color scripts, a better handling of effects animation, and an all around polished look. The only negative thing I
[16:03] can cry about is the fact that some scenes were simply too dark. I get that that's the point, but there are better ways of conveying that instead of simply drowning out the cell in black. It was a shame seeing incredibly detailed
[16:15] drawings be barely visible. Besides that though, things were pretty much perfect. I can only imagine how complicated the photography process was for a show with so many moving elements and visual layers. Hats off to the team.
[16:28] And that's it. That's all I got. Hope you enjoyed. A special thanks to Node 03, Ahmed, The Gallis 90, Muzikage, and Easy Only for becoming tier three Easy Only for becoming tier three members. And until next time.