Ossu! For a few weeks now I have been making quite a bit of use of Bulbapedia for its animation credits. While doing so I have come to find that Bulbapedia uses an odd translation or two for certain staff positions that I think are both a little uncommon and a little misleading. My biggest concern is the translation of 演出 (enshutsu) as 'assistant director'. The role of the enshutsu is much closer to the role of what we in the west might call an episode director, at least on a television series. For films the role is much closer to a technical director. For example, Diamond & Pearl episode #187 is storyboarded by Asada Yuuji. The Bulbapedia page for DP187 also lists him as 'Assistant Director'. This is confusing because in television animation there is also the 演出助手 (enshutsu joshu) and 演助進行 (enjo shinkou) credits. Enshutsu joshu was a credit given to several future enshutsu on Dragon Ball Z while they were working under a full fledge enshutsu, for example.

Typically, on a animated television series the enshutsu will provide the storyboard for his episode because the episode is his own work. The storyboard credit is often assigned to another if the enshutsu is not a good artist, but even then the direction is coming from the enshutsu. While the 監督 (Kantoku) has final say episodes are usually a reflection of the personal style of the enshutsu.

Secondly, the 作画監督 (Sakuga Kantoku) credit is better translated as Animation Supervisor, not Animation Director. While kantoku does mean 'director' the role is not actually a directing role. Going back to my previous example: Iwane Masa'aki does not direct so much as he supervises and corrects. While an Animation Supervisor does help with adjusting timing and the like typically what Iwane will do is check the key animation drawings for being off-model or perhaps bad timing. Of course, Iwane typically provides all of the key animation for an episode himself so that usually is not a problem. Iwane will also work with the episode director, Asada Yuuji, as needed. I suspect Asada and Iwane are quite close and Iwane has quite a bit of influence beyond simply drawing all of the key animation. I should note that the key animator also decides the timing of the in-betweens, but that is not really related to the credits.

I can understand how this might have been confusing based purely on the kanji of the credits and not a deeper understanding of the roles these credits actually stand for, but that's why I like to help. I think it is important that this is rectified for the sake of spreading cool knowledge.

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