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Originally Posted by Akka
Well, actually I found the second season much better drawn and animated than the first. It seemed to me that the budget was superior (or the team more competent). I found a lot less irregularities and the drawing was much more clear-cut. Maybe just a question of style and preferences.
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Both studios did a respectable job, but Studio Bihou who did the background art in both seasons probably deserves the most credit.
I feel Imagin's character designs in season one had a more unique feel that the second season kinda lost (it's not as distinctive). Imagin's lines weren't as sharp, but the characters were more animated. Maybe that's why people noticed it going off-model more often - I noticed both going off-model from time to time, mostly bodies (especially horses) in season one and faces in season two.
Brains Base seemed to cut as many corners as they could production-wise, but that's ok. They were more in line with modern animation and character design trends in anime, but the character models weren't very dynamic or animated - hair, for instance, looked the same throughout even in the rain, and barely moved at all. I also don't remember them being very creative with the storyboard or camera angles, being too often reduced to less interesting close-ups of talking faces. But they made up for that by having more insert shots of background art during conversations.
So it's entirely down to personal preference, I'd say, except for the often-impressive background art. Both Imagin and Brains Base did a good job overall, and I can't rank one over the other because this isn't a series I judge by it's animation quality. I'm actually happy they focused more on screenplay writing and voice acting.. it really made a noticeable difference, and if they hadn't then both seasons would be a mess that no one could understand (especially season two).