An Animation Director (作画監督, sakuga kantoku) or AD, colloquially known as sakkan (作監) in Japanese, is responsible for maintaining the quality and consistency of the animation of an episode. They may manually revise key frames and layouts to match a certain level of quality, and/or give instructions to key animators to correct their drawings. Animation directors can be broken down into subcategories like Character Animation Director or Mecha Animation Director. In Turn A Gundam, this level of distinction is only made in a handful of episodes.

There’s a trend in the sakuga community to make what’s called an “AD Chart”, basically showcasing characters drawn in each AD’s style in an easily-digestible chart. This highlights the differences in how the characters are drawn throughout the show. It’s a fun little activity, so I’ve created one for Turn A Gundam. I’ve also included a brief introduction of each animation director, along with the episodes that they worked on. Do note that this chart doesn’t include every AD on the show—for instance, Masami Goto was mecha animation director on a few episodes, and Atsushi Shigeta’s overarching involvement is largely uncredited.