Innovative awesomeness utilizes one simple trick.

Japanese artist @shin___geki is not an animator, at least not in the traditional sense of the word. He doesn’t draw a character, then redraw it again in an ever so slightly different pose, then play the images in rapid succession.

That said, he is a talented artist, and his drawings are made all the more awesome through motion. In the past, we’ve seen him illustrate scenes from the Dragon Ball and One Piece manga on the side of a paper cup, then twist the container to advance the story by revealing other artwork hidden behind cut-out panels.

For his latest endeavor, @shin___geki is once again turning his imagination to the superpowered martial artists of Dragon Ball. But this time he’s ditched the cups, and has made something even more incredible. As a matter of fact, the video of his latest art-in-motion project is so amazing, at first it’s hard to tell how what you’re seeing is even possible.

The video opens with protagonist Goku facing the viewer and posing dramatically as he builds up his inner chi power.

Then, suddenly, the artwork is replaced by a different image of Goku, firing off a Kamehameha energy blast! The beam is so intense that it obscures Goku, and as the camera swings around in a blur of speed lines, we see the blast’s target: Vegeta!

Still showing the action from the Kamehameha’s perspective, the attack strikes Vegeta square in the chest, sending him flying. It’s an awesome effect that’s unlike still manga, but not traditional anime either.

So how does @shin___geki do it? There’s a hint lying in the soft popping sounds heard throughout the video, which occur because @shin___geki is moving the camera (on his phone) through a series of thin paper cutouts sticking up perpendicular to the floor!

For the first half, the camera is moving backwards, which is why the Kamehameha energy blast seems to materialize out of nowhere. After Goku fires off the attack the camera swivels around and moves forward for the rest of the video, literally crashing into Vegeta and revealing the subsequent drawings of him being blown away.

@shin___geki says that the finished product didn’t turn out quite as good as he’d hoped, which he adds is the case with most of his projects. That hasn’t stopped thousands of people from enjoying his innovative new video, though, and we can’t wait to see what he comes up with next.

Source: IT Media, Twitter/@shin___geki