This was more "artistic direction" than QUALITY.

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF I fucking hated this episode. Lucky I actually stomached it enough to continue on to episode 5; at the time I'd thought the entire rest of the series had been drawn this way.

God curse that fucktard who co-directed that episode.

The last 2 frames compare Viral with Kittan.

Anyway, this "another artist for 1 ep" policy is nice for a change. Me likes. *shrugs*

Didn't they fire someone over this?

Yes, you can read a fairly complete account of the events here:
http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2007-04-27/co-founder-takami-akai-steps-down-from-gainax

You know, while I much prefer the usual style, I really don't see why episode 4 evolved into a massive shitstorm. I mean, it was, for all intents and purposes, it was a comedy/filler episode (or as close as TTGL got, save the recap episode) and got a comedy art style.

Of course, the comments from the director highlighted above are a separate matter.

Its almost as if the episode is a spoof of the series, but it is actually real.

Somehow, episode 4's art reminded me of Paradise Kiss

It was legendary. I'm glad it happened. I was scared at the time though.

Is this the episode where he first meets Viral?

hikari_luv_shirayuki said:
Somehow, episode 4's art reminded me of Paradise Kiss

Well, Osamu Kobayashi did do this episode.

Anyway, I've always liked his work and this was an interesting episode since it was essentially his usual style of direction, but then more zany and geared towards the spirit of the show.

ALSO, as for quality complaints, to be fair, people should see Hiroyuki Imaishi's episodes for Abenobashi...

If you talk about radical differences in animation direction, his episodes' art pretty much had something really rough compared to the rest of the show...

(but then, the show also did dive into like several different styles, so, in that context, the difference made sense)

Kamina's fangs seem almost animalistic, and it's not an error- they are always like that.

juliya said:
Is this the episode where he first meets Viral?

No, it's the episode where we meet Kittan and his sisters. Viral doesn't even show up in this episode as far as I know.

This style really wasn't suitable for this series. The whole thing about the characters having crudely-animated square mouths and visible jowls that make them look like they're in their 40s-- and generally looking off-- only fit those pink creatures they fight later in the episode. Even then, they end up looking like the stick figure characters in images made for 4chan (minus the body).

Ep 4 was designed by the guy that animated Beck. Strangely, that one is an amazing series, but unfortunately the first few episodes looked a lot like this one.