Blue Lock Season 2 was highly anticipated by fans in 2024 ever since the success of season 1 in 2022 and the box office collection of “Episode: Nagi.” The manga is also racking it up as the main 11 players of Blue Lock are competing against each other by being in different teams of the Neo Egoists League.
However, the outcome of Blue Lock Season 2 by the same studio that made Season 1 wasn’t the spectacular adaptation fans were hoping for. Season 1 covered Isagi’s road to being selected in the final 11 members of Blue Lock, while Season 2 covered Blue Lock eleven vs. Japan’s U-20 team arc. Fans were hoping to see some stellar animation, but what they got was nothing but mediocre.
The downfall of Blue Lock Season 2
Blue Lock Season 2 episode 2, titled The Assassin and the Ninja, premiered on Oct 12, and continued with the Third Selection Arc, showcasing the much-anticipated debuts of Hiori Yo and Nanase Nijiro. As the episode went on, the focus increasingly turned to Studio 8bit’s efforts to rectify the inadequately animated sequences from the second promotional film of the series.
For those who don’t know, the promo film elicited fans’ disappointment due to inferior sequences, particularly the Ryusei Shidou no-look backheel goal, which did not meet expectations in comparison to its comic equivalent.
A lot of fans pointed that out and in response, the studio endeavored to enhance these moments by incorporating more colors and effects. Nevertheless, these modifications, while an enhancement, did not completely resolve the problems. The improved sequences provided a little enhancement over the promotional video, but they did not completely resolve the quality issues.
For instance, the animation quality was notably poor, with minimal action sequences. They literally showcased PowerPoint slides when the players of the Japan U-20 squad started moving around Isagi and his team.
Blue Lock Season 2 animation quality mirrors that of Shuumatsu no Valkyrie: Record of Ragnarok anime by Studio Graphinica, wherein a fighting sequence merely consisted of PowerPoint slideshows.
Nevertheless, fans expect things to improve and if it does, this can just be looked at as “a rough start” for Studio 8bit. Fans remember how epic the animation quality was for the film “Episode Nagi,” so there’s room for redemption. However, this isn’t the only show in 2024 that got poor animation quality. Episode 2 of another series hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons, and fans deem it the continuation of its creator’s curse.
Even the staff members of Uzumaki anime admit episode 2 was bad
Uzumaki Episode 1 raised the bar up for fans and gave them hope that finally, a work of Junji Ito is getting the adaptation it deserves. However, episode 2 showed up and shattered the hopes, making fans believe that the author still can’t escape the adaptation curse.
There are supposed to be only 4 episodes in the Uzumaki anime series, and it still fumbled with the release of the second one. Such a short narrative arc certainly has little time for error, but somehow the studio still managed to mess up. Given a five-year development window, since this series was announced back in 2019, it is quite absurd how jarring the subpar 3D animation and choppy scene transitions are in this final outcome.
According to an Uzumaki executive producer, there were some problems during production that resulted in the worsened animation quality. The top brass who were in charge of the adaptation changed studios after Episode 1’s production, citing animation time and costs.
It’s safe to assume that the primary reason must have been poor planning. They had plenty of time to replicate what they started off with in the beginning. Unraveling the different layers to understand what happened is the only choice fans have. The statement from the executive nearly confirms that the subsequent episodes will be no different. Both Blue Lock and Uzumaki started off strong but left no significant trails behind.
Blue Lock and Uzumaki are available to watch on Netflix and Adult Swim respectively.
This post belongs to FandomWire and first appeared on FandomWire
