Blue Lockvs. U-20 Japanis one of the most hyped animes of Fall Season 2024, but fans have been filled with worries about the quality of the new season since therelease ofBlue Lock’s Season 2 trailer, which showcased a downgrade in the animation with many still frames without fluid movements. However, after a compelling, slow-paced first episode, viewers were excited about the upcoming matches. Unfortunately,BLSeason 2, episode 2, has confirmed fans' worries as the first tryout match showcased a massive drop in quality, worse than in the second half of Season 1.
Even thoughBlue Lock’s animation wasn’t constant through the first season, having lackluster visuals and CGI during the second selection, shortcomings that weren’t fixed either during the production of thefilmBlue Lock: Episode Nagi, fans were still hopeful about the U-20 Arc adaptation, since the franchise’s popularity has skyrocket and that often leads to a bigger production. Because of this, the downfall inBlue LockS2 episode 2 animation has been heavily criticized and created controversy, with many fans expressing their frustration through social media.
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Blue LockSeason 2, Episode 2, Disappoints Fans by Presenting Great Art Without Fluid Animation
The Use of Visual Effects Tries to Mask the Lack of Movement in the Episode
Blue LockS2, Episode 2, had the worst reception in the franchise so far, despite its overall improved visuals, lighting, and shading. While the episode features some amazing art that stayed true to the manga panels, complemented with well-thought-out artistic liberties like the use of perspective in some shots, the lack of fluid animation was off-putting. As a result,Blue Lock’s fans started to post their discontent, with many even comparing the episode to a slideshow. In a post by X user @ITADORIlS, which got almost 120 thousand impressions and over 2K likes, they expressed sadness and disbelief at the episode’s quality.
Additionally, the episode presented many still frames and slow motion scenes with only the ball moving, which made it difficult for the viewer to swiftly grasp the change of position of the players and hurt the dynamic feeling of the match. Although still frames are often used in soccer anime likeAo Ashi, sinceBlue Lockis an unconventional sports series where matches feel like a shōnen battle, the overuse of close-up shots and speed lines to make up for the lack of character movement in episode 2 not only didn’t blend well but also made it lose impact.
This episode made it apparent the anime direction was focused on using visual effects and sound design to compensate for the drop in quality, like in the back-heel shot of Shido and Rin’s goal. However, even though it wasn’t used consistently throughout the episode as the players weren’t shown running or dribbling as much,the CGI animation improved compared to the first season, as seen in the scenes of Chigiri’s acceleration and Karasu’s dribbling, which were praised by X user @SinChiSan_and @kagurabachis.
A Sudden Change in Staff Could Mean Production Issues inBlue LockSeason 2
Blue Lock’s Fans Are Expecting the Adaptation of the Japan U-20 Match
The director position occupied by Shintaro Inokawa, who worked onBlue LockSeason 1 and is a veteran who has participated in multiple animation projects, has recently been changed on theanime’s official websiteand is now credited to the former chief director, Yūji Haibara, who excels in visual work, as expressed byBlue Lock’s anime producer Ryoya Arisawa in an interviewwith Screen Rant, which explains the emphasis in the episode in special effects.
The reasons behind the change in staff, or the animation issues haven’t been addressed by 8bit Studio, but might have been due to the bad reception of the teaser, asBlue Lockepisode 2 features an upgrade in visuals during Shido’s goal compared to the scene in the trailer.The recent episode animation could have been because of workload and schedule problems,with the animators not having enough time to work onBLseason 2 because of the filmEpisode Nagiairing earlier this year or the studio focusing on projects likeThat Time I Got Reincarnated as a Slime Season 3.
Also,since the trailer only shows visuals from the first two episodes, there is uncertainty about the quality of the animation for the rest of the season.However, there is always the possibility that the production team may have chosen to concentrate their efforts on animating the game against Japan U-20, since it is one of themost anticipated matches inBlue Lock’s story. Hopefully, these issues were only a misstep, andBlue Lock’s upcoming episodes will present a better animation that could please viewers' expectations.
Blue Lock
Cast
Blue Lock is a sports-centric animated series based on the manga series of the same name. The show follows the Japan Football Association trying to recover from their poor showing in the 2018 FIFA World Cup by hiring a football genius, Ego Jinpachi. With his new intense training regimen, Jinpachi invites the best football players in Japan to compete to become the team’s new star player - and high school student Yoichi Isagi may be exactly who he’s looking for.
