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- "From Hype to Letdown: Why BLUELOCK Season 2’s Animation Isn’t Scoring"
"From Hype to Letdown: Why BLUELOCK Season 2’s Animation Isn’t Scoring"
"The Frames That Fumbled: What’s Going Wrong with BLUELOCK’s Visuals?"
Kacie Schooley
November 09, 2024
“The Hype Was Real… Until Episode 2’s Animation Crashed the Party”
Blue Lock season 2 has been one of the most anticipated anime adaptations in 2024. Manga sales had skyrocketed in 2023 making bluelock the top selling manga. Surpassing popular mangas like One piece, JJK, and Chainsaw Man. It’s hard to believe a sports anime was able to dethrone these popular Shonen mangas. The hype for Blue Lock is real!
The hype for Blue Lock is real!!
With the upcoming U20 match, fans’ like myself have been hyped for season 2, but with the most recent release of episode 2 the hype has turned to disappointment. Episode 2 showed a major downgrade in animation. I’m not even sure if animation is what you want to call it. Some fans’ are calling the animation a glorified PowerPoint presentation.
“A glorified PowerPoint presentation describes Blue Locks animation perfectly”
“BLUELOCK’s Animation Misfire: When Motion is missing”
The animation of season 2 has pushed fans away from the anime. After the release of Episode 2, Blue Locks manga sales jumped up. Does this surprise anyone? Fans’ choose to watch the anime to see these scenes in the manga come to life. The point of animation is to express the movement in these scenes. Blue lock season 2 has failed to do that. Shidou’s goal vs team B had great artwork but the movement was not there. There was no movement except for the movement of speed lines. They essentially just edited the manga with color and slight movements of the speed lines. Can we really call this animation?
Some scenes throughout season 2 even seem to have less movement than the manga, to even say that is just wrong. Blue Lock fans’ are not eating good this year.
What do the Animators Have to Say?
No official statement has come out from the animation studio 8-Bit about the causes of Blue Locks failed adaptation. One of the series’ animators Martín Reyes, known online by MartinKiings, has shared his experience and the reasons for why Blue Locks animation has gone to sh**.
Sorry, let me rephrase that. He shared his experience and the reasons behind the anime’s controversial animation quality drop. I think what he has to say we all saw coming. Fans’ have had speculation as to why the animation has gone down hill and Martín Reyes confirmed our suspicions.
Blue Lock Season 2 Animator Reveals Production Issues
@martinkiings Lamentable resultado🥱🙇♂️ Creo que me falto agregar que aunque hubiesemos intentado llevar la animación mas lejos, el director eliminaria... See more
The animator MartinKiings previously worked on animes like Nier: Automata and the most recent popular anime Dan Da Dan. He shared on his Tiktok account breaking the silence about his experience working on Blue lock season 2. He claimed that all the animators did their best, despite the low payment and tight schedule they had to work on. This does not surprise me in the slightest.
I worked on the second episode of Blue Lock, and I will tell you why its animation was so bad. Several months ago, I started working on Blue Lock season 2. One in which I would work not only on 1 episode or 2 or 3, but rather 5 episodes. I started working on the second episode, in which I had to take charge of approximately 20 cuts, animating these scenes from scratch, that is, layout.
But curiously, the problems didn’t start at this point. I'm sure that not only me but also all the animators who worked on this episode didn't do the job that ended up being the final result. Despite the low payment and short time we were given, we did the best we could.
Source: @MartinKiings on tiktok (Translation)
Is There Still Hope For Blue Locks Animation?
Majority of the Blue Lock Community saw this coming. Honestly at this point i’d rather have to wait longer for the adaptation then to have to watch an adaptation that they absolutely butchered. Is there still hope for Blue Lock? Some fans believe that the animators are saving the best animation for the U20 match, but I’m skeptical about that. I think I’ll just stick to the manga. We can all agree the Blue Lock manga is superior, and just pure gold.
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