Blue Lock season 2 episode 3 review: Brazenly poor animation continues as 8bit ruins Isagi's "Flow" moment

Modified Oct 21, 2024 12:30 GMT

Blue Lock season 2 episode 3 review: Brazingly poor animation continues as 8bit ruins Isagi — Yoichi Isagi as seen in the Blue Lock anime (Image via 8bit)

Blue Lock season 2 episode 3, titled The World You Feel, premiered on Saturday, October 19, 2024, at 11:30 pm JST. While the anime had a good start, it has become quite obvious that 8bit had put in special effort to make the premiere look good. This is because everything that has followed till now is brazenly poor in animation quality.

Fans always knew that animation studio 8bit wasn't known for its fluid animation quality. However, the difference in production between seasons 1 and 2 is like night and day. Hence, many fans have also started reminiscing about the first season's production quality, comparing the two.

As for Blue Lock season 2 episode 3, let's take a deep dive to analyze the production quality, CG animation, and other elements.

Blue Lock season 2 episode 3 review: 8bit colors manga panels to avoid animation at all costs

Rin Itoshi as seen in Blue Lock season 2 episode 3 (Image via 8bit)

Following the release of the previous episode, fans had essentially lost all hope for the anime. Hence, while at first glance, one would think that Blue Lock season 2 episode 3 isn't necessarily poor in production quality, it is bad by a landslide if you compare it to the previous season.

This is especially evident from the lack of effort in animating the scenes. In the previous season, while the production wasn't the best, it was quite good, especially in the most important scenes. However, this was not the case for Blue Lock season 2 episode 3, in which most of the scenes were close to still images but colored.

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A popular analogy among fans is how 8bit seemingly colored the manga panels rather than animating anything new. This was especially evident in that one scene where Rin Itoshi passes a ball to Nanase with one touch. The only thing that moved in the scene was the ball itself.

As for the main scene of the episode, i.e., Yoichi Isagi's "Flow" scene, animation studio 8bit butchered it with their take on the scenes. The build-up for the scene looked like colored manga panels. As for the finale, it simply seemed like Isagi's image was moving closer to the screen. If it wasn't bad enough, the production quality for the goal was nowhere close to what fans had become used to in the previous season.

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The only thing that has consistently been good in the anime is the CG animation. In the previous season, the CG animation outright looked poor. However, in the second season, the CG animated scenes are possibly the best things. That said, it is difficult to deduce whether the CG animated scenes are actually that good or is the 2D animation is just that bad.

Final thoughts on Blue Lock season 2 episode 3

Hiori Yo as seen in Blue Lock season 2 episode 3 (Image via 8bit)

From what one can deduce up till now, 8bit has effectively given up on animating any scenes that involve the characters playing football. This is because any scene that has the characters speak with each other has decent animation with great line art to match that.

Unfortunately, this is bad news for the fans as the second part of this anime is set to adapt an entire match, i.e., the U-20 arc. Unless and until 8bit has focused all their production quality for the match, fans could poised to witness their favorite sports anime get ruined due to production quality.