Blue Lock season 2 episode 5 review: 8bit's poor animation run ruins Japan U-20 team's first appearance

Modified Nov 20, 2024 18:52 GMT

Blue Lock season 2 episode 5 review: 8bit — Sae Itoshi as seen in Blue Lock season 2 episode 5 (Image via 8bit)

Blue Lock season 2 episode 5, titled Flow, premiered on Saturday, November 2, 2024, at 11:30 pm JST. The anime's poor animation run has become quite a known thing among fans, leading to many of them criticizing the same online.

While the latest episode was effectively fine due to the lack of scenes with a lot of movement, 8bit animation studio still managed to ruin the Japan U-20 team's first appearance in the anime with poor line art for the characters.

Hence, we shall take a deep dive into the production quality of Blue Lock season 2 episode 5. This will include both pluses and minuses and what it could mean to the anime's future.

Blue Lock season 2 episode 5 review: 8bit fails to provide good line art for Japan U-20 team

Japan U-20 Defenders as seen in Blue Lock season 2 episode 5 (Image via 8bit)

As any fan would know, the Blue Lock anime's second season majorly focuses on the match between Blue Lock Eleven and the Japan U-20 team. Thus, the latest episode was very crucial to the story's further proceedings.

While fans have known each of the Blue Lock Eleven players for a really long time, the Japan U-20 team has been a mystery to them. The only players fans knew were going to be part of the team were Sae Itoshi and Oliver Aiku.

Hence, the other players needed a good introduction scene. Nevertheless, 8bit ruined this moment with their poor linework for the "new" Japan U-20 players, namely Sendo Shuto, Neru Teppei, Darai Miroku, and Niou Kazuma.

Lack of match scenes allows 8bit to deliver a not-so-problematic episode

Rin Itoshi as seen in Blue Lock season 2 episode 5 (Image via 8bit)

As fans must have observed till now, the Blue Lock anime has been reasonably well-animated as long as the scenes don't involve a football. This is a very poor remark for a football anime but that is what has been happening with the anime.

With that in mind, given that the majority of scenes in the latest episode did not showcase any action with football, the anime looked reasonably better than some of the previous episodes. Nevertheless, given that the anime is set to showcase the kick-off of Blue Lock Eleven vs. Japan U-20 team in the next episode, it is expected that the rest of the episodes will look bad.

Final thoughts on Blue Lock season 2 episode 5

Sendo Shuto as seen in Blue Lock season 2 episode 5 (Image via 8bit)

As seen in the previous episode, the Blue Lock Eleven's starting lineup has been picked. Therefore, the upcoming episode will likely showcase some training scenes for the team, following which Ego Jinpachi could announce the substitute players for the match.

As for the Japan U-20 team, their morale has been effectively shaken up by the arrival of Sae Itoshi and Ryusei Shidou. While the players respect Sae, they do not care about Shidou. Hence, it is to be seen whether Shidou fits into the team's system or not.