Blue Lock Season 2 is Hilariously Bad, A Review
Article at a glance:
- The arc’s pacing, plot twists, and character development, particularly for Rin, Isagi, and Itoshi Sae, are strong highlights of Blue Lock Season 2.
- Poor animation quality, including clunky CGI and low frame rates, severely detracts from the enjoyment of the intense sports action.
- Despite memorable characters and decent soundtracks, lackluster animation diminishes the season, resulting in a middling overall score of 6/10.
Before you say anything, I’d like to clarify that I am a massive Blue Lock fan. I think the manga is awesome and even though I may not read it weekly, I still keep up with it. The manga has a way of building hype and delivering on that hype with loads of trash-talking and incredibly drawn panels that most other sports mangas do not have. This is why, it pains me even more to review Blue Lock Season 2. Season 2 adapts what is considered by many to be the best arc of the Blue Lock manga. And yet, the anime has turned out to be a disappointment.
I am well aware of the plight 8Bit has been through this year and how tight their schedule was. I have also heard multiple rumors. But I won’t comment on those as I am here to speak solely about the anime today. So welcome back to another review and today we are talking about Blue Lock Season 2.
Plot
No one watches Blue Lock for the plot. You don’t watch a sports anime for the plot lol you are here for the character development and the action. That said, I do have to compliment Blue Lock on its pacing. This arc in particular has a lot of political background and also a few good plot twists. It is nothing overly complex because it doesn’t need to be. The plot won’t blow you away or anything but it does a great job of setting up upcoming games and raising the stakes when needed. That’s about all you need from a sports anime plot, really.
Characters
Blue Lock has some incredible characters. We get a bunch of character development for both Rin and Isagi in this arc. Nagi and Reo get their times to shine as well. Itoshi Sae is a fantastic addition to the cast, I think the backstory between him and Rin was pretty well done. And the sibling rivalry will be kicked up a notch come the end of this arc, you will see. There will also be more character development for Isagi in the coming episodes. As the Blue Lock trend goes, all the new side characters introduced in this arc are also quirky and fun.
Blue Lock is great at creating memorable characters and this arc just further serves as a reminder of that. I like Aiku’s leadership of the U20 team as well. Shidou is the perfect wild card for the series and continues to be entertaining on screen. Along with all this, the character interactions, especially during matches are great as well.
Animations and Soundtracks
Everything positive I said about this show, falls apart here. A sports anime really needs some good animations to work because of how many things are tied to the matches/games themselves. But when the matches look this hilariously bad in action, how do you expect anyone to take them seriously? The still I’ll post in this article won’t look bad but they are a clear downgrade over the manga and there is no fluidity in the animations. The few scenes CGI is used in, look horrendous. The frame rate of certain scenes is just barely above PowerPoint levels.
And in certain scenes, they literally just move PNGs around. The recent episodes have improved a bit but the animations still look goofy at times. Especially when they do the occasional 3D CGI shots. You can’t help but laugh at just how bad the animations are at times. Just go watch a compilation or something on YouTube to see just how laughably bad the animations are in certain scenes. I won’t even speak on the soundtracks because the decent sound design does not excuse the horrendous animations.
Summing Up
Here are my final review scores for Blue Lock Season 2:
- Plot – 6/10
- Characters – 8/10
- Animations – 4/10
- Soundtracks – 7/10
- Enjoyment – 5/10
- Overall – 6/10
I wouldn’t say that Blue Lock Season 2 is complete garbage but whatever redeeming qualities it does have are washed away by the animations. Even if the remaining few episodes are animated in the Season 1 quality, that doesn’t excuse the other 10 episodes. The majority of Season 2 had really bad animations either way. But yeah, those were my thoughts on Blue Lock Season 2. I will take my leave here. See ya!
