Blue Lock vs. U20 Japan has been Rough…
Article at a glance:
- The visuals in Blue Lock Season 2 look incredible in stills but fall apart in motion, lacking the smoothness of Season 1.
- Despite slight improvement after Episode 4, the animation remains far below the high-energy standard fans were hyped for in the U20 Japan arc.
- Disappointment is high—Blue Lock is all about the intense games and insane goals, and weak animation takes away the core appeal.
Look, I know all the “png” and PowerPoint memes are funny, I’ve laughed at them myself. In fact, I made the same joke in one of my social media posts. But not gonna lie, as a fan, it does sting a bit. I was really looking forward to Blue Lock vs. U20 Japan as this is arguably the best arc in the manga so far. Some of the coolest manga panels come from this arc and the thought of seeing them in top-tier animation like Season 1 was an exciting prospect. But well, we don’t always get what we want, do we?
Yeah, it seems like every year now we must have at least one studio struggle with a high-profile anime. Last year it was Mappa with Jujustu Kaisen Season 2, this year it’s Blue Lock Season 2 and Uzumaki. So yeah, since episode 6 was out, I thought this would be a good time to check back in with Blue Lock vs. U20 Japan. So let’s talk about it.
What do I think of Blue Lock vs. U20 Japan so far?
Okay, how can an anime look so cool and so shit at the same damn time? If you see stills or screenshots from Blue Lock you wouldn’t even be able to guess what’s the issue with the animations. The art style is just top tier and I’ve always loved the Blue Lock coloring style in general. The problem starts when you start to see it in motion with GIFs or videos. There isn’t a single ounce of smoothness in the animations. Episodes 2 and 3 were particularly egregious with this. They didn’t even try to hide the PNGs, it felt like and the editing was rough on top of that.
Episode 4 onwards, things seem to have improved a bit but it is still nowhere even close to Season 1 standard. I really wish that they delayed this anime a few months are refined the animations. But I guess Bandai Namco was in too much of a hurry to do that. Come on guys, you got a massive revenue boost from Shadow of the Erdtree this year, surely you don’t need Blue Lock to stay afloat. And I feel bad for the 8Bit staff too. If the Mappa meltdown from last year is anything to go by, I can only imagine the atrocities they must be reading on a daily basis.
Ultimately though, I cannot describe how disappointed I am with Blue Lock Season 2 so far. The U20-arc starts in earnest from the next episode and I can only hope that the animations for it are not as bad as they have been so far. I’ve lost hope that they will ever reach the Season 1 quality in this season now so all I can hope for now are small improvements.
Yes, I am aware of how salty I sound but you have to realize that no one watches Blue Lock for the plot. okay? We are here for those insane goals and confrontations. We are here to watch the games, damn it. If you take that away, then what’s even left to discuss?
That is all for now
So yeah, rant over. I can only hope that Blue Lock vs. U20 Japan gets better in future episodes but I don’t think that’s gonna happen. I’m sorry if I came off as overly negative here, I am just very disappointed right now. But yeah, that is all for now… I’m gonna go watch some Blue Box now to freshen up lol. See ya!
Also, check out my thoughts on GGO Season 2 so far here!
