Edit Nov 30: HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT HOLY SHIT ACTUALLY GOOD ANJIMATION HOLY SHIT RIN VS SAE FLASHBACK ACTUALLY GOOD ANIMATION HOLY SHIT INSERT COPE PLEASE GOD LET THIS BE GOOD THEY SAVED THE BUDGET FOR THE SECOND HALF OF THE U-20 MATCH!!!
Depressing Tragedy...
I want to preface this by saying that it is a rule of mine never to write a review without watching a season in its entirety. But after watching the start of the U-20 match, purely for Blue Lock Season 2's case, I will make an exception. Not only that, I will be disregarding my usual reviewing style so that I can truly express the amount of emotion I feel right now. Also, this is a PRELIMINARY REVIEW. There is still a miniscule, tiny, microscopic, chance that Blue Lock Season 2 somehow fixes things.
Now, I should mention that I am a big fan of the manga, so I had VERY HIGH expectations going into this season and I am 100% biased. The U-20 Arc in the manga is genuinely one of the best arcs in animanga history. It is full of the most hype, most intense, and most stress-inducing moments I've ever seen. Never before has a manga made me physically jump up and down and sweat like Blue Lock has. So yes, my expectations for the anime were extraordinarily high. But when I say that this season is actual trash, I mean it. Absent of bias from manga superiority, this season of Blue Lock is a flaming pile of dogshit.
Now, why is this? The characters are the same, the story is pretty loyal to the manga, and the soundtrack is acceptable, what could have possibly gone wrong here? What could 8bit Studio have done to adapt THE BEST SELLING MANGA OF 2023 in such a way that it was trash?
Animation my friend, animation. Blue Lock S2 has DOGSHIT animation. The amount of pain I experience from watching the show is extreme enough that on occasion I don't care that the animation is bad because my soul has become detached from my body due to the extreme torture that I go through while watching.
I can not express the disappointment, the sorrow, the pain, and the grief that I experienced while watching. I do not exaggerate when I say that some scenes look like LITERAL TIKTOK EDITS!!! Actually, that would be a disservice to TikTok edits, because sometimes the anime is even worse. Yes, worse than TikTok edits.
Now some of you may not care about animation, and I can understand that. But the animation here isn't just bad. It actively makes it hard to understand WHAT THE FUCK IS HAPPENING ON THE MOTHER FUCKING SCREEN!!! There's a scene where a character, Shidou, does a cool trick shot in episode 2. Or at least it was supposed to be a cool shot. Instead NOT ONLY is it a fucking png but it's so poorly drawn that it looks like he broke his leg. The surrounding characters are also completely out of scale, one character BEHIND Shidou is drawn so big that his head IS LARGER THAN SHIDOUS. Speaking of Shidou, there are so many times when his face turns into a fucking cartoon. It doesn't even resemble him, all the detail is lost and he looks like a character from Caillou.
Another scene happens where one character is doing some cool dribbling that other characters comment on. BUT INSTEAD OF SHOWING US THE DRIBBLING IT JUST SHOWS THE CHARACTERS FACES GOING: 😱😱😱😱😱😱 MOTHER FUCKER SHOW ME THE GOD DAMN DRIBBLING!!!
There are sooooooo many scenes where the only movement from characters is a PNG getting slowly dragged across the screen with lines flying out from left and right. When people say that this is PowerPoint animation, they are insulting PowerPoint. You can pull off better animation than Blue Lock Season 2 with the fucking desmos graphing calculator.
The animation here is what cruel and unusual punishment was meant to refer to. If I work a government job and you want me to spill secrets then just make me watch this shit, and I'll start talking.
Ok, ok, what about the rest of the show right? The acting, music, story, and all that stuff.
I'll start with the story. By using all of my willpower, and encouragement from others, I can separate the story from the animation and determine that the story of Blue Lock S2 is pretty good. It's well-paced, has great stakes, and very hype. One of Blue Lock's best things is that it somehow always manages to have some of the most hype, insane, and energetic moments in animanga. This does not change in season 2. Unfortunately, the animation is so bad that it's nearly impossible to notice the story being good because all you can see are the sweat blood and tears of animators that were given 20 minutes to draw half an episode.
What about the music? Eh, it's ok. I don't think it's anything all that special. Blue Lock isn't known for its music, but at the very least the music doesn't detract from the watching experience at all. Thinking about it, it only adds to the watching experience because it can serve to distract you from the disaster of a PowerPoint presentation that's on screen.
The acting? I like it. Isaig's va does a great job. His voice can express the stress and excitement Isagi feels when he makes a breakthrough in his soccer development. The rest of the VAs also do good jobs with their characters. Too bad it's too hard to hear them over the sound of excruciating screams of pain from watching animation that makes 7 Deadly Frames look like One Punch Man.
The characters are simple. They always have been. Blue Lock's focus has never been on the characters as much as it has been on one of the most hype stories in fiction. But they aren't bad, they are still enjoyable and I enjoy their dynamic with each other. It's just too bad because half the time the characters turn into sliding jpegs that cause me to both burst out laughing and keel over in excruciating agony.
My overall enjoyment of the series is a 1/10 and that is what I will rate it subjectively. My disappointment is immeasurable and my year is ruined. But critically speaking, this season isn't nearly that bad. Many people out there won't care about the animation, in which case I think this is still a great watch that they should check out. But the vast majority of viewers will find that the animation detracts from the watching experience an ungodly amount. That's why my review rating will be a 3/10.
Blue Lock Season 2 had the potential to guarantee Blue Lock a spot as one of the greatest sports anime of all time and one of the most legendary anime of all time in general. But as a result of rushing animators, Studio 8bit has ruined this potential and instead of becoming known for making a Blue Lock masterpiece, Studio 8bit will be known for completely ruining one of the most anticipated anime of the year.
I beg you, if you enjoyed season 1 and think that the bad animation will detract from the experience of Blue Lock, read the manga. The U-20 Arc in the manga is phenomenal, well-drawn, well-paced, and extremely hype. Trust me, you will not regret reading the manga at all. With all that said, goodbye, pray for my soul, and thank you for reading.