Blue Lock made a big name for itself with its first season, and rightfully so. A sports anime can turn out to be boring because of the simplistic plot. However, Blue Lock did everything right. The anime was instantly placed in the same category as Haikyuu! in terms of storytelling and, of course, animation. But, the praise and applause were short-lived, as the anime is being criticized (a lot) for the animation in its second season. After facing all the criticism, an animator who worked on the ongoing season has broken silence on this issue.
The second season of Blue Lock premiered in October 2024, and as expected, the fandom was super excited to see Isagi grow as an egoist. However, a major part of the fandom is left disappointed with the animation style of Season 2. This happened after the release of Episode 2, which saw a major decline in animation quality when compared to the first season.
Usually, an anime tends to surpass its previous season when it comes to animation. But it seems like Blue Lock has been put in reverse gear in the latest season, much like Uzumaki.
The Chilean animator MartinKiing recently went on TikTok to address the bad animation quality of Blue Lock Season 2. The animator worked on the second episode of Blue Lock’s latest season, and unfortunately, his work was modified in the final edit of the episode. According to MartinKiing, he and other animators did their best despite the low payment and the workload, but for some reason, that didn’t end up being a part of the final result.
I worked on the second episode of Blue Lock, and I will tell you why its animation was so bad. Several months ago, I started working on Blue Lock season 2. One in which I would work not only on 1 episode or 2 or 3, but rather 5 episodes. I started working on the second episode, in which I had to take charge of approximately 20 cuts, animating these scenes from scratch, that is, layout.
But curiously, the problems didn’t start at this point. I’m sure that not only me but also all the animators who worked on this episode didn’t do the job that ended up being the final result. Despite the low payment and short time we were given, we did the best we could.
Apart from that, MartinKiing also revealed that he was supposed to work on five episodes. However, he left after the second episode. That’s because Martin was sure that his work would be “capped” in the final cut.
The animator claims that many of the frames and movements that he worked on were removed or modified in the final cut. This was no fault of the animators but a conscious decision made by the production committee. Martin was sure that this would happen if he worked on more episodes, so he decided to leave.
The problems came after the production was tight with their schedule, and they decided to remove many of the resources that were used for the animation. Many of my animations were capped in the final version. Basically, they eliminated all the movement, some frames, or they just made them differently. But the fault doesn’t lie in the one that came after me, since they probably did all they could with the short time they had.
These problems, just like in Jujutsu Kaisen in the past or in the vast majority of animes, are a result of the production committee of certain animes that take projects just thinking about the money and not the condition of its workers. And it’s because of this that I didn’t work on any more episodes of Blue Lock. Once I finished working on the second episode, I decided to get out, and as I thought, the final result ended up being disastrous. This made it a job that I’m not proud to upload.
Unfortunately, the animators have to face such working conditions, and this is not unique to Blue Lock. We have seen similar complaints with Jujutsu Kaisen and several other anime projects.
For now, we can only hope that things get better for the artists working in the anime industry. Also, let’s keep our fingers crossed and hope that the upcoming episodes of Blue Lock Season 2 deliver good animation quality. The popularity of the anime shouldn’t die because of some bad decisions made by the production committee.
