‘Uzumaki’ disappoints fans with a massive animation quality drop on its second episode

The animated adaptation of Junji Ito’s work under the production of Adult Swim on Max is not going as well as expected. The legendary horror visual novel has plunged several generations of fans into nightmares, so turning the work into an anime seemed like the next logical step. However, what seemed poised to become the series of the year has become one of the most recurring jokes on the internet so far in 2024.

A clip from the second episode of ‘Uzumaki’ that has become an internet meme

The second chapter specifically has been the one that has generated the most laughter. The animation quality has fallen so much that the episode left us with moments like the one you can see below these lines. A group of characters begins to run along the beach with movements that are difficult to understand. The finishing touch is the punch that one of them launches against another one — pure cinema.

Fans of the original work are up in arms. If this abrupt change has occurred from the first to the second episode, what will the rest of the series be like? Apparently, the problem comes from a complete change of production teams. The first episode was directed by studio Fugaku, while the second was been the responsibility of the Akatsuki team. The directors and production team completely changed at such an early stage in the series.

“It definitely makes you think its like a cruel joke.”, says one of the fans on Reddit. “The animation in episode 1 was not good, it was spectacular. The episode was virtually flawless in visual style and art direction. It seemed like it was really aiming for a high standard. How did someone working at Toonami watch episode 2 and think ‘yeah, they look completely the same’? It feels cheap, I’m tired of this.”

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