Blue Lock season 2 episode 1 review: Did 8bit studio prove fuming fans wrong?

Modified Oct 05, 2024 14:30 GMT

Blue Lock season 2 episode 1 review: Can 8bit studio prove fuming fans wrong? — Yoichi Isagi as seen in Blue Lock season 2 episode 1 (Image via 8bit)

Blue Lock season 2 episode 1, Tryouts, is set to premiere on Saturday, October 5, 2024, at 11:30 pm JST. Following the anime's successful first season, fans have highly anticipated its second season. This is because its popularity started soaring to new heights, even threatening to take over Haikyuu!! as one of the most renowned sports anime in recent times.

However, weeks before the second season premiered, the animation studio 8bit received a lot of criticism for the clips that were showcased as part of the sequel anime's promotional videos. With that in mind, many fans have already made up their minds about the quality of the second season.

So, let's take a deep dive into the Blue Lock season 2 episode 1 to analyze what the finished product looks like. This review will cover aspects such as narrative, cast performances, production quality, animation, and other elements to assess how 8bit has handled the anime's debut episode.

Blue Lock season 2 episode 1 review: Narrative changes and cast performances

Sae Itoshi as seen in Blue Lock season 2 episode 1 (Image via 8bit)

As Blue Lock fans must know by now, Blue Lock season 2 is set to adapt the Third Selection Arc and U-20 Arc from the manga. These two story arcs entail a total of over 60 chapters, adapting which is a difficult task for an anime listed with 14 episodes. Therefore, it was bound for 8bit to make some changes to the narrative. This will also be evident from the anime episode, as the chronology of several events is set to get altered.

The anime-only watchers of the series might miss out on these. However, the manga readers could catch hold of such changes instantly. This is especially the case because of the anime's opening "Rin and Sae" scene, which is depicted much later in the manga.

Otoya Eita and Yukimiya Kenyu as seen in the anime (Image via 8bit)

In addition, the anime is also set to depict some original scenes featuring the top 6 players to depict their chemistry ahead of the Third Selection Tryouts. Lastly, the anime will also feature a huge change by giving fans a glimpse of Japan U-20 captain Oliver Aiku way ahead of his first appearance in the manga.

While one could question the narrative changes, it is pretty clear that the studio made the above changes to make the anime's premiere more engaging than the series of events depicted in the manga.

Oliver Aiku as seen in Blue Lock season 2 episode 1 (Image via 8bit)

These scenes also helped the studio add extra lines for Tabito Karasu, Otoya Eita, Yukimiya Kenyu, and Oliver Aiku, allowing fans to listen to their cast members Makoto Furukawa, Kengo Kawanishi, Takuya Eguchi, and Satoshi Hino at work more clearly. Evidently, each of the cast members will sound brilliant, giving their respective characters their individual charm.

Blue Lock season 2 episode 1 review: Production quality and animation

Ever since the anime unveiled its second promotional video, fans were left with questions about the season's production quality and animation. Following the first season, fans knew that the studio was bound to use some CGI for running animations. However, some other scenes also caught fans' eye as they did not seem up to the mark.

Rin Itoshi and Ryusei Shidou as seen in the anime (Image via 8bit)

That said, the anime's first episode is set to be completely different from fans' expectations, as the animation is quite good in most scenes. 8bit Studio made perfect use of shadows to add some intensity to rather "lukewarm" scenes. The line art is good and will be much better than what was depicted in the promotional video.

With such good production quality, fans are bound to expect more from the upcoming episodes, and hopefully, 8bit Studio will deliver.

Final thoughts on Blue Lock season 2 episode 1

Ego Jinpachi as seen in Blue Lock season 2 episode 1 (Image via 8bit)

While Blue Lock season 2 episode 1 looks good and could successfully raise fans' hype for the remainder of the anime, there is a huge problem that's lurking over the series. While the premiere was good, the scenes fans had issues with from the promotional video are set to take place later. Therefore, there is a good chance that 8bit Studio produced a good premiere episode but must have cut down on quality when it came to other episodes. Only time will tell how the Blue Lock anime will fare in comparison to its previous season.

Fans can catch its premiere on Crunchyroll, making it easily accessible to viewers worldwide.