Uzumaki Episode Two Animation Quality Controversy

Submission 5,115

Part of a series on Uzumaki. [View Related Entries]

Overview

Uzumaki Episode Two Animation Quality Controversy or Uzumaki Anime Episode 2 Backlash refers to memes and jokes about the perceived sharp drop in animation quality between the first and the second episode of the four-part Uzumaki anime series, originally created by manga artist Junji Ito, which was released in early October 2024. Fans of the much-hyped horror anime began voicing complaints about the Adult Swim Toonami show after several clips from the second episode went viral online, with people pointing out shoddy animation and poor graphics, among other criticisms. This also inspired several X users to post low-quality scenes from other shows and joke about how it is "Uzumaki episode 2." There were theories about why the quality of the anime dipped, with some anime fans speculating that the work was outsourced to subpar studios and that Fugaku studio's Hiroshi Nagahama was supposedly fired for driving up the costs of production in the first episode.

Background

The second episode of the Uzumaki anime adaptation was released on October 6th, 2024, with many internet users commenting on the supposedly sharp drop in animation quality between the first episode (released in late September 2024) and the new one as it generated discourse on social media.

For example, X^[1] user @doffylmingo was one of the first to post a clip from the new series on October 6th, gathering over 30,000 likes in two days.

My day is ruined… https://t.co/vHLW1HWoOZ pic.twitter.com/dgJtIFvxCZ

— doffylamingo (@doffylmingo) src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 6, 2024

Developments

Quality Dip Theories

Several anime fans floated their theories about why there was a change in the animation style of Uzumaki in early October 2024. A common reason cited was budgetary restraints, with the anime moving from Fugaku studio to Akatsuki after the first episode.^[5]

A comment by a MyAnimeList^[6] user "HoesEatinDogFood" was repeatedly cited on both Reddit and X^[7] on October 6th, however, the user's theory about the animation for Uzumaki being outsourced to another studio is unverified.

Uzumaki Executive Producer's Response

On October 7th, 2024, Toonami co-creator and Uzumaki executive producer Jason DeMarco posted a series of now-deleted skeets on Bluesky, ^[8] saying that the show was "screwed over" and had the choice to stop production or complete it however they can. The post was discussed on the subreddit /r/JuniIto,^[9] as well as /r/anime^[10] on October 7th.

Online Reactions

As discourse surrounding episode two of the series continued to appear online in early October 2024, various X users posted numerous clips from the shows to discuss what they saw as a fall in the anime's quality.

For example, on October 6th, X^[2] user @dyianactive posted a side-by-side comparison of the show's animation, gathering over 20,000 likes in two days.

episode 1 vs episode 2 of uzumaki.. this is unreal im so mad pic.twitter.com/CD8xoym07q

— dylan (@dyianactive) October 7, 2024

On October 7th, 2024, X^[3] user @AwestruckVox gathered over 41,000 likes on a scene from the show, captioned, "cmon dawg LMFAOOO."

cmon dawg LMFAOOO https://t.co/u9CD5TfXjs pic.twitter.com/sqnSSS5qO9

— kev (@AwestruckVox) October 7, 2024

On October 6th, several Redditors^[4] on /r/JunjiIto posted memes and jokes about the seeming dip in the show's quality as seen in a post by Redditor /u/Feralman2003, who gathered over 1,000 upvotes in a day.

Several X users also posted scenes from other television shows to joke about the supposed dip in Uzumaki's animation quality, including X^[11]^[12] users @vancethot and @johnny_tmanV2, who gathered over 46,000 and 29,000 likes, respectively, in two days.

uzumaki anime episodes 2-4 pic.twitter.com/rwrUK1uBGt

— vance (@vancethot) October 6, 2024

uzumaki episode 1: fast paced but still great, especially visually uzumaki episode 2: pic.twitter.com/aCZyo0x1Ym

— PT: psycho tman (@johnny_tmanV2) October 6, 2024