Uzumaki Executive Producer Breaks Silence on Big Episode 2 Controversy

Uzumaki was one of the most anticipated anime adaptations in years, hyped as one of the most faithful adaptations of Junji Ito’s most famous manga. Still, the release of episode #2 quickly hurt fan perception of the anime. The show’s noticeable drop in animation quality was noted in several now-deleted posts by Toonami co-founder Jason DeMarco from his Blusky Account. Although it hardly offers a concrete explanation, the stiff animation and furious fan reaction over Uzumaki Episode #2 and the rest of its run is visible in the community.

Junji Ito’s original 1998 manga for Uzumaki is a three-volume series that has achieved critical acclaim for its haunting imagery and elegant world-building featuring the spiraling curse of Kurouzu-cho. The series is easily the most talked-about creation of the manga horror master, so the expectation of viewers, and in all likelihood, the animators, was that the show could be handled with care. However, given the reaction to the quality of the Uzumaki anime, this will likely be seen as the latest set of quality drops in the medium.

Why fans are so upset about Uzumaki episode 2 explained

Spiraling out of control

Jason DeMarco posted three separate comments to address this Uzumaki Anime’s perceived quality drop, sparking fan outrage, saying that the viewers have a right to be annoyed and disappointed by it. The comments vaguely show the actions of “only one or two people” hampering production, that DeMarco can’t talk about what happened, and that they as a whole are “screwed over” leaving them few options. The Uzumaki Anime’s animation, such as the awkward movement in the lighthouse stairwell scene or the distractingly bad movement rendered in the “Twisted Souls” final scenes, is hard to overlook.

It’s okay, we knew this would happen. I can’t talk about what went down but we were screwed over and the options were a) don’t finish and air nothing and call it a loss, b) just finish and air ep 1 and leave it unfinished or c) run all four, Warts and all. Out of respect for the hard work we chose C.

After waiting so long, it makes sense that people would be mad. Unfortunately, I can not tell them who to blame it on … but someone is definitely at fault here, and we all just have to do our best when things imploded. Maybe others would have made different choices. We did the best we could with what we had.

But again, a lot of people worked very hard on this show and I didn’t think the actions of just one or two people should be the reason why it never saw the light of day. Maybe this is the wrong choice, I really don’t know. But the people have a right to be annoyed and disappointed. I’m glad you dig it

DeMarco talks about how, despite these issues, there are options to cancel production and air nothing, finish and air episode #1 and leave it unfinished, or run all four, “words and all.” This sets viewers up for disappointment in the rest of the anime and is a much steeper drop in quality than Ninja Kamui Or The Promised Neverland Season 2. Fans feel outraged because the Uzumaki Anime leveraged multiple iconic moments rendered in the first episode to overpromise and underdeliver, with the only explanations being vague finger-pointing.

Uzumaki is still Junji Ito’s best anime adaptation, despite the animation quality taking a dip

It could still be worse

As brilliant as Junji Ito’s manga is, anime adaptations have often fallen short in terms of animation quality, with Uzumaki Standing as another example of diminishing returns on its anime adaptations. There is a strong case for why some manga are difficult to transfer to the animated medium, such as Berserk And VagabondDue to unique high-quality storytelling practically made to thrive on the page and not the screen. with Junji Ito Collection From 2018 onwards Junji Ito Maniac: Japanese Tales of the MacabreThe prevailing criticism lies in its animation, with characters often feeling like lifeless adaptations of very popular manga.

Not similar Uzumaki Episode #1, there are hardly any great moments in other Junji Ito adaptations for similar reasons to what Episode #2 of Uzumaki is poorly received. Moments like Ice cream bus of the newly released Alley Collection falls flat despite reasonably strong voice acting, and it loses its gravitas compared to the horrifying post-paneling of the original manga. Uzumaki is still the best Junji Ito adaptation because of its strong first impressions, but the bar, unlike that set by its manga, is not set very high in anime form.

Source: Jason DeMarco on Bluesky