The anime started so well, but it didn't last long.
The anime series Uzumaki has launched on Adult Swim and the Max platform. It is an adaptation of the manga of the same name by Junji Ito, a Japanese author who has been working in the horror genre for almost 40 years.
Junji Ito's Adaptations Often Suffer from Poor Quality
The Uzumaki adaptation has been in the works for a long time: the anime was announced back in 2019, but was delayed several times due to production issues during the pandemic. Three volumes of the original manga were condensed into just four episodes.
As a result, fans feared that Uzumaki would be a flop, like previous anime adaptations of Ito's manga. In 2018 and 2023, the horror anthologies Junji Ito Collection and Junji Ito Maniac on Netflix were poorly animated.
Numerous adaptations of Ito's various works also looked cheap, including the 2000 Japanese film based on Uzumaki. The visuals in it look more funny than scary.
Uzumaki's Episode 1 Was Almost Perfect, But Episode 2 Disappointed Everyone
The anime adaptation seemed to be unaffected by this. In the first episode, the anime looked as if its frames were copied from the pages of the manga itself. But then the second episode came out and scared viewers not with the horrors of the town of Kurozu, but with decline in quality.
The first episode was characterized by very smooth, realistic and detailed animation. The second episode, on the other hand, began to look like an episode of a cheap anime series.
In addition, it seems that the animators in the second episode almost never used 3D character models, which were often seen in the first episode.
Viewers also complain about the confusing story in the second episode: this happened because the creators of the series squeezed several chapters of the original manga into one episode.
Episode 2's Low Quality Is Probably a Result of Production Hell
Viewers quickly figured out why: a completely different studio and director were responsible for the second episode. If Hiroshi Nagahama and Fugaku Studio were responsible for the first episode, Yuji Moriyama and Akatsuki Studio were responsible for the second one. Hiroshi Nagahama only provided storyboards for the second episode.
Fans speculate that the series suffered a typical case of production hell, with the first and last episodes receiving the most attention. The anime adaptation of Uzumaki has only four episodes, and viewers are hoping that the remaining ones will make up for the poor impression.