„It Makes Sense That People Are Mad.” Uzumaki Producer Explains Sudden Decline in Anime Quality
The executive producer of Uzumaki spoke out after the commotion caused by the second episode of the anime's deteriorated quality. He decided to explain the reasons for the situation to outraged fans.
Lately there was information about how the long-awaited anime titled Uzumaki, which delighted viewers with the first episode, suddenly surprised and disappointed with the quality of the second one. Fans who had been waiting for 5 years for the adaptation of Junji Ito's horror work did not understand where this sudden change came from. The first episode was very well received, with a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes, and viewers couldn't wait to see the next ones, as it represented high quality and proved to be a faithful adaptation of the beloved horror manga.
Unfortunately, in the second episode, viewers could not count on the same high quality or equally balanced pacing. The animations were unpolished, and on top of that, five different chapters of the manga were crammed into one episode (for comparison, only two chapters were adapted in the first episode). As it turned out, these episodes were prepared by two different animation studios, which to some extent explains the differences.
The executive producer of Uzumaki, Jason DeMarco, decided to shed more light on the matter on Bluesky, explaining what was behind the sudden drop in quality.
Alright, we knew this would happen. I can't talk about what happened, but we got screwed, and the options were as follows: A) not finish and not broadcast anything and call it a failure, B) just finish and broadcast episode 1 and leave the adaptation incomplete, or C) do all four episodes, imperfect and that's it. Out of respect for hard work, we chose option C.
After such a long wait, it makes sense that people will be furious. Unfortunately, I can't tell them who to blame... but someone here definitely messed up, and we all had to give our all when things took a turn for the worse. Maybe others would make different choices. We did everything in our power with what we had.
But again, many people worked hard on this series and I didn't think that the actions of just one or two people should be the reason why it never sees the light of day. It might be a bad choice, I really don't know. But these people have the right to be annoyed and disappointed. I'm glad you like it.
Although DeMarco could not provide details of the behind-the-scenes of problems, he outlined the issue that the creators of this anime were facing. Uzumaki could have not been made at all, or boast only a polished first episode, or have worse ones added – and this option was chosen. This means that the next episodes may look similar to the second one.
The adaptation of Uzumaki was announced in 2019. Since then, the premiere has been postponed several times, which already suggested that the creators were encountering some problems. Some of them, as DeMarco himself previously admitted, were due to the pandemic, during which they were unable to work, delaying them for almost a year, after which it was difficult for them to return to the project.
We still have two episodes of Uzumaki ahead of us, which will be released on Max on 13 and 20 October.
