FOUR years. That’s how long it took for the first episode of “Uzumaki” to be released due to several delays.

The anime adaptation of writer and illustrator Junji Ito’s story with the same name proved to be well worth the wait. The first episode received rave reviews from viewers commending its quality, animation, and sound design.

The same, however, was not said for the second episode.

A dip in quality

Upon watching the second episode, fans were confused as to what happened. The animation style was completely different, and the quality was nowhere near the first episode.

the quality drop in episode 2 is actually insane 💀 pic.twitter.com/uazHoPBVWq

— ً (@tylerduran21) October 8, 2024

Many fans pointed out that a different animation team was credited for the first and second episodes, which could explain the difference in quality.

Producer speaks up

Since then, an executive producer of the show has spoken up to explain. 

The executive producer Jason DeMarco, who is also the Senior Vice President of Anime & Action at Warner Bros. Animation, posted to his BlueSky account saying they were “screwed over.”

He explained that they had three options: completely abandoning the project and airing nothing, just finishing the first episode and leaving it incomplete, or airing all four episodes, despite quality issues.

And they chose to go with the last option.

“We did the best we could with what we had,” he said. 

He added that since a lot of people worked so hard on the show, he didn’t want the actions of just one or two people to be the reason why it never saw the light of day.

The posts have since been deleted.