The new drowning animation when a bubble pops has a brief period where there is no graphic before the "empty" bubble shows up, making the animation appear choppy. This is even more obvious when observing the final bubble pop, where you can see the "empty" bubble show up immediately. Compare this to the same animation in Minecraft Bedrock, where the "empty" bubble shows up immediately after the bubble pops for every bubble.

To recreate:

1. Go underwater in Java survival
2. Observe closely as a bubble pops where there is no graphic for a moment
3. Repeat this in Bedrock and note that the animation goes directly from a bubble popping to an "empty" bubble