That was gonna be my second suggestion! Also not very well telegraphed. Sorry I was unhelpful
That's fair! Maybe it's unsettling that they're more realistic when the overall vibe of everything else is more stylized/cartoony.
I did reference some actual orca eyeballs for the design, which also have a bit of an uncanny valley humanlike quality to them. So, in that way I would say this is an intentional effect :)