The first season of Arcane is now available on the internet.
There is a huge world with complex characters you either love to root for or love to hate, a simple yet immersive and complex story, and absolutely gorgeous and innovative animation. The League of Legends adaptation is the final nail in the coffin of the video game adaptation curse, as it shatters preconceptions of what the animation medium is capable of, delivering a once-in-a-generation masterpiece that is sure to inspire both fans and storytellers. It does all of this and more while delivering an exciting story that is sure to impress even the most knowledgeable of readers.
The city of Piltover and its undercity district of Zaun are the setting for the new game, Arcane, which is based on the lore of League of Legends. The upstairs story of Arcane is about the social unrest in Zaun, where people live in harsh conditions and under constant threat of Piltover's brutal enforcers. From the start, Arcane does a great job of introducing its expansive world full of rich history and lore without bombarding us with exposition by relying on visual stories and easter eggs. The mechanical architecture of Zaun, the way a tavern changes its look, and the statues referring to deities or past warriors all help tell that larger story without the need for many verbal explanations.
League of Legends: Arcane Images is a game on the internet.
There are two parallel storylines across the two locations. Jayce and Viktor are two scientists who are on the verge of being able to harness magic through technology. We follow the orphan sisters as they get involved in a robbery and start a gang war in Zaun, which will have big consequences for both cities. Despite many moving parts and an abundance of plot points and worldbuilding, Arcane succeeds by staying grounded in its two intimate storylines. The show explores important events that have a big impact on the world of Runeterra. If you have never played the games, the character stories are what keep you engaged, the lore is just icing on the cake. This is a stark contrast to the DOTA animated series, which focused so much on its lore and pleasing fans it ended up being a confusing mess.
An impressive voice cast helps bring a layer of emotion to the characters, from Shohreh Aghdashloo's regretful Grayson to the soft spoken Caitlyn. Whenever she's on screen, Jinx's vulnerability and rage blend to inspire fear and pity. The show was ruined by the performance of Hailee Steinfeld, who brought a world of pain and emotional baggage to the show. If you know the games and where certain characters end up, you'll see that the fight scenes are more heartbreaking than cool. The show is full of surprises and plot twists that enhance the character journeys. There is a clear vision to make this the first stepping stone into a much larger world, one that seeks to join the likes of the MCU in terms of ambitious connective stories. Even as a self-contained season, it ends on a satisfying note.
The way in which the show weaves in pre-existing elements without drawing attention to them is one of the most successful elements. This is not a story of Han Solo getting his last name from the fact that he had no family, or Jack Sparrow getting his hat and braids from the beginning, but a story of a character who is a fan-favorite champion from the games. When she picks up her gauntlets for the first time, it's at the end of an emotional journey with a deep meaning to her character journey, rather than just an empty moment.
The show is admirable, but it becomes the most stunning piece of animation since Into the Spider-Verse and one hell of an argument for animation as the best medium to adapt, as it features a ton of kick-ass action. Fortiche, the French animation studio, has worked on League of Legends cinematics for almost a decade since the Get Jinxed music video, so it deserves a lot of the praise. Their unique art style, which involves mixing 3D characters with 2D shading and flat colors, gives the show an airbrushed, painterly look that, combined with the world's steampunk aesthetic, results in the closest we'll likely get to a Dishonored series. The show uses less frames than the characters to make the 2D texture of water, smoke, and fire. Combine that with the flat-painted background and you get a look that is similar to the old Disney multiplane cameras. The mix of 2D and 3D and the art style of the film help give it a sense of weight that is sorely missing from western animation.
For years to come, we will be talking about Arcane as a classic and standard-setting.
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A few days ago, Adult Swim's Jason DeMarco made a joke about the budget disparity between animated TV shows and feature films. The money is visible in the fight scenes. One scene from Rocket & Groot, which is also produced by Fortiche, but doesn't have the level of cinematic artistry that this show has, is a good example. The live-action techniques used by Arcane make the action look realistic at the same time as it fully embraces the animation medium. One second the camera will be moving fluidly and smoothly, and the next we'll get a shaky-CAM fight scene that reflects the chaos going on in our characters' lives, while a healthy dose of slow-motion helps highlight the impact of the punches rather than just increase them.
This is not a show for kids, and yet, it is a rare show that doesn't use gore or profanity, which makes it a harder show to watch. There is a lot of violence and dark moments in the show, but it isn't done just for the sake of the lack of censors. The show uses profanity and language to highlight the differences between Piltover and Zaun, which adds to the worldbuilding.
It is one of the few current animated shows with 40-minute episodes. Unlike Amazon Prime Video's recent Invincible, which heavily compromised the quality of its animation in order to pack in as much story as possible into a season of TV, Arcane manages to sustain its quality throughout the first season's nine episodes. This show feels like it's in tune with Maya and the Three, which was heavily marketed as a theatrical-blockbuster level animated event, just extended to a season's worth of story. You could easily picture it being shown in theaters like a Lord of the Rings marathon, and like that trilogy, it is divided into three acts. The season was divided into three separate sections, each lasting 2 hours. The episodes have a lot of story and worldbuilding, but still have time to give emotional moments enough room. It is hard to stop after just one taste, but it is not meant to be consumed all in one go.
