Netflix Arcane Review – Its only sin is making us wait for season 2
Here’s my Arcane review which is now streaming on Netflix featuring the voices of Hailee Steinfeld as Vi and Ella Purnell as Jinx!
Good: It’s a fantastic, lore-building animated series featuring some of the champions from the massively popular League of Legends game. It has likable characters and an amazing plot that ties into the games and at the same time flesh out the champions.
Bad: Why is there only 9 episodes? And why are waiting for a little while for season 2?
It really looks like video game adaptations are showing promise these days and when they do it gets really good. First Sonic the Hedgehog was a respectable film and then we have Riot Games’ Arcane series now streaming on Netflix.
Actually Arcane is currently on top of my list. It’s that good and I won’t be embarrassed by this down the road.
What’s it about?
Arcane follows two sisters Powder and her big sister Violet or Vi as they get dragged into the world of intrigue and politics between the “topside” called Piltover and the “Trenches” aka Zaun. The sisters are separated after a tragedy that also changes Powder’s life for good. On top of that there’s also intrigue and chaos from both sides.
Lore heavy but not confusing
One of the good aspects about Arcane I want to point out in this Arcane review is the fact that it’s heavy with lore and world-building but not confusing at all. I mean we already have an experience tracking a huge cast off characters in shows like Game if Thrones so this would a piece of cake.
I’m actually surprised that I didn’t have a hard time getting most of the stuff mentioned in the series like Shimmer and Hextech. I guess fans who are familiar with the terms got a kick when they mentioned it.
Music
I loved the music that they used for the series. It’s got a nice mix of awesome scores, sweeping sounds and an incredible intro song courtesy of Imagine Dragons and JID titled “Enemy”. Check it out below.
Sound design was fantastic and at the same time works extremely well like that violin and symphonic sound just as Powder breaks down just as Vi and the crew set out to save their father Vander.
Great characters
Arcane is just filled with great characters outside of Vi and Jinx. They do get the most in terms of screen time but there are a lot of characters that we can love or love to hate like Jayce and Viktor.
The show’s writing is really good and you’ll know that they took extreme pains to make sure that they wanted to make characters like Jayce, Viktor and Ekko.
Even cooler here is that even towards the end, they still manage to squeeze strong character development like in the case of Silco and Mel Medarda. Without spoiling, there was one strong character moment at the end of Episode 9. That was very surprising. Like we know what the deal with this guy is but at the very last moment he shocks us by showing his true feelings and emotions. Like wow, where did that come from.
Good if you’re looking for amazing animation
Arcane has just drop-dead gorgeous animation. They style was amazing as well as the fight sequences. Like there’s this dynamic fight between Vi and Sevika. The two well-choreographed fights between Vi and Sevika were just one of the top notch fights you can expect. These fights feature slow motion sequences as well as fast and frenetic moments within the fight.
Plus when they need to show emotion, the animation studio Fortiche, hands down paints the damn scene well. The first few minutes of Arcane episode 1 just really shows the human emotion through the stylized art and the hauntingly good music of a young Powder as she’s being shielded from the bloody visuals by her sister Vi.
The animation also works extremely well when the scenes involved Jinx. Its got this crazy neon color graffiti while at the same time giving off some subtle clues about what will happen to key characters like Vander *wink wink Warwick*.
And if you think they peak, you get those amazing scenes involving Ekko and Jinx and then Jayce and Vi. All perfect and all worth watching again and again.
Final Thoughts:
I’m totally blown away with the output of Arcane. For this Arcane review, I just have to give this a perfect score. I highly recommend this and I also recommend a rewatch once you’re done with your emotions. It’s just that beautiful. And like my subtitle. The only sin here is not getting Arcane season 2 as early as next year. Riot Games has confirmed that season 2 is already in production so its just a matter of years I guess.
Arcane also sets a good path for people who want to play League of Legends. Critical fans though warn new players about the toxicity of the players within the community so there’s that. Alternative though is getting League of Legends Wild Rift.
10/10
Don’t forget I’m still giving away a Nixie Device courtesy of Riot Games.
Follow me on Twitter at @thefanboyseo for more geek news and updates!
