Netflix and Riot cooperated to drop one of the best-animated series yet to be seen! With much attention to detail, great character concept, and awesome slick animation, the two companies have put some serious money and effort into Arcane.
Arcane is a 2021 adult animated streaming (16+) series that is set in the League of Legends universe. It was announced at the League of Legends’ 10th-anniversary celebration. The series was produced by French animation studio Fortiche under the supervision of Riot Games.
The animated show takes place in the past relative to the League of Legends universe and serves as a prequel to the game. It seeks to deepen the League of Legends universe and explore in detail the backstories and origins of the game’s characters to give the players a better overview of the personalities of their avatars. In the very first episode’s opening moments, we meet League of Legends’ characters, Vi and Jinx (as kids) voiced by Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell. The two characters find themselves orphaned after a tragic war between the two areas (low and high class) of the same region and taken in by Vander, the leader of the failed rebellion.
The line separating the two areas is very clearly related to social status in the world of Arcane. The top area is known as Piltover, a dystopian city with a passion for science and decadence. Beneath Piltover lies the city of Zaun, the underground part of the region where crime is rampant, people are poor, and are ready to betray one another to make ends meet.
The show starts some years before the present as it presents the viewers with a quick and vague overview of the fight between rebels from the repressed undercity of Zaun and enforcers from the utopian city of Piltover across a bridge that links the two cities together. During the tragic fight between the two camps, sisters Powder (later renamed Jinx) and Vi find their parents dead in the rubble. After seeing the two orphaned girls, the riot leader Vander understands that violence has a very hefty price. He decides to back down and look after Powder and Vi in the undercity.
Back to the present, Vi and Powder jump across the rooftops of the prosperous city of Piltover, accompanied by their adoptive brothers Mylo and Claggor in an attempt to shoplift a workshop. The group is careful not to be seen by the enforcers of the upper city to avoid trouble but this little adventure ends up being the turning point of their lives. We have much to say about the story of Arcane but we will stop here to avoid further spoilers!
Arcane is the perfect recipe for a successful animated series: perfect animation, great cinematic, awesome trendy effects, great attention to detail, and most importantly, a good story. With these impressive production values, Arcane just pulls you in and refuses to let go.
The popular Netflix series has received universal acclaim praising its great animation, story, world and character building, and awesome voice acting. The series has been appealing to casual viewers who have never played League of Legends as much as fans of the game. It ranked 1st on the Netflix Top 10 Chart in 52 countries and ranked 2nd on the chart in the USA. If you already watched season 1, you’ll be happy to know that season 2 is in production for a post-2022 release!
If this full package wasn’t enough yet! Wait until you learn the singing pop band behind the opening of Arcane… yes, it’s Imagine Dragons and the title is “enemy”. If you’re a fan of Imagine Dragons, then you’ll probably be listening to the opening of Arcane a couple of hundreds of times.
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