Random TV Season Review - Arcane (Season 1)

 

The MMO game League of Legends has come quite a long way since it's release in 2009. It was inspired by a custom map used in Warcraft III and has since become one of the longest running MMO games of all time. It has expanded to other things too, such as music videos by Imagine Dragons and other artists, comic books, short stories and spin-off games. Today we look at a Netflix original series set within the fictional universe that League of Legends has created and right from the start, it looks like a mix of traditional and CGI animation with a bit of anime thrown in too. Should be good fun so let's take a look:

There is an unrest between the utopian city that is Piltover and the under city of Zaun. One being rich and the other being seedy and oppressed. Our focus is on sisters Vi (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) and Jinx (voiced by Ekka Purnell) whom, as the series goes on, find themselves on opposing sides of a brewing war over clashing convictions and arcane technology. The first seasons is split into three acts with the first focusing on how the sisters ended up becoming enemies and what actually transpired to make that happen. The second act, set several years later, sees Piltover prospering with Hextech technology and might see Vi and Jinx reunite. That is, until the third and final act which may not end the way some of us wanted it to.

You know as someone who has only heard but never played League of Legends, this series to me is interesting. It's gorgeously animated, with bright colours and darkness when switching between each city. All the voice actors play their parts well, and you may even recognize a voice or two outside the main duo that this series concentrates on. It's definitely got me interested in playing and unlike many other franchises, it does well to tailor to people who probably have never heard nor played League of Legends which I personally feel is a very important feat to get to when making something to do with an already well established franchise. 9/10