Arcane: Season 1

The city of Piltover is divided between its affluent "topside" and the poor "undercity," where people have to grind mercilessly to survive and are easy prey for crime and addiction. A gang of youngsters conduct a daring burglary in topside, stealing a valuable set of gemstones, but in the process set in motion a chain of events that will unfold over the next decade, and lead to the separation of two devoted sisters and their reunion, years later, in explosive circumstances.

Released in 2009, the video game League of Legends has become one of the most popular online games in the world. A "moba," (multiplayer online battle arena), the game pitches two teams against one another, with each player controlling a champion. The game originally had very light worldbuilding, but over the years has developed a detailed world and individual backstories for each champion. Riot Games made the decision several years ago to develop a spin-off TV series about these backstories.

So far, so uninteresting. But the resulting animated TV show, Arcane, has become a surprise smash hit, one of Netflix's globally-biggest shows of all time and showered with critical praise, with some calling it the best genre show of 2021 and maybe the best show, full stop. Foreknowledge of the game is absolutely not required, and the series stands on its own two feet.

Best described as an urban epic fantasy, the series depicts the two sides of the coin that is life in the steampunk metropolis of Piltover. Both sides of the city develop an intricate cast of characters, each with their own motivations and story arc. Most of the initial focus is on the undercity, where a band of young criminals including sisters Vi and Powder and their friends Mylo and Claggor (and occasional ally Ekko) work under the mentorship of bar-owner/surrogate father Vander. At first it appears that the story is going to be an animated take on Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora or Brandon Sanderson's The Final Empire, with a band of plucky young criminals rebelling against the system and trying to find a way to be free and prosperous. The first three episodes contrast this story against events topside, mainly Jayce Talis discovering a way of combining magic and technology together, aided by his friends Viktor and Caitlyn, and supported by their political ally, Councillor Mel Medarda. Eventually, the young gang run afoul of arch-criminal Silco, who is raising a criminal empire based on his control of the drug shimmer.

The third episode pulls off a massive game-changing shift in the story and results in a flash forwards by almost a decade, where the rest of the story unfolds in unexpected directions, with apparently evil antagonists showing a human side and formerly heroic protagonists showing a darker and more chaotic side as events unfold.

The most striking thing about Arcane's presentation is its remarkable art style. A lot of modern animated shows, particularly CG-animated ones, are limited by budget, accumulating assets and experience before cutting loose later on (the early episodes of The Clone Wars and The Dragon Prince are almost painful in how limited they are before they finally get to the point where they can really go to town later on). Arcane's budget, on the other hand, is extremely generous and allows it to splash on custom animations and an attention to detail that is remarkable. In terms of art style, comparisons have been drawn with Into the Spider-Verse and some of the better entries in Love+Death+Robots, but Arcane is able to sustain this style for nine 40 to 50 minute episodes, which is remarkable. The show's mixing of 3D elements with painterly, 2D backgrounds is also impressive.

The show also eschews the traditional fantasy orchestral score for something more innovative that mixes pop, rock, electro and rock. It doesn't always work, but it's ambitious and interesting (typically, the Imagine Dragons theme song is probably the least-impressive bit of music in the show).

These things are important but much more crucial to the show's success is the writing, which for the most part is very good. Each character is carefully delineated and characterised. Powder, whom League of Legends fans know is destined to become a very different character when she grows up, gets the lion's share of development and her mental health issues are handled with surprising nuance. Vi, the closest thing we have to an outright heroine, makes for a charismatic lead. Both protagonists are helped with outstanding voice acting from Ella Purnell (who is also one of the main stars of Yellowjackets, 2021's other main claimant to being Show of the Year) and Hailee Steinfeld (Hawkeye, Into the Spider-Verse, Dickinson). The rest of the cast also gets terrific development, particularly boo-hiss villain Silco (Jason Spisak) who develops into a much more complex character, and Viktor (Game of Thrones's Harry Lloyd), who starts off almost as a side-character but becomes more central as the narrative unfolds.

The story is divided into three acts, each lasting three episodes, which helps overcome Netflix's recurring issue with stodgy pacing. Each three-part story has its down focus and themes which pushes forward the overall arc as well.

There are weaknesses in the writing. Characters have a slightly annoying tendency to stand and look on in slack-jawed disbelief at things that are clearly about to explode three feet away, hit them, fall on them or otherwise do them harm rather than getting out of the way. There are moments of confusion in the animation when it's unclear if a character is supposed to have been killed, knocked out or simply got out of the way and was fine. Most of the dialogue is very good, but there's moments when the writer can't stop themselves descending into cliche. There's also shout-outs to fans of the video games which mean nothing to people unfamiliar with it; I'm still uncertain what Heimerdinger's role in every episode is except to be proven wrong about everything. There's also an MCU-level of vagueness to the physicality of the fight scenes: will these relatively minor hit kill someone or leave them crippled for life, or will this huge being-hit-by-a-rhino-level of physical impact result in only a minor level of inconvenience? Your guess is as good as anyone's.

Despite a plethora of minor issues, most of which are eminently ignorable, Arcane's first season (****½) emerges as an excellent slice of on-screen fantasy. Mostly well-written, with an outstanding cast of characters you want to learn more about, and with intriguing worldbuilding and excellent pacing supporting superb visuals and a solid soundtrack, it is well worth a watch. The show is available globally now on Netflix.