League of Legends 'Arcane' is simply some of the best animated storytelling I've seen in years

Last edited Sat Apr 23, 2022, 04:12 PM - Edit history (1)

This is an origin story for League of Legends (a game which I have never played), and it is simply one of the best series I have seen in recent years. Season One came out late last year and Season Two is scheduled for some time next year. It's kind of a steampunk/Blade Runner/ Clone Wars kind of thing but with rock-solid complex characters with next-level 3D/2D animation. By the time you've watched the first three episodes these characters will be living rent-free in your head, guaranteed. I put this series up there with likes of David Milch's 'Deadwood' for it's strikingly complex characters. One of the most violent pieces of animation I have ever seen, but absolutely nothing in it is gratuitous. Three groups of three episodes each were released, nine 45-minutes episodes for a total of 4 1/2 hours. You can binge watch it all in an afternoon, but I found myself pausing after the first three episodes just to try to digest everything I had seen.

Rather than spend an hour trying to compose something intelligent to say about the series, I'll simply paste a couple of reviews here for your perusal. To quote one of the reviewers, "Arcane absolutely draws you in from the first bloody scene and doesn't let go until that final, epic moment, and I was invested in every single second of it."