Arcane Season 1 (2021)

There has long been a received wisdom that screen adaptations of games are doomed: never enough for the original fans, never welcoming enough for newcomers. Arcane Season 1 shatters that wisdom in the most elegant way imaginable. Though it springs from a game as vast as League of Legends, it is built as an independent tragedy that holds a viewer who has never played a single match from the first episode to the last. Over the story of two sisters splitting onto different paths, art and music that straddle the line between painting and animation are laid on thick — and that level of craft made me give it ★4.5 without hesitation.

What it’s about — Two Sisters Split Between Above and Below

The story unfolds against the conflict between two worlds: the wealthy city of Piltover, risen up above, and the dark undercity of Zaun below it. The sisters Vi and Powder, who lost their parents in childhood, grow up together on the streets of Zaun, but a single irreversible event turns them into entirely different people. One takes on responsibility and protection, the other wounds and madness. The work places their relationship at its centre and slowly stacks up class conflict, the runaway force of technology, and political ambition. The fact that it is drawn not as a simple good-versus-evil structure but as a world where everyone has their own logic is what leaves an impression.

Direction — Brushstrokes Between Painting and Animation

The first strength to leap out about Arcane is its visuals. The imagery created by France’s Fortiche Studio layers a hand-painted texture over 3D models, carving out a singular territory between painting and animation. Each still frame looks like a picture, yet the movement is weighty and alive. The direction in which the colours and brushwork of the frame heave along with every emotional eruption contributes enormously to conveying a character’s interior without a word of dialogue.

The directing team, led by Pascal Charrue and Arnaud Delord, treats action and emotion with equal weight. There is no shortage of dazzling combat, but there are just as many scenes that linger on silence and expression. The use of music is clever, too. Letting song lyrics explain a scene’s emotion can easily turn tacky, yet here it meshes precisely with the image and instead produces a climactic effect.

Acting and characters — Voices Where No One Is Right or Wrong

The true heart of this work is the sisters Vi and Jinx. Vi, voiced by Hailee Steinfeld, is a character who wavers between guilt over failing to protect her sister and her own rage, holding a deep loss beneath a tough exterior. Powder — soon to be Jinx — voiced by Ella Purnell, undergoes the most tragic transformation of the whole season. The process of a child who only wants to be loved gradually breaking and turning toward madness is rendered persuasively through voice alone.

The supporting characters are dimensional, too. Silco, who rules the streets of Zaun, is no simple villain but a man with a twisted love for his city, and every one of his choices adds weight to the story. The fact that no one is wholly right or wholly wrong is what makes this an adult drama.

What the series says — When Love Becomes the Deepest Wound

Arcane is ultimately a story about family and class. The two cities divided into upper and lower lay bare the world of the haves and the dispossessed, and the series follows how a single family is broken apart in the gap between them. The way technological progress brings abundance to some and destruction to others is not so far from our own present. Above all, the work refuses to look away from the truth that love can sometimes become the deepest wound. Vi’s wish to protect her sister, and the way that wish ends in tragedy, lingers long in the mind.

Ratings & reception

Arcane Season 1 holds a very high IMDb rating of 9. This is a top-tier figure not only among animated series but across drama as a whole. The work took home multiple trophies at the Primetime Emmy Awards and is frequently cited for what it achieved in the animation category. It is regarded as one of the rare cases to strip away the prejudice against game adaptations from critics and the public at the same time.

Verdict

Arcane Season 1 raised the ceiling on what animation can express by a full notch. Someone who knows nothing of the game can sink deep into the sisters’ tragedy, and someone who knows it will be astonished that a familiar world could be drawn this seriously. Image, music, script and performance mesh at a high level with not a single weak link. The one regret is that as the back half adds more characters and events, the pacing grows somewhat hurried. Even so, the level of craft this work displays is more than enough to earn ★4.5.

Recommended for

• Those looking for a deep animated drama that can be enjoyed without knowing the game
• Those who want to feel the power of art and music that turns every frame into a work of its own
• Those who love a serious story about family and wounds rather than simple good and evil