Riot Games, quit developing League of Legends, and hurry up and release the second season of Arcane! Or maybe just change your career and go specialize in animation. This Arcane really moved me to tears.
1 - Story
It is difficult for the writers to figure out how to turn so many city-states, settings and characters into cartoons. But this series did a brilliant job.
The story starts with the life journey of Jinx, Vi, Ekko, Caitlyn, Heimerdinger, Jayce, Viktor, and others, leading to the birth, differences, and conflicts of Piltover and Zaun, ending in a major war.
The first season is about 6 hours in all, which is 3 to 4 times longer than an ordinary animated movie. The long time means a large-scale story, with rich details and real emotions of the characters. It can tell all the characters' backgrounds more clearly, and portray key characters more subtly, such as Jinx who gradually goes crazy, Taric whose aspirations change abruptly, and Jayce who is so successful in characterization that gets critics from the audience.
In a rare twist, the show is a hardcore animation centered on women. The writers have not only dug deep into Jinx's upbringing but have also created a series of very different and distinctive female characters, including female villains. Each main female character has her own storyline, and it is possible for each story to be a completely separate gaiden. It gives the audience a glimpse into the growth and pain of women in a way that hardcore anime has not in the past.
To sum up, the show treats the audience as adults with social experience and tells an ancient Greek tragedy under the skin of science fiction and game: fratricide, fratricide, fratricide, blood revenge, power cost, and class struggle.
2 - Art
Of course, as an animated TV series, the quality of the painting is significant.
The edge line of the model should be similar to the edge line technique of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Most of the light and darkness in the picture are made by texture. The angles of the characters look very comfortable and three-dimensional.
Plus the light and camera transport. The two pictures below are consecutive frames of the same episode, yet the lighting direction is different. The same scenes with different shots are individually lit, and very intentional, and the picture looks advanced. The animation also makes extensive use of changes in depth of field. In the motion shots, the use of the environment and the change of perspective is rich.
What strikes me more is that the backgrounds and 3-D items are hand-painted. Many large-scale backgrounds are entirely hand-painted and added in post-processing. Different angles of the same scene are drawn. Hand-drawn mapping, outlining, background and character mapping and 2D effects make the whole animation a perfect unity in art and tone.
Fortiche Production spent six years showing us that hard work would be recognized. Watching the entire film frame by frame in detail, I am impressed by its coherent split-screening and precise lighting, which even 3D animated movies cannot compare with.
3 - Music and dubbing
In addition, I also really like the music of the series. As we all know, Riot Games is a music company stuck in the games. The opening song from Imagine Dragon's Enemy is mysterious and sexy, making me shiver. Each episode has a different theme song, perfectly matching the plot.
As an animated film, the voices of almost every character fit my expectations of the characters. Ella Purnell's dubbing for Jinx is outstanding, bringing out that sick, crazy feeling perfectly.
Arcane is like a great move by Riot Games. After more than a decade of development, League of Legends has become more than just a game or a tournament. Like Marvel and DC, it will form a universe system. There are different city-states, living of various races, following different beliefs in Runeterra. They are the future of Riot Games. I am really touched to see my summoners live and have actual souls.
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