As far as games turned into movies or series go, this one tops the list of revolutionary story making and beyond the world art animations easily beating up its competitors left and right. Netflix’s Arcane opened up new worlds and opportunities for games and movies alike.

THE PLOT

The story starts at a bridge where a revolution happens and ends. Then we get to follow these four little rascals jumping over shiny buildings, and a thieving gone wrong would be the catalyst of the events that followed.

We are then tossed into a game of tug-of-war between two powerful cities, where elements of loyalty, family, and morality are present throughout the series. So it’s an all-in-one steampunk fantasy, appealing more to the youth, adults, and league of legends players but never leaving those who haven’t played it yet.

THE ART STYLE

Aside from the story, Arcane’s unique art style is ground-breaking. Favoring a paint-like style straight out from a concept artists’ journal.

We saw this first when Spider-man: Into the Spider-Verse comic style animation came to grace our screens, then Netflix’s Christmas movie Klaus, and now other animators are finding out new styles that make the eyes of the audience fall in love with it, experimenting that goes beyond traditional 3d animations.

The art styles now are very different compared to Disney. Before, Disney was topping the list of crazy animations, but now everyone can have a piece of that cake.

THE STORY

And it’s not just its beautiful characters and scenery that got the audiences to keep watching; it’s also the story. It’s like the producers are saying, “Hey! Look! We got an amazing animation, but not just the animation! We got an amazing story to tell as well.”

You get to see the butterfly effect in every episode, exploding into cataclysmic events.

The juxtaposition of the Piltover and Zaun (two major cities in the world) is drawn as a polarizing situation. You get to see that the two are faced with the same problem, but where these two great cities part ways is how they solve it.

This gives a deeper view of how society changes a person that ultimately affects their decisions. However, the series doesn’t show only the horrible sides of the undercity, but Piltover too. Lined with corruption and frail agreements, Piltover? The City of Progress? is but poison coated heavily with sugar icing.

THE CHARACTERS

Characters are not 2d dimensional as most movies/series are. They change; they imitate genuine human decisions, emotions, and reactions. It’s uncanny that they managed to fit each of their character’s development in just a span of 9 episodes.

I found that I tend to hate the character at the start of the episodes, but later I was rooting for them. They are not just shallow evil; little hints are revealed about them the further the episode you go. Showing a depth of flavor in their character, if that made any sense.

And every one of them has their own story, littered throughout the episodes, that it never felt like an info dump to its audience.

Here they based the continuation of the story on character development rather than spontaneous events occurring.

Plus, the opening makes more sense the more episodes you watch.

THE WORLD-BUILDING

In addition to that impressive discussion about characters, can we talk about world-building! As the story progresses, deeper we go into the different sides of the two cities. At first, we get a confused look at how these two cities are situated, but then we are led to various parts of their world, giving us a tour of the undercity’s belly and the upper city’s crown.

It gives us a sense that we’re there as well, just like how studio ghibli manages to warp its audiences into their world; the same magic applies.

Sure it does give out a Final Fantasy vibe, but it doesn’t let the world tell its story; it’s the characters that’ll tell what will happen, showing how they move through this warped view of the cities.

CONCLUSION

Compared to other games turned into movies, this one breaks the mold. You don’t need to play the game to fully understand the story flow of the series. Plus! It’s a hit! with over 140 characters in League of Legends, producers get an easy pick of which of their characters gets a story.

The first season ended with a loud BOOM.

And then, of course, it ended in a cliffhanger. Way to go Netflix, thanks for hyping us up and then having us sit on our toes for the arrival of the next season.

Get Jinxed Netflix!!!

10/10

📷 @Netflix YouTube Channel

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