Arcane

Arcane

Well I went into this the way the Internet intended and insists is the only true way to experience televisual entertainment: Absolutely clueless. Utterly unspoiled by even the tiniest, remotest hint of knowledge about premise, setting or plot. God’s very own fool experiencing the Platonic ideal of in-cave viewing experiences. The very tabulaest of rasas. Have never played or even seen gameplay of League of Legends, don’t even know what a MOBA is, just assume it’s either a kind of crypto or a type of NFT. In short: a complete idiot.

In this complete idiot’s opinion, it’s really rather good.

Let me get the bitching out of the way before I sing its praises though. The plot involves two magical substances neither of which is particularly well-defined: There’s “Shimmer”, a purply glowing liquid which seems to be vaguely narcotic and/or addictive but also turns you into a violent monster but also heals you from injury but also kind of does whatever the plot needs; Then there’s “Hextech” which is blue glowing stuff, which um, glows. And is blue. Also does whatever the story requires, really.

Arcane is set in a city divided between the “haves” in Piltover, who have a monopoly on clean, environmentally and sanity-friendly Hextech, and the “have-nots” in the squalid slums of Zaun across the river, where drug lords have flooded the streets with Shimmer. The conflict between the two halves of the city plays out through the relationship between two sisters, big sis Violet (“Vi”, voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) who’s solid if a little fond of punching things, and blue-haired little sis Powder (Ella Purnell) who is a few sprinkles short of a shaker in the sanity department.

That would be a very solid basis for a story, but the trouble is that to stretch it out to nine episodes, the show has key characters change their minds about Hextech, the Piltover-Zaun conflict and each other about three to four times per episode. One hero swears to destroy all Shimmer production in the city, then decides not to, then decides to stop anyone else from trying to destroy it, then decides not to do that either, all in the space of about 15 minutes.

Such vacillating works well with an unstable character like Powder, but when everybody’s core motivations is spinning 180 at regular intervals, it just gets hard to keep track of what each character is trying to do.

For all that tangle though, this is a genuinely well-made show. Don’t even need to qualify it with “for a show based on a video game whose fans are infamous for being a bunch of arseholes.” It’s just a very solid production.

The animation, by French animation studio Fortiche, is just delightful, a stylish and vividly colorful blend of CG and cell-drawn animation. It’s a clean, realistic yet not uncanny valley style. The characters’ eyes, in particular, are mesmerizing, expressive, almost glowing. Shot composition and transitions from scene to scene are fresh, imaginative and creative.

The voice acting is similarly excellent, even with a couple of stunt-cast Hollywood names in the major roles. Just excellent, top to bottom, conveying the weight and emotion of the words quite wonderfully.

The world these characters is a little narrow, to be sure, but I think it’s as broad as the story needs, leaving the rest of the world to be fleshed out in future. I think that’s a smart move, rather than trying to dump it all on the audience from the get-go, and definitely makes it easier for someone like me to get into the story. It’s a fun blend of steampunk and fantasy, “Dishonored” with a dash of “Brazil”, just dark enough to keep things interesting.

In short, it just ticks all the boxes all the way down.

The end result is a show that is kind of oddly addictive, which is a nice feeling really. It’s been so long since there was a show that I felt compelled to keep watching, just to find out what would happen next.