Arcane is a new Netflix show, and I just want to start by saying it slaps, but on paper, it just sounds like an absolute disaster of an idea. Taking a video game and adapting it to any other medium almost never works. So taking League of Legends and turning it into an animation probably didn’t have that many people hyped, unless, of course, you were already a League of Legends fan, then I imagine you were already pretty excited for it. 

The crazy thing about League of Legends is everyone has at least heard of the game and was familiar with it to some degree. Regardless of feelings about the game, this show stands on its own two feet. There is really nothing in common with Arcane with League lore. All Arcane does is borrow some of the characters and settings from League, and it uses them in a totally original manner. There is no real crossover other than just having those familiar names and faces. 

Arcane is a beautiful show. The animation in Arcane is top-notch. Riot did not spare any expense here. It is gorgeous, and a lot of times it felt like I was watching an AMV. Like, it felt like an old-school anime music video sometimes because they have these original tracks that’ll play throughout the show and it’ll be complemented by either action or just a full-blown montage or something happening with a character or multiple characters. It’s just so beautiful. It’s done so well. 

Trust me when I say when the music kicks on, expect something cool to happen like at every moment because the music will often be accompanied by really great action or just some really well-done scene that’s elevated by a great background track. 

The thing about the show that caught me off guard the most is that it’s not as family-friendly as I expected. I went into it thinking it’d be like a squeaky clean experience, but I was dreadfully wrong. I was very wrong about that. It’s a show that isn’t just for a younger audience or for a family. They also do use explicit language. A lot of words are tossed around. It’s pretty gory as well. They gave a lot of depth to these characters. It was a lot more than I expected when going into it. It was a lot deeper and better written. 

Overall I was impressed with what they’ve done so far. I appreciate that they’re going the extra mile to make this a show worth getting invested in. It’s not some lazily written garbage. The characters feel alive, the world feels alive, and they just did a great job of building this world and how it’s all structured. You’re introduced to a lot of different areas, a lot of different people, places, and different positions of power. It just works super well.