If you know anything about online games, you might have heard of League of Legends, an online multiplayer strategy game where your millennial gamer friends probably learned a multi-volume vocabulary of slurs. Groups of 5 players compete against one another to shatter their enemy’s crystal towers and make friends in the process. Ha ha, that’s a funny little joke – in fact, 99% of matches end in screaming and bile-soaked rage of godly and ungodly proportions. It’s a whole thing.

Arcane is loosely based on the lore of League of Legends and thankfully, based 0% on the player interactions. It’s a Netflix show and one of the best animated shows of all time, in the opinions of many. Fortiche, the French animation studio that did all of the art went above and beyond to make the show beautiful and between that and the flawless writing, out came a certified masterpiece that may never be topped by anything with a lesser budget. Unfortunately, the animation was so good it took 3 years to get the second and final season. It was a painful wait for fans.

The story centers around a tale of two cities: Piltover, a shining utopia of technological advancement and wealth and Zaun – the Undercity – a poor area across the river from Piltover full of poverty, drug addiction and decay. There was a war between the two provinces years ago and Zaun is still feeling the reverberations. Which brings us to our central characters, sisters Vi and Jinx. They were orphaned in the conflict and now have to survive under the watchful eye of Piltover’s finest. It’s not so much a power struggle as it is Piltover allowing Zaun to exist out of the goodness of their hearts.

Vi and Jinx, characters from the game, are the stars of the show. They’re brilliantly animated and voice acted by Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell respectively. Throughout the course of the show, the viewer is treated to the sisters going through hell and trying to kill each other and rediscover their mutual love for one another, and not always in that order. It’s a depressing familial mess with a lot of lows and not many highs. In fact, the script is largely a sad story. Everyone is upset or in pain and there’s not much levity to be found, but every word of dialog and every brush stroke draws you deeper regardless.

When a show features a slick art style and tight script like this, you would have to be lucky to have a soundtrack that matches the same energy and quality, but it’s all here. Every track is gorgeous, from the named songs by well-known artists to the orchestral tracks that make up the in-between moments and add tension and heart with zero lyrics. I practically listened to the season one OST on repeat for months. Same with season two. The most popular song, though not my favorite, would have to be ‘Enemy’ by Imagine Dragons. ‘The Line’ by Twenty-One Pilots has also been played almost 200 million times on YouTube Music. My favorites were ‘Guns for Hire’ by Woodkid (season one) and ‘Sucker’ by Marcus King (season two). It’s hard not to rewatch some scenes just for the musical impact.

Something notable about me is that I don’t really get into a lot of shows or movie series’. The only things I’ve ever really considered myself a fan of was the Legend of Zelda series and X-Men comics. Warhammer 40K is cool too. When I start a show, I hardly ever finish it. Maybe it’s just my poor attention span or it’s just that the writing doesn’t grab me, but Arcane surprised – nay, shocked me. If anything, I should have avoided the show at all costs because of its inspiration, a game in which I had very little fun during my short time playing it. I hadn’t even heard of the show before I saw it on the Netflix Top 10. Why I clicked it I’m not even sure now, but I’m glad I did. It’s probably the best animated show I’ve ever seen. The art blows modern American and Japanese animation out of the water. Along with ‘Blue Eye Samurai’, the French are really knocking it out of the park lately and quickly becoming a powerhouse of animated TV.

The voice acting is immaculate as well. Each actor squeezed every last bit of talent they had into voicing these characters, so much that they’re hardly recognizable in their other roles. They make you want to live in the world of Piltover (or Zaun if you’re into that). Good shows can do that.

I love Arcane even if I don’t love its source material. It’s creative, well-written, well-acted, and well-animated. It’s won Annie awards and Emmys for being an outstanding animated drama. IMDB gave it a 9 out of 10, and it has 100% critic score on Rotten Tomatoes. Almost no one who watches this show’s full (and sadly short) two seasons comes away hating it. I don’t know if it’s possible. If you love fantasy, sci-fi and gritty action, it’s one of the greatest things Netflix has ever funded. Don’t miss it.

Exo