Arcane: Season 1 (2021) Cre: Christian Linke & Alex Yee
- Ridley Coote
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
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Since it debuted on Netflix back in 2021, people have been telling me to check put this Christian Linke and Alex Yee created steampunk fantasy adventure series, which is based in the world of the 'League of Legends' computer game. I came into it as someone who has never played the game, though I was aware of its existence, so I really had no basis for what to expect.
I loved the animation style - it felt very much like the Telltale Games products I've played, such as the very popular 'The Walking Dead' and 'Tales From The Borderlands'. Some of the character designs were great, particularly for 'Jinx', although, a couple of the others did feel a little mediocre, for my tastes. Regardless, the world design, and world-building for that matter, was very strong.
I must admit, I wasn't that engaged by the first two and a half episodes, but from then onwards, the series grew on me a lot. I liked the tragic story arcs, the intertwining character dynamics, and the overarching narrative of the season. Elements of it were a little tropy and predictable, but I can't deny that I found it all rather entertaining. The finale nearly fumbled the ball a little, but it pulled everything together in the end, setting up season two in tantalising fashion.
Ella Purnell and Hailee Steinfeld provided the show's best, and most prominent, voice acting performances. Both showed range and intensity to a great degree, especially Purnell, who has been steadily building a tremendous body of work in the last few years. I really felt like Steinfield suited her character a lot, especially once she got to interact with Purnell more.
In regards to the rest of the cast, I thought that Katie Leung and Jason Spisak provided the most compelling voice acting performances, particularly Spisak, in my opinion, who had a very suitable voice for an antagonist. There were a few others who I liked to a degree, but need more time to really grow on me; Harry Lloyd, Kevin Alejandro, and Toks Olagundoye. Mick Wingert and JB Vlanc are always worth mentioning at least for their strong but smaller performances.
Overall, although it started a little slow for my liking, I thought this series really picked up quite tremendously as it progressed, and ended on a string of very good episodes. It was hard not to start the second season immediately, and no doubt by the time this review goes up, I will have long finished it. I really hope season two proves to be at least close to the heights that this one hit.
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