Arcane

Netflix | Release Date: November 6, 2021

9.1	USER SCORE Universal acclaim based on 1005 Ratings

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AlfheiraNov 21, 2021

Arcane is a show that let's you wish that after they hired professional animators, voice actors and musicians someone had the mind to hire a professional writer. The visuals are impressive, since LD&R I wished for someone to make somethingArcane is a show that let's you wish that after they hired professional animators, voice actors and musicians someone had the mind to hire a professional writer. The visuals are impressive, since LD&R I wished for someone to make something similar than Sonnie's Edge as a feature film or series. The voice actors give the characters life and emotion, the music and sound fx are of high quality. But the story does not get off the ground. There's action and there is emotion and there seem to be emotional bonds between characters that we don't get to know much about and factions we don't get to know much about and it leaves the audience with a lot of guessing. Arcane is sadly the animated equivalent of a Michael Bay movie. All looks but no substance.… Expand

6 of 20 users found this helpful614

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Dan_54321Dec 24, 2021

I wavered between a 6 or 7 but ultimately the dull writing pushed me to a 6. First, what I liked -- the animation style is pretty interesting, computer animated but given a 2D hand-drawn shader treatment. Sometimes it works well, sometimes itI wavered between a 6 or 7 but ultimately the dull writing pushed me to a 6. First, what I liked -- the animation style is pretty interesting, computer animated but given a 2D hand-drawn shader treatment. Sometimes it works well, sometimes it looks kind of bad, but I like seeing the medium being pushed into new directions. Still, I have to wonder, if you want it to look hand-drawn, why not hire actual artists to draw it? I would probably prefer the result even more. Just look at Japanese anime to see how well a predominantly hand-drawn medium can still incorporate cell-shaded 3D artwork in a seamless fashion. I also liked the character design, liked the background design, too. The music mostly worked for me, too, although I agree with others that it could be cringey at times. I will also say that to some extent the plot and the characterization worked for me, too. However, despite the excellently choreographed fight scenes that occasionally took place, the story was a bore. Character complications developed, and then just didn't really go anywhere, except to more character complications. There was never any character arc leading to resolutions. It was a series where the "bad guys" pretty much won all the time, and it got old. I've never played LoL, but having read some of the other comments and gathered that these are characters from the game whose backgrounds are being explained, I think I see the fundamental problem with this series: it's not meant to go anywhere. These are supposed to just be character creations fleshed out for players of the game, who then play these characters in the LoL world. The stories of these characters are ongoing in the game -- there has been no resolution in-game, either, I guess. So basically, if you want to watch a story that has some feeling of progression and dramatic resolution, you just aren't going to get it here. It instead feels like a drawn out bore of a soap opera, where the goal is to string you along and keep you watching inifinitely long, not to actually trace any story arcs. So it was a real struggle for me to make it through this first season, but like a sucker I kept going, thinking somehow the story would start to pick up. And it just never did. I'd also add another complaint: the magic is pretty boring. It never really gets developed much but pretty much stays mostly as a method for creating super powerful batteries for machines, with a few minor exceptions. That was something else I kept waiting to develop in an interesting direction and it never had any payoff. So, yeah, mostly a bunch of characters running around, whining about their problems, making bad decisions that cause their problems to grow even bigger, and not really doing anything interesting, with a bunch of good artwork and voice acting that can't really overcome a fundamentally futile goal of making these in-game characters' origins into satisfying stand-alone stories.… Expand

2 of 8 users found this helpful26

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Zimy0Jul 29, 2022

This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Incredible animation! Mediocre story telling. Bad pacing. Not the worst but far from perfect. I do see potential in Season 2 but seeing how long it took them to animate this who really knows when that will happen. They're REALLY gonna have exploit the labor of their animators, way more than we see Piltover exploit Zaun. Which is to say not that much. I also didn't like the jarring time jump after episode 3. I would have really liked to see HOW all of these characters become the bad asses they are for the next 6 episodes. Maybe then I would better understand the father daughter relationship between Jinx and Silco who are the shows best characters but still don't get enough focus. Speaking of characters Jayce is boring. His arc is "I wanna help people" we never really see him help people. He makes the mysterious crystals that we don't really know much about and it seems to have advanced technology but that's about it. I could nitpick SO much more but at the end of the day I think this is somewhat better than a lot of other fantasy stories and the animation alone almost makes it worth sitting through. So if you like it, more power to you. Have your cup of tea. Just don't be shook by criticism about the writing because it's ripe for it.… Expand

1 of 4 users found this helpful13

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kpaulNov 22, 2021

Very solid, entertaining show with structural flaws. But still, this show outshines the vast majority of TV available.

Pros - Animation is great! - Voice acting is on point! Not a single lagging performance! - When their stylistic choicesVery solid, entertaining show with structural flaws. But still, this show outshines the vast majority of TV available.

Pros - Animation is great!
- Voice acting is on point! Not a single lagging performance!
- When their stylistic choices work, they WORK!
- Action is clear while being stylized and easy to follow with emotional stakes!
- Few emotional beats hit right but the ones that do, hit like a stupid cry baby train going at full speed. Cons
- Not one character has CLEAR, established goals with established consequences.
- The A, B, and C stories all fight to be the A-storyline. (Game of Thrones does this well over many seasons and locations. 9 episodes in a single location isn't enough time or space to accomplish it.)
- The show establishes our core characters and then turns into an ensemble piece.
- Some storylines are jarringly introduced and others are dropped without resolutions.

All things considered, I'd happily watch season 2 in the hopes they do better justice to the characters and storylines.… Expand

3 of 13 users found this helpful310

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GuidoCelentanoNov 12, 2021

Muy buena la serie y muy bien escrita es una pena que soy lolero la verdad!!

2 of 14 users found this helpful212

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bxrxsxtxNov 7, 2021

In a word, the show is just dull. I am a player of the game it comes from and familiar with the characters. That doesn't cloud my perspective on it, though there is some thrill in seeing those characters in a new format. The show would justIn a word, the show is just dull. I am a player of the game it comes from and familiar with the characters. That doesn't cloud my perspective on it, though there is some thrill in seeing those characters in a new format. The show would just be that much worse if the characters were ones we had never heard of.

The plot is a normal plot, and very middle of everything. It's not very heroic, not very slice of life, not very sci-fi-fantasy, not romantic or cute. It focuses a lot on the emotions of the characters, their personal gripes about each other, and their traumas. The action scenes echo this, there is some fighting, but mostly running and hiding. All that stuff seems to be ultra popular in American film, and it is definitely dull material we've all seen before.

There are other story elements and other characters, but they all feel in the same vein. Everything plays out about like you'd expect. Nothing surprising goes on, no one will be offended by the content, no risk was taken with this project. Blame the investors maybe. I think that may be one of the biggest problems for the show, what age group do they make it for? All ages? It may be just crushed under the weight of trying to be everything to every one.

Character portrayal is weird. Take Jinx, is she heroic? No. She's more setting up to be villainous. But the main theme for her so far is being a shame filled screw up. It's not interesting, and leaves a bad taste.

The graphical look is, how do I say this, good enough. Sometimes the surfaces and painted designs are very cool, sometimes they look like smudgy Deviant Art pieces. The animators do a great job, but it's only as good as the material. The voice actors are top notch I'm sure but they often sound like they don't care about the words they're saying. The dialog just isn't inspiring.

Well a 4 isn't a 1, it was serviceable and you will appreciate that at least it got a unique look and feel. There's plenty of special effects, explosions, and big scenes. I found the music to not fit at all (the music with vocals I mean) but it will be popular with many. And if the coming episodes cast the show in a better light I'll change the review. One more thing, if you want an idea of what an actually good League show might be like, check out the Awaken video. Ciao gamers.… Expand

5 of 42 users found this helpful537

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NecoFilmDec 24, 2022

Score based on 3 persons
F 5: Overall a meee story do the Viktor storyline was good. M 3:I hate the music and the storyline with Jinx and Vi. I liked the part with Victor trying to fix himself. Jayce was kind of mid. The animation was meh,Score based on 3 persons
F 5: Overall a meee story do the Viktor storyline was good. M 3:I hate the music and the storyline with Jinx and Vi. I liked the part with Victor trying to fix himself. Jayce was kind of mid. The animation was meh, too bad. League of legends better
L 6: I thought most of it was fine, my favourite parts were the ones that focused on the politics of Piltover and Zaun more than the main characters and I do wish we got to see more of the chem Barrons to learn more about them but I acknowledge that they were mostly there as a background to make Silco more interesting. overall it was ok… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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