Season two, so far, is looking to be an incredible barnburner and potential instant classic.
When it was released in late 2021, Arcane was going to a show that I thought would be only okay. The show was based on a video game called “League of Legends”, and adaptations don’t have the greatest reputation for being good.
This was also going to be a Netflix show, which set my expectations even lower.
But once I finished the first act, I was hooked. The animation, writing, and dialogue floored me, this ended up being my favorite show I watched in years.
The show was extremely successful with critics and fans, with a 100% critic score and a 96% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes with over 5,000 reviews.
When season two was inevitably announced, I had some worries that this wouldn’t be as solid as the first and was deeply saddened when season two would be its last.
When CinemaBlend content producer Alexandra Ramos asked show-Act Two runners and co-creator Christian Linke about potential plans after the show, he said this:
“There are some characters that we want to continue their story, after ‘Arcane’. That is part of what we want to do. But there’s also a bunch of others. I mean, we have over 160 characters in our IP now. There’s a bunch of them where we’re super excited, different regions, different storylines, that we want to explore… it’s just like starting ‘Arcane again’, to be honest with you. It’s just like, we kind of started with nothing. You’re like, “What should we do? Time to figure it out. Let’s figure it out.” We need to trust our gut. That’s what we did with ‘Arcane’.”
So far though, everything has taken a huge leap forward.
The animation looks a lot smoother than it already has, and some creative liberties were well worth the risk. There is a segment in the first episode where the entire background was done in charcoal, which was done beautifully.
The voice acting is still second to none. This reminds me a lot of “The Last of Us”, where there is some much emotion and passion from the entire cast. There isn’t a second wasted in the most intense scenes.
The action scenes are still so much fun to watch. The transitions from segment to segment are pure eye candy to me.
The writing was one spot that I was kind of worried about. There are so many setups for act two, that I feel like the writing room but off more than it can chew.
I don’t want to spoil anything, but I think with the writing being very good so far, I think that everything will be wrapped up concisely.
Per Dexerto’s November 10th article, “Arcane” became the most popular show on Netflix in over 60 countries. If anything, this is a must-watch for anyone looking for a good show on Netflix. Just don’t play League.
