Posted Feb. 7, 2022

By Elizabeth Philbrick

Staff Editor

Featuring the origins of many iconic League of Legends champions, Netflix releases the adult animated series, Arcane, on Nov. 6, 2021.

Based on the game, League of Legends by Riot Games, Christian Linke and Alex Yee create a story mainly following two sisters, Vi and Powder (later known as Jinx), as they find themselves on opposing sides of a war over twisted ideologies and arcane technology. Along with the sisters, betrayal is shown in multiple relationships among the characters, including Jayce and Viktor, who also seem to be split between the two sides of this war.

Arcane has received universal acclaim from critics who praised its animation, story, world-building, characters, and voice acting: it was even able to receive a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. As someone who watches a variety of both animated and live-action shows, the skill difference between acting and voice acting is very important. A lot of actors aren’t able to voice act, as shown by the Marvel series What If…? that was released back in August.

An important example of this is Vi’s voice actor herself, Hailee Steinfeld, who has starred in live-action shows like the new Hawkeye and animated movies like Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Voice acting can be a lot different from acting, as the actor has to accentuate her facial expressions more since the viewers are unable to see her. And she continued to do a great job at this in Arcane.

On top of that, it has also set the record as Netflix's highest-rated series so far within a week of its premiere, ranking first on the Netflix Top 10 Chart in 52 countries and ranked second on the chart in the United States. Because of this, some have noted the series' appeal to both casual viewers who have never played League of Legends and to longtime fans of the game. Due to the popularity of this series, Riot Games and Netflix announced that a second season was in production for a post-2022 release on Nov. 20, 2021.

The show also had great queer representation, as shown by Vi and Caitlyn. The writers revealed that they worked hard to imagine a world free of the stigmatization found in the real world. Words like gay and lesbian aren't even mentioned because there's no reason for them to exist in the world of Runeterra. Viewers consider it to be a breath of fresh air for representation in comparison to other companies like Disney.

As someone who played League of Legends for a month a few years ago, and can confirm that it’s not all that great, the series was amazing. The plot and intense scenes kept me on the edge of my seat and I seemed to find everything about it interesting. Following their releases of music groups consisting of their champions, K/DA and True Damage, Riot Games has continued to do great things with the stories of their characters.