A while ago I noticed this LoL show on Netflix, called Arcane. Game inspired shows are never good, so it was odd to see a 100% score on rottentomatoes. Went and checked it out. And boy, is it beautiful or what.
Since this seems to have not be discussed much over here(not nearly as much as it deserves), I shall bring it up again
Watch Arcane. Give it a try, at least the first 3 episodes.
You may be concerned because you are not familiar with the source material (league of legends) or because you are, but in truth they did a great job of making it accessible and it should be considered on its own merits.
The art is quite interesting and I find it wonderfully animated. It adopts a painterly look which allows to blend the 2D and 3D seamlessly, in addition of making most frames look like paintings. And there is in fact a lot of 2D and 3D interacting: all the backgrounds and many objects are purely 2D, with 3D being reserved for characters. The special effects like fire smoke and similar are also 2D. Overall, it is quite peculiar and in my opinion frankly wonderful to look at.
Special mention goes to the expressions of the characters. It is all hand animated (as opposed to motion capture) but despite the style not being hyperrealistic, the work done on microexpressions and in general the "aliveness" is amazing. The characters are never really still: they breathe, they move, they shake, all in a very believable way. Unlike most animated products, they didn't cut any corner to reduce the work.
With the benefit of very strong visuals and style, the show is very much in the "show don't tell" camp, with many things inferred from what we are shown without being told about it.
As for plot, it is pretty standard rich vs oppressed plot, but its focus is on the characters, and they are fairly solid ones. You can see where they come from and the reasons why they behave in a certain way and you never get the feeling that they are bent out of character for plot convenience but rather due to their personality and history it wouldn't make sense for them to behave in a different way no matter what we as the detatched audience see as the best way to act. This is complicated by heroes having flaws and villains having virtues or at least understandable motivations. The central conflict is explored from many different angles and you can pick almost any 2 characters and find some interesting dualism to argue on.
The camera work is pretty great, above many works which actually
have a camera. They use their freedom in positioning the shot well and frequently for greater impact. The camera changes focus, shakes, rotates as needed for the scenes without actual physical limitations but mimicking the real camera feeling.
Fights are definitely not the focus of this work (the best fight scene is mostly flashback and most of the other fight scenes have deeper involvement than just the action itself), but one thing I want to say is that they are pretty raw. The show never resorts to an excess of gore (there is some, but sparingly used to make it impactful) but the great work done on expressions, body language and movement combined with the fact that in an animation characters can actually make contact unlike live action makes the violence feel... very violent. the punches hurt. The characters get bloodies, get tired, get sloppier as the fight go on.
In short: amazing art and animation, great character driven story, good overall direction and acting, no knowledge of source material required.
it is an opinion and yours may differ, but I invite you to give it a chance
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Topic: what tv shows are you currently watching? (Read 136322 times)