Netflix Arcane

[seti88]

Am not a league of legends gamer, nor a netflix binge watcher. But Arcane has got me binge watching a few episodes so far.

This show is a A-class example of how character animation should be approached. The facial expressions, movement all give weight and drama.
And the world and scenes themselves are amazingly stylish yet, via the style, it conveys the worlds realism via shadows and highlights amazingly.

Script is fantasy, steam punk but character development is well integrated without sacrificing pace.

Kudos to the team for keeping me this engaged. 

No requirement to have played LoL to watch this show. But i do appreciate a 4K TV to show all the gorgeous imagery. 😄

whoa. sting...

 

Edited December 13, 2021 by seti88

[Focslain]

Yeah, this series was way too good. Be interesting to see how S2 starts considering how the first season ended.

An amazing opening too, hope they can hold that energy for the next one.

[Dobber]

I just made a post the other day in the General TV thread about this show. I found it AMAZING. I know nothing about League of Legends either. Animation is amazing as was mentioned above and the story takes its time to build and characters are developed so well. So very happy it’s getting a second season.

Chris

[007-vf1]

Agree this is one of the nicest animations I have seen in a while. the professional use of color values, depth and facial expressions are simply fantastic.

[M'Kyuun]

Just watched the first ep, and gotta agree with all the good things being said.  Very well written and acted. The movements of the characters are so fluid and lifelike, and yeah, even the facial animations are incredibly well captured. Too, as a world building show, the steampunk direction is beautifully captured as well.  Like just about everyone else here, I have no familiarity with the League of Legends game that inspired it, but if the game was anywhere near this good, I think I'm missing out.  Looking forward to watching the rest.

Take note Netflix: more like this.

[Dobber]

4 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Just watched the first ep, and gotta agree with all the good things being said.  Very well written and acted. The movements of the characters are so fluid and lifelike, and yeah, even the facial animations are incredibly well captured. Too, as a world building show, the steampunk direction is beautifully captured as well.  Like just about everyone else here, I have no familiarity with the League of Legends game that inspired it, but if the game was anywhere near this good, I think I'm missing out.  Looking forward to watching the rest.

Take note Netflix: more like this.

First 2 episodes are good and setting the plate so to speak, then episode 3 sets the hook…..hard. If you like the facial animation and voice acting…..just wait.

For me, the shows animation looks like an “Art of (insert whatever series)” book come to life. Simply amazing. It rides the edge of the uncanny valley beautifully.

Chris

[lechuck]

Finished this last weekend, brilliantly done for something that is based on a game. Animation is smooth, story is engaging and characters have enough depth.

Like everyone else, I have no prior knowledge to League of Legends. So anyone that does know this game can say if the show's story and characters are in alignment?

[seti88]

Spoiler

 

 

[TangledThorns]

On 12/14/2021 at 3:04 AM, M'Kyuun said:

 

Take note Netflix: more like this.

It'd be great if Lucasfilm/Disney would approach this level of animation quality for their STAR WARS animated shows. 

[derex3592]

Ok, you guys have talked me into this -- I'm gonna watch it over Xmas break. I have zero knowledge of any background of it. Going in cold. 

[Dobber]

1 hour ago, derex3592 said:

Ok, you guys have talked me into this -- I'm gonna watch it over Xmas break. I have zero knowledge of any background of it. Going in cold. 

Best way, IMO. Enjoy it!

Chris

[M'Kyuun]

Double post; Mods, please delete.

 

Edited December 16, 2021 by M'Kyuun

[M'Kyuun]

3 minutes ago, M'Kyuun said:

@derex3592, that's how I went in- I've only seen the first ep, but hearing all the good stuff, I was curious. Curiosity rewarded in the best way, and looking forward to watching the rest. Trying to get my wife to watch it with me, but I may just go ahead and watch it without her- I wanna see more, and god knows when I'll get to see it if I wait for her. We just started watching Black Mirror, which is also a really cool show, and she doesn't like to start something new if we've already started watching something else, whereas I don't mind watching a number of shows concurrently.

 

5 hours ago, TangledThorns said:

It'd be great if Lucasfilm/Disney would approach this level of animation quality for their STAR WARS animated shows. 

It would indeed.

Edited December 16, 2021 by M'Kyuun

[Vile]

I haven't found any anime that I could really get into for years, now - I think the last one may have been Gundam Thunderbolt. I discovered Arcane about two weeks ago, binged it immediately, then binged it a second time. Then I watched the 5-part 'making of' video. Yesterday I started watching Arcane for the third time.

There may be spoilers below.

I think there's an almost-perfect storm at work to make it so good. Okay, I'm an anime - and animation - fan, so from the start that has me more hyped than other viewers. Watching Bridging the Rift (the making-of show) makes it clear that the show makers were all doing it for love, to the extent that they could admit when they couldn't handle something so they went and found someone who could. The talent thrown at this is just amazing, starting with the French animation studio Fortiche and then going on to great writing, editing, music, arrangement, and all that other stuff. And for a change the management did what they were there for - keeping the production on track, telling them when they had to be better, and backing the team all the way (once the team had convinced them of their dream). There are too many good things in the show to list even a tenth of them.

The animation is amazing. No motion capture just 3D animation, digitally overpainted. As they said, motion-capture gives you realistic movement, and nothing else. The movements and expressions are perfect, subtle and understated or extravagant as needed. The parkour scenes are some of my favourites. The level of detail in the backgrounds is beautiful, and unlike most animation the quality of finish in the moving elements is up to the same standard. I'm still discovering cool Easter eggs in the backgrounds, if I knew anything about League of Legends the game (I don't) I bet there are a ton of them I haven't even noticed. I laughed when they asked one of the French animators how they achieved the painterly effect, and she answered, "We paint!"

The voice acting is flawless, they really got very good matches for the characters. None of the dialogue is tongue-in-cheek, everything is done straight and seriously in spite of the (frankly rather silly) magic-steampunk game setting so I never broke immersion at any point. In fact there are some really pretty tough, emotional scenes that so far only get more powerful with re-watching.

The music is mind-blowing, though it makes sense once you know that the main brains behind the show is a musician. The songs written for the show are like music videos. The sound is also very deep and layered, the more I watch it the more I'm picking up on thematic elements whenever Hextech is on screen, or Shimmer, or particular characters. Everything has its own background sound. And there's a stack of AMVs out there where people are cutting together scenes from the show, some of which have rather spiffing timing (Rasputin is one of my top picks).

The visual storytelling is masterful. So much nuance conveyed without exposition. The opening scene - with no dialogue at all - reminded me of something out of Alan Moore's Watchmen graphic novel, where the original Niteowl mentions some writing advice he was given on getting the readers invested right away: "Start with the saddest thing you can think of".  My favourite scene is the fight on the bridge between Ekko/Littleman and Jinx/Powder, where their whole relationship background was made clear in just a few seconds of animation switching back-and-forth between their younger selves and the present. And the show is full of that sort of thing, of which we non-players are probably 80% unaware.

I hope the anime industry is watching this closely, because IMO Japan has just lost the crown to France. Honestly, after this I see no need for live action any more. Arcane is better.

[M'Kyuun]

3 hours ago, Vile said:

I haven't found any anime that I could really get into for years, now - I think the last one may have been Gundam Thunderbolt. I discovered Arcane about two weeks ago, binged it immediately, then binged it a second time. Then I watched the 5-part 'making of' video. Yesterday I started watching Arcane for the third time.

There may be spoilers below.

I think there's an almost-perfect storm at work to make it so good. Okay, I'm an anime - and animation - fan, so from the start that has me more hyped than other viewers. Watching Bridging the Rift (the making-of show) makes it clear that the show makers were all doing it for love, to the extent that they could admit when they couldn't handle something so they went and found someone who could. The talent thrown at this is just amazing, starting with the French animation studio Fortiche and then going on to great writing, editing, music, arrangement, and all that other stuff. And for a change the management did what they were there for - keeping the production on track, telling them when they had to be better, and backing the team all the way (once the team had convinced them of their dream). There are too many good things in the show to list even a tenth of them.

The animation is amazing. No motion capture just 3D animation, digitally overpainted. As they said, motion-capture gives you realistic movement, and nothing else. The movements and expressions are perfect, subtle and understated or extravagant as needed. The parkour scenes are some of my favourites. The level of detail in the backgrounds is beautiful, and unlike most animation the quality of finish in the moving elements is up to the same standard. I'm still discovering cool Easter eggs in the backgrounds, if I knew anything about League of Legends the game (I don't) I bet there are a ton of them I haven't even noticed. I laughed when they asked one of the French animators how they achieved the painterly effect, and she answered, "We paint!"

The voice acting is flawless, they really got very good matches for the characters. None of the dialogue is tongue-in-cheek, everything is done straight and seriously in spite of the (frankly rather silly) magic-steampunk game setting so I never broke immersion at any point. In fact there are some really pretty tough, emotional scenes that so far only get more powerful with re-watching.

The music is mind-blowing, though it makes sense once you know that the main brains behind the show is a musician. The songs written for the show are like music videos. The sound is also very deep and layered, the more I watch it the more I'm picking up on thematic elements whenever Hextech is on screen, or Shimmer, or particular characters. Everything has its own background sound. And there's a stack of AMVs out there where people are cutting together scenes from the show, some of which have rather spiffing timing (Rasputin is one of my top picks).

The visual storytelling is masterful. So much nuance conveyed without exposition. The opening scene - with no dialogue at all - reminded me of something out of Alan Moore's Watchmen graphic novel, where the original Niteowl mentions some writing advice he was given on getting the readers invested right away: "Start with the saddest thing you can think of".  My favourite scene is the fight on the bridge between Ekko/Littleman and Jinx/Powder, where their whole relationship background was made clear in just a few seconds of animation switching back-and-forth between their younger selves and the present. And the show is full of that sort of thing, of which we non-players are probably 80% unaware.

I hope the anime industry is watching this closely, because IMO Japan has just lost the crown to France. Honestly, after this I see no need for live action any more. Arcane is better.

Agree with all. I wasn't aware of the making-of vids, but I'll have to give them a watch, as I enjoy that sort of thing, especially when the show itself makes such an impact. There is apparently going to be a second season, although no release date has been announced. IMHO, let them take all the time they need to get it right. The first season was done so well that it will be a challenge to equal or eclipse, but if the same team is working on it, I'm sure it will at least stand up next to first season.

[Vile]

3 hours ago, M'Kyuun said:

Agree with all. I wasn't aware of the making-of vids, but I'll have to give them a watch, as I enjoy that sort of thing, especially when the show itself makes such an impact. There is apparently going to be a second season, although no release date has been announced. IMHO, let them take all the time they need to get it right. The first season was done so well that it will be a challenge to equal or eclipse, but if the same team is working on it, I'm sure it will at least stand up next to first season.

I normally don't like making-of videos, but with these you can really tell the passion invested by everyone involved. In addition, there's actually quite a lot of info in there. Such as (in part 5, I think), "The ending of season 2 will be really hard to watch." I really hope that statement, together with the lines in the S2 announcement, are red herrings ... because if the obvious conclusions are drawn ...