Long story short: Arcane is a masterpiece in several fronts.
The fact that it is based on a video game is completely irrelevant. I for instance have never played the game, and this was a sort of prejudice for me before watching the series. If they expected me to know anything about it, or if the series was full of hidden hints only for those "in the know," it would make me really upset and spoil my enjoyment. But fortunately none of that ever happened. The story builds up and unfolds its own scope with no prerequisites.
No spoilers here. The story revolves around emotional trauma between sisters, to the point of reaching psychotic levels. The daughter-parent or parent figure relationships are just as important if not even more, because they play major roles in quite a number of characters including the main ones. The conflicts all those characters face within the social and political divides in their city, their struggles, the decisions they make, and most specially, how they show us their development. Following the good writing principle of "show, don't tell..." Oh boy, how beautifully do they show us...
If you don't cry easily at emotional, very real-feeling scenes, just because they are "animated," well there was the movie "Grave of the Fireflies" before. Now we have quite a few of the nine episodes of Arcane Season 1 to challenge you. Interestingly, Arcane also has enchanting fireflies.
Powder/Jinx is so fascinatingly presented even in the simplest of moments. Curiously and specially, even while she is sitting; either busy on a chair, saying something grand, or apparently doing almost nothing sitting somewhere. Most other characters also have incredible levels of expressiveness in their faces and voices, both "villains" and "heroes," although categorizing some of Arcane's characters as either one becomes quite blurry. The beauty of visual expressiveness goes beyond just the faces and into
hands, as in the delicacy of movements in Jinx's hand releasing one of
her deadly granades. As gory as it may sound, even the dead faces I think are masterfully done.
The fast-action animation, and the associated slow-mo takes, are simply amazing and breathtaking. Mind-blowing also comes to mind as quite an adequate description. "Spiderman: Into the Spider-Verse", a recent mind-blowing animation masterpiece on its very own, came to my mind when watching some of Arcane's fast flashing scenes. But Arcane in my opinion has something extra and more refined on top, which are those incredible facial expressions. Even if I actually think they slouched a bit on those from Vi in the last episode (those reminded me a bit too much of Frozen's often cringy mouths.) But Powder's/Jinx's face and emotional baggage is altogether on another level though. So masterfully done, every nanosecond of it, visuals and voice. In fact maybe also Silco's, Ecco's, Mel's, Viktor's, the asian-looking guard's... all of those make me forgive the apparent last chapter slouchness they did with Vi.
Again, no spoilers here, so don't worry, but for me there was another minor annoyance in the very final moments of the series. A weapon trajectory and target was (imho) pointlessly and unnecessarily shown in a confusing way. Something else not so great for me was the last song, "What could have been," crowning the ending, and carried by no less than Sting's voice. The lyrics of course make sense after such a loaded ending, but as much of a fan of Sting's voice as I am, the music and singing honestly did not particularly click too much with me. I also forgive that, specially given Ramsey's gorgeous and haunting "Goodbye" song in the 3rd episode, plus the rest of the outstanding soundtrack.
I hesitated whether voting 9 or 10/10 for Arcane on IMDB. But the visuals, the music, sound overall, the voices, the action, most specially the story, all the tension and struggle, the character development, how they show us what they go through on their faces, their mouths, those eyes, what they say, what they do, and how they show us what they do... My minor nitpicks could not stand against such an overall masterfully flooring spectacle. 10/10. The current IMDB score after 66K votes is 9.4/10. Well deserved. This series is an audiovisual but specially an emotional roller coaster feast. Masterpiece.
PS. If you've already watched the series, psychotherapist Georgia Dow has a few videos on Youtube where she analyzes the emotional depth some characters and parental bonds have in this series. She herself gets emotional some times, shows how powerful the punch from #Arcane is, why so many react so strongly to it. At the time I write this she has posted two videos, but some more are coming, so I will keep adding the links here. Major spoilers there, so only if you've watched the series already:
Arcane: Jinx Act 1 — Therapist Reacts!
Arcane: Silco and Jinx — Therapist Reacts!
Arcane: Vi and Jinx — Therapist Reacts!
Arcane: Young Viktor — Therapist Reacts!
Arcane: Ekko and Jinx (Bridge Fight) — Therapist Reacts!
Arcane: Vi and Caitlyn — Therapist Reacts!
Arcane: Vi and Caitlyn — I Was WRONG!
Arcane: Jinx Act 2 — Therapist Reacts!
Arcane: Mel — Therapist Reacts!
Arcane: Vander — Therapist Reacts!
Arcane: Jayce and Viktor — Therapist Reacts!
Arcane: Jinx Act 3 — Therapist Reacts!
Arcane: Sevika the PERFECT Soldier — Therapist Reacts!
