MovieChat Forums > Arcane: League of Legends (2021) Discussion > great visuals - subpar plot

great visuals - subpar plot

posted 3 years ago by maximmm (3154)
7 replies | jump to latest

The visuals in this anime are great - very stylish drawn animation combined with 3D - it works really well and could change the way many other anime pieces are made moving forward.

The voice acting is very decent -

The world is quite interesting (I haven't played the game).

The characters: This is where the problems begin. While some characters appear quite complex, many are very one-dimensional. More importantly, time and time again, all characters make stupid decisions. It's like a shitty horror film, where npcs do stupid shit, having the viewer perpetually ask 'why would you do that?', all just for the sake of plot progression. While there's plenty of violence in this show, the decisions made by characters are quite juvenile - almost as if this show was made for kids (or perhaps it was, given that it was based on the game?). In the same light, there are no characters to root for - all appear to be either dump or very corrupt.

Plot: Even bigger problems surface there. The first 2 episodes are great - by 3rd episode, all decent characters are dead and we witness a time jump - many years ahead, which changes things quite a bit - for the worse. All decent characters are dead - so we gotto deal with what remains. We are also introduced to many new characters. What could have been a long story arc of revenge turns into a mess of gigantic proportions - where you really don't know where the story is going or what the story's purpose is to begin with.

I have to give this anime 5/10. The first 2 episodes were great - but what followed after turned this into a subpar tv show. It's surreal - they had the visuals - they had the actors - but as is often the case these days, producers saved tons of money by lowballing the writing department.

And fck these producer morons for hiring bots to write spam reviews on imdb. They are easy to spot and most of those reviews really are bot written. Maybe if they spent more money for decent writers, they wouldn't have to buy reviews. dumbarses.

[–] chase (10) 3 years ago

Ten outta ten, toots! :D

[–] maximmm (3154) 3 years ago

don't be a bot, my friend - you can be better ^^

[–] chase (10) 2 years ago

And you can blow me.

[–] pbt (108) 3 years ago

[deleted]

[–] VectorOfTheMoon (175) 2 years ago

I know your post is 8 months ago, but I feel the need to comment. Because you know what? I agree with just about everything you said.

Arcane is a show I have very mixed feelings about, and I generally think it's overhyped (though that was inevitable being a League of Legends series - though I've never played the games myself).

Voice acting in Arcane is great, visuals are amazing, world itself is very interesting. But really, only the first 3 episodes really got my attention. Episode 3 in particular is pretty fantastic, and the ending with Vi hitting Powder is heartbreaking.

However, things definitely take a turn during that time jump. The writing in the show left a lot to be desired, as I found a lot of things in the show downright confusing or just left completely unexplained (Vi being in prison during those years, what led to Vander trying to drown Silco, etc). It's like they were so focused on having amazing visuals, they forgot that solid and consistent writing is just as important if not even more so. Outside of the first 3 episodes, I was pretty underwhelmed. If the writing and characters were as great as the animation, it would definitely be one of the best shows I've ever seen.

I love Silco, though. He's a great character (even though I found his motivations confusing and unclear like a lot of other things in the show).

I'll definitely be watching Season 2 when it comes out, but I hope it's an improvement in the writing department.

[–] TheReccher (343) 2 years ago

It's funny you said that the first two episodes were good. I love Arcane, but I was ready to abandon ship on the first two episodes. It didn't click for me until the third episode and it became a masterpiece after that. That seems to be the consensus too, as a lot of fans of the show often tell people not swayed by the opening to stick with it until the third episode.

When did the characters make stupid decisions? The characters certainly made mistakes, but these are are flawed broken people with trauma and anger to work out.

You're entitled to your opinion, but you're in the minority. The depth of story-telling here is top-tier and elevates the YA genre. There's a reason so many grown men shed a tear when Vi reunited with Jinx. The writing made these characters just jump off the screen.

[–] maximmm (3154) 2 years ago

As of now, I'm in minority in regards to many things, including hollywood. I'm used to it.

The first two episodes for me were well paced - featured mature characters, who made fairly mature decisions.
After that, we ended up in the kid zone, with appropriate decision-making - even from the supposedly mature characters. That, at least, how it seemed to me. Opinions differ, I understand.