Origin Tales: The Vi and Powder story
A review of Arcane, the animated series vying for Squid Game’s title
Hyderabad: ‘Castlevania, Witcher, Dragon’s blood’, and now ‘Arcane’, Netflix is steadily narrowing the margins between streaming, binge-watching, and video game culture. In the last few years, we have seen ‘Castlevania’ acquire a burgeoning following as each of its four seasons have dropped. ‘Witcher’ looks to be set for an even bigger spectacle with its upcoming second season and ‘Dragon’s blood’ (based on DOTA) has flattered to deceive.
Two popular shows out of three is a great number for a genre that is still emerging and finding its foothold, especially when you consider that most video game adaptations on-screen have struggled to translate the magic.
‘Arcane’s first sequence begins with a mesmerising song sung by a little girl that is too scared to look at the ongoing destruction around her. Set in the twin cities of Piltover and Zaun — the former a prosperous paradise of riches and innovation, and the latter serving as its underbelly and a refuge for the impoverished, ‘Arcane’ establishes the stark differences between its haves and the have-nots in its first episode as Vi and her entourage decide to steal valuables from Piltover.
While the residents of Zaun struggle to survive, the ones in Piltover aspire to extend their reign as the world’s most prosperous city. In this disparity, ‘Arcane’ tells us the story of two sisters (Vi and Powder) who are some of the most popular characters in the video game ‘League of Legends’. With a terrific sound track and amazing animation, scenes from the series will remain etched in your mind for a while. One particular scene that stood out to me was Powder holding up a blue signal flare in the sixth episode, and sheer beauty of the blue smoke’s diffusion.
‘Arcane’ is unlike any other show from the video-game genre, it isn’t made by a third-party studio that uses source material from elsewhere, it is a Riot Games initiative through and through. As you spend time with the series, you can’t help but notice several tiny bits of detail that are sprinkled in every episode and you realise the time spent in making the final viewable versions.
The character sketches are simply wonderful and the effort by the animators stands out, be it Vi’s red hair or freckled face or Powder’s twin ponytail hairdo, the wear and tear on Vander’s dual wielding metal vambraces, or the read gleam in Silco’s eye, or Heimerdinger’s trusty cat; this is simply top-notch stuff.
With six years in development, you can’t help but feel that the first season could have been a bit longer than nine episodes. However, to borrow from one of Barney Stinson’s several phrases, the best media content “always leaves you wanting more” and ‘Arcane’ achieves that. If you can access a Netflix account and have a few hours to spare, ‘Arcane’ is a must-watch, on a big screen even better!
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