Reviews from the Nerd Cave!
Lightning strikes twice for Riot Games and Nexifix’s second season of their hit show, Arcane. Act 1 which was released on november 9th picks up right where season 1 ended by hitting the gas and not letting off. Right out of the gate, Season two shows off an impressive display of experimentation with amazing art styles, a fantastic and jamming soundtrack that elevates the action and the more calimer moments and so many twists and turns that I could barely keep up emotionally. The first season of Arcane already had amazingly strong writing when it came to their cast of characters and this season and season 2 not only continues this but this season has surprised me with how much more attention and care is given to the people of piltover and zuan. If you think you know your favorite character inside and out, then season 2 is going to catch you completely off guard and kick ya right in your heart.
It's amazing what the creative team at Riot and Fortiche Productions have done so far with Act one alone. The first episode gave me an almost spiderverse like art direction and I don’t mean that in a bad way. Minor spoilers for the first episode, but the furtal scene where only Caytlin and Vi where in color and everything else was in black and white grapdice was emotionally heart-hitting stuff. I have later learned that Fortiche Productions did that opening scene in painstalily in all graphite paint, which is mind blowing condereing that I thought it was all done in the usual CGI style they have.
While I do have nothing but endless praise to give this first act, I do have some minor nitpicks about it as well. Riot has said that they originally planned Acrene to have five seasons but they cut it down to just two. It's reported that each season cost Riot 250 million dollars to make Acrane, which has now made Arcane the most expensive animated show produced in hristy. With that said, I can slightly feel that there is something off with this season, we move fast in just these three episodes and they flow for the most part greatly, yet I can’t help feel that some plot lines are overshadowed than others, like they are trying to get each chateres stories out there before the series ends. For example, for the chateres Jayce, feels like he is just there in the background, as most an afterthought when he held a larger role in the first season, that sloe goes for Hopengiger and Eklo as well. Their plot lines hold a lot of important weight yet feels like it's just there for filler. However, my attitude to this small nitpick may change as we still have two more acts to get through and with the important discovery that Jayce, Heimerdinger and Ekko find in episode three. There is so much going on this season between Vi and Catlin going on their war against Jinx and Mel trying to stop a war with her mother Ambessa, there are many plot lines that feel that they don’t have enough room to breathe, but again that may change with Act two, set to release on November 16th.
The first act of season two is already an amazing heartbreak joy ride, I can wait to see the drama continue next weekend with Act 2!