Arcane: Season 2

Streaming on: Netflix

Episodes viewed: 6 of 9

Even as one of the most lavishly acclaimed animated series of the past decade, there’s a sense that you have to say “Hear me out!” when talking about the brilliance of Arcane. An adult animation about class warfare, based on the multiplayer video game League of Legends? Surely not.

But Arcane turned out to be excellent when it debuted on Netflix in 2021, and now this second and final season arrives to finish the job. Broadly speaking, Arcane is a story about an empire that keeps creating its own monsters — with people in positions of power responding to provocation vengefully, rather than with understanding, in a pattern that keeps spiralling. The political side of the story can sometimes come out as wishy-washy bothsidesism, but it’s far better for how it complicates relationships than for what it says about the world.

Arcane’s most compelling story element is found in the tale of two sisters thrown apart, desperately trying to fill the void the other left behind. As the younger sister, Ella Purnell’s performance as Jinx is incredibly dynamic, her drawling speech wringing all emotion possible from her character’s flippant dialogue. Steinfeld’s Vi is much more passionate, and the two find a nice dynamic together. Sometimes the subtext isn’t always left to speak for itself, but even amid its big showstopper sequences, the intimate moments stand out.

Even if Arcane is sometimes heavy-handed, its go-for-broke ambition makes it thrilling to see where its final act lands.

Showrunners Christian Linke and Alex Yee, alongside series directors Pascal Charrue and Arnaud Delord, again pursue a fascinating collision of styles here, as various forms of traditional animation are spliced together with computer-generated 3D. This means some effects have a hand-drawn touch, but it also extends to sequences where an entirely new style takes over. Right out of the gate, there’s a sequence that blends the show’s computer-animated characters with a sketchy black-and-white, pencil-drawn background; later, one character’s memories are melancholically depicted using chromatic watercolours.

The show is at its most exciting during these transformative sequences, mixing and matching mediums of animation for different means of expression. The story of the new season also dips more into metaphysical territory, which in turn brings out wilder, more psychedelic art. While sometimes the rapid-fire choreography and flashy VFX action becomes slightly hard to follow, the more considered Act II (Netflix is presenting this season as a trio of three-episode Acts, releases staggered) spaces things out for more considered breakout sequences which play with the show’s form.

There’s a lot to take in, especially when each of these big sequences is often accompanied by an original song, in a music video approach that could sometimes use a lighter touch. But, just as often, the music production lands on something perfectly calibrated: a well-timed ballad that builds on a scene’s tragic mood, or an industrial metal piece that would feel at home in the video game DOOM.

The bombast here is part of the appeal: the epic soundscapes, the spectacle of its expensive, stylised animation, and a story full of compellingly cruel ironies as well as well-earned moments of tenderness. Even if Arcane is sometimes heavy-handed, its go-for-broke ambition makes it thrilling to see where its final act lands.