‘Arcane’ Season 2 Just Set a New Standard for Animated Shows

Arcane, the acclaimed Netflix series set in the universe of the popular MOBA game League of Legends, is one of the most popular shows on the streaming service, currently #2 on the television charts. The show, starring Hawkeye‘s Hailee Steinfeld and Fallout‘s Ella Purnell, has an animation style that’s a hybrid of the video game it’s adaptingand the Spider-Verse films. It mixes cartoon-like line work with 3D CGI, giving the series a unique aesthetic, unlike anything that’s currently on television.

Arcane is ending its story after merely two seasons, which, in an age of minimal successful animated TV, seems absurd, especially when the show is popular enough for a physical release (a sight rarely seen with Netflix productions). Creators have answered the question of “why,” and it simply comes down to the creative control of the team behind the show. This is why Arcane is setting a gold standard for any animated action series coming forward.

How Did Arcane Gather the Momentum to Thrive?

If you take a look at Arcane for more than a few seconds, you’ll notice immediate visual comparisons between the Spider-Man films Into the Spider-Verse and Across the Spider-Verse. The style of the animation was popularized by that in 2018 and has since been a running success with audiences and critics alike. Movies like the two previously mentioned, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, The Mitchell’s vs. the Machines, and Entergalactic have all taken inspiration from the popularity of the Sony animated superhero films, with Netflix having produced the last one.

Created in 2021 by Christian Linke and Alex Yi, Arcane originally started production in 2019. After being announced at the tenth-anniversary celebration of League of Legends, the show can seemingly be traced to running along with the hype of 2018’s Oscar-winning Into the Spider-Verse. At that moment, studios were thrown into a frenzy as to what is expected of 3D animated projects going forward, and studios like Sony and Dreamworks have reshaped the type of films they’re putting out. The announcement of Arcane also came after a run of lackluster box office failures in the “video game adaptation” camp. At that point, shows like The Last of Us, and the Super Mario Bros. and Sonic the Hedgehog films had yet to come out, so Arcane was created at a time when adapting a game was a huge gamble, especially one that’s not as commercially recognizable as Mario or Sonic.

What Makes Arcane So Successful?

Netflix animated action series are a dime in a dozen on the platform. A new one, seemingly, pops up every week, whether it be an American show or Japanese anime, and the majority of them get swept under the rug and forgotten by both audiences and the streamer. Many of the shows are only given one season and are rarely, if ever, promoted by Netflix’s social media team or algorithm, essentially setting shows up to fail. So, Arcane getting a second season is a big deal, as it is both a serialized animated dramatic action series and an expensive production, neither of which lead to thriving success on the platform, whereas cheaper-to-produce comedies are more often renewed for a sophomore season and beyond, like Big Mouth.

Arcane, though, with its two-season run, managed to stand out among the rest, with a number of different factors leading to this. For starters, as mentioned earlier, the animation is one of the most eye-catching things the medium has seen. It’s this cartoon-like, video game-style CGI hybrid mixed with the steampunk aesthetic, a beautiful combination that makes the show’s appearance so engaging. Another respected aspect of the show would be the performances. Hailee Steinfeld as Vi and Ella Purnell as Jinx stand out within a cavalcade of great vocal performances on television, with both of them bringing the weight and ferocity that is required for the heavy source material, and the lighter, more necessarily quiet moments.

One of the reasons the show will be so memorable to so many people, besides a lot of the reasons previously mentioned, is because the show is ending after a measly two seasons. But on its own accord. This is the key difference between this and, say, Inside Job is that Arcane is choosing to bow out while they’re ahead, solely out of creativity. The creators said they envisioned this story ending with a second season, so it makes sense that it’s ending here, and for good reason. It’s a creative decision based on the merits and integrity of the production and story, which is something that any animated show coming after Arcane needs to be aware of.

The show built off the momentum of Spider-Verse, style-wise, but also in terms of its storytelling (so far as to even acquire Steinfeld too). With the action-packed universe, incredibly choreographed and animated fight scenes, like Vi vs. Sevika in the first season, attention to evolving characters narratively, and balancing a tone of weighted emotions and bits of humor, with a strong relationship between Vi and Jinx at the core.

What Animated Shows Work and Which Don’t

When looking at some of the highest-rated and most respected animated shows in the lexicon today, you’d have to look at shows like Blue Eye Samurai, Gravity Falls, and a few select others. What makes Arcane so successful is part of the reason that these shows do well, too. Blue Eye Samurai is the closest to Arcane in style and appeal, with stellar animation, great vocal performances, and a killer (literally) story. Maya Erskine’s performance is top-notch, giving vibes of quality similar to Steinfeld and Purnell. Gravity Falls is in the conversation for its unique storyline, serialized nature, and creative throughline, with Alex Hirsch being similar to that of Linke and Yi on Arcane.

What seems to make many of the shows that fail, critically or commercially, on streaming services would be either underwhelming creative choices and voices, or overstaying their welcome. The most recent adaptation of the Tomb Raider franchise, an animated series on Netflix, was panned by critics, and criticized for being mediocre and forgettable, and was even compared to Arcane for also being a video game adaptation, but a lackluster one at that. The aforementioned Big Mouth is another show panned by critics and fans of the animated medium, with many claiming that the concepts have become stale, and after several, nearing 10, seasons, audiences are getting tired of the Nick Kroll-created program.

Arcane has, seemingly, all of the qualities that make the popular shows popular, and none of what are considered “red flags” that plague some of the lesser regarded shows. It’s a highly respected, Emmy-winning show, and is going to be a guidebook as to how to successfully pilot any animated show going forward, putting the expectations on the top shelf. Audiences are now going to expect this quality from animated programs going forward, and even if the studio doesn’t have a fraction of the technical resources that Netflix has, it’s still important they flesh out characters and stakes to a point that’s satisfactory.

Arcane is available to stream on Netflix.

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