Arcane, the animated series based on the world of League of Legends, garnered excellent reviews that have been endorsed by its fantastic result in prestigious awards.
The Arcane animation series has been the true sensation of 2021. Inspired by the universe of League of Legends, the popular video game, its reception has been magnificent, achieving great ratings on various specialized websites and acclaimed by critics. This recognition has recently come in the form of prizes during the last contest of the awards called “annie”, a kind of prizes Oscar for animation productions, where it won nine statuettes out of the nine nominations in which it was selected.
The awards came in the most important categories: Best animated series, script, direction, special effects,… And so on up to the 9 sections to which he aspired, leaving large companies, such as Disney, in the background. For riot, the developer of the game, has been quite an injection of encouragement. And the same for Fortichethe producer of the series, and also for Netflix, the platform that acquired it for its catalog. Logically, both the reception and the awards have led to the fact that a second season is already being worked on, something that fans are vehemently requesting; and although an official date for its launch has not been announced, everything seems to indicate that it will have to wait, at least, until next year, according to what a production of this quality requires to become a reality.
For now, and in order to further exploit the LOL phenomenon, work is already underway on a novel also set in its plot universe. It would be “ruination”, which will narrate the story of Kalista, general of the Viego King, with derivations that will help to understand both the more general context and the circumstances of other characters of vital importance in this imaginary world of great wealth. The project has been entrusted to Anthony Reynolds, an old acquaintance of Riot Games who has been very solvent in the works that have been previously commissioned. It is expected that “ruination” is released after this summer, at least in the US and UK. And it cannot be ruled out that, after her, many other novels will come if they have the expected reception. After the success of Arcane, it was difficult to think that more initiatives of this style would not come.
It was clear that relying on LOL, one of the mainstays of the esports, with million-dollar audience events and a great follow-up of the predictions to determine who can emerge victorious from the tournaments in the portals with a section for League of Legends, ensured a significant number of the public. However, the success of the series has brought many more viewers, not limited only to “gamers”, since the general public has fallen for its quality and its beautiful visual narrative. It also influences that Netflix has opted for its distribution, since the platform is a leader compared to its competition and has become, today, an excellent showcase for the audiovisual products that are being generated.
It should be noted that Netflix has also won with its commitment to this and other products based on video games, such as “Dota: Dragon’s Blood”, “Castlevania” or “The Witcher”, to name a few examples. But Arcane has been a real boost to his initiative to create synergies with games and eSports; something that is easily understood when we observe, a few months ago, that they decided to incorporate games into their catalog, which although very simple, represent something that none of their competitors has done; and, in the end, two of them are based on a specific title. Guess which one? Indeed: League of Legends. In this way, the virtuous circle continues.
Now it’s time to wait for the second season of Arcane, still without a date to be confirmed, that seeing the triumph achieved, is generating notable expectations for its next installment. That is why there is no turning back: Arcane will be a product of excellence or it will be nothing. And so they seem to have understood it so much riot What Fortiche and Netflix, who prefer to delay the launch of their new installment before premiering a season that lowers the quality compared to the previous one. The Annie Awards have set the bar very high, but the product now has a prestige that cannot be squandered. We will have to be attentive to what arrives; meanwhile, the novel can be a good substitute for what is to come.