You need to watch the best video game adaptation ever on Netflix ASAP

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Shutterstock A good adaptation is a tightrope walk, balanced between relying too much on fans’ love of the source material and veering so far off it’s unrecognizable.

Video game adaptations , in particular, have historically had a hard time with this.

Netflix Netflix’s Arcane , based on Riot Games’ League of Legends , seems like it would struggle with the same problem.

Riot Games League of Legends has a fiercely devoted fanbase, but even its most popular characters are largely unknown to the general public.

Arcane sidesteps that issue by making it essentially a new backstory for some of the game’s most popular characters. Netflix

Netflix That way, fans get a deep-dive into the lore of LoL and its characters, and newcomers aren’t missing anything the show itself won’t fill in later.

Netflix As Arcane opens, a group of kids from the slums of Zaun pull off a heist in the city-on-a-hill Piltover.

That act spirals out into a crackdown on Zaun by Piltover’s crooked cops, the invention of magic-powered technology called hextech, and a looming war between the two cities.

Netflix Even with all the world-changing fallout of hextech and a mutation-inducing drug called shimmer at the center of Arcane , the show is at its best when it stays focused on its characters.

Netflix The relationship between sisters Vi and Powder (later Jinx) remains the strongest part of Arcane ’s story from beginning to end.

Netflix Even if Arcane ’s fairly conventional story doesn’t appeal to you, there’s still a good reason to give it a shot:

Arcane looks incredible.

The show looks like video game concept art come to life, packed with worldbuilding details and incredible scene-setting shots of Piltover and Vaun. Netflix

Netflix Just a glance at Arcane ’s settings shows the cities are worlds apart — exemplified by Piltover enforcers dawning gas masks just to enter Zaun.

Netflix Arcane ’s animation shines spectacularly well in action scenes, which are brutal and gorgeous in equal measure.

LoL players won’t need convincing, but it’s fans of animation who should really make sure Arcane is on their watch list. Netflix

Arcane ’s nine-episode run is available on Netflix. Season two is already in production for release after 2022. Netflix

You need to watch the best video game adaptation ever on Netflix ASAP

Arcane looks incredible.

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