Cinema Arcane (Season 1) (2021) - Move Over, Cowboy Bebop

[Arnox]

Rating

5.00 star(s)

​

Real bold-ass words, I know. But... Fucking HELL, this show is so good, guys. In almost every aspect of it. This is definitely going into my top 5 animated cinema of all time. The only thing I can possibly think of to subtract against it is that its music choices may alienate some of the audience. Imagine Dragons has a veryyy... "Modern" sound to them, and I don't know if that really was the best idea for the series overall. But then, considering that the studio who made this used to make music videos for the League of Legends game, I suppose the music choices make more sense in that context. Even so, it's not what I would have gone with, personally.

The relative who spurred me on to watching this in the first place said something rather brilliant to summarize partly what this show is. "Oops, all concept art!" And they aren't lying whatsoever. The animation is so beautifully done, and it seems you could take just about any still of this show and make it a desktop wallpaper all by itself. And we haven't even started talking about the plot and the characters yet.

Very basically, the show is about a steampunk city called Piltover. One of many, many cities in the League of Legends universe, technically, but the writers were very wise to keep their focus constrained to this city only. But yes, the city has a very strong wealth divide between the rich and the poor. We follow our two main protagonists of the lower class through the city as they fight to earn a name for themselves. Drama ensues.

There are actually many other protagonists in the show as well, and all of them are beautifully characterized and voice-acted as well. Everyone is delivering a stand-out performance here. Nevertheless, it's clear that the main story focus is on our two protagonists, Violet and Powder.

Now, I have watched some of the second season as well, but not all the way. My relatives want to watch the rest of it with me, so we're gonna wait on that. But when I do, I'll be sure to write my thoughts on the second season too.

 

[Vendor-Lazarus]

Why even mention Cowboy Bebop at all? This is nothing like it.

I only watched an episode or so, here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLipX0BGDpDJhm7Kebv1_qxpQfTxRMNDaP

The only thing I can give it credit for is the voice-acting. I didn't hear anything strange about the music either, if there was any. The art-style is weird. Not bad, but not good either. What it is full of though is wokeness. Token characters, danger hair, class system struggles, boss girls, etc etc.

I'll give it 2 stars out of 5.

 

[Arnox]

Why even mention Cowboy Bebop at all? This is nothing like it.

I only watched an episode or so, here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLipX0BGDpDJhm7Kebv1_qxpQfTxRMNDaP

The only thing I can give it credit for is the voice-acting. I didn't hear anything strange about the music either, if there was any. The art-style is weird. Not bad, but not good either. What it is full of though is wokeness. Token characters, danger hair, class system struggles, boss girls, etc etc.

I'll give it 2 stars out of 5.

Well, the Critical Drinker absolutely loved it, and he's pretty damn against woke shit, so...

Honestly, I think if certain 90s and early 2000s classics were released today, I think people would call some of them woke too.

In my opinion, it's pretty limiting of media to slap a "Woke" label on it just because a show has a black character or shows lesbian relationships. Instead, the real question we should be asking ourselves is simply this. Is the writing shit or not? Are the performances good? Is the CGI good (if there's any)?

 

[Arnox]

Why even mention Cowboy Bebop at all? This is nothing like it.

I only watched an episode or so, here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLipX0BGDpDJhm7Kebv1_qxpQfTxRMNDaP

The only thing I can give it credit for is the voice-acting. I didn't hear anything strange about the music either, if there was any. The art-style is weird. Not bad, but not good either. What it is full of though is wokeness. Token characters, danger hair, class system struggles, boss girls, etc etc.

I'll give it 2 stars out of 5.

Oh, also, CB is mentioned because Arcane (or at least, the first season) is in my top 5 animated shows right alongside Cowboy Bebop.