The first season of Arcane pretty much changed the action cartoon forever, and the video game cartoon forever as well. It pioneered the forty-five minute drama format which was previously exclusively for live action series and provided the most visually stunning CGI animation ever seen on the small screen. Technically, Castlevania was the first adult video game cartoon and the first video game cartoon not considered a cheesy guilty pleasure, but that series operated on pretending to be an anime as society was seemingly not yet accepting of Western created adult action cartoons.

The first season changed Western action cartoons forever, but does season two hold up? From an audio/visual perspective, it easily tops the first season with some of the most stunning  sequences ever animated for television. Arcane was animated on a feature film budget, and this looks Pixar or Dreamworks worthy. There are lots of scenes that experiment with different animation techniques that are just jaw dropping. The action sequences are just as amazing as the first season, to nobody’s surprise. The contemporary pop infused audio is also unprecedented in its quality. If audio/visuals alone were the only criteria that mattered, this would easily be the greatest television cartoon of all time.

The thing is that plot and characters are still important and while the audio and visuals are as close to perfection as is possible for television animation, the writing does have notable flaws. Season one should be highly commended for its plot as well, telling a deep and profound and personal story about the story of two sisters who took different paths in a world plagued by inequality. This story was very complex and had loads of moving parts and the three three year gap between seasons did the series no favors in allowing viewers to remember everything that happened last season. The series just jumps in with no real recap content to refresh your memory. The issue of the second season’s many plots is that the series takes a dramatically different direction than season one.

Whereas season one seemed to tell a grounded and personal story, season two seems to throw a bunch of stuff at the wall, such as time travel, interdimensional travel, a character mutating into a monster, Jinx getting a kid sidekick, characters brooding and angsting, titillating makeout sessions for the teenage audiences, a big final battle involving airships and people in armor, and the like, but the plot often feels like random things happening with not much direction. It all leads into an ambiguous ending that is sure to leave anybody wanting satisfying closure on the sibling rivalry between Jinx and Vi would probably not be satisfied about the ending. I think this series could use more seasons to flesh out all the ideas that were thrown together with what seems like a rushed get to the finish line season.

Of course, we know that the plan is to have more spinoffs based on different characters in the League of Legends video game series and it did feel like the reason this season threw everything and the kitchen sink at us was to setup the League of Legends Animated Universe rather than be a self contained show telling the story of Vi and Jinx. It is my hope that the rest of this animated universe keeps the story small and intimate rather than have so many plot points that pretty much none of the professional reviewers covering this series have been able to succinctly describe this over-convoluted plot without it sounding like nonsense. Provided Arcane were given an extra season, this could have been a masterpiece. For now, it has to settle for the title of flawed masterpiece.

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