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autumnbay
Reviews
Arcane: League of Legends (2021)
Ultimately average
To start with the pros, the animation is beautiful. If you were to pause the show at any moment, you could print out the image and put it on a wall. The tone and steampunk aesthetic also works really well.
As far as the story, it showed a lot of potential, but ultimately fell short because the world building wasn't clean and the character motivations were lacking.
While magic, or "hextech" is meant to be central to the conflicts in the narrative, it is never explained well enough to understand why things happen the way they do. Magic is just used as a device to push the story along, not a genuine part of the world.
I absolutely love some characters, but Jinx, one of the main-est characters, was difficult to love because her motivations were never clear or justified. She's meant to be a wildcard on the outside and a deep character on the inside, but she suffers from constantly flipping back and forth on her beliefs and alignments as a device to make the show less predictable.
Very little emotion is earned because as the audience, we aren't given enough context of the magic system or the logic of the characters.
Giri/Haji (2019)
Ultimately disappointing
Going in, I was very excited to watch the show. There was a lot of interesting cinematography and a great mysterious vibe to keep me intrigued. In the end, there were a lot of loose ends and they never managed to explore the characters enough to make them interesting. Ultimately, if you want to watch it for some great action and pretty cinematography, you'll really enjoy it. If you want to watch it for a drama and a deep exploration of the minds of a series of antiheroes, you're better off watching a different show.
Special (2019)
High Hopes
I wanted to love this show SO BAD. LGBTQ+ and disability representation? Sign me up! The story was nice and it was a good show, but it left a lot to be desired. The dialogue and some of the acting felt quite stilted and unrealistic. The humor didn't appeal to me which isn't necessarily a critique because folks have different senses of humor, but I would have liked to laugh more. It was really sweet and I'm excited for the next season, but I really wish it could have stepped it up a bit.