Arcane’s initial season dropped like an artistic nuke when the video game adaptation first hit the screens of many ecstatic Netflix subscribers. The painterly animation style by the French studio Fortiche was mind-blowing and had never been seen before in an animated series.

Matched by an immersive world, memorable characters, and a gripping storyline, it's no wonder that the first season was overwhelmingly loved by fans, whether long-time fans of its source material, video game giant League of Legends, or not.

The question, therefore, on everyone’s mind these past three years has been when season 2 will get here and whether it will be as good. By setting the standard set so high by their first outing, the show's creators made their jobs much more difficult.

Riot, the company behind League of Legends, reportedly invested US$250 Million for the entire series. With that hefty price tag, the expectations are even higher. With the arrival of the the second season’s first three episodes, it can be said for sure that those expectations have been met, if not exceeded.

Season two opens immediately after last season’s cliffhanger, where Jinx fires her shark shaped cannon into the meeting chambers of Piltover’s ruling council. We discover that in theaftermath, some  made it out while others did not. In the wake of such a blatant attack, no hope for peace between Piltover and its sister city, Zaun, is seemingly no longer in the cards.

This season’s episodes explore the ramifications of the attack, and the inevitable conflict that ensues. It also gets a bit more into the nature of Hex, the show’s equivalent of magic. The visualization is trippy and esoteric, which fits perfectly with Fortiche’s highly stylized and starly graphic look. The hook, however, that thing that keeps you glued to the screen and clicking the ‘next episode’ button, are the characters.

You have the sisters Jinx(Ella Purnell) and Vi (Hailee Steinfeld), torn apart by circumstances and events beyond them, once as close as can be, and now on opposite sides of the coming storm. You have Jayce (Kevin Alejandro), the once disgraced but now lauded inventor whose research could mean salvation or damnation. You have many new characters joining the fray and minor characters in the first season who get a bit more of the spotlight.

Each character arc is interesting and rich enough for a mini-series, and everyone is exciting and compelling. Unlike most animation, black and white doesn’t apply to the characters morally. Everyone is in a gray area, where anyone but anyone can be forced or coerced into questionable actions, justified by desired outcomes, and rationalized by overpowering motivations. At one point, Caitlyn, voiced by Katie Leung, laments, “Why is peace always the justification for violence?”

No one ends the series (Yes, Arcane’s second season is its last. Sigh) the same person as when they started. And that kind of development keeps an audience glued to their monitors.

As far as the voice acting goes, the show has no shortage of talent, with Hailee Steinfeld and Ella Purnell bringing to life our main protagonists, the sisters Vi and Jinx. In the first season Purnell perfectly captures Jinx’s psychosis and trauma, and she continues to do so here. 

Things have taken a dark turn for Jinx, but perhaps a chance for redemption. Will events pull her back from the brink or send her even deeper into the darkness?

Steinfeld is equally convincing, her vocal performance showing Vi’s conflict between her desire to save her sister and having to put a stop to her with extreme prejudice.

So far, this reviewer has been graced by six episodes, all up there regarding visuals and substance. With only nine episodes, that doesn’t leave much room to tie up all of the story’s threads and stick that all-important landing, but honestly, all signs point to a very satisfying conclusion to this moving and colorful epic.