Obviously I’m way late on this one. It’s that I have an established routine of stuff to watch and I’m loth to just skip through the stuff in my backlog. Though I don’t know League of Legends as I never play any multiplayer games, I was always going to watch this due to the fantastic reception it has received. I’m pleased to say that I found it every bit as good as everyone says it is and it’s powerful repudiation of the old rule that videogame adaptations inevitably suck.

Vi and Powder are sisters who grow up resenting the rich upper city residents of Piltover. When Vi leads her gang of children to rob a penthouse, the repercussions result in a shift in power in the under city, Vi being imprisoned and Powder being raised by Silco, an underworld boss. Years later, Powder is known as Jinx and is a vicious, psychotic enforcer who works for Silco. Meanwhile Jayce, whose penthouse Vi robbed long ago, is on the ruling council of Piltover due to the success of his hextech technology. Caitlyn, a childhood friend of Jayce and a new enforcer of the city, is investigating a fight between Jinx and a new gang over shipments of the drug known as Shimmer. Though her superior tries to suppress her investigation as he is in league with Silco, she persists and frees Vi from prison to help her learn what is going on in the undercity.

There’s more to the plot than this and plenty of other characters, but one of this show’s great strengths is that it never loses sight of the fact that Vi and Jinx’s story is its emotional heart. There are enough other side-plots going on for the audience to realize the depth and richness of the wider setting but our interest is really driven by our investment in the relationship between the two sisters. It is remarkable how much of the setting it manages to get across without explicit exposition so you don’t need prior knowledge of the game to be fully on board. Silco makes for a wonderful villain especially as he genuinely wants to fight for the undercity and believes in loyalty. Jinx’s descent into madness is believable and wonderfully illustrated by the visions she experiences. There are some missteps. The burgeoning attraction between Vi and Caitlyn feels premature and unearned. The series is oddly silent about the origin of the magical crystals Jayce works on and no one seems curious about where they came from. Since I actually know a bit about the backstory of these crystals, this is a really critical plot point but who knows if this will be the direction the show goes for in the future. Overall though this series is simply a masterclass of storytelling and hits hard because it doesn’t hold back on being a show for adults.

There’s been plenty of praise about the show’s art style and it certainly looks great. It’s worth noting that this is partly because it relies so heavily on hand-painted art including the backgrounds and character details. At times the animation doesn’t look quite right as the shadows on a character’s face are hand-added details and not actually an artefact of environmental lighting. The stills from the show do look really good, exactly like the art that accompanies the game. The art and world building is great too with a magic-enhanced steampunk aesthetic though I feel that the series rather undersells the effective power of Piltover versus the undercity. Silco is just too convincing and competent as a villain such that even though the larger theme is how the undercity has always been oppressed, their side actually seems more powerful and dangerous than the rich and soft upper city.

Finally I think it is instructive to compare this to Japanese anime. First, it is tonally consistent and no one breaks character for the sake of a gag. There is in fact almost no humor in it at all as befits its dark theme. Next there are many amazing fight scenes in it but the episodes are never built around the fights. At all times, the story comes first and fights happen in order to advance the story, not for their own sake. There is no long dramatic build-up, they just happen and the violence is over and done with quickly. This first season has only nine episodes and when you think about it, they manage to cover a lot of plot in that time. Though I admire the creativity and unrestrained weird ideas of anime, it can be tiresome how slowly the plot advances in them and how an episode can be entirely about one single fight.

Anyway it is really encouraging to see a Western animated series so unapologetically be made for adults and be set to such a high standard. I naturally look forward to more and I note that what we have seen so far is only a tiny slice of the world of Runeterra. There are over a hundred playable characters in the game and so plenty of stories to tell.