Arcane (2021)

The story opens in the wake of a battle on a bridge.  Vander, hulking man with steel gauntlets for weapons, escorts two newly orphaned girls away from the carnage.  The girls are Violet "Vi" and her younger sister Powder.  They are from the undercity of Zaun, which is the poorer section of wealthy Piltover.  Some years later, Vi has assembled a crew to sneak into Piltover and steal.  Their target proves to be the lab of a budding scientist who has been tinkering with magic, something long feared.  That they successful abscond with magic crystals triggers a strong response that sees enforcers invade Zaun to recover the crystals.  Meanwhile, Silco has been doing his own experiments with a drug called Shimmer that grants superhuman strength and speed.  The heightened tensions explode as competing factions clash for control of Zaun, threatening to create a rift between Vi and Powder.

In Piltover, Jayce Talis, the aspiring magic scientist, is facing potential banishment for daring to experiment with magic.  The world was brought to its knees by reckless magicians and Piltover had banned it as too dangerous.  Can he muster support from the council - notably Cecil B Heimerdinger - to not only avoid banishment but to save his research?

This is only the first act in this epic story.  The competing goals of the various characters lead to constant clashes that don't require good and evil or right and wrong.  These are solid characters with biases and dreams.  The writing is strong and at no point are characters required to do stupid things to advance the story.  That there are so many factions that find themselves sometimes allied and sometimes enemies is impressive.

On the negative, there is an inordinate number of strong females.  They aren't the usual Mary Sue (e.g., Rey Skywalker), so each of them has faults and make mistakes.  However, it was odd to see Piltover's sheriff as a woman, Silco's righthand thug as a woman, the muscular and scarred warlord as a woman, and Vi as a pugilist who takes on men who are twice her size.  Yes, this is a fantasy steampunk setting, but size and muscle mass is clearly a thing here.  There are a lot of masculine women in this world.  And, of course, there is the promise of a lesbian relationship should the series continue.

The series is based on a popular game called League of Legends.  Many of the playable characters from the game are central here, including Vi, Jinx, Jayce, Viktor, Ekko, Heimerdinger, and Caitlyn.  Each character has their special abilities and traits, which are faithfully reflected in the show.

Highly recommended.