If you haven’t watched the 9-episode first season of Arcane on Netflix, you need to change that right now.

Even if you aren’t an animation fan, even if you don’t know Riot Games’ League of Legends (on which the series is based), Arcane does more than just raise the bar on animated series and video game adaptations. It’s a straight-up masterpiece. Meticulously crafted, multi-layered and mature in its storytelling, this engrossing urban fantasy series will be a tough act to follow for future animated AND live-action shows. These are just a few reasons why, with no spoilers.

1 – The jaw-dropping animation

Put most simply, Arcane is to animated series what Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse is to animated movies. It’s dazzlingly inventive and striking on every level, offering audiences something they haven’t seen before on TV screens. It’s pretty much impossible to talk about Arcane without discussing its visuals, with the topic usually leading any discourse around the show.

French animation studio Fortiche Production is behind the standout look of Arcane, which combines 3D and 2D animation to achieve an unusual mixed-media aesthetic – a style the company is known for. Backgrounds are digitally hand-painted, while the 3D character models are also given 2D texturing to achieve a similar graphic feel more cohesive with the figures’ surroundings.

From its vast Steampunk-meets-Art-Nouveau urban environments to the tiniest flickers of changing character expression (which actually isn’t based on performance capture), Arcane is stunningly detailed. It sucks you into its reality as a result.

If you’re interested in the topic, you can learn more about the unconventional animation techniques behind Arcane here.

2 – The show’s accessibility to newcomers

Arcane is set in the universe of League of Legends, and features some of the game’s most iconic champions. Yet, you don’t have to know a single thing about LoL, and the MOBA (multiplayer online battle arena)’s expansive lore, to enjoy Arcane. The Netflix series serves as an introduction to the world, and narrows it focus to one location on the planet of Runeterra: the divided city of Piltover. This makes the series instantly more accessible, digestible and unintimidating for non-Leaguers.

Arcane functions on two levels. Quite literally, in terms of its macro focus. The series is the tale of a city transformed into a powder keg by socio-economic inequality. While the “top siders” live in a peaceful, progressive utopia elevated to global power by its ability to marry science and magic (the arcane), the “undercity” on the other side of the bridge has been neglected by Piltover’s elite. Its people suffer in poverty and pollution, brutalised by crime lords and police raids. Addictions to the dangerous, but powerful, drug Shimmer are rife in this oppressive environment where technological innovation has taken a darker turn. Arcane may be a Steampunk fantasy series, but it reflects relatable, real-world issues.

Meanwhile, for viewers unresponsive to big picture topics, Arcane operates on a micro level at the same time. Characters occupy different stances on Piltover’s problems, but they also face their own individual struggles – ranging from crumbling ideological beliefs to mental health failings and terminal illness. Arguably most important to Arcane at this level are the slum-dwelling sisters Vi (voiced by Hailee Steinfeld) and Powder/Jinx (Ella Purnell), whose fractured relationship is poised to ignite the greater Piltover powder keg.

3 – Its Game of Thrones sensibilities

Well, the good Game of Thrones sensibilities anyway. Arcane doesn’t douse the screen in sex, nudity and other R-rated content to appear edgy. It is, however, definitely orientated towards mature audiences as reflected in its dark tone, and deft handling of its themes and characters.

In terms of the latter, the cast of Arcane exists only in shades of grey. There are no stark blacks and whites. Everyone is multi-layered, powered by credible desires and doubts. Even the villains demonstrate redeeming qualities, while the most noble of heroes have obvious shortfalls they are aware of. Arcane is compelling and nuanced in a way that most live-action series can only aspire to be, acknowledging the wavering principles and continual trade-offs that are core to human experience.

It’s also worth noting Arcane’s other primary Game of Thrones parallel: it’s not afraid to kill off notable characters. Be wary of latching onto favourites. You have been warned.

4 – The diverse female representation

Building on the previous points, Arcane is a case of female characterisation done right. Women are shown in all manner of roles in the series, from graceful, ever-diplomatic councillor to seasoned warrior and manic pixie nightmare girl. All these characters are depicted using a wide spectrum of body types, sexual orientations, ethnicities and age brackets.

While the most prominent female characters Vi, Jinx, Caitlyn and Mel are all young, attractive women – what you would expect of a genre series like Arcane – they have unique exterior and interior scars, which deepen their personalities.

They also appear alongside an unusual number of older women, rarely seen in our youth-centric media. These veterans aren’t forced into the “passive old lady” trope. They are all treated as women of action and experience, with distinct appetites and useful advice they impart to the younger women they mentor. Notably, unlike many other franchises, Arcane refuses to wall off its female characters from one another, and limit their interactions to being with men only. No Bechdel Test failures here.

5 – The fight choreography

One final point to make is how good the action scenes are in Arcane. In this age of easily-flung CGI rubber dollies, and dizzying rapid-cut editing, the fights in Arcane are meticulously choreographed and coherent. While there is a lot of visual flair to battles – which animation obviously enables – hand-to-hand combat in Arcane is based on real boxing and self-defence principles. The end result is thrilling and satisfyingly crunchy, with characters often taking damage as expected in reality.

It’s just one more delight that Arcane has come out of nowhere to deliver, much like one of Vi’s uppercuts. For those who have watched it, the series has shown us what is creatively possible at a pinnacle of excellence. Arcane has changed viewer expectations of serialised animated entertainment forever. Time to enter the Playground if you haven’t already.