A Riot developer post confirms that the League of Legends anime Arcane and its story are official canon in the universe’s wider tale.
If nerds love one thing, it's pedantically arguing about canon. Whether it's Marvel, World of Warcraft, or even Star Trek, if you see a fandom you can almost say with certainty that there's folks fighting over what is 'real lore.' In the case of the League of Legends universe and its recent anime smash success, Arcane, it was a bit more fuzzy. That fuzziness is now cleared up, as a developer video from Riot confirms that the anime is, indeed, part of the League of Legends mainline canon and universe.
Developers Andrei van Roon and Jeremy Lee gave a look on social media as to what's coming up for the beloved MOBA. And while the brunt of news included new Champion teases, balance updates, and info on non-LoL projects, there was also a number of story bits given. It now appears the animated adventures of Vi and Jinx matter in the mainline sense of things.
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Arcane is a 2021 anime series from Riot and distributed on Netflix that brought the LoL universe to TV. Ranking in the Netflix Top 10 Chart in 52 countries, it was an immediate critical and commercial success. Maybe it was the pandemic, or the sheer shock of getting good video game-related media for once, but the success of Arcane was immediate. If anything, it was a win for the fact that it wasn't being called 'good for a video game anime,' but a good anime in general.
However, questions arose as to whether or not the Arcane story--and its future seasons--would count in the overarching story of League of Legends. As Riot attempts to expand it's biggest franchise and its universe it makes perfect sense to consolidate those tales in a cohesive manner.
Will this 'official canon' tag apply to other future, non-MOBA ventures? It would seem likely, but this could be a Star Wars situation. Multiple levels of canon could come into play, much like the galaxy far, far away. After all, there's still instances like the Convergence: A League of Legends Story that somewhat contradict Arcane.
We'll know more soon enough, as Arcane Season 2 releases in 2024.
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