Naoki Urasawa’s way of expressing his story is one that is most definitely unique, especially with the channeling of mystery and that wasn’t something lost to Arcane’s Studio either. The first season easily scored a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and with the way each character was handled and shown, no one was complaining.
Arcane has proven in one season what it means to nail animated adaptations of video games successfully. It was one of the rare few to do so and only then was the list increasing more and more with Fallout and The Last of Us coming into the picture. While it still has the advantage of an animated medium, there was much depth in it that made it as good as any, no matter the form.
Naoki Urasawa’s Unique Awareness
In an interview with Crunchyroll, Studio Fortiche’s co-founder, Pascal Charrue, talked about all the anime inspirations he and the studio took when making seasons 1 and 2 of Arcane. For a series that has such heavy depth in not just its protagonists but also the side characters, there must have been an entire array of material that became their guide.
With characters like Jinx, it’s natural to think of masters like Satoshi Kon. Kon explores complex themes such as paranoia and identity loss, and he creates animated films that are aimed at adult audiences.
Out of these, Satoshi Kon’s works were confirmed to be the inspiration behind Jinx’s character but for the majority of the season, one mangaka’s name was undeniably present. Naoki Urasawa, who has projects like Monster and 20th Century Boys under his name, was the man whose unique world-building helped balance out the show’s own story.
His own hand in creating such a masterpiece as that of Monster had to do with understanding and fighting against common manga tropes. However, the one quality that caught Studio Fortiche’s eye was his ability to treat every character with an egalitarian approach.
Arcane Took Inspiration from Naoki Urasawa
Pascal Charrue admitted that what caught the entire studio’s attention the most was the way Naoki Urasawa treated his side characters with the same respect and understanding as he did his protagonists. This brought about a realistic approach to his work because even in another person’s story, other characters have their own lives going on.
We are also influenced by mangaka like Naoki Urasawa who treats his secondary characters with the same depth and importance as his main characters. This is reflected in our own approach, where every character, even the secondary ones, receives meticulous attention to enrich the overall universe of our stories.
It becomes evident in Arcane that no matter how big or small a character may be, they have a role to play and a life to live, however short it may be. They feel like explored characters, people who have their own stories to tell. They aren’t flat by any means and hold their own forts.
Urasawa’s approach of making every secondary character important helped the show with the depth that gave Silco, Jinx, Vi, Caitlyn, and everyone else the same treatment. They weren’t side characters of Jinx and Vi’s story but coexisting in one world.
Arcane is available to watch on Netflix.
