From Blur Studios comes today’s music video for Sisters’ Bonds, from Arcane: League of Legends. A focal point of the series is the broken relationship between Powder / Jinx and her sister Vi. Two sisters, torn apart by fate, still share an unbreakable bond.
This music video is unusual in that it spends about half its run length setting up the song.
When Arcane: League of Legends dropped in 2021, it redefined the art of the possible. On paper, it was just another video game adaptation. In practice, it became a landmark moment for animation and storytelling, pulling in audiences who had never touched the game and sweeping up awards along the way—including an Emmy for Outstanding Animated Program.
If you’ve followed Riot’s animation output over the years, you’ve probably seen work from Blur Studios—famous for their jaw-dropping League of Legends trailers. Blur’s DNA is all over the game’s promotional videos, but Arcane itself came from Fortiche, whose painterly, hybrid animation style set it apart.
Think of it this way: Blur helped sell you on the world, Fortiche pulled you inside it.
The Fortiche Style
The series, Arcane: League of Legends is the product of Riot Games teaming up with French animation studio Fortiche. What they delivered wasn’t just fan service. It was proof that video game worlds could stand shoulder to shoulder with the best prestige television.
What set Arcane apart from the first frame was its look. Fortiche didn’t try to mimic the glossy realism of most modern CG. Instead, they leaned into a painterly style—hand-painted textures layered onto 3D models—that gave every scene the feeling of an illustration come to life.
At its heart is the fractured relationship between two sisters, Vi and Jinx, set against the backdrop of Piltover and Zaun—twin cities split by class, corruption, and the kind of moral gray areas most superhero shows dodge.
It didn’t try to be League of Legends: The Series. There are no awkward attempts to translate gameplay onto the screen. Instead, the show took the world and its champions and expanded them into flesh-and-blood people. That choice gave it room to breathe and to stand as its own piece of storytelling.
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