As Arcane showrunners protest that their $250 million budget is quite cheap for 18 episodes, 1 anime director points out that its costs 25 times more per episode than his show
Nov. 16, 2024Arcane is great, but think of how many shows could have been funded with its budget
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By now, you’ve probably heard thatArcane’s two seasons cost $250 millionto make, and one anime creator claims just one season of theLeague of Legendsspin-off show would have paid for 25 seasons of his own.
Thomas Astruc, creator and director of Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir, took toTwitterto write that “one season ofArcanecosts 25 seasons of Miraculous.”
TheArcane showrunners have explainedwhy they’ve decided to call it quits after season 2 already. Some of the team have been working on it for nine years, it’s time to move on.
Altruc alsoshed some lighton the animation industry. “Miraculous has a very high budget compared to a japanese series, a high budget compared to french series, and a very low budget compared to a US series,” he explains. “And any US series has a very low budget compared to Arcane, apparently.”
One person replied that the difference is passion and quality, butAltruc had a responsefor that, too. “All animation workers are passionate and want to do quality stuff,” he says. “The only difference is the time you give them and the workload. These two factors are determined by the budget.”
Showrunner Alex Yee shares this view. “You have artists who we wanted to have time to really be able to put in their touches and to have so many different disciplines in this really be able to do their best and show what they could do,” he tells GamesRadar. “In a lot of ways, the money is just a reflection of the amount of effort that was put into this.”
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I’m Issy, a freelancer who you’ll now occasionally see over here covering news on GamesRadar. I’ve always had a passion for playing games, but I learned how to write about them while doing my Film and TV degrees at the University of Warwick and contributing to the student paper, The Boar. After university I worked at TheGamer before heading up the news section at Dot Esports. Now you’ll find me freelancing for Rolling Stone, NME, Inverse, and many more places. I love all things horror, narrative-driven, and indie, and I mainly play on my PS5. I’m currently clearing my backlog and loving Dishonored 2.
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