The second season of the hit series Arcane has just aired on Netflix. The story of the sisters Powder and Vi is now over, but thanks to new background details from the production, you may be able to see some scenes again with different eyes.
Spoiler alert: The article is about events from episode 7 of the second season of Arcane.
What scene is it about? In Arcane, many characters show off their abilities known from League of Legends. However, you can only discover some of them if you look closely. In episode 7 of the second season, however, the somewhat eccentric Professor Heimerdinger shows a completely unexpected talent and surprises with a musical performance.
In an interview with ScreenRant, Alex Seaver, composer of the Netflix hit, reveals that there is more to the scene than meets the eye (via Vida Extra).
At least part of Arcane’s budget may have gone into localization.
That’s how much Arcane cost
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“Only Arcane would do something so crazy.”
What is special about the scene? As Seaver reveals, Heimerdinger’s performance was broadcast in all 25 languages in which Arcane is available. The composer himself worked with the voice actors of the different versions.
Seaver says of the surprise musical number: “The Heimerdinger song in Episode 7. It’s one of those things where you think only Arcane would do something crazy like that, but they execute it really well. And we had Mick Wingert, Heimerdinger’s fabulous voice actor, he sang it so beautifully.”
However, they wanted to create a special moment that viewers all over the world could experience. That’s why in other countries you don’t hear Mick Wingert, but rather the respective voice actor who sings in the local language.
At first glance, this may seem like a small, if not self-evident, detail. But there is an enormous production effort behind it.
It was a lot of work, but that was one of the cooler moments of the season, I think. It’s crazy. We have great partners who have helped us with localization in general. The voice actors for all countries are very important to Riot. This is not something you do casually. It’s more like they care about who the cast is in China and who the cast is in Germany and who the cast is everywhere.
In German, by the way, that’s Santiago Ziesmer, who you may have already heard in his role as SpongeBob SquarePants or as Steve Buscemi’s regular spokesman. You can find the other German voice actors from Arcane at our colleagues at Filmstarts.
Although it is not unusual for large productions like Arcane to be translated into many languages, music units in particular are often left in the original and only provided with subtitles. The fact that the song has been translated into so many languages shows a special attention to detail.
Especially in German-speaking countries, we are very spoiled when it comes to localization. Nevertheless, many people fundamentally reject the German language edition and prefer the original, especially when it comes to anime. MeinMMO demon Cortyn explains why this could be the case: Why German dubbing in anime is so bad