The Three Perfect Animated Video Game TV Shows, According To Rotten Tomatoes

We’re living in a golden age of video game adaptations. Rather than cheap cash grabs with terrible visuals, video games are getting blockbuster adaptations on both the big and small screen. Not only that, but we’ve seen plenty of recent video game movies and TV shows earn tremendous praise from both critics and audiences, even earning awards.

Indeed, we are far removed from the so-called video game curse and adaptations flopping so hard they put their studios out of business. Video games are quickly becoming the new comic books, the source of many high-profile projects with notable talent attached both behind and in front of the camera, making it is easier than ever to get excited about a new adaptation, because the batting average has increased significantly.

And yet, despite projects like “The Last of Us” and “Fallout” earning great reviews (including from us right here), no single live-action video game adaptation has achieved a perfect score on Rotten Tomatoes. Instead, the only three projects to earn that achievement are all animated — “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners,” “Arcane,” and “Pokémon Concierge” (“Castlevania,” despite having a couple of seasons at 100%, has an overall score of 94%).

We have previously raved about all three of those shows, and they deserve their status as the best video game adaptations of all time. But what makes these shows so good, and why is it that the only adaptations to have a perfect 100% score are all animated? Let’s dig in.

At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be anything at all that connects “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners,” “Arcane,” and “Pokémon Concierge.” But all three of these shows do have something in common: None of them really follow the story of their source material. “Pokémon Concierge” is neither like the anime nor any of the video games. Instead, this stop-motion animated series is a great piece of world-building. It’s a side story that shows the titular critters as more than just pets by portraying them as intelligent beings that play an essential role in civilization. It is distinctly and unequivocally “Pokémon,” but it is also like nothing we’ve seen before in the franchise.

Meanwhile, unlike “The Last of Us,” which often felt like watching a walkthrough of the game, “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” tells an entirely original story set before the events of the game, a small story that doesn’t really impact what you see in the game but still makes its world feel larger. The story of a street kid getting involved with a criminal band of mercenaries to make ends meet manages to capture the tone, the violence, and most importantly, the themes barely hinted at in the games, all while pulling off some incredible visuals.

As for “Arcane,” it is the one show of the bunch that does feature plenty of recognizable characters straight from its source material. But like the other two, it is also a reimagining of the “League of Legends” world that drastically changes what we know about these characters and the world. The essence of it all is still there, but the show is free to tell its own unique and exciting story while surprising longtime fans with new characterizations, dynamics, and even different character fates.

These are radical reinterpretations of the video games they’re based on. Sure, they take place in the same world as the games and may feature some very recognizable characters, but otherwise, they are more like side stories that could take place before or next to the stories fans know from the games, rather than just a remake of the game’s central story.

In addition to reimagining their source materials, what makes “Arcane,” “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners,” and “Pokémon Concierge” thrilling and unique is that they all look radically different from each other, as well as other TV shows. Even if “The Last of Us,” “Fallout,” and the “Sonic the Hedgehog” movies look different, they all feel pretty much cut from the same cloth in visual language and style. Animation doesn’t have that problem.

In the past decade or so, we’ve seen adult animation truly explode more than ever before, in both form and content. Netflix has been a big player in this change, producing or distributing acclaimed anime shows like “Devilman Crybaby,” collaborating with Powerhouse Animation on a series of anime-inspired adult animated shows starting with “Castlevania,” and also producing collaborations between writers in the West and Japanese studios, like “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.” 

These are shows that have been allowed to experiment with form, style, and substance. “Cyberpunk: Edgerunners” takes the best of Studio Trigger’s kinetic visual language and knack for vibrant colors and fast-paced action to deliver a hyper-violent story of love and class warfare that lives up to the themes and commentary of the cyberpunk genre. With “Arcane,” studio Fortiche gets to show off their combination of 2D and 3D animation that has exploded in recent years thanks to “Into the Spider-Verse,” delivering a visually stunning and hyper-stylized show that feels more fantastical but also grounded. As for “Pokémon Concierge,” it showed that the franchise truly thrives in stop-motion, opening the doors for beloved British institution, Aardman, to collaborate with an upcoming project. 

It’s a good time to be a fan of both video game adaptations and animation.