Is there such a thing as too much money? It’s a debate I have with myself just about any time Riot put out another piece of marketing. This time it’s the Burning Bright music video / anime OP starring five of their heroes as Star Guardians – a mish-mash of every Sailor Moon-like magical girl show you’ve ever heard about. I am roughly as surprised and happy it exists as I was when Warriors appeared for the first time. You can see it above.
If that’s not just a confusing mess of light and sound to you, try League of Legends for free. You might love it.
This is all based around their latest set of skins. Jinx, Janna, Lulu and Poppy all received Star Guardian skins in LoL patch 6.20 while Lux, who has had one for several years, had a major visual upgrade. They’re as high quality as you’d expect, and Riot have a proper trailer for their in-game versions too.
As much as there is doubtless an audience for a full anime featuring these characters, Riot are pitching it simply as a “music video” rather than the start of something larger. While the two best animation teams in games are ramping up output between them and Blizzard, a full 10-20 episode season would probably be asking a little much. At least it tells a coherent story – there’s even a tentacle beast boss battle with Baron at the end, making it authentic anime.