Tentacle-Free Anime: "RWBY" (2013) Review

- by Kazekun, 26 May 2014

As a writer, I hope to one day tell my own stories and create wonderful worlds filled with rich characters, and wistful lore that you can get lost in. And because of my love for anime, I’m sure 90% of them will be inspired by Japanese anime and the way they present their stories and choreograph their action. It’s in my blood and my imagination at this point, so I can harbor no resentment towards American/Western creators who too take their inspiration from anime in order to create their own stories and worlds. Sometimes these “Americanime” as I call them can be even better than most actual anime out there. Such as Avatar: The Last Airbender, for instance. But because some of these stories I actually really enjoy are close enough to being anime that they might as well be, I feel I’m more than entitled to be able to talk about them on here and discuss them with you. And so I shall. Starting with RWBY.

RWBY (2013); 
Episodes: 16 (+ 4 Prologue Trailers); 
Director: Monty Oum;
Studio: Rooster Teeth;
Rating: PG-13

Summary: The story takes place in the world of Remnant, which is filled with supernatural forces and shadowy creatures known as the "Creatures of Grimm". Prior to the events of the series, mankind waged a battle of survival against the Grimm before discovering the power of a mysterious element called Dust, which allowed them to fight back against the monsters. In the present day, Dust is used to power magical abilities and weapons. Those who use these abilities to battle the Grimm are known as Huntsmen or Huntresses.  The series focuses on four girls, each with her own unique weapon and powers. Together, they form team RWBY at Beacon Academy in the city of Vale, where they are trained to become Huntresses alongside team CRDL (pronounced 'Cardinal') and team JNPR (pronounced 'Juniper'). [RWBY wiki]

If you’re new to this knowledge, you may be asking yourself: “Wait, Rooster Teeth made an anime? Those guys who created Red vs. Blue?” Well, yes and no. It might as well be an anime, but it’s not technically an anime. But yes, the creators of Red vs. Blue did in fact try their hand at the whole anime thing. And damn, they really kicked butt doing it.

RWBY dvd cover

There is a lot to genuinely like about this series, from its stunning 3D animation (though awkward at times), to its growing cast of likeable characters, and its even more beautiful action scenes. Let’s go ahead and start with the animation as it’s the one area where I have the most criticism.

I’m not an animator, I couldn’t even draw my way out of a paper bag let alone animate an entire 3 seconds of a video let alone a whole series. So I do commend RT for giving this series beautiful animation, when it’s focusing on its main characters and fight scenes. But I do think my biggest pet peeve about the animation was the background characters. Obviously, I know it was to save their money for other, more important and pressing spectacles but I can’t help but wonder if there was a way to make the background characters look like actual characters than just pure black silhouettes. I’ve never been a fan and never will be a fan of series that put SO much focus on the main characters that the animators just make everyone else around them silhouettes.

It really takes me out of the story and makes me feel like they’re just being lazy. If they needed more time to animate those background characters, then they should’ve given themselves the time to do it. There are also other, smaller, less noticeable animation errors throughout the season but they don’t hold a candle to the silhouettes.

The story and characters are really rich, and I find everyone to be pretty likeable and easily relatable in some fashion. The world of Remnant by episode 1 feels fully fleshed out and rich with stories upon stories that can be mined later, but for now I full understand RT’s dedication to let us experience everything through the eyes of our main cast; who are just now learning how this world works themselves. There are about 4 major story arcs in this and season 1 focuses mostly on character introduction and world building before fully exploring the growing villain plot and side characters.

Much of the cast and the background characters ready themselves for their combat test.

RWBY stands for Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang; four girls who are placed on a team together and who will be stuck with one another for the next 4 years of their Academy life. These characters are NOT your typical damsel in distress females, and in fact are smart, resourceful, cunning and strong as hell. In fact, the series goes so far as to switch gender roles for a story arc and make one of the male main characters the constant damsel in distress. This is a fresh take and actually is used well to expand on character development. Each of these characters, too, has their own quirks and we more or less get to see what makes most of them tick by the end of the season.

Ruby Rose and her Crescent Rose Scythe.

All four girls are the main focus of the 4 Prologue Trailers that I feel are imperative to watch before watching the series proper. You don’t HAVE to watch them in order to watch the series, but at least 2 of the trailers set up characters and sub plots that are referenced in season 1 and could be setting up for future season stories (you may not notice them at first when watching the trailers).

Now, the story itself, the characters, and the series as a whole isn’t perfect. It does have a fresh take on comedic situations (even if some of them find their roots in cliché scenarios), and in fact most of the series itself is a big cliché but I’ve always felt you can tell something that is cliché and still make it interesting. There are a lot of awkward moments in the dialogue and the story, and some moments of peril are used as banter fodder for the characters which can get tiresome after a while. That being said, I do enjoy that there is no rated R material in this. No cussing, no fanservice, no sexual jokes - there doesn’t need to be any of that in this story. The characters have, fun but get serious when it counts.

Weiss Schnee and her Myrtenaster Rapier.

The voice acting is incredibly hit or miss in the beginning, almost as if all the voice actors are new at this which I could believe. Most of them do come into their own later, but one of the problems with this series is to be quite frank the voice acting isn’t the best. I’ve seen far worse, but since there’s only an English dub you’re kind of out options on how to experience it. The dialogue, too, isn’t the best in the world. There were many times when I found myself groaning over lines but then they’ll sneak in some genuinely clever ones and I’ll completely forget about what I didn’t like a second ago.

Finally, the action scenes; good god the action scenes really make this series what it is if I’m being honest. I grew up on action series; I love me a genuinely good story, but I also love stunning action. In fact anime has pretty much shaped my world view on fights in general and how I so wish we humans could defy gravity when getting into brawls. Using their unique, and pretty nifty, transforming weapons and magic to take on the Creatures of Grimm and the radical terrorist group the White Fang our heroes get themselves into fights that go well beyond spectacle and fall somewhere into the category of pure magnificence. Yes, I really am hyping this up but the fight of teams RWBY and JNPR versus the giant Scorpion and Raven Grimm creatures is the highlight of season 1.

Army of Grimm Beasts

And lastly, the music; this is my favorite part of RWBY. Much like with Kara no Kyoukai I feel most of what makes this show good is it sucks you in with its sound, making you completely oblivious to any clear story or animation problems. A very hip rock soundtrack, with tons of guitar riffs and drum smacks the music may not be exactly for everyone but I really dig it. It definitely does its job of sucking me into the world of RWBY. The music is done by composer Jeff Williams, who I’m not familiar with his work but this is a pretty strong introduction. My favorite track is “I Burn” featuring Casey Lee Williams, this song features heavily in the Yellow trailer starring Yang.

Yang and Blake meet over the body of a dead Ursa Grimm Creature.

This is NOT a perfect series, far from it, it borrows most of its material from clichés, all the background characters are lazily silhouetted, the episodes themselves range from 5-15 minutes long with no set run time causing for an almost irritating, and awkward experience. The voice acting is rough. But the world is fully formed, the characters are genuinely likeable and make you want to root for them, we actually get to know the characters, the story is interesting, the animation - when it counts - is gorgeous, and the action scenes are gush worthy. Plus you just read my words on the music. For everything wrong with it, there is at least something right and that, in the end, makes for a somewhat balanced experience with RWBY as well. I can easily recommend this for anyone to pick up and watch, especially someone new to the world of anime, and that’s very important.

There is a season 2 on the way, it’s set to premiere at RTX2014 in July. RTX is Rooster Teeth’s personal entertainment convention. I do hope season 2 fixes a lot of the problems wrong with season 1, and now that we have the world building and introductions out of the way, the main villain story can play a bigger focus. This is my hope. Whether we get that is to be seen, but we have 2 months to go. Until then, I fully recommend getting caught up with this. If you buy the DVD for $10, you can watch it as a big movie that’s like 2 hours long. Rooster Teeth, in my humble opinion, really outdid themselves this time.

Final Score: 4 Magical Dust Crystals out of 5


Have you seen "RWBY"? How did you enjoy the movie and the review? 

Tagged: Tentacle-Free Anime.

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