In the land of Remnant, magic and technology live in
peace and harmony…mostly. Creatures of
Grimm roam the land, leaving nothing but death and destruction no matter where
they go. To combat these monsters,
special academies headed by the most elite Hunters and Huntresses are
established. One such academy, Beacon,
stands as one that only accepts the best of the best. And this year, it’s about to get its biggest
shakeup when it accepts its youngest applicant.
Ruby Rose has always dreamed of becoming a Huntress and helping
others. Now she’ll get the chance to
reach that dream. Placed in command of
her own team, Ruby will face monsters, assassins, doubts, fears and homework
alongside a snobbish fencer, a silent and mysterious ninja and her well endowed
party time sister. It will be a year
Team RWBY will never forget.
When RWBY was first revealed as a bonus trailer during the
season finale of Red vs. Blue Season 10, the hype was big from the get go. The trailer showed a young girl in a red hood
walking through the snow and flowing petals scene to a sad song before being
surrounded by wolf like creatures. Then
the second half of the trailer got going.
The music changed and picked up, a large sythe was revealed by the young
girl and much ass was kicked. This was
the first of four trailers, each dedicated to the core four heroines, shown
before RWBY officially debuted months later.
Rooster Teeth, the creators of the popular web series Red vs. Blue, had
another huge hit. But is it that
good? Especially in its first
season? The answer is yes but also no.
RWBY was created by Monty Oum, who is famous for several
online videos involving Matrix like mash up fights between video game
characters (his arguably most famous being Master Chief vs Samus, seen here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cL-mR79GErU). His work eventually lead to him working for
Rooster Teeth where he became lead choreographer and designer for the CG fight
scenes in Season 8-10 of Red vs Blue.
And if anyone saw how stellar those fights were, there was no way RWBY
was going to disappoint in that department.
Boy did this series outdo itself in that department and then some. A fight scene in RWBY feels like a mass
mixture of Devil May Cry, Dead or Alive, Marvel vs Capcom and The Matrix (just
for good measure). Energetic and
vibrant, violent but not to brutal, serious but no less fun. From the four on one monster battles
reminiscent of the older Final Fantasy games to the two v dozens of soldiers
scenes, this is anime inspired action at its finest and it alone makes the
series worth watching. I mean how often
do you get to see a Goku style character (more Journey to the West than DBZ
sorry) rock the house with a bow staff that turns into shotgun nunchucks?
There are two other elements that make RWBY rather
successful in its freshman outing. The
first is the music from Jeff Williams.
The heavy metal guitar and drums keep pace with the action on screen and
are mixed together perfectly. Adding
beauty and grace to the music is Williams’s daughter Casey, who provides the
vocals for several songs on the soundtrack.
Her voice is so pretty and sweet but also haunting and tough when need
be, she is the perfect singing voice for the world of RWBY. She also gets points for the ultimate song
line: “Kick my ass, im world less and Super Saiyan Now.”
Then there are the characters. If the series means for you to like these
characters right off the bat, it succeeds and when it wants you to not like the
villains, it succeeds in that regard just as well. This is a seriously lovable cast: Ruby, the
Huntress fan girl Otaku; Yang, Ruby’s party girl and cheerful sister; and
Blake, silent and mysterious but well meaning ninja. Weiss admittedly irked me for quite a
bit. Her stuck up nature clashing with
Ruby and Yang’s optimism or Blake’s sage advice never made it likely to side
with her in a disagreement. Still, it
makes sense to have some tension on the team at first and not have everyone gel
together right off the bat. There are of
course others besides the core RWBY team.
Teachers, students, rivals, terrorists, the list is pretty big. My favorites among this vast cast are the
couple everyone should be rooting for, Jaune and Pyrah. How can you not want the far outclassed
outsider to not end up with the insanely hot superstar student who genuinely
likes him?
But as with all series out there, one of the key factors
is story and it’s here that RWBY does falter a bit. The season doesn’t have much structure I
felt. And just when I felt they had
finally finished with establishing the world and the main characters that we
would get to some adventures and even a season building dilemma…the season just
ends. True we get a great fight with
Blake and newcomer Sun (the Goku type I mentioned) but it just feels like the
end of a two part tale rather than the grand ending more season finales try to
aim for. There are seeds of a bigger
threat on the horizon, especially in regards to Blake’s past and the appearance
of the mysterious Penny, both of which play big roles in the season
finale. Maybe I’m being too critical
here, but it did feel incomplete to me just when it was continuing to get good.
At the end of the day, I have to say I really enjoy this
show. If the story had been a bit
tighter it could have been stronger all around.
It’s not an Anime but its Anime
inspiration is everywhere, it’s energy is seemingly limitless as is it’s
imagination and it’s got an amazing cheer worthy cast. Add in a kick ass soundtrack and action
sequences you day dreamed about as a kid and you’ve got the makings of
something special that can hopefully get better.
(PS I’ve seen Volume 2 and yes it does get better ;) )
8/10
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