RWBY: Review and Relations

So I didn't know about RWBY, much to my shame, until a fellow MuseHack author pointed it out. Just another sign of the important of keeping up on things.

RWBY is a cgi-animated series by the famous Monty Oum of Rooster Teeth. There's many ways to describe it, but basically it's what you get when a team of people get together with their voice talent, design talent, and modern software, and do an anime-inspired series using CGI. There's a lot of Rooster Teeth personnel involved in this, so if you're acquainted with them, you've heard of them.

(Yeah, you'd think *I* would have kept up on something this professionally geeky. I am filled with shame).

So anyway, what is RWBY? It's a mixture of re-interpreted fairy tale characters in a world where humanity is beset by horrible creatures known as The Grimm. Specialists who stand against them are known as Huntsmen and Huntresses, and humanity's big edge over The Grimm is magical Dust, which powers weapons and provides a numbers of effects. Helping train potential Huntsmen and Huntresses are various academies, including Beacon Academy, where the story kicks into gear.

(A lot to keep track of? There's a wiki already.)

The story centers around Ruby Rose, which as you may guess is a Little Red Riding Hood concept. Only Little Red Riding Hood did't build a giant reconfigurable scythe/sniper rifle under tutelage of her uncle. When she tangles with the criminal gang of charming-but deadly Roman Torchwick, she gets the attention of Beacon Academy and gets moves ahead a few years . . . and you get to meet many fellow students who may seem a bit familiar in some fairy tale ways . . .

So it's a lot of elements we've seen before. But is it good or not?

And here's the odd thing in reviewing it; the best way to describe the series is sincere. There's actually a lot of good stuff here, and there are flaws, but the sincerity really makes it something different. I enjoyed it, but part of the fun was I felt I was having a great time with the people who make it. It connects.

RWBY pretty much bursts with love for what it's doing, for doing crazy stuff, for having a ball with it. You can see lovingly created craziness and little details, stylistic takes, and plenty of references. I consider it enjoyable because the staff is taking you along for the ride. There's a personal, hand-crafted feel to this that adds a special something.

Now it's not going to be for everyone. You may not like the CGI animation, or the use of tropes, or whatever. But I think it's something to appreciate and to check out - also because it's made by people like us.

So to make this review complete, let's list the pros and the cons of the series.

Pros:

• There's a fusion of anime and video game styles here that's very promising, and often reminiscent of Suda 51 s works. I think there's a chance for some real interesting aesthetic development.
• At times it goes utterly artsy - check out the trailer for White, which really blew me away.
• There's plenty of puns and elements on fairy tales, and not just the obvious ones. Just the head of Beacon Academy, Ozpin, has a name that's a reference to less known elements of the Wizard of Oz. This promises to be a fun treasure hunt.
• The story has actual world building and a background. Things are actually going on.
• The sincerity. Again, that goes far.
• Though I note below I felt the voice acting quality is erratic, everyone throws themselves into the role. Special props to the actress doing Ruby Rose (Lindsay Tuggey) for her unbridled enthusiasm, and Jaune Arc (Miles Luna) for having to walk the difficult line of making a character dorky but likable.
• I'm glad to see a series focusing on strong female characters.
• Roman Torchwick is awesome. But I'm biased.

Cons:

• The style of the show at times veers. I don't think the game/anime fusion aesthetic is quite settled. I expect this to improve in time but it can be jarring. I felt the Black trailer showed ways that you can fuse the aesthetics very well.
• The CGI is decent, but doesn't always work right for expressions or body language, and I felt sometimes character expressions got lost. There's also times where I wanted more detail and things were "too CGI."
• The voice acting quality was erratic as noted. Again I expect this to improve.
• The series does use several common tropes. I don't mind if they're done well, but this may not appeal to everyone.

So that's my take. Personally, if you're any kind of anime, game, and CGI enthusiast you should check it out. It really is a great example of what people can do when they team up and cut loose, and you might find it's something you've been looking for.

Because it's made by people who ask what'd happen if you gave Little Red Riding Hood a gun-scythe, or armed Goldilocks with wrist-mounted blasters.

You know. US.

- Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach. He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, nerd and geek culture at http://www.nerdcaliber.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at http://www.stevensavage.com/.