Review of RWBY Volumes 1-3

75/100

TL;DR: watch it if you like goofy amateur series.

Synopsis: a young girl teams up with other girls at her magic arts academy to fight monsters.

I like to think of RWBY as the western version of Soul Eater — they both have the same premise and are liked because they add their own spin to the genre.

The most notable casting decision that is made is that all 4 main girls are women. This actually… works? Not just for losers or feminists who desperately want to see 4 women on the screen, but just in terms of how the scenes play out. Werkhat notes in the comments that same-sex interactions are much more natural that mixed-sex ones, which sounds plausible to me.

The big fighting scenes are spectacular, as they are designed by the one and only Monty Oum. This guy is absolutely incredible at designing fight scenes. Beyond that, the visuals suffer, especially in the first season. The character models are too smooth and unnatural, and the backgrounds tend to be too effortless.

Regular show:

Fighting scenes:

While most people know about Monty, the real writers of the series are Miles and Kerry. As far as I know, this is their first time writing something serious, and there are some issues with their writing that hbombergoy has done a good video on:

• The exposition is terrible. They either rely on plot devices (aka Jaune), expose the world unnaturally, or just don’t expose anything at all.

• There is no overarching story in the first two volumes.

• The faunus racism subplot was handled… poorly. In the series, there are faunus which are humans that have some animal-like features. There is a politicial/racial conflict between the faunus and humans that is analogous to the conflict between Whites and Blacks in the USA. However, there is a lot of context missing from this conflict. Why don’t the humans like the faunus? Do they have low IQs? Are they criminals? Is it just ethnocentrism? It seems kind of weird that there is so much conflict between these two particular groups when there are other racial/regional disputes that could be raised. Basically, it’s a forced conflict.

Hbombergoy’s take is that RWBY is a disappointment; I can’t agree with this. The anime is good just by the virtue of not being trashy, being funny, and having great fights. The animation/writing issues aren’t actually that relevant because they are not the focus of the story.

I cannot highlight enough that RWBY is actually funny — most anime tend to resort to fanservice/gags/inside jokes for humor, but RWBY has a more varied humor style with its own brand of weird cringy shock humor, like:

• Ruby: “We discovered something about Blake”

• Penny: “Oh no, is she a man”?

• Ruby: “No….?”

There was also a scene where some characters were arguing about whether the faunus are predisposed to criminality, and then suddenly they witness a faunus running away from the police after stowing away on a ship. It was a very subversive moment — normally series like to invert racial stereotypes, but RWBY has decided to go the avant garde route.

The characters of RWBY are… controversial, to say the least. At this stage of the show, Jaune, Ruby, Pyrrha, and Blake are the most divisive characters. Divisive, meaning that they have lots of supporters and haters, not that they suck.

While most of the fan discussion surrounds these characters, RWBY’s greatest problem is that a lot of characters that should have development don’t have it. There are a few notable exceptions - Weiss, Jaune, and Ruby show a lot of color and personality. Some notes on specific characters:

• Jaune attracted a lot of negative attention in the first volumes because he was too neurotic and physically weak, but got a lot of screen time. In reality, he is a great character — people like this exist in real life so I don’t see why they shouldn’t exist on TV. His weakness can be frustrating, but that’s how you’re supposed to feel. Values can be communicated through heroes and… subheroes as well.

• Pyrrha is divisive because she has a vast amount of good qualities - she is strong, beautiful, and mature. This attracts hatred from jealous/dysgenic people who do not have these qualities and people who think idealized characters are poorly written, and support from people who are in awe of her excellence.

• Neptune is just horrible. He’s supposed to be cool, but he’s just what nerds and dorks consider a cool person. Some rumor spread around the community while I was watching it in the early days that Kerry made Neptune specifically so he could self-insert as a character than flirts with Weiss’ voice actor. Yeah.

• RWBY’s villains seem to all have the same qualities - they are evil and want power, and are fighting against our not evil and good cast. I think this is reflective of a lack of nuanced thinking (aka general intelligence) in our main writers.

• There are a few universal favorites - Qrow, Neopolitan, and Ironwood. Qrow can be summarized as Spike Spiegel but more neurotic, neopolitan is a hot chick that doesn’t talk, and Ironwood was gigachad before gigachad was a thing.

One last note — I love the fact that the episodes are not equal in length, which leads to a less predictable viewing experience.

Scoring:

Design (13/15):

• Distinguishment: (5/5) - easiest series to spot based on visuals by a mile

• Animation: (1/2) - very bad in volume 1, somewhat better in volumes 2-3. Fights are always insane.

• Sound: (2/2) - sound effects are surprisingly good?

• OST: (2/2)

• Character designs: (2/2) - goated

• Backgrounds: (1/2) - bad in volume 1, inconsistent in volumes 2-3

Script (37/50):

• Character Investment: (10/10) - I’m obsessed.

• Character Realism: (1/2)

• Character Complexity: (2/3) - would be 1/3 if not for Jaune and Weiss

• Plot solidness: (2/5) - what writing?

• Plot complexity: (5/10) - what plot?

• Ending: (5/5)

• Pacing: (4/5) - seemed fine?

• Stakes: (8/10) - high stakes

Value (8/15):

• Thematic elements: (1/5) - racism thing handled… oddly.

• Skill: (2/5) - miles and kerry, man.

• Originality: (5/5)

Enjoyment (19/20):

• Did I like it: (19/20) - narrative is overrated.

edit - fixed scoring