Short Preface
It will not be an easy review this time, because RWBY is very important to me popculturally a few years after my entry into the series, and I also find it difficult to present it coherently and adequately, without writing whole books. I would rather seek a discussion of the series and the franchise, as chronologically and understandably as possible. RWBY is a significant part of my free time, the franchise has grown enormously dear to my heart and in my favor, and can compete with brands such as Friendship is Magic or Avatar in my opinion. And I would be glad if you also give the series a chance. Do not be scared of this premise, read on.
What is RWBY?
A good question. The rough plot, starting from Volume 1 of course, is quickly described:
The future-fantasy world of Remnant is filled with ravenous monsters, treacherous terrain, and more villains than you can shake a sniper-scythe at. Fortunately, Beacon Academy is training Huntsmen Ruby, White, Blake, and Yang are ready for their first day of class.
Sounds neither very creative nor exciting, sounds a bit like the western version of Soul Eater. However, one has to say that you don’t watch the first two volumes called seasons of RWBY for the rather loose stories, but for other values that I will name in a moment. But from Vol3 onwards, things are changing rapidly and the story and its characters are becoming the big pillar of the franchise. Below, I'll explain why RWBY is a content bomb which does not even have to hide from series such as Game of Thrones when it comes to foreshadowing.
From an objective point of view, RWBY has to be said that it is an animated web series that was originally created by the now unfortunately deceased Mounty Oum and produced for Rooster Teeth. The series is often described as 'Western Anime at 180', and that suits the very core - RWBY is an American anime. Even more so than avatar or the french series Wakfu , RWBY is the perfect link between cartoon and anime, bringing strengths (and weaknesses) of both cultures and is thus something very special, so far as far as I know actually no second example in the form exists. The series is completely free to watch on Youtube and Rooster Teeth, which is pleasant especially for the bingeflow in the first two volumes with short episodes. RWBY can be something for you if you like totally crazy, crazy and crazy creative fights, silly, informal humor and a self-deprecating trash atmosphere, later the series will be for EVERY fan of animated series, especially anime, with some of the best characters and dramaturgical moments I have seen in a long, long time, completely unexpected if you look at how the series begins. But how exactly does it begin ...?
RWBY in the Beginning, Why I started
The pleasant thing about a series whose first episodes don’t run for ten minutes is: I can just link them, and I do not have to describe it, I can just link it. There you go, the first episode of RWBY. Have fun.
RWBY Later, Why I Stayed
In Volume 3, the point breaks. Without spoiling too much, I can say that the series is undergoing a radical change this season and for the following volumes, a steady evolution towards seriousness and drama started that is rarely experienced so consistently. Volume 3 has, in which the previous volumes have not even tried, strong characters, even stronger emotions, relationships that make you nibble on your fingernails, dramaturgically strong moments and habitual stylish fights. The pseudo-coolness takes a step back and makes room for a higher self-claim. RWBY unveils its epicstory, which is far more complex than you can tell, showing that it's not just a teenage luxury trash action series. If you are interested in this direction, stay away from youtube comments or any possible spoiler source. The things that happen in V3, you should ABSOLUTELY experience unspoiled. I did not have that luck, and yet was blown away. And the animations already make a noticeable leap here.
Volume 6, and RWBY today
The sixth, and current season RWBY Volume 6, was for many and me by far the strongest season of the series so far. All the strengths, conflicts and character developments that have been built up over the last three seasons reach their climaxes and are staged in a high-quality, thrilling and entertaining way. What RWBY has proved after Volume 6 is that it's an animated series with such a thoughtful story, such multi-layered characters, each undergoing a frenzied development, so pleasing audiovisual means that have grown with the series, that it can easily handle big players like Avatar or Wakfu in competing, and even beating them in some ways. An incredibly thought-out foreshadowing that was obviously planned from the very beginning - the first five episodes are FULL of that, it feels like every spoken phrase in RWBY has a double bottom and a deeper meaning, and that from a series that was initially only about STYLE. The foreshadowing is now at a level that mega franchises like Game of Thrones or Attack on Titan can only dream of. Yes, I am serious. But that does not stop there - The four protagonists, like the rest of the heroes, have gone through a long, complex development and are now quite different people than at the beginning of the series, there are convincing, sweet, romantic and actually working shippings which let the the fan forums burn highly regularly, but still make sense in the context of the story. The animations, especially with fights and facial expressions, could hardly be more fluid and convincing. The soundtrack of RWBY is great from Vol 1, and has also increased, with a mixture of rock and pop are especially fights are ecstatic driven. Apart from the series, the dull songs quickly lose their effect, but that does not demolish their quality within the series. The humor has constantly improved, and where you smiled out of cringe once, the gags and very, very few casual moments are now at a fairly high level. There are emotional conflicts and inner issues that are so authentic and universal that they robbed me of sleep for days after seeing them, until I talked to other fans about it. The antagonists are now really good, act understandable, have weaknesses, fears, quirks, are not perfect, even manage in my case that I rather keep my fingers crossed for them than the hero’s. When you have achieved THAT, you have written good antagonists. And Neo is best girl. No objections allowed.
The franchise RWBY is more than the main series. Some time after it started, the production of the storywise independent short series RWBY Chibi, so a series of short gags, including the characters from RWBY in cute Chibiform in alternative world where sidestories and what ifs can be enjoyed. While the series initially seemed to be aimed at a much younger target audience, and had an even more silly, unpretentious sense of humor than RWBY itself, it still had an honest charm for me that made me keep watching. And without spoiling too much again, I have to say that RWBY Chibi has by now a completely different value: RWBY becomes, as I have indicated, more serious. Gloomy. Certain possibilities regarding characters and scenes are lost to the main series at some point. There is hardly any humor left. And if RWBY Chibi was at first “just another RWBY in silly" it's now a Safe Heaven for fans, a healthy RWBYworld to escape to, if you're longing for the old, carefree days of the beginning, where everything was still colorful, happy and silly. Here you can see characters that you may not get to see in the main story anymore, and while on the one hand your heart is bleeding, on the other hand it's also an incredibly satisfying offer.
This is what this little, silly series is capable of for me by now. This may sound weird, but if you see RWBY up to Vol 6 you might understand what I mean.
Another aspect of Chibi is that the series shows in all its aspects that the creators themselves are simply their biggest fans and know EXACTLY what we want to see - a fan service moment in Chibi beats the next, fan favorites become ironic and self-aware, the episodes are partially so meta that Chibi characters wake up in the merchandise warehouses of RWBY, in real surroundings, and are very scared of this horror cabinet. Or the episode in which serial Ruby meets Chibi-Ruby and the universe explodes. It is rare for an additional product to feel that it is made with so much love, thinking and positive calculation. RWBY Chibi is the bridge between Rooster Teeth and its fans.
The RWBY Community
The RWBY community is an essential part of the whole thing right from the start. That starts with the Youtube comments, goes over RWBY Chibi and does not stop at the Reddit. For me, the Reddit, which is definitely one of the biggest fanbases of RWBY, has been one of the driving forces in my enthusiasm for RWBY. Be it the numerous funny, sad, beautiful, epic fanarts, the in-depth discussions, theories, the latest episodes, the memes or news from the RWBY spectrum, this is a good point of intersection for his passion. In fact, I came across RWBY but by the recommendation of a user in a small, German forum.
The Negative
Of course I should not convey the picture here, that RWBY is perfect. The series has large content mistakes and avoidable Tropes, even now in V6, over which you can at least get annoyed. First and foremost is my personal hate character, the central antagonist ZukoerCynder, a.k.a. Jesus, a.ka. Mary Sue, a.k.a. I am powerful, edgy, nasty and invincible. And cool! Especially cool! Where the definition of 'cool' of a thirteen-year-old is meant. Characters like Cynder should be avoided in serious series, because they are often their own parody, and so here, where Zuko takes every, but really every evil cliché and also has little depth. This may get a little less unbearable over time, but I still have to roll my eyes at least 80% of her scenes. Especially when there is a dramatic fight in which she supposedly dies. Hahahahayeahno. Vol 5 was very mixed and at times I completely lost my love for RWBY, because of weak characters, reeking Tropes and embarrassing Trope-filled episodes, an unspeakably annoying Ruby that did not contribute anything and a Yang, which was a silver lining and the reason the series should have been renamed in YNNG. But that passed, and RWBY managed to fight its way out of that low. I can also mention that I found characters like Ruby and Nora, which I still liked at the beginning of the series, from then unbearable, as the series became more serious, because then with their high voices and silly personalities did not fit into it anymore, and developed very slowly. By now, that's the past. There were emotional conflicts in V6 that, even out of personal concern, were very upsetting to me in the way they were resolved, but that would now go too far. An interesting failure, which RWBY is guilty to his fans for years, is the deletion of secondary characters. In the first three volumes, there are really more or less sympathetic supporting characters, many of which quickly became fan favorites because of their appealing designs and cool abilities. After Vol 3, at the end of which everything changes, most of these characters vanish in Nirvana, and although we as viewers, like the heroines, know by one or two talking subordinates where these characters are theoretical, we wait for the vast majority of them today in vain for a reunion. That may well be a criticism, but it may also be calculation, that will show the time. RWBY has substantial weaknesses, no question, but it is improving steadily, and that's rare enough.
The future
RWBY is far from over. It is speculated on at least 8-9 volumes, so at least two seasons, I hope for more, as good as it is currently, but what quality the franchise in the end really has remains to be seen accordingly. Volume 7, with its promising cover (see above), in which the four heroines have been given new designs again, will air this November, and the expectations are high. Unfortunately, RWBY Chibi has been in the break for a long time and a sequel is not in sight. But the franchise captured and bound me. What I call franchise addiction has happened with V6, I'm attached to the characters, their relationships, destinies, and the series goes beyond entertainment for me. I still feel emotional low points in the series, certain losses still hurt, I laugh and I grieve with the characters of the story. A very rare result in my pop culture history.
If you have actually read this far, thank you. If you already know RWBY - I hope you can agree with me. If you're thinking about starting - do it. I highly recommend it, and you will not regret it. RWBY is an underground hit that deserves much more attention, but then again it may not be as bad that the series is unknown, which makes the community more intimate.
I really advise you, just drop and enjoy RWBY the way it wants to be enjoyed without too much thinking or anticipation. Or as Rooster Teeth would say,
'Let's just live!'
- Yoraiko
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