Hello and welcome to Project Nitsuj. Well guys this is it, it’s time to review the one show everyone has been waiting for. I am going to review RWBY. Quickly earning a reputation as being one of the best web series ever to be created, RWBY follows the story of 4 girls attending school in the hopes of becoming huntresses who protect the world from monsters and those wishing to use the monsters for evil. The series was produced by Rooster Teeth the same people who bought us Red vs Blue videos and directed by Monty Oum who also created, animated, and wrote the series. He’s best known for his fan projects such as Dead Fantasy and Haloid which feature incredible fight scenes. The series of RWBY got started last year earning a huge amount of praise and fan following for its great list of characters, intriguing story, unique animation, and kick ass fight scenes. To be honest I was unsure of how to review this series since a lot of people have been arguing what to categorize this as. Some people call it an anime while others call it an American animated series. Both sides have good arguments and I can see why people would be torn between calling it an anime or animated series so I was unsure if I should review it using my normal anime review style or Animation Bang style. I thought about all of this and did some research on the series, according to the official site of the series it’s a western style anime. So with this, I like to present a new category for this series, Amerime (Amer-a-may) an American animated series that in some way is influenced by Japanese anime and holds some traits from Japanese anime. Other shows that fit in this category are shows like Avatar, The Boondocks, Megas XLR and of course Samurai Jack. So after coming to this conclusion I’ve decided to review the series in my normal anime style and Animation Bang style. For this blog I’ll use my normal anime style and upload the Animation Bang style later on today or tomorrow (I’ll try my best to do it today). Well, I’ve been talking about the series more than enough now, so let’s take a look at RWBY.
Opening Theme
Our opening for this Amerime is “This will be the day” sung by Casey Lee Williams. This song just kicks ass. From the first note you hear you will be pumped and excited about the song and get it stuck in your head. The singer Casey is also very good, her voice is very nice, she has great control, excellent vocal range, and brings a great deal of energy to the song. For the ending theme we have a number of different songs from the soundtrack team of the series. Some of them have vocals while others are just music only and each them is a joy to listen to and if you like rock music you’ll like the soundtrack and if you’re not that into rock music you’ll find the music enjoyable.
Episodes 1-5
So the Amerime starts off by telling us about the world of RWBY. We see that in the past men and these creatures known as the Grimm were in a constant war with each other with the Grimm overwhelming the humans and almost returning them to extinction (Planet of the Grimms is what they’re aiming for). That is until the humans started using a new weapon known as Dust a mysterious form of energy that carries the powers of nature in it (are you guys sure you’re not confusing it with magic? (Isis): Nope, Dust. (Nitsuj): But it’s so obvious- (Yin-Yang): Dust. (Nitsuj): No matter how you look at- (Mira): Dust. (Nitsuj): But the power to use the forces of nat- (Shizuku): Dust damn you *hits Nitsuj with a hammer*! (Nitsuj): Uhhh~ *falls to ground*. (Shizuku): Don’t you ever try to bring magic into this Amerime again! This is RWBY bitch!). With the help of Dust humanity was able to drive the Grimm back and establish civilizations and peace in the world but when there is peace there are those who wish to disrupt that peace and watch the world burn. We cut to present day where we see one of the villains of the series a guy by name of Roman voiced by Gray Haddock who along with his goons are planning to rob a dust shop (must be a slow week for him). As they’re robbing the store one of the goons sees a girl in a red hood (how’s it riding in the hood red), approaches her and we get this funny little scene (scene here: //youtu.be/DHzPG4iRmyI, props for having the character listen to the main theme of the series in her headphones and nice shout out to FMA in the background). After knocking the guy out and kicking someone else through the glass window, she gets attacked by the other goons and unleashes her scythe/shotgun weapon to take them down (try attacking Little Red Riding Hood now Mr. Wolf). This cute little firecracker is our main character Ruby voiced by Lindsay Tuggey who has dreams and aspirations of one day becoming a huntress and protecting the world from evil. Roman tries to escape via helicopter (//youtu.be/Xs_OacEq2Sk?t=4s) with Ruby trying to catch him but he throws a Dust crystal at her and shoots it causing it to explode in front of her. Luckily, she gets saved by a huntress named Glynda who tries to bring down the helicopter using her Dust magic but gets stopped by a mysterious Dust user on the helicopter. The two go back in forth canceling each other’s attacks until the helicopter is able to escape. Glynda takes Ruby in for questioning where she gets questioned by none other than David Bowie (//youtu.be/BtrhVZDiRmo?t=5s). Actually it’s Ozpin the headmaster of Beacon Academy which trains young fighters to fight against monsters and the academy Ruby has dreams of going to. He wants to know where Ruby learned to do all of that badass fighting to which she says she learned it from her uncle. She expresses her interest in wanting to attend Beacon when she finishes her two years of training and Ozpin impressed with her determination and skills decides to make a special exception and allow her to enroll right away. As she’s riding on a plane to Beacon we get to meet Yang a straightforward confident girl who is Ruby’s older sister who looks nothing like Ruby and even has a different last name than her (must be stepsisters). She’s voiced by Barbara Dunkelman. We end the episode with them arriving at Beacon.
Episodes 2 and 3 are both two parts of the same episode and serve as an introduction for more characters. After arriving at Beacon Yang ditches Ruby to hangout with her friends leaving Ruby alone (that’s a good big sister) to run into another one of our main characters Weiss who serves as the spoiled rich girl who you’ll hate at first but find out she is a good person and like her as the series goes on. She’s voiced by Kara Eberle. As Weiss is berating her for bumping into her our final main character Blake voiced by Arryn Zech comes in and defends Ruby forcing Weiss to walk away. As Ruby falls to the ground unsure of what to do a boy shows up to help her up and befriends her. This nice guy is Juane voiced by Miles Luna, the two chat developing somewhat of a friendship (and a possible love interest) and showing off their weapons to each other (soak in Juane’s weapon folks it’s probably the only weapon that isn’t also a gun). After the chat they make their way to the main hall where Ruby meets back up with Yang and she tells her how her day has been going so far. After that Ozpin and Glynda tell them that tomorrow there’s going to be an initiation test which will help them decide their teams for the remainder of their time in Beacon. That night all the girls and boys gather to sleep in one room (wow, they’re really confident that a group of adolescent teens aren’t gonna do anything stupid or regrettable aren’t they). While in the room Ruby and Yang notice Blake in the corner reading a book and try to talk to her but she only shows an interest in reading her book (NEEEEEEEERD~) that is until Ruby ask what it’s about and gets Blake to open up and talk about it a little. But their talk gets interrupted by Weiss who wants them to shut up because she can’t sleep and thus an argument begins between Weiss and Yang with Ruby in the middle and Blake watching them not giving a damn.
Episodes 4 and 5 are once again two parts of one episode. We start by getting introduced to Nora voiced by Samantha Ireland a hyperactive cheerful girl with a joyful attitude to back it up and her long time childhood friend who she has no romantic interest in (for now at least) Ren voiced by Monty Oum a calm and peaceful boy who Nora considers to be the perfect student (and oddly enough he looks a little like Monty Oum. Just change his hair and eye color and you got Monty). After that we see everyone is nervous and trying to form potential partners especially Weiss who wants to partner up with a girl name Pyrrha voiced by Jen Brown who is said to be the strongest student in the academy for her own devious plans. But Pyrrha only has eyes on Juane for her partner (I guess she’s into comic relief characters). So they all go to a cliff for their initiation where they’re told that that’ll be launched into the forest where they’ll team up with the first person they see, make their way to an alter where they have to recover a chess piece, and make their way back to the academy while avoiding monsters (sounds easy). So they all get launched into the forest with each one doing their own unique style of landing (Yang’s was the best in my opinion). After landing, Ruby begins searching for Yang but she runs into Weiss making them partners. But Weiss says hell no and walks away only to see Juane hanging in a tree (main character or comic relief character as your partner. Choices). Weiss walks back to Ruby and the two become partners while Pyrrha finds Juane and the two become partners. By the way, does anybody else find it strange that Ruby and Weiss are wearing skirts to fight monsters? Doesn’t exactly scream combat ready.
Episodes 6-12
Once again episodes 6 and 7 serve as one episode, we start with Yang looking for Ruby but running into monsters and meeting up with Blake making them partners ). Ruby and Weiss continue to annoy each other and we go back to Juane and Prrya where we learn a little something about Aura and Ren kills twin snakes with his bare hands, hell he actually killed one of them with their own fangs. He also meets up with Nora and becomes her partner. Back on Yang and Blake’s side of the story they reach the altar of the chess pieces and take the knight piece. Back on Juane and Pyrrha’s side of the story they walk into a cave and Juane grabs the tail of a monster mistaking it for a relic. This forces Juane to scream like a girl and get thrown into the sky by a scorpion monster and forcing Pyrrha to retreat to end the episode.
We start off episode 8 with Ruby and Weiss riding on the back of a bird monster trying locate the altar where Ruby jumps off the bird only to be sent flying into a tree by Juane who is also flying through the air. After that, Nora and Ren show up followed by Pyrrha who brings the scorpion monster with her and Weiss comes falling from the sky (she should of jump. (Mira): She’s falling. (Shizuku): She’ll live. (Isis): She’s gonna die. (Yin Yang): Do a 480 splash). She gets caught by Juane who breaks her fall as they’re falling (smooth Juane, real smooth). Ruby tries to fight the monsters by herself and gets trapped by one of the bird’s feather and is about to be killed by the scorpion until Weiss comes in to save her where she says she’ll be nicer to Ruby if she just be herself and not show off (I guess you could call this a formation of their friendship. Like I said bitchy at first but she’ll grow on you). The teams all get their chest pieces and make their way out of the forest with the bird and scorpion forcing them to fight in what I can only describe as one of the most epic badass things I have ever had the pleasure of seeing (scene here: //youtu.be/OPjcCkMYYzY, well I know what they’ll be having for dinner tonight. Chicken with a side of epic). We end with the teams finally being formed with 4 people a team. Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang become a team with Ruby as their captain and Juane, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren become a team with Juane being named the captain.
Episodes 9 and 10 focus on the first day of school for the girls. We start the episode with Ruby announcing the team’s first mission, decorating the room. But the room becomes too cramped so they turn the beds into bunk beds (if one of those doesn’t come crashing down on one of them in the future I’ll be very upset at this missed opportunity). For the rest of the episode we see how Weiss can’t accept Ruby as her leader because she’s done nothing to earn it while Weiss has spent her whole life training and studying to be a leader (good, but you yourself have done nothing to earn the title of leader either). Because of this she pushes Ruby aside and starts to treat her badly (and we’re back to square one with her character) but she receives a good talk from one of the professors about instead of being the best leader you can be, be the best follower you can be. Ruby also receives some wise words from Ozpin who tells her that being leader carries a great burden and responsibility and that she should think wisely of what she’ll do as a leader. Ruby and Weiss take what they hear to heart and reevaluate what they want to do. Ruby begins to study a lot more seriously and Weiss apologizes to Ruby and tells her she’s going to be the best teammate she’s ever had.
Episodes 11 and 12 center on Juane where we see he has a difficult time in classes and fighting all together. Pyrrha offers to tutor him in combat but he refuses saying he wants to do this on his own and we find out he cheated to get into Beacon. He forged some papers and got accepted in order to up hold the family name. He comes from a long line of warriors and wants to live up to their name and he feels that if he asks others for help and can’t do it on his own then he fails as both a fighter and a leader (not saying I encourage his actions but I understand his problems). He yells at Pyrrha and things get worst when Cardin the resident bully of the academy overhears their little talk and forces Juane to be his servant.
Episodes 13-16
The story of Juane continues in episodes 13 and 14 where we start off with him receiving some advice from Ruby (and surprisingly it’s very good advice. She’s come a long way from that hyperactive firecracker I first saw in episode one). The next day the class goes on a field trip to collect tree sap where Cardin plans to play a prank on Pyrrha because she embarrassed him in class and he’s going to use Juane to do it (oh fuck this guy up! (Yin-Yang): Break his legs. (Isis): Break his arms. (Shizuku): Break his back. (Mira): Kick his head off. (Chibi Isis): Hit him with a rock! *Everyone stares at Chibi Isis blankly* A. . . big rock. (Everyone else): . . .YEAH). Juane finally has enough and refuses to go along with the plan which angers Cardin and he begins to beat him up. As he’s beating up Juane a monster appears and attacks Cardin while his teammates leave him and Juane behind (why are you running? You guys are being trained to fight these creatures you should not be running away like the chicken shits you are). The monster continues to attack Cardin (congratulations Monty you have gotten me on the monster’s side of this battle) but Juane steps in to protect him (no! Let the monster kill him, we can play it off as an accident) and takes on the beast himself slicing its head off with the help of Pyrrha (first off, badass Jaune. Second, what was that Pyrrha, scene here: //youtu.be/fuj2nUb89DA, ohh~. I also agree with Ruby, magnets are cool). Pyrrha decides to keep this a secret from Jaune and walks off along with Ruby and Weiss following her. That night Jaune apologizes for being an asshole to Pyrrha and she agrees to help with his combat training (and the romance between Jaune and Pyrrha continues to build).
In episode 15 the kingdom of Vale (the kingdom where the story is taking place) is getting ready to host a festival welcoming other kingdoms and a tournament where students from other huntsman/huntresses academies will be dueling each other (sounds enjoyable). Wanting to get the jump on the competition Weiss drags the rest of team RWBY into town in the hopes of seeing potential competitors. While in town they come across a Dust shop that’s been robbed and the police (one of them oddly being Spike from Cowboy Bebop. I ain’t complaining) think the White Fang a group of terrorists consisting of a race known as the Fanus who are animal people was behind the attack (ohh~ just get some people of the water and the sky and this series will be one step away from entering my light novel idea. Yeah, I got a light novel idea, it’s a work in progress, maybe someday I’ll share it with you guys). This angers Weiss who has a huge prejudice against the Fanus because of the on-going war between her family and the Fanus because the Fanus keep stealing her family’s Dust and killing off family members and friends (the Fanus also keep leaving treats for them in their front lawn). Blake defends the White Fang saying they’re a group of misguided Fanus (they said the same thing about The Joker in the comics and look what happened to them) and gets into a fight with Weiss which gets interrupted by a monkey Fanus running from the police because he stowed away on a ship (I’m pretty sure he was just monkeying around. I know, but how could I not say that). The group chases him but accidently run over a girl named Penny a strange girl who comes from another academy who is more chipper and socially awkward than Ruby was at the beginning of the show (clearly she is a robot). After losing the Fanus and Penny, Weiss and Blake continue to argue with each other about the White Fang and Fanuses in general where Blake lets it slip that she’s a Fanus and a possible member of the White Fang (makes sense. The animal like relaxes, speed, eyes, and in her trailer for the show she looked like she had a tail). This makes Blake run out of the dorm where she meets up with the monkey boy and we see that she’s a catgirl (this explains her cat walk and why she’s a little antisocial. This also explains why I like her the most of team RWBY so far). The episode ends with Ruby, Weiss, and Yang searching for Blake in town because she’s been missing for a few days and Blake having coffee with the monkey boy who we find out in the episode is named Sun (I get it, Son Goku from “Journey to the West”, well played Monty, well played) and getting to tell him a little about her past.
In the final episode we find out that Blake used to be a member of the White Fang (well duh) and we find out that the White Fang wasn’t always a terrorist group. In the past they were meant to serve as a symbol of peace and equality between humans and Fanus after the war but instead Fanuses were being discriminated and forced into labor by humans (must we always discriminate against those we know nothing about and fear). The White Fang rose up and begin rallying against the mistreatment of their kind hoping to make a difference but their leader step down and a new more aggressive leader took over encouraging the White Fang to burn stores that didn’t serve them and hijack trains with cargos. His methods turned things around and the Fanus were beginning to be treated equally, not out of respect but fear. Blake got tired of using her skills to do bad things so she left the group and decided to dedicate her life to being a huntress. Blake doesn’t believe the White Fang are behind these Dust incidents and tries to prove their innocence by teaming up with Sun to watch a shipment of Dust coming into the docks and see if they show up (so you mean to tell me that even though all the signs point to the White Fang being behind these series of incidents Blake doesn’t believe it’s them? The girl is in denial more than a fangirl who doesn’t want to believe Justin Bieber is a complete and utter tool who can’t sing. That or a weeaboo who thinks he’s Japanese when really he’s just a dumbass wanting attention). So they go to the docks and see that the White Fang are stealing the Dust and working with Roman in the process (oh hi Roman, long time no see, //youtu.be/EtJcfGJbf3o). Blake wants to get answers as to why the White Fang and goes in for them (scene here: //youtu.be/WLZq4hvs_30, damn~ Roman, Sun, and Penny got skills. Also I’m with Roman these kids just keep getting weirder and I love it). After the fight the police show up late (as usual, seriously what do we animate them for) and Weiss and Yang show up where Weiss tells Blake she doesn’t care if she was with the White Fang or not, is okay with her being a Fanus, and wants Blake to start trusting her and the rest of the team more when something big like this happens again. So they make-up, Penny gets taken away by some mysterious guy, and we see that Roman is planning something big to end the season.
Final Thoughts
Epic. Simply epic. I mean it, this series is just great from beginning to end. I love the story and setting of RWBY as well as the characters. Character development is done well and keeps the story progressing never stopping and characters work well off each other. I like the sister relationship Ruby and Yang have with each other, it’s only seen shortly in a few scenes but I like them none the less. Yang is very supportive of Ruby and always there whenever Ruby needs her but at the same time she’s not too overbearing, she doesn’t baby Ruby at all and wants Ruby to break out of her comfort zone and befriend others and not depend on her. My favorite characters so far are Juane and Blake. Juane because he’s just a straight up funny guy who really is trying his best to live up to his family name and shows that he’s quick to realize his mistakes and stick up for his friends when the time comes. Blake because of her mysterious nature, you can tell out of all the characters she’s got a rich backstory just waiting to be explored and I can’t wait to see where it leads. The other characters are also good and have their funny and badass moments that make them fun to watch. As I said before Weiss starts off as being a bit bitchy but you really do warm-up to her as the series progresses. I also think Roman is a great villain this guy pretty much has the 3 C’s working for him, he almost reminds me of The Penguin from Batman. He’s cool, he dresses sharply and can be ruthless when he needs to be to get what he wants. Calm, he never gets scared or mad whenever things don’t go his way if anything he plays it off like an annoyance like he’s annoyed that things aren’t going his way. I love that part where Blake has a blade to his neck and rather than get mad or scared he just seems more annoyed that this is happening. Finally, he’s in control, you take one look at this guy and you instantly think this is a guy I would follow to hell and back. Even though he has this boss aura around him he’s still at the front of the lines getting what he wants, he’s not just gonna sit back from an ivory tower and watch his plans go down. He’s gonna be right there with his guys and if he’s gotta get his hands dirty and fight he’ll fight and he’ll give you a run for your money.
The weapons in this show are also, everything is a badass weapon with a gun attached to it. It really is unnecessary but you don’t care because it’s downright awesome, you love it, and the characters actually use them effectively. Music is great to listen as well, one of the best soundtracks I’ve ever heard my hats off to the soundtrack team for providing great music. The animation is also great and can be split into two categories. The first category is the standard animation the animation we see throughout a majority of the Amerime when the characters are just walking, talking, etc. basic everyday stuff. This is animation is good though the characters do move stiffly at times and some animated scenes can be poor like in the first episode where Ruby wolfed down a plate of cookies with like one bite each. I don’t blame the animators for this problem because I’ve heard the program is relatively new so they’re still trying to get familiar with it plus the limitations of the program are also at fault as well. Luckily, as the show goes on the standard animation does get better and I expect it to continue getting better in the next season. The other category is the fight animation and it kicks ass. The characters move fluently and the fights scenes are so creative, action-packed and fun to watch. If you’ve seen Monty’s work in the past you’ll know that when it comes to fight scenes he’s a genius so you won’t be disappointed in them. You will fall in love with these fight scenes and find yourself re-watching an episode or two just to see the awesome fight scenes and take them all in. If I had to name my only complaint with the show it’s that the duration of the episodes different greatly from each other. Some episodes are only 5 minutes while others are 15 minutes so hopefully for the next season they work to have a consistent duration for each episode. I don’t expect them to be 24 minutes long but try to make each episode at least 15 minutes long that’s half an anime episode and plenty of time to work with. Other than that I have no complaints with the series. It was great with plenty of action and story to keep us entertained and wanting more and the show will only get better from here.
Final Score
The final score for RWBY is a 7.5/10 with a must watch stamp of approval. The first season was basically an introduction of the show. Showing us who are characters are, what they’re like, explaining the history of the world as well as the people in the world. With the introductions out of the way now the show can now focus on the story as well as developing its characters, there’s a lot of potential for all of these characters and I have a feeling this show is gonna be something everyone is gonna be talking about for a long time. If you haven’t seen it yet I say stop what you’re doing and check it out you won’t be disappointed. Well, all I can do is wait for the second season to premiere so until than I guess I’ll play a game. *Holds up a box of the Hyperdimension Neptunia game* Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time on Project Nitsuj.
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