Im doing a bit of an odd one for this weeks Bingeworthy review. Once again im doing a review for an animated show, but this one is stands out with its uniqueness. This show has been out for a while and has a cult following on the interwebs. This week review will been on Rooster Teeth original show: RWBY (Ruby).
Once again I treed lightly into the abyss of entertainment review that is anime. aNime usually gets a bad rep to begin with, so as a critic of various shows on Netflix it is difficult for me to maintain a sense of respect. While RXBY isn’t actually an anime, it has a lot of similar themes and clichés of and draws a lot of inspiration from Japanese animation. But its not anime, so maybe give it a chance?
RWBY is an original web series created by the late Monty Oum, and produced by Rooster teeth, the same guys who do Red vs Blue. The series takes place in a magical world filled with weapon wielding warriors, magic, technology monsters and a whole bunch more. The show follows the story of Ruby, a quirky and energetic girl who wants to be a great huntsmen, a warrior who protects the world from evil monsters know as Grimm. She is joined by her team members, consisting of her older sister Yang, the mysterious Blake, and the ice queen Whiss. With some positive attitudes, friendship, and some seriously tricked out weapons, they might just save the world.
So far the basis of the show sounds like its deffineiately an anime, and it definitely feels like it most of the time. It follows a lot of clichés of anime, making it difficult to watch sometimes. The plot feels like it draws inspiration from the legend of Korra, mixed with Soul Eater… you get the picture it feels like an anime. However, what it lacks in non-anime style, it makes up for it with wonderfully animated and badass fight scenes. Before his death in 2014, animator Monty Oum created and headed RWBY with the help of rooster Teeth. Monty Oum was notorious in the small time animation world for creating “haloid” a Halo Metroid crossover that was known for being the most original and well animated halo fan animation. Oum brought his unique style of fight animation to RWBY as well as Red vs Blue when he joined with Rooster Teeth. And it is the most bad ass thing ever.
The unique brand of over the top fighting scenes is what gave RWBY its popularity. These fights are as extreme, as they are ridiculous, pretty much “pacific Rim” rules. However, the animation, writing and voice acting is something less. It holds up as a webseries, but it is not good enough to branch into full Netflix series territory. That being said the show does have its moments of interest outside of the awesome fight scenes. Characters are three dimensional in their traits, the story does keep a sense of suspense and captures attention, and the voice acting gets better along the way. All in all Rwby is a good show if youre an animation buff, and want to spend your time on a new show. Or if you just want to watch some sweet fight scenes, it’s a good show to put on as background noise at a small party
Score: 3/5
