Following the lives of team RWBY (Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang) at Beacon Academy, the anime series "RWBY" (pronounced Ruby) shows the conflict in the lives of the Huntresses in training as the world around them is filled with deception and lies. These four girls are training to fight the monsters of Grimm, some particularly nasty and large looking creatures that are in the world at large. They, along with other people that train and learn at Beacon, have faced challenges in the first two volumes of the show, but they've made it to a major tournament and a major turning point in their lives.
This show is one of my all time favorites. It first premiered in July of 2013 after months of having only the Red, White, Black, and Yellow trailers to give us a taste of the characters and world that was going to be "RWBY." Now that the show has had some time, there has been a small side series to explain the larger pieces of the world of Remnant, but there is still so much story that can be explored by the show.
It was originally created by a man named Monty Oum, who was known for the "Dead Fantasy" series. He animated fight scenes for fun, and it became a job with Rooster Teeth when he began working with them in producing "Red vs Blue," their flagship and first show. After Season Ten of "Red vs Blue," Monty was given the go ahead by "Red vs Blue's" creator, Burnie Burns. And thus "RWBY" was created.
Rooster Teeth is a large company that doesn't just produce online shows, but now has a live action movie out as well as several branches that do so much. They are well known for their Podcast and for the channels involving the playing of games (the Achievement Hunter channel, Let's Play, and the recently acquired Funhaus), but they are also well known for producing hilarious shorts on their own.
When "RWBY" was coming out, there was concern that it wouldn't mesh with the rest of the content. The style of "RWBY" is arguably more influenced by the Japanese styles seen in anime than by anything else. But the style of the show didn't detract from it, and tons of fans came forward immediately from the beginning of the show. As the show's popularity grew, it even got the chance to be dubbed and shown in Japan. And as Japan's love for "RWBY" grew, it even gained the opportunity to be turned into a manga (or comic) by Shirow Miwa, with the help of Rooster Teeth of course.
While it may feel like I'm here just to ramble on and on about Rooster Teeth and "RWBY," there is much more to the creator Monty Oum. Monty Oum was known as an efficient man, who worked long and hard on the projects that he was involved in. Because of his dedication to his craft, he was well known and well respected amongst those that worked on fighting games and animated those kinds of scenes.
This year, on February 1, Monty Oum passed away after a minor surgery. His death rocked the Rooster Teeth community, not just because they had lost an amazing creator, but because they lost a member of the family of Rooster Teeth. Monty was a friend to many at the company and was beloved by the community itself. His death caused many emotions to fly, but it also brought the community together to celebrate the man and the ideas that he had about life and work.
"RWBY" doesn't just represent cool fighting scenes and a story that lets fighting be a major part of the story; "RWBY" is about creating and continuing to create. "RWBY" is about working at the things you like so that you can try to entertain others. This show represents a way of creating content for people, of thinking that people matter. This show is something that will live on for years, not just because of the beautiful world and the entertaining characters, but because of the man that was behind it.
So while it is exciting that Volume 3 began on October 24, I'm much more excited to see the new cosplays and the new creations of the community at large as they continue to follow in the footsteps of Monty Oum, the man that did so much and had wanted to do so much more.
Thank you to whoever did this in front of our offices overnight. <3 Monty. pic.twitter.com/4IfhmJJu6k
— Rooster Teeth (@RoosterTeeth) February 3, 2015
