Review: RWBY season 2 episode 4(Spoilers present)

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

Okay, time to unpack this one, though I'm starting to think that it's going to be repetitive.

There are still animation hicups and general odd limb movements as usual. The characters are still horrible at delivering their lines

The episode delivers our first major fight scene: the one against the mech in the trailer. Yes they are playing that card early which makes me wonder what the rest of the season has in store.

Time to unpack the plot. Stuff does actually happen besides just character development like in the last one.

Penny talks and states that she is the first artificial human with an aura to fight. This still makes me think of the Murakumo units from Blazblue but I've beaten that horse over and over again so I won't get into it (PS, yes I know that Dead Fantasy had a floating blade user like Penny but how the blades were used there is slightly different so I still make the Nu-13 comparison)

Yang and Neptune head to the club from the Yellow trailer and we notice that Neptune seems to have a thing for Yang (love triangle between blue haired generator rex, bratty ojou-sama, and a generic badass that has not been developed at all, great). We also learn that Junior had lent his men to Torchwick (the guys robbing the store in the very first episode of season 1) and that the guys did not come back.

Blake and Sun infiltrate a white fang conference and find that, thanks to Torchwick's client, Cinder, that they acquired several of Atlas's heavy mechs and that recruits are going to be trained in it. Torchwick spots Blake and Sun and decides to chase them in the mech. This gives us one of our first major trailer scenes: the two heroes running on top the roofs while the mech runs alongside (Attack on Titan reference obvious to anyone?)

Blake calls the team in and we get a fight that goes into a highway(I know you worked on RvB, Monty, you don't have to remind us) and then the ground below. Here, we see multiple things at work: some good, others not so much. First is Neptune's weapon: it's a railgun that can turn into a halberd. I like the idea and electric glow on it but I expect a bit more punch out of a weapon like that. Next is Sun's Semblance, ability, I honestly don't know. Apparently, he can create aura copies of himself and have them explode on a target. This made me a little confused since it looks stupid and didn't do much. Later we find out that Ruby has actually done a decent job as leader: creating different tactics and maneuvers for combating the mech. Granted they are all given stupid names: ice flower, ladybug, bumblebee, but she is a little girl so I can't expect tactical greek naming or the like. Weiss also creates a new rune for us: a speed rune that, when applied to Blake, made her able to slice missiles in midair with the shockwave of the slash. Finally, we find that Yang's Sembalance is that, the more angry she gets and the more she's hit, the more powerful she is, able to shatter the mech's arm.

After the mech is destroyed, we see that Torchwick has another cronny, Neo. Neo is a pink and black haired girl with an umbrella who can create a shatter able illusion while they teleport away.

Ultimately, the episode was fun and the fighting was good but the general consensus is that the animation, voice acting and world-building dialogue is still horrible and may break me despite the fun fights.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

-

Thread moved to User Reviews (again).

I'm getting a bit tired of moving these. If you're writing a review of something, please post it in the correct forum section, thanks.

apoligies, I didn't know that there was a user reviews section.

Thank you and I'm sorry for burdening you even an iota.

 

[Scarim Coral]

I pretty much find today episode to be the episiode 8 of season 1 in that the fight scene is highlight. Man Touchwick was quite hasty at chasing the two with the new mech. I wonder if Atlas will now notice that some of their mech are missing? Also I starting to view Neptune to be a playboy/ flirt now. Yeah Wukong semblence is an odd one which look like it serve more as an distraction.

Also a couple of scene reminded me from other show and film like the White Fang recruitment remind me of Legend of Korra during their recruitment scene and the fight at the highway remind me of Bay Transformers.

The new henchwoman is a interesting one due to her design and her ability and weapon (I wonder what her umbrella will turned into?).

Spoiler: She must be sensitive to bright lights

Sure the name of the attacks may sound silly but there is a reason for the given names
http://queen-emerald.tumblr.com/post/94781376534
(Check Mate since it's Blake and Weiss combo meaning black and white, Ladybug being Blake and Ruby meaning a black and red are the colours of a ladybay and ice flower cos the ice did resemble a flower).

EDIT- Just to be clear, I am still liking it for what it is as I can switch my mind off for action!

 

[L. Declis]

I watched this yesterday, and I may as well stick my thoughts here.

This is just not a good program.

And the fight scene was not very good. Monty usually has a nice charismatic and flowing style to his fights, but I started to get more and more off-put by the constant cringiness of the fight scenes. If the fight scenes are meant to be Monty's strength (and he has shown some talent), but I will judge them.

Firstly, they read like a poor man's Naruto. Any damage done to people have no effect; hell, apparently Yang is near unbeatable now. They just keep throwing the same moves again and again before someone comes along and shows a brand new ability never shown before and wins it for them. It was boring in Dragonball Z, which at least had some decent writing to move the plot along.

Due to the lack of damage, there is no tension. What's that? Yang's been punched through a wall by a 30 ton robot? Not even a scratch. Even DBZ or Naruto would have the character nurse a broken arm or something. Not only that, but the whole "Friendship will conquer all" is getting boring as a trope to watch. It's over the top, but it's not interesting or entertaining. It's just busy.

Plenty of hits will happen, but the robot won't even get a scratch. It just looks so lazy. Have Ruby cut a pipeline here or there, have Weiss slice off more than one camera, have Yang rip off armour plates, have Blake entangle it's limbs or leave gouges, have the monkey boy's explosions leave a burn mark, SOMETHING!

I'm getting the feeling that Monty just can't make a series. He has one niche, and that is animating fight scenes. But left to his own devices, he is getting to the point of repeating the same anime tropes and clichés even in those fight scenes, and like you said, has copied RvB's road fight scene. He needs someone over him to direct the scenes, and someone who has ideas.

This entire program is basically Monty wanting to do some tropey fights with school girls that are over the top; see his previous work, Dead Fantasy, where he will have an interesting fight, it will begin to drag, so he just throws in another character until it begins to drag again, and then he throws in ANOTHER character. He has no idea how to pace or keep the audience interested, so he just keeps doing the same tricks over again that worked in an amateur program, but don't work here.

And when you move to the rest of the program, well...

I have trouble believing this is the same production company that put out Red Vs Blue. You can feel the massive loss of skill, experience and charisma that RvB had. This feels like a half effort, something to keep the girls at Roosterteeth busy.

The voice acting is appalling, the girls can't act and the guys sound bored with the lines. The writing wavers being boring cliche that you can see coming a mile off (like the robot reveal was obvious in the first series, so why did Ruby have to act so stupid? I'd like just once for there to be a genre-savvy and intelligent character in these things)and just "Well, we need to get the plot here, so let's just push the plot here with exposition".
No one acts like an actual human with emotions so it comes off as uncanny, and what may be a good moment is ruined by poor writing and poor voice acting. I seriously believe that these girls need to go to some classes, voice acting is not just speak your lines.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

I watched this yesterday, and I may as well stick my thoughts here.

This is just not a good program.

And the fight scene was not very good. Monty usually has a nice charismatic and flowing style to his fights, but I started to get more and more off-put by the constant cringiness of the fight scenes. If the fight scenes are meant to be Monty's strength (and he has shown some talent), but I will judge them.

Firstly, they read like a poor man's Naruto. Any damage done to people have no effect; hell, apparently Yang is near unbeatable now. They just keep throwing the same moves again and again before someone comes along and shows a brand new ability never shown before and wins it for them. It was boring in Dragonball Z, which at least had some decent writing to move the plot along.

Due to the lack of damage, there is no tension. What's that? Yang's been punched through a wall by a 30 ton robot? Not even a scratch. Even DBZ or Naruto would have the character nurse a broken arm or something. Not only that, but the whole "Friendship will conquer all" is getting boring as a trope to watch. It's over the top, but it's not interesting or entertaining. It's just busy.

Plenty of hits will happen, but the robot won't even get a scratch. It just looks so lazy. Have Ruby cut a pipeline here or there, have Weiss slice off more than one camera, have Yang rip off armour plates, have Blake entangle it's limbs or leave gouges, have the monkey boy's explosions leave a burn mark, SOMETHING!

I'm getting the feeling that Monty just can't make a series. He has one niche, and that is animating fight scenes. But left to his own devices, he is getting to the point of repeating the same anime tropes and clichés even in those fight scenes, and like you said, has copied RvB's road fight scene. He needs someone over him to direct the scenes, and someone who has ideas.

This entire program is basically Monty wanting to do some tropey fights with school girls that are over the top; see his previous work, Dead Fantasy, where he will have an interesting fight, it will begin to drag, so he just throws in another character until it begins to drag again, and then he throws in ANOTHER character. He has no idea how to pace or keep the audience interested, so he just keeps doing the same tricks over again that worked in an amateur program, but don't work here.

And when you move to the rest of the program, well...

I have trouble believing this is the same production company that put out Red Vs Blue. You can feel the massive loss of skill, experience and charisma that RvB had. This feels like a half effort, something to keep the girls at Roosterteeth busy.

The voice acting is appalling, the girls can't act and the guys sound bored with the lines. The writing wavers being boring cliche that you can see coming a mile off (like the robot reveal was obvious in the first series, so why did Ruby have to act so stupid? I'd like just once for there to be a genre-savvy and intelligent character in these things)and just "Well, we need to get the plot here, so let's just push the plot here with exposition".
No one acts like an actual human with emotions so it comes off as uncanny, and what may be a good moment is ruined by poor writing and poor voice acting. I seriously believe that these girls need to go to some classes, voice acting is not just speak your lines.

this sums up my entire argument quite nicely but I would like to add more

I have mentioned Blazblue several times in comments involving this show and I still stand by it

Compare Penny to

Spoiler: Nu-13

and Yang to

Spoiler: Bullet

and I think that the simularities are unavoidable. This makes me worry about Neo and any new characters. I already mentioned that Neptune looked like a blue-haired Rex; should I expect Ragna, Noel, and Jin copies? Should I expect Torchwick to talk about ultraviolance? The point is that there are too many things that look ripped off of or directly influenced by other stuff.

The twists and dialogue I would have no problem with if we had some good voice acting. The voices kill it for me. Blake sounds flat instead of stoic, if they were going for Hitsugiya or Byakuya style stoicism then they utterly failed since their voices actually have a deep tone to them that delivers impact. Yang is just boring since she is generic badass with no defining traits; we see no wit or snark like Jotaro and we see no hammy moments like Armstrong from Full Metal Alchemist. If they are trying to make a standard Japanese ojou with Weiss, they failed and made her annoying. A japanese ojou may have the high-pitched voice but that's a Japanese thing, British or fancy English would have been better for Weiss and would not make my ears cringe.

Ruby, I will give some credit. She has become a bit smarter in my opinion since she employed tactics and developed maneuvers for situations as seen in the mech fight. However, if they were going for a fun, happy character, the voice fails it

let me play a clip

This is the voice they should have gone with: fast, nuts, a bit of tangents, fun in a voice

Voices also fail the villains. Torchwick, Cinder, Emerald, and Mercury are not intimidating, they sound too idiotic or flat(flat really applies to Cinder)

If they sounded like this
I would actually take them as a threat but as is, I jsut see them as Team Rocket

Finally the fights. I fully agree with the lack of feedback. Give me blood dripping from mouth, slight tearing of clothing, staggered walking, little cuts and scars, something. I love over the top, hell Kill la Kill is one of my favorite shows but show a bit of challenge and not just plow through everything. The Nevermore fight was exciting because we saw that neither of them could individually take it down, they were cornered, and were forced to actually work together for the first time. We get nothing like that here

Yes, it's a long rant but a necessary one to get points across

Geez, what makes it worse is that It's being released to Japan

seriously [http://www.crunchyroll.com/anime-news/2014/08/15/video-warner-bros-to-release-rwby-in-japan]

 

[Elvis Starburst]

I guess I seem to be one of the few on this site (Referring to previous RWBY threads) that tends to enjoy what I see? sure, not all of it is great, but I have a good laugh and enjoy myself with its offerings. The bullying arc in season 1 was stupid for sure, but I didn't mind the rest.

I'm glad the animations are better in season 2, but they still can't get running right when going towards or away from the screen. That much bothers me to no end. With that all in mind, I'm greatly enjoying the new season, and the better episode length really helps. The better animation also feels good.

Maybe I'm not the kind of person who wants to look to deeply into this show, cause there clearly isn't that much depth to begin with. Because of that, I find it all to just be some fun action with character and weapon designs, as well as fight scenes I really enjoy and adore seeing go down. That's all it is to me, so, do I get a cookie for standing out?

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

I guess I seem to be one of the few on this site (Referring to previous RWBY threads) that tends to enjoy what I see? sure, not all of it is great, but I have a good laugh and enjoy myself with its offerings. The bullying arc in season 1 was stupid for sure, but I didn't mind the rest.

I'm glad the animations are better in season 2, but they still can't get running right when going towards or away from the screen. That much bothers me to no end. With that all in mind, I'm greatly enjoying the new season, and the better episode length really helps. The better animation also feels good.

Maybe I'm not the kind of person who wants to look to deeply into this show, cause there clearly isn't that much depth to begin with. Because of that, I find it all to just be some fun action with character and weapon designs, as well as fight scenes I really enjoy and adore seeing go down. That's all it is to me, so, do I get a cookie for standing out?

I can understand not looking deep but some of this stuff seems basic like animation and voice acting since they can destroy the delivery of the action

 

[Elvis Starburst]

I guess I seem to be one of the few on this site (Referring to previous RWBY threads) that tends to enjoy what I see? sure, not all of it is great, but I have a good laugh and enjoy myself with its offerings. The bullying arc in season 1 was stupid for sure, but I didn't mind the rest.

I'm glad the animations are better in season 2, but they still can't get running right when going towards or away from the screen. That much bothers me to no end. With that all in mind, I'm greatly enjoying the new season, and the better episode length really helps. The better animation also feels good.

Maybe I'm not the kind of person who wants to look to deeply into this show, cause there clearly isn't that much depth to begin with. Because of that, I find it all to just be some fun action with character and weapon designs, as well as fight scenes I really enjoy and adore seeing go down. That's all it is to me, so, do I get a cookie for standing out?

I can understand not looking deep but some of this stuff seems basic like animation and voice acting since they can destroy the delivery of the action

Eh, I guess I'm not the type who really cares all that much if I'm enjoying myself XD Sure, it's not fantastic, but it's not as dreadful as people say it is

 

[Lina Jones]

Well, as much as Season One filled me with disappointment, I think Season 2 is a definite improvement.

I mean, it's still not "good", really, but it's more entertaining and has better dialogue on average so far. Fight scenes are still cool in terms of creative use of powers and abilities, but, yeah, the fact that no one really gets hurt no matter how much damage is ostensibly done to them does take the dramatic bite out of it. And despite adding yet more characters, I think the overall plus is that they are actually focusing, mostly, on the title characters this time.

Although the first episode annoyed me a lot, by the end of episode four, I find I'm actually getting into it. Hopefully, they can stay on track with things this time around.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

Well, as much as Season One filled me with disappointment, I think Season 2 is a definite improvement.

I mean, it's still not "good", really, but it's more entertaining and has better dialogue on average so far. Fight scenes are still cool in terms of creative use of powers and abilities, but, yeah, the fact that no one really gets hurt no matter how much damage is ostensibly done to them does take the dramatic bite out of it. And despite adding yet more characters, I think the overall plus is that they are actually focusing, mostly, on the title characters this time.

Although the first episode annoyed me a lot, by the end of episode four, I find I'm actually getting into it. Hopefully, they can stay on track with things this time around.

I can accept your points but Yang hasn't gotten any development at all; at this point, she's just a generic badass. I see no personality other than generic snark and it's aggravating for me.

Also, I've said it already but THE VOICE ACTING IS HORRIBLE. I am a big anime and seiyuu person so listening to all the RWBY voices makes me go "why did you not hire professional voice actors". Seriously, the voices are flat, boring and with no punch and (putting another quarter in the jar), after hearing some Blazblue voices, I think "these characters could sound so much better" because these charcter types are common.

As for dialogue, how is it better? I am seriously asking.

 

[Lina Jones]

I can accept your points but Yang hasn't gotten any development at all; at this point, she's just a generic badass. I see no personality other than generic snark and it's aggravating for me.

I'm not really expecting good character "development" from this show. As long as they can manage to do half-way decent and consistent characterization, I'll make do. But yeah, Yang's really not had any sort of spotlight yet, but at least she's present and doing stuff.

Also, I've said it already but THE VOICE ACTING IS HORRIBLE. I am a big anime and seiyuu person so listening to all the RWBY voices makes me go "why did you not hire professional voice actors". Seriously, the voices are flat, boring and with no punch and (putting another quarter in the jar), after hearing some Blazblue voices, I think "these characters could sound so much better" because these charcter types are common.

I'm a lot more forgiving of voice acting than most, it seems. The only time I thought the voice acting was really horrible was in the original trailers, but even if the voice sounds terrible to start, I can get used to it over time. Plus, I've heard far, far worse, to be fair; this ain't the 80's era of VHS shit dubs by any means. Plus, I think some of the voice acting is improving a little as the VA's get more comfortable in their roles.

However, if you're really a stickler for voice acting and passionate about VA performance, I can see how this show's voices would be crap compared to more professional work out there.

As for dialogue, how is it better? I am seriously asking.

I dunno, it has a bit better pacing and punch and emotional gravitas to it. It's not a huge improvement or anything, but I find myself rolling my eyes at it a lot less, for what that's worth.