RWBY review: Beginning of the End

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

Well, another day, another RWBY review and yes I am losing my energy with these reviews.

So the first few portions of the episode start in the past. We see Cinder recruit Emerald and Mercury; Emerald from an attempt to steal a ring using her semblance (which seems to be directed illusions on a specific person) and Mercury after he killed his assassin father at the cost of needing his legs replaced. We also have a scene of Cinder trying and failing to recruit Adam to her cause in the timeframe before the Black Trailer.

We then cut to an attack on the Fall Maiden and the fight itself is mainly a power fight with the Maiden shooting powers though there is one hand to hand sequence. The power portion of the fight suffers from being unimpressive in terms of how it's staged. This is a stand and fire fight for the Maiden and the powers are not impressive enough to compensate for the lack of motion out of the Maiden. The small hand to hand portion is serviceable if unimmaginative. Overall the fight is a wash though that was not really the point. The point was to see the Fall Maiden have her power stolen and the method does imply some things; Cinder pulls out a glove with an evil eye glyph on the back and summons a Grimm bug that spits webbing that starts draining the maiden's power. Qrow does manage to arrive and stop the draining process before completion though. Cinder then approaches Adam again with her new powers, some dust and cash and the partnership is sealed.

We return to the present day and recap where we left off with the arena seeing Yang shoot Mercury in the legs. Mercury is escorted out by Cinder and her team and Mercury hides out in a warehouse while the Grimm start appearing more and more.

At that point, I would like to talk about Cinder and why I find her an ineffectual villain. One issue I have is the voice: Jessica Nigiri just doesn't sound imposing; she sounds like she is trying to do seductive and menacing but compared to Psycho Pass's Makishima Shogo, she sounds like a kitten trying to be a lion in a metaphorical sense. This is compounded by the fact her plan has not been revealed with reduces investment in her actions. With Makishima Shogo, even though he was working in the shadows, we knew he was trying to help people indulge their darker side and cause anarchy. Cinder, despite being more direct than Makishima, seems to have no objective instead just aimlessly doing stuff. The thing with the power draining Grimm bug seems to imply that she is in league with the Grimm, undefined as they are but that's not enough for investment and even if it was, it's too late.

In the end, RWBY will go down in hardcore anime fandom as a poor attempt to copy the tropes of anime with worse execution and even worse use of tropes. This episode reinforces it because despite us seeing the villain actually do something, I had no emotion or investment in the proceedings.

 

[Scarim Coral]

So is this your last review or are you going to bored yourself futher with the rest of the the hurdle the remaining episodes?

As for me, I liked it despite it only provide tiny glimpse of the villain plans. It did serve the backstories for the much needed villains of the show (we at least know Cinder motive as she is craving for powers). I kinda find it interesting that Emerald and Cinder relationship isn't as a solid one as I thought it was (from one of the blackout, Cinder slap Emerald for her not wanting Mercury to joined them and reprimand for forgeting her placed).

Granted the episode does has one major glaring plothole is that Qrow did saw Cinder and the crew right or was he too drunk to remember their faces??? Surely he must of watched the fight and if he had been more invested in the tournament, he may had watched them in the previous fights. I know Emerald couldn't had used her semblance on him due to her limitation (one or two people at the most).

Even then while I wouldn't say this is too much of an plothole was that her semblance made it so that Mercury had a cut on his leg (not suprised by his mechanize legs) which of course was not shown on camera. (Will Ozpin catch onto this?)

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

So is this your last review or are you going to bored yourself futher with the rest of the the hurdle the remaining episodes?

As for me, I liked it despite it only provide tiny glimpse of the villain plans. It did serve the backstories for the much needed villains of the show (we at least know Cinder motive as she is craving for powers). I kinda find it interesting that Emerald and Cinder relationship isn't as a solid one as I thought it was (from one of the blackout, Cinder slap Emerald for her not wanting Mercury to joined them and reprimand for forgeting her placed).

Granted the episode does has one major glaring plothole is that Qrow did saw Cinder and the crew right or was he too drunk to remember their faces??? Surely he must of watched the fight and if he had been more invested in the tournament, he may had watched them in the previous fights. I know Emerald couldn't had used her semblance on her due to her limitation (one or two people at the most).

Even then while I wouldn't say this is too much of an plothole was that her semblance made it so that Mercury had a cut on his leg (not suprised by his mechanize legs) which of course was not shown on camera. (Will Ozpin catch onto this?)

This is not my last review but I'm just irritated at RWBY so much

Regardless, I highly doubt that I will be happy with how they try to clear Yang of her supposed crime. Either it will be uninteresting or it will seem like an ass pull

 

[Scarim Coral]

This is not my last review but I'm just irritated at RWBY so much

Regardless, I highly doubt that I will be happy with how they try to clear Yang of her supposed crime. Either it will be uninteresting or it will seem like an ass pull

Going by cliche, I can guess the rest of team RWBY will clear Yang name. It will involve trying to find Mercury in the hospital only to learn he was never arrived there and yada yada. When they do find him, it would either be an accident (like show up behind them), catching him in his "lay low" form or a break into the place he is residing at.

 

[Mikeyfell]

I know but there are so many technical failings you can marvel at! I knew the story wouldn't be worth emotional investment back in volume 1 but I also knew that wouldn't be the point

 

[StormShaun]

After something I enjoyed last time, this was... underwhelming.
Not too bad, but nothing good either. Which is a disappointment after last episode.

The flashback stuff could have been done more sooner, and possibly quicker.
I will admit it was good to see Mercury's 'weapon', and the clarification of Emerald's power (still don't remember the formal name of powers/special abilities).

The main fight of the episode was pretty good, but when you realize THAT is the power of a maiden, it's the reason why I call this episode underwhelming. Shouldn't she be OP as fuck? Heck, she should have been winning, and possibly the surprise appearance of Adam and his goons could settle the fight. But no, it ended badly, and Adam got the short end of the stick, making him feel less of a villain.

That's just my opinion, but man, I'm a little sad.
Well, at least I can still admire the world map.

 

[andrewHayes]

I think you guys are being too hard on the episode. It may not be one of the seven wonders of the world but it was much more competently produced than the usual episode, and I'll give the RT production team that. Wider variety in camera angles, the Dutch angles and music preceding the fight scene, not to mention the track during (no loud obnoxious lyrics yay), smoke effects and weapon smears, the episode did a lot right.

Plus Amber called lightning from the sky and blocked shots from what all she knew were ruffians with Semblances. Hate to invoke this, but um, perhaps she was *holding back.*

I had to laugh at Amber riding bareback because modelers couldn't be bothered to make a saddle and stirrups for her though. And those foot animations...not to mention they should really stop using those static speedline moments. It worked for the mirage last episode, but here, not so much.

As for Qrow seeing the trio, shouldn't the same apply to Blake, who saw them from the back? I couldn't help but groan when I saw her show up on screen at that moment. Also, Adam changed his mind awfully fast, though the implication he was going to leave for home before Cinder's second offer captures interest.

Also, there are a lot of Fullmetal Alchemist vibes what with Mercury's prostheses being revealed (it does add a layer to the whole gambit the trio have and explains how Mercury could have stopped Yatsuhashi's sword) and Cinder's glove with a respective seal.