RWBY review: Breach (Spoilers)

[LarsInCharge]

Yep, I pretty much give up.

Mostly, I've just been watching for the fight scenes and music, and now they're starting to falter. So now I've got nothing.

Music wasn't even that good.

In fact, have any of the tracks we've heard in the show so far worthwhile?

I remember the trailer music most prominently, outshining even the opening themes and I've given all of no craps to the credits music because I give all of no craps to the credits.

They also dove into rock music and never left. Remember how the trailer themes kind of went from pseudo-orchestral pieces (Red and White) to techno-rockish type pieces (Black and Yellow)? All abandoned. I've only heard rock pieces and instrumental orchestral leitmotifs. Although to be fair I don't think you can hear much of it over top of the sounds of fighting and voice acting.

At least Kill La Kill knew how to use the main character's leimotif "Until my body is dry" effectively without overwhelming the VA or sounds of combat. RWBY can't even do that.

Among the new tracks for this episode, CFVY's "theme" or whatever is the worst display out of what I've heard. It's the RT crew trying to do punk music but it falls flat on its face because they're clearly struggling to belt out the lyrics as quick as possible.

Having just finished Gundam Build Fighters, oh how I wish this was RWBY's opening

yeah, the music is not that great. It's pretty serviceable but when I literally put Blazblue in and get this:

or this:

RWBY seems so poor that I can't even compare. Perhaps it's a bit much to use Blazblue as a reference since Daisuke Ishiwatari is well known for game music but the point still stands that the music becomes less and less serviceable the more you get exposed to anime and Japanese games.

Okay... we get it.

You like BlazBlue. You REALLY like BlazBlue. RWBY is not BlazBlue. We understand now. You don't need to bash that into our heads anymore.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Yep, I pretty much give up.

Mostly, I've just been watching for the fight scenes and music, and now they're starting to falter. So now I've got nothing.

Music wasn't even that good.

In fact, have any of the tracks we've heard in the show so far worthwhile?

I remember the trailer music most prominently, outshining even the opening themes and I've given all of no craps to the credits music because I give all of no craps to the credits.

They also dove into rock music and never left. Remember how the trailer themes kind of went from pseudo-orchestral pieces (Red and White) to techno-rockish type pieces (Black and Yellow)? All abandoned. I've only heard rock pieces and instrumental orchestral leitmotifs. Although to be fair I don't think you can hear much of it over top of the sounds of fighting and voice acting.

At least Kill La Kill knew how to use the main character's leimotif "Until my body is dry" effectively without overwhelming the VA or sounds of combat. RWBY can't even do that.

Among the new tracks for this episode, CFVY's "theme" or whatever is the worst display out of what I've heard. It's the RT crew trying to do punk music but it falls flat on its face because they're clearly struggling to belt out the lyrics as quick as possible.

Yeah the only music/ soundtrack that I liked was the season 2 intro and "Shine" (the scene that JNPR dance to)-

Two those alone is not worth getting the ablum for unlike season 1 (technically I bought about the ablum for the trailer songs, intro and few of the tracks with the lyric. I didn't cared much for the scores).

Speaking of that dance scene, anyone see this "alternative" take that Monty was messing around with?

 

[LawAndChaos]

However, unlike most of you, I liked Team CVFY's leader. She had the right amount of cocky and powerful. Though the contest winner not getting to fight was a giant middle finger, I totally agree.

I would like to address this, actually.

She was cocky. This wasn't really the problem. She was strong. This was also not a problem.

Problem 1) She ended up being written (in this episode) to upstage Velvet, a character who had been getting quite a following, just to do a moveset showcase of how she is heavy weapons guy and this is her weapon. It almost seemed like Monty and crew did this intentionally to spite the Velvet fans who wanted to see her perform.

Problem 2) Her dialogue is bad. 1st line out of her mouth is either a bad, cliche'd one liner or a really bad princess bride reference, which wasn't even done properly, depending on how you interpret it.

Problem 3) Up until this point people's weapons had this consistency of mass rule. Basically when you saw something like, say Ruby's scythe all folded up, or Jaune's shield, or even Nora's grenade launcher if you wanna push it you could look at them and say "yeah, I can believe there's a [insert weapon here] in there." Now with Coco for kookoo puffs here, we have her pulling a massive goddamn minigun out of a purse. I don't even.

You can't really say the reason people are hating on the character is because of her personality when you get all of like, a minute of it.

Now, as what you're saying thar Director, I can't really say for sure which composer I'd use for RWBY. I mean, you could get Sawano Hiroyuki, who's done work for AoT, KLK, Bravely D, etc. That guy's been all over the place, and his music has consistently fit the tone of the stuff he's composed for, so why not?

And honestly, I'd give Jeff Willams a fair shot. I don't hate on his composition, I just think he's not being used to his full potential. He did the trailer music and that stuff was kickass work, so it's not like he can't do good stuff. I just think that he's not really being pushed as hard as he was back when he composed for those trailers.

 

[AliasBot]

Um can somebody please tell me what RWBY is?

Online animated series by the same team that made Red vs. Blue.

OT: I'm one of the series' top supporters, and even I think this episode was lackluster. I could understand wailing on an army of weak Grimm, and have the tough ones get taken down by the Hunters/Huntresses, but the weaker members taking down creatures they struggled with not too long ago is a huge dissonance problem.

However, unlike most of you, I liked Team CVFY's leader. She had the right amount of cocky and powerful. Though the contest winner not getting to fight was a giant middle finger, I totally agree.

Overall, not as good as last season's finale, and certainly not as good as it could be.

This. I don't really have an opinion on Coco, but otherwise those are pretty much my thoughts. This was the first episode I was genuinely not a fan of. I'm not opposed to main characters ripping through tons of cannon fodder, but you don't use that for the season finale fight, especially when you just spent three (and a half) episodes building up the cannon fodder as a legitimate threat. Just...ugh. It wasn't a good way to end the season.

(The music has been pretty good, in my opinion, but the lack of four trailers' worth of actual songs, rather than scores, hampers it a bit. Caffeine, team CFVY's song, wasn't great, but Die, Shine, and the as-of-yet-unnamed end credits song were all quality.)

 

[DirectorK]

Now, as what you're saying thar Director, I can't really say for sure which composer I'd use for RWBY. I mean, you could get Sawano Hiroyuki, who's done work for AoT, KLK, Bravely D, etc. That guy's been all over the place, and his music has consistently fit the tone of the stuff he's composed for, so why not?

Fair enough. I don't hate Jeff Williams either and I agree with that there's probably more to him than what we've heard so far. Now if I was directing and I wanted to give RWBY a more darker tone, the composer I'd probably looked to would be Michiru Yamane. I mean, imagine "Rainbow Cemetery" from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as the music score for the "No Brakes" episode.

 

[LawAndChaos]

Now, as what you're saying thar Director, I can't really say for sure which composer I'd use for RWBY. I mean, you could get Sawano Hiroyuki, who's done work for AoT, KLK, Bravely D, etc. That guy's been all over the place, and his music has consistently fit the tone of the stuff he's composed for, so why not?

Fair enough. I don't hate Jeff Williams either and I agree with that there's probably more to him than what we've heard so far. Now if I was directing and I wanted to give RWBY a more darker tone, the composer I'd probably looked to would be Michiru Yamane. I mean, imagine "Rainbow Cemetery" from Castlevania: Symphony of the Night as the music score for the "No Brakes" episode.

Actually, I need to correct something.

Hiroyuki did KlK and AoT but he didn't do Bravely D. That was Linked Horizon, my bad.

Although Linked Horizon could probably totally do kickass RWBY music.

I mean, they even had these awesome little snippets for each character that sort of conveyed their identity through a theme music power-up. Don't tell me that wouldn't be awesome in RWBY.


And no, CFVY's theme doesn't count. Mostly because it's not about a single character, or their identity. And because it's bad both at conveying personality and being fun to listen to. And also before you argue red like roses 2 or whatever, I don't even remember any point in the series in an action sequence where it plays. Mostly because as I said, the music is frequently drowned out by everything else in the soundscape (stock sounds and voice acting).

 

[Asuterisuku]

Oh yeah who was Ruby referring to "mystery woman" the mask woman or Neo? Neo I guess make sense but she hasn't encounter that mask woman yet. Speaking of character, Adam finally show up but I don't really cared for that guy in the first place.

It was Cinder, whom she had fought previously in the communications tower. The thing about RWBY is that each volume is meant to be taken as a chapter, rather than a series, to be watched in movie format - much like RoosterTeeth's Red vs. Blue. People here seem to be taking the whole "taking the season as a whole" thing... not particularly well.

Now, as what you're saying thar Director, I can't really say for sure which composer I'd use for RWBY. I mean, you could get Sawano Hiroyuki, who's done work for AoT, KLK, Bravely D, etc. That guy's been all over the place, and his music has consistently fit the tone of the stuff he's composed for, so why not?

Aldnoah.Zero is my personal favourite of his works... Excuse me. I have to go listen to aLIEz now...

 

[LawAndChaos]

It was Cinder, whom she had fought previously in the communications tower. The thing about RWBY is that each volume is meant to be taken as a chapter, rather than a series, to be watched in movie format - much like RoosterTeeth's Red vs. Blue. People here seem to be taking the whole "taking the season as a whole" thing... not particularly well.

I sincerely hope you're not proposing that the way they've been handling the series thus far is justifiable on the basis that they're "chapters" rather than "seasons."

Even if I treated each "volume" as 2-4 episodes (since most standard shows have a 30 minute runtime and each volume has been about, I dunno, 1-2 hours), I'd still think the same way about the show as I do now. In fact, since I can watch the entire volume all at once it would make contradictory information and continuity errors more noticeable, thus making the series up to now appear even worse than if I were to have to wait for each episode and end up not having previous eps fresh in my mind starting the next one.

What you said there is just a variation of the "still in season 1" excuse. Let's not keep doing that.

 

[Halon Chocolate]

Wow, you guys were completely on the mark regarding this episode.

That "battle", for a defend-the-home-city type of fight it was over pretty fast. Also, more flashy action-figure esque combat with barely any tension. More characters pop up to look cool (save for one everybody feels needed to have her moment, I agree there.), and the dilemma of the Grimm hole is resolved in a snap. Typical RWBY battle at this point, I don't know what I expected.

Some interesting stuff afterwards: Ozpin's higher-ups really don't like his modus operandi and appoint Ironwood to keep doing what hes doing. Torchwick is in the cubes jailhouse for who knows how long. Cinder's team maintains cover and receives possible aid from Adam of all people. Thats cool. Seasons done. Yang meets...her mom? Food for thought to hold people over until Season 3. I'll forget it though.

Is it just me, or is the passage of time completely removed for anyone else? Maybe I just need to pay more attention, but I really can't tell you how long any PoV character has stayed at Beacon for the duration of the show. How long are their semesters? To see Jaune struggle with combat for a bit and then suddenly bring down a Grimm, it was comedic but a complete detachment from the pace. It just seems as if things are getting accomplished way too fast in such a short period of time. Which also brings me to this...

At some point, I honestly actually thought the tournament was completed off-screen. To see them at the end still talking about it made me think, wasn't that a big deal in Season 1? Its still a big deal now? I get that they're trying to build up this grand tournament as some kind of real big event folks are hyped up for, but the jarring on-off way the pacing is handling it just makes me throw up my arms and go "its still a thing?" every time someone resurrects the subject.

Despite these grievances, RWBY still holds a ton of untapped potential and I really want to see it become more than simply mediocre. But at this stage...

I will probably watch the third season only for Schadenfreude.

 

[LawAndChaos]

Wow, you guys were completely on the mark regarding this episode.

That "battle", for a defend-the-home-city type of fight it was over pretty fast. Also, more flashy action-figure esque combat with barely any tension. More characters pop up to look cool (save for one everybody feels needed to have her moment, I agree there.), and the dilemma of the Grimm hole is resolved in a snap. Typical RWBY battle at this point, I don't know what I expected.

Status Quo is god.

Some interesting stuff afterwards: Ozpin's higher-ups really don't like his modus operandi and appoint Ironwood to keep doing what hes doing.

Ironwood got infiltrated (his building, I mean) and no one seemed to notice. Did this not come to the council's attention? Did Ironwood cover it up? Why didn't Ozpin or Glynda report it, they knew about it? Why is Ironwood head of security if his guards can't guard worth a crap?

Torchwick is in the cubes jailhouse for who knows how long.

Unless he can break his losing streak, he can stay there.

Cinder's team maintains cover and receives possible aid from Adam of all people. Thats cool. Seasons done.

Step 1: Introduce villains of the volume
Step 2: Have them do vaguely evil things
Step 3: Confrontation
Step 4: Bring in the main antag of the next volume

Only step they didn't follow for this volume was having Cinder and pals be the ones confronted. Instead it was the White Fang and Toadlick again.

Yang meets...her mom? Food for thought to hold people over until Season 3. I'll forget it though.

The real question is, how does this affect the story? The bigger question is, does anyone really care?

Is it just me, or is the passage of time completely removed for anyone else? Maybe I just need to pay more attention, but I really can't tell you how long any PoV character has stayed at Beacon for the duration of the show. How long are their semesters? To see Jaune struggle with combat for a bit and then suddenly bring down a Grimm, it was comedic but a complete detachment from the pace. It just seems as if things are getting accomplished way too fast in such a short period of time. Which also brings me to this...

At some point, I honestly actually thought the tournament was completed off-screen. To see them at the end still talking about it made me think, wasn't that a big deal in Season 1? Its still a big deal now? I get that they're trying to build up this grand tournament as some kind of real big event folks are hyped up for, but the jarring on-off way the pacing is handling it just makes me throw up my arms and go "its still a thing?" every time someone resurrects the subject.

Despite these grievances, RWBY still holds a ton of untapped potential and I really want to see it become more than simply mediocre.

TBH I figured discussing the series as a whole would be off-topic, and reserved for a thread more broad.

But I enjoy talking it out, sooooo...

What the series needed was to take its time. It introduces dozens of new characters and plot points because the team seems to be aiming for a yonger audience and assume that not constantly having new things being shoved in would bore them. In addition they're stealing from various anime and western animation tropes. Like, Lie Ren having Ren as his first name (Japanese naming in which the last name sometimes comes before the first), or the unrequited crush that goes to obnoxious lengths (Jaune and Weiss).

Oh, and let's not forget how Miles is favoring his own character in the writing. Think about it, he even appears before Blake OR Weiss as "vomit boy" and then is the first secondary character to be introduced. He's nice to the main character, has a nice conversation with her, hits on Weiss and Pyrra, is the main source of comic relief for the series (even though they try to make the series have a humorous tone at times, which makes comic relief redundant), has his own character arc before both Blake (who got one) and Yang (who has yet to get one), he's played up as sympathetic in his arc, has 2 moments of the same development (disobeying Cardin and the Ursa fight), tells off Neptune and is played up as being in the right rather than a hypocrite, has this "potential" being played up in places, is the main focus of the dance along with his team, is the designated leader OF his team, might even have a relationship with Weiss (maybe, we get only a brief moment of Weiss re-evaluating Jaune at the dance), might have a relationship with Pyrra (if you consider their conversation not ship sinking), and got more time dedicated to him in the fight of this episode than some of the other characters, mostly for humor. And despite us not seeing his improvement, he can take down an ursa now when in volume 1 he nearly got killed by one.

The whole series probably needed a do-over, but they can't. Because WB picked them up, firstly, and because none of them probably want to admit the issues the series has, secondly.

The flow of time isn't even the biggest problem the series has. But it goes to show they don't care about that either.