RWBY review: Breach (Spoilers)

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

Hello and welcome to another RWBY review where we have the big Human vs. Grimm fight in Breach [http://roosterteeth.com/archive/?id=9902]

Well, I can officially say this: WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?!?!?!?

Okay the episode basically has two parts: first is the fight and the second is the set up.

First the fight, it was way too short. Out of an episode spanning almost 18 minutes, only 10 were fight footage.

Might as well get the positives out of the way, it was kind of grand with JNPR, CVFY, the teachers, Sun, Neptune and Cinder's group fighting. We also got to see some creative stuff. One member of CVFY has arm blades kind of like in Anarchy Reigns.

Jaune actually killed a grimm without help (by flailing about like an idiot). Emerald's guns fold out into Kusarigama (makes me think of Axel from Guilty Gear)

Now the stupid. First off, the fight setpieces are all very short and with no effort being exerted and any tension ruined by the appearance of the Atlas military mechs which actually clean shop quite nicely. Seriously, if humanity had these resources, why couldn't they wipe grimm off the map and expand? Also we got a few stupid powers. First was Weiss with something that really gets me personally

Spoiler: for space concerns

Really, you already copied Jin's astral, did you need to partially copy one of his specials too.

Also CVFY's leader grates on me. She sounds like an odd combination of overconfident fashion shopper and snarky leader and her weapon is just as stupid

I don't know what's worse, the fact that she looked so much like Eltnum from Under Night or the fact that she is nothing like Eltnum and has a sodding minigun hidden in what looks like a make-up case. In addition, because of her, we don't get to see Velvet do anything; what a waste of a design contest.

The biggest issue as always is a lack of real impact or investment with these grimm fights. These people literally just plow through an entire horde of grimm with even the big ones being taken down in seconds. This was supposed to be a major event given what we know about Grimm and humanity's fight against them and we got a small spattering of quick fights.

Next is the setup for next season. It's not pretty.

First, Ozpin gets a call from a council of three people, likely the leaders of Vale. If the council was supposed to be terrifying, they failed. The voices are just horrible. Anyway, they put Ironwood in charge of security for the festival and express disappointment in Ozpin. Meanwhile, Torchwick is being held in Atlas under Ironwood's custody and will most likely escape and do something. Cinder's team talk about their plans being screwed up and Adam from the black trailer shows up to help them get support. Lastly, an after credits scene has Yang walking with the scene having a really odd haze on the edges meeting with portal lady who says they need to talk; She also takes off her mask and shows her face which looks like an odd combination of Blake's face with red eyes and hair somewhat like Yang's.

Where to begin, how about the fact that we still don't know what the base plan even is. If they want to build suspense, they have to give us a bite at some point before pulling us in. Just hiding everything is not enough. Also, what on earth is going on between Ozpin and Ironwood to cause these problems; I haven't seen any real conflict of thought other than approach. Why is Adam reappearing at this time, are they implying that Cinder and Adam are working together? Finally the after credits scene, why the haze. if it's a dream how does Yang know the woman's face? If it's real, why is there a haze around them?

Animation also seemed to have taken a dive. I'm not sure if I just haven't noticed but there are some odd 3D animation hiccups with inconsistent shading and one of the faces has eyes way too small

Spoiler: bad art

All and all, it's not worth your time, this show didn't even go out with a whimper, it just left me unsatisfied and confused and quite frankly I will probably watch the third season only for Schadenfreude.

 

[DirectorK]

Rooster Teeth, you done fucked it up! Again!

What the hell happened? Was this intentional? Did you learn NOTHING from the last volume? How can you let something that was so disappointing the first time become an even bigger disappointment this time when you promised that you were going to address the issues many people had with this show?

If you're one of those people who just want to be entertained by silly humor and over the top action with nothing to back it up then you're fine. If you think this show is perfect, good for you. But for the rest of us who were much more from Rooster Teeth like a satisfying beginning, middle, and end to this year's season, RWBY still suffers from the exact same problems it had last season, three of them to be specific.

1. Lack of competent storytelling and directing.
2. Downright amateurish fight scenes that make no sense and has no impact.
3. And a constant tug of war between the show's seriousness and humor that has caused a great deal of frustration among viewers like ourselves.

And before you even think about saying, "It's still the beginning! Give them a chance!" that's no longer an excuse. This is the second season now. We shouldn't be having these issues any longer. Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum need to be taken to task to make sure this doesn't become the trend of any future animated web-series of this quality.

Practically the only things we've learn so far this season, other than Weiss having a sister and Yang's mother possibly being revealed, are what we pretty much learned or at least figured out last season. We still don't a damn thing about Dust and how is works, the Four Kingdoms of Remnant, or have the creatures of Grimm even still exist among this civilized and technologically advanced world. Oh, sure! They could have explained it through the World of Remnant videos except they never bother to do so! Instead the context is we're supposed to enjoy this show for what is it.

Rooster Teeth & Monty Oum: "Watch it, keep your mouths shut, and don't criticize it because you don't know better!"

Is it really... so hard... to just... EX.... PPPPPLLLLAAAIIIINNNN!


I am THIS close right now to breaking into a rant on how... FRUSTRATING this show is! So... let me get my anger out of the way first.


Okay, now I can give my overall review of RWBY Volume 2.

If Rooster Teeth really thought that Volume 2 would get RWBY off in the the right direction after the disaster of Volume 1, it didn't. Pretty much what it amounts to is while they did get off in the right step by having someone killed in the first few minutes of the opening episode--something that was severely lacking in Volume 1--they then ended up tripping over a rock and then falling flat on their faces HARD! And I know what you're thinking "How do we expect RWBY to be anything but BAD at this point? Especially after two seasons?" But that's the problem right there! It is TERRIBLE now that we don't expect anything good to come from RWBY especially after two seasons. That in itself is fucking wrong! It just shows how much they fucked this thing up!

And even more so, why this fails even harder, is how they promised they were going to address the issues people had with Volume 1. And yet here we are! With a season that has just a bad as the first with only two differences. Better animation, to a degree, and pacing. Everything else was just ignored. The writing had not changed one bit. In some cases, it's WORSE.

First they started off with an admittedly hilarious yet incredibly stupid food fight scene, then they turned it into a fucking soap-opera involving Weiss, Jaune, and Pyhrra, and as though things couldn't get any worse, they add a dog named Zwei for no reason other than for cute humor. And just when the writing had improved and thought it was finally going somewhere, they fuck it up again with the action sequences of the last two episodes!

To add further insult to injury, remember that competition involving Velvet Scarlatina's outfit? It was a fucking wasted effort because Velvet only appears twice in this season. First just to appear for thirty seconds and say a few lines and then she appears on the last episode and kicks a few a monster or two. The moment when it looks like she going to finally use her weapon, the moment everyone in the competition were eagerly waiting for, she suddenly gets pushed aside by her team leader just so the team leader can have her little "Predator" moment.


A fucking wasted competition and a double-slap in the face to everyone who participated in it! So we're going to have to wait until season three to see Velvet do something useful I suppose? Thanks a fucking lot Rooster Teeth. All those outfit submissions just for that? Who the HELL came up with that idea?! If this doesn't piss off fans and make them finally open their eyes, I don't know what will. I'm certain there's a lot of angry fans out there right now Rooster Teeth, and you've a lot of explaining to do.

And if that wasn't enough, they had the gall to put out not one, not two, but THREE!!! World of Remnant videos that were not only a waste of time but could have been easily written into episodes involving the professors. But M&K were too lazy to even do that! And they even weren't informative anyway, so why the hell even create them?!

RWBY, I'm sorry to say, is a shit excuse of a web-series that's suppose to simulate anime, the worst example of this new genre that was said to open a new door in media. This show does way more damage than improve in regards on how people view animated web-series of this quality. Why this was allowed to release is either a colossal fuck up, or a testament to Rooster Teeth's future. I have little to no hope at all for season three. I will give them one final chance and if they blow it, I'm dropping RWBY and ending my subscription to Rooster Teeth.

For the love of God, Rooster Teeth! Get you shit together and start taking some responsibility! You're destroying everything you've built over the years with this show! Stop making excuses for Monty, Miles, and Kerry! STOP IT!

 

[LawAndChaos]

Gentlemen. Welcome to the end of volume 2.

It was nothing special.

The End.

Because of character overload, we couldn't maintain focus on 1 team for more than a minute. We jumped between Cinder's team, RWBY, JNPR, CFVY and even some of the teachers. Not counting Cinder because she didn't pop in, I count roughly 17 goddamn characters in this single fight sequence.

There are 2 ways to make this interesting. UPSCALE the fight so everyone gets a decent amount of fight time, or CUT DOWN the number of characters fighting. One of team CFVY's group literally gets ONE attack before the cinematography goess "OK MOVING ON." To say nothing of Sun and Neptune doing detective poses like twats in the middle of a FUCKING GRIMM ATTACK. I know that's a small detail, but it just really miffed me that they're posing like that while their friends are fighting these SUPER-DUPER KILLING MACHINES.

When your characters treat fighting Grimm like it's nothing special, all the buildup of them being these dangerous monsters is...wait for it...A LOAD OF BULLOCKS. How are Grimm even a threat? Seriously.

I was wrong about it being Ruby's mom. I just went with the color scheme and the Hakumen-esque bits and assumed Ruby's mom. Oh, and introducing a character like that solely to do a reveal next episode. Well since it was pretty much called from the very start the point is moot, I suppose.

Torchwich is still a jobber. He's demonstrated nothing remotely similar to competence throughout the whole series thus far. If he suddenly becomes competent, it better be a case of obsfucating stupidity or some crap, like being captured worked in his favor, because at least that's a justified turn around in his ability.

 

[Mikeyfell]

If you're interested

I don't know what's worse, the fact that she looked so much like Eltnum from Under Night or the fact that she is nothing like Eltnum and has a sodding minigun hidden in what looks like a make-up case. In addition, because of her, we don't get to see Velvet do anything; what a waste of a design contest.

Yeah, back before RTX they released the silhouettes of team what-ever as teaser art and (Even though I've never heard of Eltnum) I was the most excited about her design because she looked Smart and cocky, but weak and her first fucking line is about a clothing store.
They don't seem to understand that stereotypes (Especially valley girl stereotypes) should be avoided like Ebola...

The efficiency with which they suck all of the potential out of their show is staggering.

The biggest issue as always is a lack of real impact or investment with these grimm fights. These people literally just plow through an entire horde of grimm with even the big ones being taken down in seconds. This was supposed to be a major event given what we know about Grimm and humanity's fight against them and we got a small spattering of quick fights.

Yep...

they put Ironwood in charge of security for the festival and express disappointment in Ozpin. Meanwhile, Torchwick is being held in Atlas under Ironwood's custody and will most likely escape and do something.

Remember when Cinder stole that thing from Ironwood's guards?
How she walked up to them nonchalantly and kicked their asses without breaking a sweat...
Why does the counsel think he should be in charge of security?

which looks like an odd combination of Blake's face with red eyes and hair somewhat like Yang's.

I thought she looked like Blake from the future...
Mostly for the unfortunate implications that would have for all the people who ship Blake and Yang.

I will probably watch the third season only for Schadenfreude.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Yeah I agreed that the battle was lackluster, honestly I was expecting more of a warfare sort of battle (everyone work with each other and more of a serious tone) than the usual everyone strucking their moves and kicking ass.

Yeah Coco (Velvet leader name right?) was just a "fuck you realism" out of the show so far when it come to their weapons! Yes I am fully aware that realism is never their thing in the show but I always thought there was some kind of a realistic thing to their weapon that they would transform correct even if the combution (gun shot) wouldn't work, you know like a most Transformer toy then the Bayformers when the part will shrink and morph into place.

Also I assuming that green cloth guy eye is suppose to be like that, you know like Fred from Scooby Doo or was his eyes normal looking when they appear some episode ago?

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.

Overall as for season 2, looking it back now, I will say it was dissapointing or rather it was somewhat mislead. You see my beef with season 2 is that they always put Velvet team and the rest of Sun and Neptune team in the credit but Velvet team only appear briefly in one episode and properly appear at the end while the rest of Sun and Neptune team never show up at season 2!!

Lastly what's up with the ending? Was that a dream like sequence and oh it look like people were right that the masked woman is Yang mom.

 

[DaWaffledude]

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.

 

[LawAndChaos]

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.

 

[DirectorK]

Couple things I forgot to mention.

We STILL haven't had the tournament yet? Are you fucking kidding me M&K? The tournament was the only thing to look forward to in this season yet you pushed it aside for a stupid romance between Weiss, Neptune, Jaune, and Phyrra. The only "tournament" fight we did see was Phyrra taking Team CRDL and Mercury. At first I thought that was it, but now we're going to have to wait till season three comes out. You're really slowing the pace down, aren't you? The tournament is STILL the only thing to look forward to.

Also, the fact that Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum keep insisting this show is original and unique isn't just bullshit but it just shows how desperate they are in trying to sell this show.


As one guy commented on that video "That's like saying the new Transformers movie is going to be original". If RWBY was anything original if would not be alluding to classic fairy tales we know and love and wouldn't ripping off certain animes and tropes as stated many times before.

 

[LawAndChaos]

You're really slowing the pace down, aren't you?

Actually, they don't even pace, bro.

Pacing to them translates to:

1) Everything happening all at once as quickly as possible

OR


2) Complete standstill

You can't really slow things down when you're basically playing red light green light with the plot.

 

[laggyteabag]

Yeah... I thought it was a pretty poor ending to the season. RT seems to have lost it when it comes to finales as both the RvB S12 and RWBY S2 finales were both pretty lackluster.

Good job making the whole Grimm threat seem pretty much nill anyway. If they are that much of a pushover, why not just go out and kill them all? That girl had a mini-gun that killed one of those giant birds from Season 1 with one bullet. I get that they were trying to show that the hunters/huntresses were complete badasses, but the action wasn't even that good, and that was mostly attributed to the fact that the animation quality took a complete dive. M&K seem to think that RWBY is a lot more successful than it actually is, but in reality, it is a pretty poor series with an occasional glimpse of hope, but is ultimately buried underneath terrible voice acting, writing and animation. If the animation had the same kind of quality as the Neapolitan vs Yang fight from the previous episode, then it would be a lot easier to watch, but as it stands, the ratio to good scenes to bad scenes is way too negative. It is just the ugly baby that only the parents can love, but it will continue nonetheless, but hopefully only for a couple more seasons. I cant see how much further it can go without dragging out the story.

 

[RolandOfGilead]

Loved the volume!
I still liked the finale but I was hoping the fight would be staged better, instead we got the usual, which is the usual because it's tremendously less work, but the usual of having just one or two characters and the bad guys look like they're the only ones in the scene at all.

edit: and we didn't get to see anybody save a civilian.
edit2: it was a surprise and a delight to have everyone and I do mean everyone, show up. However, it also diluted the action and it would have been nice if it had been more difficult and if RWBY had had their asses saved at the last moment. Obviously Ruby would not have backed down, but they should have been more tired at least. Have some conflict with saving civilians versus the fact that they physically can't exert themselves enough to do that and keep themselves safe.

tl;dr The finale is no place hip hip hooray action scenes. No Brakes would have been a better finale.

 

[IronPerson]

I always was skeptical about this series. I guess I should be.

I can tell people are invested enough to make reviews like this and demand better from the creators though, so that has to be worth something. I have a lot of trouble getting invested in this kind of work. I can ignore the production value, but it's just so tropey and the characters are all based on existing ones from anime and JRPGs. At least that's the impression I get. If it's supposed to just be stupid action, then I don't think it's very good at that either. It's too kinetic and the camera's flying around to much.

If I might (without sounding like a butt) why do people like this in the first place? I've only watched a few eps of volume 1. And even then just because a friend chained me down to a chair.

 

[DirectorK]

If I might (without sounding like a butt) why do people like this in the first place? I've only watched a few eps of volume 1. And even then just because a friend chained me down to a chair.

Two Reasons.

1. It's because it's got Rooster Teeth's and Monty Oum's name plastered all over.

2. It's surrounded by fanboys and fangirls who've never read, watched, or experienced anything in their lives and will go haywire whenever someone criticizes so much as ONE little thing about this show. And it may be just me--and I sincerely hope it is just me--but Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum seem to be encouraging this behavior to their fans.

 

[StormShaun]

I'm glad to see similar views on the show here. Especially you Izanagi, this show needs to get it's butt handed to it!

*Ahem*

My problems with this episode (apart from me STILL trying to get over the dog baseball from the previous one) are, well, many. Just like the last season.

The first fight was way too quick. I mean sure, Team RWBY should have done well against the smaller Grim (that is what their trailers showed anyway), until they get overwhelmed. Then they should have had Jaune who was with his team fly overhead, debating about what to do, his cowardice almost overcoming his sense of friendship, but he pulls out and goes down with his team. Then while most members were helping defend team RWBY, then Jaune should have had his moment with the big grim ... but much more badass, he needs development in that department.

Of course, since there SHOULD be an endless stream of Grim coming out of the hole, both teams should be overwhelmed, allowing the new team to come in. Yes they all show off and crap, and Velvet SHOULD have got her moment. Like really, she seems to be a big character too, so it wouldn't be a bad moment to fully introduce her. Of course this big team should have managed to defend the overcome teams until the military show up.

The teachers and 'Team Undercover' should have been trying to rescue civilians (because that wasn't shown), but somewhat fail until the military come in, making Ozpin's failure much more worse.

*sigh*

Then there is all that over stuff. The new masked girl/Ying (fan-name), and the return of Adam. That makes sense, but all that other stuff makes the reveal worse.

Overall, this season was disappointing. The animation was sometimes awkward, the story was almost non-existent, and characters keep piling up on another without any depth. I don't think I can blame Monty for this, my blame is more shifted on time, and the other directors/writers.

 

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

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.

 

[DirectorK]

Personally I prefer cinematic scores over rock and role ones. I developed a bitter hatred for anime openings because they're all the same. Rock music is fine, but only if it has a symphonic feel.

Like this for example:


Jeff Williams score is fine, but it doesn't make me feel connected to the series as other famous scores do. Imagine if RWBY had an opening with this kind of music:

 

[LawAndChaos]

Personally I prefer cinematic scores over rock and role ones. I developed a bitter hatred for anime openings because they're all the same. Rock music is fine, but only if it has a symphonic feel.

Actually the cool thing about anime is that sometimes you can get a bunch of different songs out of them.

I'll use Eureka Seven as an example:

We go from this:


To this:


To this:


As the series goes on. It all depends on the anime. If you're talking the animation IN the openings I can understand, though. I mean, standing around, posing, looking at the sky, etc.

RWBY's trailers gave me the impression they were going to go with pseudo-orchestral and techno-rock pieces, and since those tracks for each trailer were really, really good I thought it'd sound really awesome, like buying the OST awesome. Instead the music got rather generic and both intros to RWBY are strictly locked in rock, so to speak. And to be honest maybe this is a case of AmericaN Kirby is Hardcore, because the team is from the west and thinks we need hard rock intros and nothing less, but I really hope they experiment with volume 3's theme. Even if volume 3 ends up following the standard formula we've seen the past 2 volumes.

I think that music-wise Williams doesn't have much expected of him because the sounds of combat and voicework are going to smother it anyway, so his work isn't the best it could be. I mostly feel the choice of music they made has detracted from the work because of the fact that this world is meant to be mystical and strange, full of magic and machines, and that orchestral pieces and techno/techno-rock (like the stuff in the trailer) would lend itself to the world better.

But then, the team doesn't care about the world eiter way, so...

 

[themilo504]

Um can somebody please tell me what RWBY is?

 

[DirectorK]

snip

Meh, I just don't like anime songs in general. The only time I'll make an exception is if it's specifically has that kind of modern day/splice of life setting. Whenever I watch a show that has a fantasy/sci-fi setting I want to hear a song that immediately embraces me into the world. Such as this:


And this:


Since we're talking music scores let's do a little experiment. LawAndChaos, if you were directing RWBY, what kind of music would you use and which composer would be best suited for the task in your mind? Please leave an example of two. Anyone else is welcome to put in their own thoughts.

 

[LarsInCharge]

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.