RWBY review: Round One (spoilers)

[Izanagi009_v1legacy]

Hello and welcome to the third season of RWBY and the tournament arc of the series.

Lets start with a plot summery of what happened this episode. First off, Ruby actually talks to her mother or rather her mother's gravestone and talks about her time at Beacon. We then transition into a fight sequence between Team RWBY and team ABRN (I think that's the abbreviation) that ends win RWBY's victory. We then hang out at the fairgrounds where Emerald talks them into revealing who will fight for them in the second round. We get a short comedy skit involving the team and a noodle shop and Nora shows up and does a few gags about her uncertainty with Jaune and her fear of what happens if her team loses. Then we end on a shot of team JPNR and the opposing team running to each other ready to fight.

Time to address the elephant in the room: the effects of Monty Oum's death. Being that he was the key animator of the show, one wonders what happened the the animation quality. I can say however that in the fights, the animation has actually improved but a side effect of this is that the motions taken by the characters are slower and less dramatic than the previous fights in the series. One scene in particular has Yang propelling herself on an ice curve and she's slower than the same type of movement during the mech fight in season 2. In addition, the fights are very planar with most of the motion taking place in one plane though this is common in even good anime; the problem is the lack of compensation of this with varied camera angles or effects. While there are more effects like action lines and sparks, it still doesn't compensate for the slower and less dynamic action.

As for the animation outside of combat, characters seem a bit stiff at times and there are one or two incidents of minor clipping in the show though not enough to break the show.

As for the comedy, we have another idiotic cat related joke involving Blake and fish:

Spoiler: spoilered for space

And we have the sequence of Nora rattling off unrealistic consequences of losing the tournament: it's slightly funny in terms of the absurdity that she goes and the slow graying of her character model but it's not completely funny.

As for the opening, I hate it: the animation is just a repeat of the second opening and the song sounds too heavy and chaotic to the point of irritation

So, In conclusion: an okay first episode to the season with a horrible opening song and animation that is double edged in implications for the show

 

[DirectorK]

Not really much I could add onto this review. The animation problems due to Monty's death were expected(at least to me) but I do give them credit for trying to live up to his legacy. There's really nothing story wise that I can rant on since it's only the first episode of the Volume, however do we really need to be reminded that Blake is part cat again(what is it, the third time now)? I admit it's funny but it's getting old. Overall, it's a decent start, but I think we all know by now that it won't last as the volume goes on.

 

[StormShaun]

*Walks in*

*Takes usual seat*

So... this is the thing we were waiting for.
Anyway, from the beginning.

I liked the opening segment. While I thought it was obvious, it is nice for them to clarify that it is her mother, and then there is her father... he doesn't even get a single line. Don't they think he should have at least say something? I mean, after all, that was his wife's gravestone, so he could have said something... I don't know, comforting or something. Then there was Zwai, I still can't get over that damn dog.

Moving on, the start of the tourniment... the design of the arena. I know, this is probably passing on the nitpicking side of things, but that arena is EXACTLY split in line by a hair. Should the two sides be combining, or that there is a obvious dug out line in-between? Once again though, nitpicking.
...and it took me a second to nitpick again. A hover-board weapon, that got exactly split in two. Okay... moving on. (and then even more seconds later it turns out to be a ELEMENTAL hover-board pistol... thing.) Apart from that small thing, I'm not complaining except from the usual animation problems (I guess it shouldn't "usual" at all, if we want something good.)

For the animation of the rest.
I thought the casual animation was slightly better... although the bowl of "noodles" looked more like spaghetti.
Other than that, not a bad start, but I want Jaune to actually get better at... SOMETHING (a better weapon, maybe?) But if it continues like this, we might get something a little decent.

As for the opening.
Yeah, don't like it.

Oh yeah, plus I don't mind Monty's character VA change (which is his brother), it makes him sound a little more sociable.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Ok I admit that other than the fight scene, the rest I was left lukewarm with (yes I know that how most RWBY episode are like but I usually find something interesting or liked in that episode).

I liked the opening segment. While I thought it was obvious, it is nice for them to clarify that it is her mother, and then there is her father... he doesn't even get a single line. Don't they think he should have at least say something? I mean, after all, that was his wife's gravestone, so he could have said something... I don't know, comforting or something.

Agreed. Maybe Ruby father interacting with his wife happened offscreen or something to keep her father not fully seen and vocaless unless they feel like it?

Also while it was cool that we saw other places in Remnant but thanks to that artstyle they used, it look out of place.

As for the fest scene, it was kinda meh as it was the usualy anime cliche/ troupe. While I do like Penny upbeat personality but her ranting scene just remind me alot of the character Pinkie Pie from MLP:FiM as it's something she did in the past.

I suppose the plus side to the episode was Weiss father cutting her fund for refusing to answer his call which I guess will build up to something and the fourth member to Cinder team. Is she Neo sister or in disguise? Also I wonder what their team is called Cinder, Mercury and Emerald? CEM?

Lastly, year the new openning is my least favourite of the openning so far as it doesn't has the same epic actiony feel to it like the past two had. In saying so I did like the song used during the battle. Was that new ost or a past song?

 

[lord canti]

Has the voice acting gotten nay better in the series?

 

[DirectorK]

As for the fest scene, it was kinda meh as it was the usualy anime cliche/ troupe. While I do like Penny upbeat personality but her ranting scene just remind me alot of the character Pinkie Pie from MLP:FiM as it's something she did in the past.

I think you mean Nora, not Penny. Penny is the robot girl, remember? She hasn't appeared yet in this Volume.

 

[09philj]

I really enjoyed it. It's the same funny, ridiculous, awesome mess as it was. Only with better animation and worse music.

 

[Thunderous Cacophony]

Moving on, the start of the tourniment... the design of the arena. I know, this is probably passing on the nitpicking side of things, but that arena is EXACTLY split in line by a hair. Should the two sides be combining, or that there is a obvious dug out line in-between? Once again though, nitpicking.

You mean between the different biomes? I don't see how they would combine, as they rise up out of the ground in separate sections, and they appear to be more decorative that a full representation of the enviroment (we didn't see cold breath in the ice area, or sweltering heat in the lava area, so I wouldn't expect steam in the middle).

...and it took me a second to nitpick again. A hover-board weapon, that got exactly split in two. Okay... moving on. (and then even more seconds later it turns out to be a ELEMENTAL hover-board pistol... thing.)

I thought that everything could be elemental with the addition of dust, and the kind of element depends on the dust used.

Honestly, if we're talking elements, I'm surprised that there was that huge dust crystal that they could use in the fight just put out there; you'd imagine that thing would be super-valuable, given the size of the shop from the very first episode.

OT: I'll agree that the slower animation is a lot more noticeable. The father in the first scene looked like a cut-out for all the movement he did, and watching the girls walk around was like watching high school theatre, with people holding in place and only acting when their line came up. I do hope that they manage to get ahead of the project for once, and can go back through and add touches to prevent the characters looking so stiff.

 

[Scarim Coral]

As for the fest scene, it was kinda meh as it was the usualy anime cliche/ troupe. While I do like Penny upbeat personality but her ranting scene just remind me alot of the character Pinkie Pie from MLP:FiM as it's something she did in the past.

I think you mean Nora, not Penny. Penny is the robot girl, remember? She hasn't appeared yet in this Volume.

Yeah I got the names mixed up, my bad.

 

[EMWISE94]

it was a pretty okay first episode, could've been worse but as far as RWBY standards go, it was alright.

Also I don't know if it's just me but the sound mixing sounded a bit off with dialogue being muffled by SFX and music at times.