Edit: Since people seemed really confused about what it is, I'm posting the trailers so people get an idea.
Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang
*sigh*
Walking dead is the worst thing I watch, but this is probably the worst thing I watch that I actually like. The story feels like it's the writers first attempt at one with the truly ridiculous pacing issues it has. I'll say that it has some decent humor, and the action scenes are Monty Oum, so you can expect greatness when there is a fight (especially episode 8). The characters can be really fun to watch, especially Yang and I love the stylized fairy tale mythology. If you like those things and have a high tolerance for anime-isms and high pitched voice actors and some abrasive characters, you might enjoy it.
(Spoilers from here on)
That said, I can't shut off my critical faculties and I have to confront the fact that this is really badly written in most areas, with the most problematic area being pacing. It has WAY too damn many ongoing plotlines. We have the foreshadowed Grimm Apocalypse in the beginning, Ruby's social issues, the criminal conspiracy going on, trying to pass tests in school, Weiss' attitude, Jaune's insecurities, Yang's protectiveness over her hair, Blake trust issues, the faunus racism, Juane's bullying, and the finale introduced a goddamn robot with a secret purpose of all things. The show makes better progress with the personal issues of the characters, but the results vary. Ruby's social issues have a nice progression to them. However, Weiss was abrasive for 8 episodes before she finally managed to chill out over stupid shit. Then in Episode 9 and 10, she regressed back until she was given a pep talk and finally agreed to be a teammate. And then in episodes 15 and 16, she's a problem again with Blake. I don't mind bitchy characters as much as most, but she can't constantly be the problem in every group conflict. Then there is Jaune, who is given entire episodes to himself, when he was already taking up a large chunk of screentime before. Episodes 11-14 are all dedicated to him, a quarter of the entire series, when he's not even on RWBY.
By my rough count, there are a total of 13 plotlines (probably more) going on in a sixteen 5-15 minute per episodes series. Look, I am all for ambitious storytelling with grand worlds and a huge cast, but you don't want to start the story with them. It's overwhelming and makes progress difficult. Case in point, we essentially know nothing about the criminal conspiracy Roman is behind and there has been no progress made on the Grimm apocalypse they opened the show with. They only touched upon the faunus racism and never even went into the tournament had foreshadowed for the past 4 episodes.
Which isn't getting into the fact that a lot of what does progress isn't doing so very well. Some of the arcs the characters go through are so generic. Weiss has to be nicer. Jaune has to stand up to his bully. Racism is wrong. These are all things worth exploring, but they ought to go into more depth than they did if they don't want to bore the audience with this onslaught of cliches. Cardin, the school bully, is particularly bad. He isn't given any characterization other than being a colossal asshole for no apparent reason. As a result of this, I enjoy Yang's character the most. She is badass and gives no shits. She basically has no plotline other than filling in the 4th spot on team RWBY, but she steals the show for me every time she does something, because she seems to be having so much fun and does audatious shit in fight scenes. And that's RWBY at it's best, not when it's trying to do drama it's simply not measured up to do.
It's disappointing, because the people at Roosterteeth are capable of good writing, but apparently they didn't work on this project. There is definitely more bad about it than good, but if you can tune out the bad, you can enjoy it for the humor, fights, and music can definitely be fun.
Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang
*sigh*
Walking dead is the worst thing I watch, but this is probably the worst thing I watch that I actually like. The story feels like it's the writers first attempt at one with the truly ridiculous pacing issues it has. I'll say that it has some decent humor, and the action scenes are Monty Oum, so you can expect greatness when there is a fight (especially episode 8). The characters can be really fun to watch, especially Yang and I love the stylized fairy tale mythology. If you like those things and have a high tolerance for anime-isms and high pitched voice actors and some abrasive characters, you might enjoy it.
(Spoilers from here on)
That said, I can't shut off my critical faculties and I have to confront the fact that this is really badly written in most areas, with the most problematic area being pacing. It has WAY too damn many ongoing plotlines. We have the foreshadowed Grimm Apocalypse in the beginning, Ruby's social issues, the criminal conspiracy going on, trying to pass tests in school, Weiss' attitude, Jaune's insecurities, Yang's protectiveness over her hair, Blake trust issues, the faunus racism, Juane's bullying, and the finale introduced a goddamn robot with a secret purpose of all things. The show makes better progress with the personal issues of the characters, but the results vary. Ruby's social issues have a nice progression to them. However, Weiss was abrasive for 8 episodes before she finally managed to chill out over stupid shit. Then in Episode 9 and 10, she regressed back until she was given a pep talk and finally agreed to be a teammate. And then in episodes 15 and 16, she's a problem again with Blake. I don't mind bitchy characters as much as most, but she can't constantly be the problem in every group conflict. Then there is Jaune, who is given entire episodes to himself, when he was already taking up a large chunk of screentime before. Episodes 11-14 are all dedicated to him, a quarter of the entire series, when he's not even on RWBY.
By my rough count, there are a total of 13 plotlines (probably more) going on in a sixteen 5-15 minute per episodes series. Look, I am all for ambitious storytelling with grand worlds and a huge cast, but you don't want to start the story with them. It's overwhelming and makes progress difficult. Case in point, we essentially know nothing about the criminal conspiracy Roman is behind and there has been no progress made on the Grimm apocalypse they opened the show with. They only touched upon the faunus racism and never even went into the tournament had foreshadowed for the past 4 episodes.
Which isn't getting into the fact that a lot of what does progress isn't doing so very well. Some of the arcs the characters go through are so generic. Weiss has to be nicer. Jaune has to stand up to his bully. Racism is wrong. These are all things worth exploring, but they ought to go into more depth than they did if they don't want to bore the audience with this onslaught of cliches. Cardin, the school bully, is particularly bad. He isn't given any characterization other than being a colossal asshole for no apparent reason. As a result of this, I enjoy Yang's character the most. She is badass and gives no shits. She basically has no plotline other than filling in the 4th spot on team RWBY, but she steals the show for me every time she does something, because she seems to be having so much fun and does audatious shit in fight scenes. And that's RWBY at it's best, not when it's trying to do drama it's simply not measured up to do.
It's disappointing, because the people at Roosterteeth are capable of good writing, but apparently they didn't work on this project. There is definitely more bad about it than good, but if you can tune out the bad, you can enjoy it for the humor, fights, and music can definitely be fun.
