If you've seen this review page and the YMMV page, you know that the opinion on RWBY somehow manages to be very divided. Part of this is due to personal disappointment or clichés being equal to "bad".
RWBY tries really hard to be like anime. But let's not forget that it's still classified as webanimation, which is closer to people with ordinary skills than it is to studio's where the quality standard is very high. This is highly important because like anything else, RWBY can be bad if you approach it with unreasonable expectations. I have seen works where people mostly agree it's bad (most of what AVGN reviews), I've seen okay works, and I've seen very impressive works (such as TOME). With that in mind, how does RWBY compare so far?
First of all you should be warned that RWBY throws around a lot of anime clichés. The YMMV page agrees and it's listed there for a reason. If you don't like clichés, you have already found an arguable fault in this series. However, there are a few details that I haven't seen elsewhere yet, and most of these clichés get subverted or otherwise played with later. Unfortunately, it's not in this volume.
That brings me to the biggest and most objective fault of the first volume: The episodes are really short. The material can be 10 minutes but it's often shorter, sometimes as short as 5 minutes. And one often notices that the things that transpire in these episodes weren't meant for such short lengths. As a result, it's very easy to say that there's 10 episodes of no development. Please do not make more of this than it is: The 16 episodes of volume 1 have a combined length comparable to about two episodes of most series. Let's be fair, you don't expect even a part of a story to be told in two episodes.
Another thing to address again depends on one's standards. People have found fault with the animation and the voice acting. I more or less agree with the latter. While Ruby's portrayal is consistent, her VA doesn't always get the voice down. The animation also isn't perfect, but good enough that I can't pinpoint errors directly. And honestly, if you didn't grow up with this RWBY looks graphically amazing. The exceptions aren't worth 10 words.
Verdict so far? This is shorter than an OVA, not even close to a season. With that little time, don't expect much yet. Stick around for volume 2 though.
Little time to judge (Volume 1)
If you've seen this review page and the YMMV page, you know that the opinion on RWBY somehow manages to be very divided. Part of this is due to personal disappointment or clichés being equal to "bad".
RWBY tries really hard to be like anime. But let's not forget that it's still classified as webanimation, which is closer to people with ordinary skills than it is to studio's where the quality standard is very high. This is highly important because like anything else, RWBY can be bad if you approach it with unreasonable expectations. I have seen works where people mostly agree it's bad (most of what AVGN reviews), I've seen okay works, and I've seen very impressive works (such as TOME). With that in mind, how does RWBY compare so far?
First of all you should be warned that RWBY throws around a lot of anime clichés. The YMMV page agrees and it's listed there for a reason. If you don't like clichés, you have already found an arguable fault in this series. However, there are a few details that I haven't seen elsewhere yet, and most of these clichés get subverted or otherwise played with later. Unfortunately, it's not in this volume.
That brings me to the biggest and most objective fault of the first volume: The episodes are really short. The material can be 10 minutes but it's often shorter, sometimes as short as 5 minutes. And one often notices that the things that transpire in these episodes weren't meant for such short lengths. As a result, it's very easy to say that there's 10 episodes of no development. Please do not make more of this than it is: The 16 episodes of volume 1 have a combined length comparable to about two episodes of most series. Let's be fair, you don't expect even a part of a story to be told in two episodes.
Another thing to address again depends on one's standards. People have found fault with the animation and the voice acting. I more or less agree with the latter. While Ruby's portrayal is consistent, her VA doesn't always get the voice down. The animation also isn't perfect, but good enough that I can't pinpoint errors directly. And honestly, if you didn't grow up with this RWBY looks graphically amazing. The exceptions aren't worth 10 words.
Verdict so far? This is shorter than an OVA, not even close to a season. With that little time, don't expect much yet. Stick around for volume 2 though.