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Condor-K Since: May, 2014
05/24/2014 12:00:37 •••

Not Worth the Time

RWBY is bad. It's redeeming qualities exist in Jeff William's sometimes good soundtrack and Monty Oum's long-brewing concept which delivers a world that initially seems interesting on paper, but fails to be explored by the show nearly enough as it deserves. As I said, the soundtrack is for the most part good, but when music isn't playing there's really no reason to have the sound turned on at all. A common misconception is that voice acting requires no training, and if someone thinks so, point them to this series, with the exception of Oum and Pelto (due to their characters' voices not being demanding at all) no one's skills stand out in a positive way and get only marginally better from the previews. Additionally, the dialogue is amateurish, written by two who fail to deliver character consistency in dialogue, and spend their time writing short speeches that are supposed to teach other characters lessons and instead serve as a disappointing climax to most of the episodes. Unless there's a battle happening, the animation is boring and clumsy, some scenes are just painful to watch, any point in which there's a visual gag, the animation takes a nosedive even further below the line of acceptable. It's clear from Volume 1 that the animators weren't skilled with 3D animation and they only used the medium so Oum's signature 3D fight scenes would look as nerdgasm-y as possible. Character designs are fine across the board, though I found the colors to be plain. Weapons and environments look pretty and very interesting. The designs for all the villains are dumb with the exception of the three at the very end of volume one, the White Fang cronies are made to look like mooks and aren't threatening, the bullies' clothing is boring and the creatures of Grim are all just normal animals in black fur with weird white marks on them, initially the most promising part of the show for me, the enemies turned out even more boring than the protagonists' personalities. The plot of the show is painfully overdone and not inventive in the slightest, the word count is too constricting to go into detail of many elements. Faunis-Shaming is an insultingly simple way of showing which characters are good and bad off people's opinions.

Oum himself said RWBY is a "flat but very colorful show" and I feel this speaks to all elements of the show as of its first volume.

omegafire17 Since: Apr, 2010
05/10/2014 00:00:00

Your proof that Monty said that?

But even ignoring that, not everything has to be flat-out fantastic to be good - RWBY is simply establishing a base first in Volume 1, and there is nothing wrong with that, even using cliche and done-to-death aspects (which are not inherently bad btw, imo). Plus the dialogue is going for a more 'natural' feel I believe, like these are things they'd actually say, and not sound or feel scripted... which is entirely realistic irl.

And aside from your opinion, some of the things you mentioned (like the designs of both Grimm and the villians) were likely the entire point.

On a side note, learn to paragraph, because it's difficult/irritating for many to read even a semi-wall of text

TomWithNoNumbers Since: Dec, 2010
05/11/2014 00:00:00

One of the breakout moments of the show was that the Faunus aren't all a collection of 'good' people. They've had horrible things happen to them and they've done horrible things back. The team member who I thought was going to be written off as racist and was actually given a bit of justification for how she felt. On the other hand it's totally not shown as an okay thing to have strong racially motivated prejudices. It's the Irish question as opposed to something more black and white

Condor-K Since: May, 2014
05/22/2014 00:00:00

An animator quoted Monty saying that, I think she said it in the second production diary, or one of the production diary videos.

On the note of the Grimm's designs, them looking like normal animals, was just really boring to me. Even though they were bigger, the only time they were ever really scare was when they fought the giant bird thing and it shot its feathers at them like giant arrows. I'd have liked to see more of animals with powers or weird abilities, or just Grimm creatures that didn't look like normal animals, and instead like grotesque monsters, I believe that the team there has the imagination to pull of the latter. If not then it might be cool to see them throw a design contest out to their tons of fans like they did with some character designs.

I meant to paragraph it, and the whole thing was separated but when I went to post it reverted to this way, and I was just a bit too lazy to fix the whole thing with the exception of that last line.

I didn't mean all the Faunus (is that how it's spelled?) were good, I meant that if you look at all the villains of the first volume, they all hate the Faunus. The bullies, and even Jack made remarks about not liking the Faunus (or insulting them I think) and then the other main villains (none of which are Faunus by the way) don't disagree with him and roll with his comment.

TomWithNoNumbers Since: Dec, 2010
05/23/2014 00:00:00

But one of the good guys wasn't pro Faunus either. I think the idea was most people in society are pretty exclusionist towards these guys, maybe more 19400's USA than 1990's+

omegafire17 Since: Apr, 2010
05/23/2014 00:00:00

As far as the Grimm being scary ('actually' scary), some of them clearly weren't meant to be; Ruby herself considered Beowolves to be Mooks ("What was that!? That should have been easy!"). And likely Yang thought the same of the non-Alpha Ursa bears, considerably how easy they were taken out. Includes the Boar one as well, and likely the King T. snake, despite it's size and two heads.

However, once you get into the really big ones (Deathstalker and Nevermore), then they're actually scary, due to sheer armor and power. Not just all-of-them-must-be-seen-as-scary-beyond-the-appearance.

And speaking of appearance, they are literally manifestations of anonymity, and lack a soul entirely (thus they have no Aura, or powers as you put it). With no soul, there's pretty much nothing but pure animal instinct, not even 'evil' characteristics that would fit grotesque monsters. The 'boring' mostly-black appearance reinforces that, and is likely the entire point, as I stated.

Condor-K Since: May, 2014
05/23/2014 00:00:00

If I remember correctly (which I might not) Weiss, if that's who you're talking about, didn't hate the Faunus. She was just against the White Fang group which doesn't include all Faunus, she simply had a justified reason for not liking a specific organization while the villains just generally hated Faunus and White Fang for being Faunus and White Fang.

Well I don't think enemies really need to be scary, I'd use threatening as a better word, and the Grimm looking like they did definitely detracted from that. Also, I wasn't talking about whether or not they actually were threatening in the original review, just that they didn't look the part because of how similar they were to normal animals, whether or not they posed a threat or were scary in battle is a whole different matter relating to their actual strength. So I wouldn't mind the mostly black and white armor pieces if they were covering an unorthodox looking monster and not just some normal animal.

As for powers, I wouldn't know about the Aura affecting their special abilities, but the Boar was able to roll at ludicrous speeds and the Nevermore shot giant feathers, more things like that are all I would've liked to see.

omegafire17 Since: Apr, 2010
05/23/2014 00:00:00

What do you have against the enemies being normal animals, exactly? Or about the armor?

Condor-K Since: May, 2014
05/23/2014 00:00:00

Having the Creatures of Grimm be normal animals with slight aesthetic changes and a notable size difference is not only pretty boring, it just seems like an infuriating waste. I personally would find actual monsters to be more threatening and would make fights with them significantly more interesting.

For instance, take the fight with the scorpion monster, (er... Deathstalker right?) it's extremely obvious what's going to be in that thing's arsenal, the claws and the pointed tail. Put those together with no special abilities and he ends up, despite the size difference, boring. If it had been some made-up fantasy monster however, than it'd be hard to say how that kind of creature would attack or move, it being unpredictable and looking interesting would make it more frightening, and the fight much better.

omegafire17 Since: Apr, 2010
05/24/2014 00:00:00

Well, not everything has to be wildly different like that; many things in real life are boring-but-practical. Plus the RWBY animating team are a fairly small one, so simple-but-effective-in-the-needed-way were likely the point.

And not everything needs special abilities - the Nevermore put up one of the biggest fights on the show simply by being near-invincible, ramming into stuff, and occasionally throwing arrow-feathers. Simple, but effective nonetheless despite it being obvious it would do such things - but the obviousness/predictability shouldn't detract from anything imo

Condor-K Since: May, 2014
05/24/2014 00:00:00

Well then I guess this is just a disagreement about personal preference. I'm not willing to make a review easier or forgive certain things because of the small team, especially when these guys have a huge fan base that they've been willing to draw on for ideas and significant work. Also in my opinion, the obviousness and predictability does detract from the fight because it becomes plain to see what the enemy will do. Not being able to know what an enemy will do makes a fight scary, and makes watching it suspenseful, and that imo is one of the most important things a battle can be in a show like RWBY.


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