Miandro’s Spotlight is a weekly blog update rounding up what has been happening to the blog such as the latest posts, what’s caught my eye, and what I plan for the near future.
Tag: Rooster Teeth
ANIME, DISCUSSION – Last Monday, RWBY has unveiled a character short teaser featuring one of the main characters, Weiss Schnee. This teaser is the first of the other character shows that will be live as the release of Volume 5 draws near.
One thing to note about this video is how it shows Rooster Teeth’s improvements when it comes to animation and production quality.
Let’s get right to it!
REVIEW – Over the span of four volumes, Rooster Teeth has been constantly improving its animation as seen through their animated series “RWBY”. From the clunky and robotic movements in its first volume, this show has come a long way.
After watching the entire volume, I can sum the whole plot in just a few words: “The fairy tale is over”. In the first three volumes, we were always fixated on team RWBY and their antics at Beacon Academy. They experienced a lot of happy, thrilling, and depressing moments but not quite as much as a huge pitfall like in the fourth volume.
The fourth volume takes place after the events in the fall of Beacon.
Ruby Rose along with Jaune, Nora and Ren have taken it upon themselves to seek revenge upon the people responsible for destroying what they love. Yang is recovering after losing her arm in a fight against the White Fang leader. Weiss has been snatched away by her father and is living the life in Atlas. Blake, still reeling from the events, has fled to her hometown of Menagerie.
Out of all the four volumes, this has to be my most favorite so far. It focuses on each of the characters’ development and reactions to the events during the fall of Beacon.
Jaune, being the most affected by these events, is still not coming to terms with Phyrra’s death. This is clearly seen by how he has kept mementos of her on his person – like her weapons, the training lessons and many more.
Ruby has shown to have matured in this volume as the fairy tale is slowly crumbling around her. Unlike before where she was surrounded with friendly people, she is now stranded in a world where there’s too few good left.
Blake has succumbed to her former self and has started blaming herself over what happened to Yang and the events during the fall of Beacon – how she was helpless and unable to do anything useful.
Nora and Ren have been given deeper backstory on how they ended up with each other.
The animation has been done wonderfully considering how fluid the characters’ actions have become and how the environments are getting even more detailed by each episode.
The soundtrack for this volume has been rather done well by Casey Lee Williams. The melodies and lyrics used in each song have clearly set the mood of the entire volume – one filled with chaos, fear and yet hope.
In this volume, we’ve seen more new places like Menagerie, Mistral, Atlas. We’ve also learned more of the world’s history such as the two brothers of light and darkness and how they are related to the Grimm.
This entire volume has been basically a setup for future progressions in the fifth volume. It is the build up towards the endgame wherein the forces of good and evil will clash to settle things once for all.
It was a wonderful watch and I can’t wait for the events that’ll unfold in the fifth volume.
ozpin lives
REVIEW – RWBY’s recent episodes have been exciting for me. In the fourth episode, we have been revealed about Ozpin’s current state and his relation to the farm hand, Oscar. A good amount of depth to Oobleck, Port, and Taiyang’s character – on how they know each other and their antics at Beacon. We’ve also got a glimpse of Raven and Qrow conversing about the relic and the location of the Spring Maiden – neither got an answer.
Fifth episode, we’ve seen a good amount of the faunus’ home continent, Menagerie. It was interesting to learn about faunus being transported to the continent which resulted in overpopulation in there. We’ve also been shown Blake’s home, her mother and father. Sun was incredibly hilarious to watch in this episode as he tries to mingle with Blake’s parents.
Sixth episode, team RNJR are surprised to see an abandoned city called “Oniyuri.” Ren seems to know a lot about the place considering how he mentioned about his parents investing in the city’s construction. I hope we get to explore Ren’s past – enough for us to understand him and how he ended up with Nora.
In the same episode, we see Weiss’ performance in the charity concert her father organized for the people of Mistral. It was an incredible development of character in Weiss as she firmly expressed her disbelief in the people of Atlas’ selfishness regarding the events in Beacon. Props to General Ironwood for supporting her.
Seventh episode, we get to resume the battle starting between Team RNJR, assisted by Qrow, and Tyrion. Rooster Teeth has displayed their forte: fighting sequences. Although it may not have been the best of animation, it certainly packed a lot of action into me and most viewers. We get a reveal of Tyrion being a scorpion faunus which his tail was later cut at the end of the battle by Ruby.
Also, Rooster Teeth’s adding some profanity in the script which was an indicator of how serious the series was getting. Tyrion calling Ruby a “bitch” after cutting off his tail was just the good stuff.
These four episodes were a roller coaster ride. It was an incredible display of the improvements Rooster Teeth has done in its animation and story writing.
I am in hype as episode eight releases.
REVIEW – Rooster Teeth’s animated series, “RWBY” has come a long way ever since it’s first volume. The gradual shift of tone from happy-go-lucky school life to absolute chaos was well-executed in the series’ third volume.
In the third episode, we get to see where Blake has ended up after the Fall of Beacon. She’s somewhat on a “journey” to find herself as she goes home to Menagerie. It was quite depressing to see Blake’s guard up after the chaotic events. In the previous volumes, she slowly opened up to everyone but now, she’s confused on who to trust and who not to.
It was quite hilarious and expected to find Sun following Blake – to her annoyance. I am quite optimistic for a Sun and Blake pairing since that is where the series is going for. Also, the fight scene against the “water dragon” Grimm was epic. Blake and Sun helping each other out and displaying their strengths to bring it down was just exhilarating to watch.
I have to point out the wondrous addition of sunset colors during the entire fight. Rooster Teeth’s animation team has definitely improved. Can’t forget about the water too, they did that quite well.
On the other side of things, Yang has received a mechanical robot arm from General Ironwood – a gift she is quite hesitant to accept. In the episode, we can see how she’s condescended from a strong woman into a helpless and scarred girl. The confrontation with Adam and the lost of her arm really took a toll on her. She’s gotten nightmares and shows little to no enthusiasm at all.
In the enemy’s viewpoint, Salem and Cinder have a discussion about a “relic” of some sort – something Ozpin had. I’ve heard that they might be referring to Ozpin’s staff but I don’t recall any mention in the series about it. Another thing to note, Salem asked Cinder if she killed Ozpin to which she said yes. We still can’t say anything regarding Ozpin since we haven’t seen any body or concrete proof that he was actually dead.
Over-all, the episode shed light to a few things about Blake’s whereabouts, Salem’s concerns and Yang’s recovery.
A review of the fifth episode will be up soon. I’ve decided not to review episode 1 – 2 since I’ve basically talked about it in the article, “End of RWBY’s fairy tale.”
Credits to Koyorin for the feature image.
Categories
End of RWBY’s fairy tale
DISCUSSION – Rooster Teeth’s animated series, RWBY, returns with a fourth volume. The volume’s plot will revolve around the events after the fall of Beacon as the entire world of Remnant slowly descends into chaos and how the main characters are coping up with this.
Volumes 1 to 3 have been about school, friendship and good things that have happened to the characters so far. They have developed so much as characters and we’ve come to relate with them very well.
In Volume 4, however, we’ve seen a huge chaos and destruction to what the characters have developed – these relationships and self-discoveries they’ve made. Volume 4 is the end of the fairy tale. Reality has hit hard for all of these characters.
To start off, Ruby, Jaune, Nora, and Ren, have teamed up and are on a journey to possibly defeating the people behind the attacks at Beacon? I have not fully understood what is actual goal set for Team JNRR or RNJR but this is the only logical thing that they should be doing.
Along the journey, we get to see how each character has been affected by the events in the Fall of Beacon.
Nora and Ren are somewhat coping with it. Ruby, however, has changed ever since the events at Beacon. She’s somewhat got a sense of seriousness and maturity in her – but the quirkiness is there, just toned down a bit.
Jaune, however, had been most affected by the Fall of Beacon after Phyra’s death. I am not quite sure if the somewhat romantic air around the two was canon or not but without a doubt, Jaune regarded Phyra highly. The scene in episode two where Jaune trained under the supervision of Phyra’s recorded video was very emotional. Rooster Teeth was stellar at orchestrating that scene. They showed that Jaune “was tired of losing everything” and how deep his sorrow is for Phyra’s death.
Yang still hasn’t come to terms with losing her arm. She is showing this depressed side of her which is very opposite to the lock-and-load attitude she’s displayed for the past three volumes.
Blake had reverted to her loner shell and is constantly pushing all friends away from her. Her character development in the previous volumes seem for naught. She is still afraid of getting hurt and her ties to the White Fang.
Rooster Teeth’s work on RWBY’s fourth volume has been stellar. The animations are smoother than ever. I would like to point the use of shadows and gorgeous lighting from the sunset in episode three. Gotta give props to Rooster Teeth for the new stuff in RWBY.
Looking forward to the rest of the episodes.
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