RWBY: More mistakes made than any man | OWLS “Adapt” Blog Tour

It is wonderful to be back at writing for another OWLS blog tour. However, the circumstances between the last time I wrote for a blog tour and this one are extraordinarily different. Back then, I was taking about the grandiose idea of peace with the onset of the Inter-Korean summit and comparing it with Avatar: The Last Airbender. Now, we’re in a dark time with the global health crisis affecting our families and communities. This brings us to this month’s prompt put forward by the OWLS blog tour:

Review – RWBY Volume 5

Last year, Rooster Teeth was really hyping up the community for the fifth volume of RWBY. This was quite evident when they released some well-made character shorts for the main titular characters and other forms of teasers. All I can say that the crew behind RWBY has done an excellent job in the production of this volume.

Miandro’s Spotlight – A writing spree

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.

Miandro’s Spotlight – So many trailers!

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.

Weekly Wrap-up (Oct 29 – November 4, 2017)

WEEKLY WRAP-UP – With all the new anime and gaming titles coming out, this week has been pretty material-intensive for me. Not knowing where to begin with the new anime season, or have the means to access newly released games, it has become a struggle for me to find compelling content to write about.

RWBY Volume 5, Episode 2

EPISODE REACTION – This animation series is the gift that keeps on giving as we get a twenty or more minutes run time for this episode. As each episode is released, more questions remained unanswered and new ones are gradually raised. It is at this point that I am starting to find the plot for RWBY treading a very “safe” path, as it were.

Other than that, we will be tackling the second episode of the series’ fifth volume. Spoilers, as usual, are still abound and thus avert your eyes if you do not take kindly to these things.

Episode Reaction: RWBY Vol. 5, Ep. 1

EPISODE REACTION – In the span of four volumes, Rooster Teeth has turned RWBY from a upstart dream project to a full-fledged animated series that can properly compete with present titles in the animation industry. The promotional advertising for this volume has been vastly different and larger in coverage compared to the other seasons. Rooster Teeth has definitely done a good job making RWBY famous, for old and new viewers alike.

In light of the new episodes that have been released for the fifth volume, I will discuss key events which were interesting to me as I watched the first episode. If you do not take kindly to spoilers, avert your eyes!

How RWBY has improved in its fifth volume

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!

RWBY Volume 4

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

RWBY Volume 4, Episodes 4- 7

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.