ANIME REVIEW: RWBY VOLUME 1

RWBY Volume 1
Released By: Animatsu
Rating: 15
Running Time: 110 Mins
Audio: English
Release Date: 29/6/2015
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes

For those who remember long-running series Red Vs Blue, Rooster Teeth, the team who thought up the show comes RWBY a CG web series that tells of four girls who form their own organisation RWBY to take on the evil that ordinary people can't do in everyday life.

While some anime series are older, yet have only just been released in the UK, RWBY is a modern anime. The voice actors and actresses who have worked on this series have also worked on such as Red Vs Blue and the synopsis for the series is an original one. Remnant is a world different from most places we have heard of and Remnant has problems with the Creatures of Grimm. The first and only line of defence against these creatures are the Hunters and Huntresses who use their powers to fight them. The four Huntresses are Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang, hence the title RWBY. They pronounce it Ruby and all have a unique weapon and magic.

With Red Vs Blue being such a huge success, it had been said that a new anime series would be produced by Rooster Teeth and even though this isn't considered a true anime series, it does translate well - even to those of us who are die-hard fans of traditional Japanese anime that have reached our shores to be dubbed into English for our entertainment. The characters are Japanese in style and have their own attractiveness, even the bad guys.

On the menu screen there is the option to watch it as a movie or select a scene as a series. If anyone has watched the TV series Grimm they have a different story to the original Grimm's fairy tales. In this series they are real. Here there is a battle betwen good and evil, light and dark. The dark being the Creatures of Grimm, and the light being the Dust. Dust thieves have held up the owner of From Dust Till Dawn (obviously a pun on the horror movie From Dusk Till Dawn starring Quentin Tarantino.) The concept is a good one, and involves some characters viewers will want to get to know through the episodes. The animation has a limited colour scheme that prevents it from being too complex - this leaves room for making the fight sequences look more dynamic, though the characters' movements seem a touch robotic, unlike most anime series out there. There are several similarities with other anime in this; Fate/Stay Night, Trinity Blood and Disgaea. RWBY has chiby moments in it and general silliness, but the storyline is what makes this fun to watch.


Bonus Material: Behind-the-Scenes Videos, Fan Art Highlights & Director Commentary.

Verdict: RWBY is a Western take on anime that could become infectious, fun and very sweet!