RWBY Volume: 2
Released By: Animatsu
Rating: 15
Running Time: 145 Mins
Audio: English & Japanese DD 2.0
Release Date: 1/2/2016
Reviewed By: Sandra Scholes
Now at their second semester at Beacon, Team RWBY have returned to continue what they started out - to protect and save the world from certain and uncertain calamity. Beacon might train the sort of fighters no one would dare to come up against, but apart from their super hero style work, they have their own lives to cope with. Saving the world all has to be done around sweating over homework and training to be the best - but when three new problem folk turn up, the White Fang and Roman Torchwick could send them back to the bottom, where they don't want to be.
Produced by Rooster Teeth, the team who brought us Red Vs. Blue, the mickey take on popular computer game, Halo have got to create their very own anime series. It is build as a movie with scene selections and the ability to watch the movie as a whole and comes with commentaries and bonus material, plus trailers for the other series viewers might have missed out on.
In one scene, Mercury looks at a black book in a store that reminded me of the book in Deathnote, and to be honest, I thought there may be more throwbacks to other popular manga/anime series too. Homages to characters from the comics and Mercury's resemblance to the main guy from Metal Gear Solid are very noticeable. There is a Tidus/Cloud lookalike from the Final Fantasy series where he is hot enough to be able to wear his shirt open and many other characters viewers could easily liken to other popular Japanese anime characters from other series.
The animation quality looks like Soul Eater, a Bleach style Soul Reaper series that had a promising voice acting cast, much like this one, Panty & Stocking and Garter Belt and some startlingly impressive characters. I found myself liking Mercury and a few of the other main characters as they have flair and comic timing, which are two of the hallmarks of Rooster Teeth's sense of humour. It does have action and a lot of humour in it and it is anime in one sense, but it would have been great to see it have the same production value as Red Vs. Blue.
Contains Episodes 1-12
Bonus Material: Season 2 Trailer, World of Remnant, RWBY Production Diaries and Commentaries, Trailers for Red Vs. Blue Season 12, The Best of RT Shorts and Xray and Vav.
Summary: It's a fun comedy with the animation style of Reboot and Panty & Stocking and Garter Belt - and all the humour of Red Vs. Blue!
