RWBY: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.0
Overall		3.5

RWBY: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie Review

A, E, I, O, U and sometimes why?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 15, 2013

What do you consider vowels? A, E, I, O, U and sometimes Y, right? Well, not necessarily. Years ago I spent part of a summer with my Aunt and Uncle in Iowa. My Uncle was Dean at a teacher’s college and he was shepherding students through their graduate studies. I was the right age for one of his teachers who wanted to go on to work at elementary schools, and he had me come in one beautiful summer morning to engage in a little “lesson” to see how well this woman had learned her teaching lessons. I remember to this day her chirpy little voice asking me what the vowels were, and when I answered with the five (and optional extra one) listed above, she looked at me quizzically and said, “Well, what else?” I was frankly confounded, because where I had gone to school, we had only ever been told that there were five vowels, with that potential extra one. I thought about it for a moment and told her I couldn’t figure out what she was talking about. She said, “Well, sometimes W, too,” as if it were common knowledge. When I told her I had never been taught that, she seemed surprised, but my Uncle later told me evidently “W” is (or at least was back in The Dark Ages when this all occurred) considered an optional vowel in some Midwest states. That may help to explain why RWBY is supposedly pronounced “Ruby”, though it also serves as an acronym for color coded main characters of red, white, black and yellow. There may still be other questions lingering the minds of some viewers, however. Chief among those might be, “Is RWBY an anime?” Even the show’s creators, who contribute a pretty raucous commentary track on this new Blu-ray, seem to hedge their bets, indicating that the show is like anime rather than firmly ensconced in that genre. RWBY comes courtesy of Rooster Teeth Productions, the aggregation of tech savvy folks who have been responsible for the long running Red vs. Blue: RVBX (and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that the guys may be trying to cash in, however subliminally, on that show’s acronym with their new initialed enterprise). Red vs. Blue of course is comprised of “found footage” in a way, culled from Halo’s built in moviemaking capability. RWBY, while also trafficking in CGI, is entirely original—at least in terms of its animation, if not quite so much in terms of its content.

In some ways, RWBY does indeed follow established anime tropes. The main plot deals with a world ravaged by horrible mutated beasts, as well as a class of nefarious criminals. There is a school for “gifted” kids called The Beacon Academy, where main heroine Ruby Rose (the “red” one) is excited to be sent after she helps dispatch a bad guy with the help of her trusty high tech scythe. Ruby’s older sister Yang (the “yellow” one) is already ensconced at The Beacon Academy, and she kind of vacillates between being there for her younger sibling and letting the girl fend for herself. Soon enough Ruby has teamed up not only with her sister but also with Blake (the “black” one) and Weiss (yep, the “white” one), all of whom possess their own powers and have their own weapons.

The first ten episodes collected on this first volume of RWBY follow some traditional shōnen formulations, with the girls getting used to their new school life while also learning the ropes of what it means to be a “huntress”, a specially trained fighter who helps keep the world safe from the marauding mutant beasts (not to mention the occasional bad guy). The series walks a fine line between decent action elements and some fairly lame comedy. The visual style of RWBY is distinctly not typical anime, and in fact until the first chibi shows up a little way into the first episode, this much more resembles the “machinima” that typified Red vs. Blue.

It’s probably best to cut RWBY a little slack in its early going, for characters are still being developed and there’s the definite feeling that the series’ mythology is not yet completely fleshed out. While a lot of the show is rote and predictable, there is some amusing banter between various characters, and the general aesthetic, while perhaps not what longtime anime fans will be used to, is arresting enough to capture the attention (even if there are occasional rendering issues). The show is incredibly colorful, as befits its acronymed title, with an especially bright and vivid palette which may help distract some from the failings of the story itself.

RWBY: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

RWBY was created for web viewing, and its migration to Blu-ray, with an AVC encoded 1080i transfer in 1.78 (courtesy of Cinedigm and Flatiron Films), is literally not always a smooth one. This entirely digitally created piece benefits from incredibly brilliant color, with some of the most lushly saturated hues in recent memory in any animated feature, quasi- anime or not. However, either the rendering or its interlaced presentation results in rampant stair stepping in a lot of the line detail (it was actually a bit of a challenge to get screencaptures without stair stepping). There are also fairly obvious issues of banding, especially in special effects sequences where explosions and the like create smoke. The creative staff would also do well to spend a little more time on backgrounds. They're often little more than geometric shapes through which the characters pass. With these issues put aside, the bulk of this presentation is very enjoyable, with well above average crispness and clarity. Hopefully the show's textures will become more evocative as things progress.

RWBY: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Audiophiles will no doubt be disappointed that RWBY features only a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix, much like the previous Blu-ray release of Rooster Teeth's big Red vs. Blue box set. Though this track doesn't have the lower end "oomph" that a lossless track would have provided, it's surprisingly immersive most of the time, with really well placed sound effects, including great whooshes of panning activity when things like aircraft zoom through the air. Dialogue is cleanly presented and the series' nice use of source cues also sound fine (though they would have sounded even better had they been presented in a lossless format).

RWBY: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Directors' Commentary features Miles Luna, Monty Oum and Kerry Shawcross (at least, that's who I think this is, their introductions are fast and rather mumbled). As mentioned above, this is pretty raucous, including a few undeleted expletives along the way. But the guys are fairly entertaining and informative along the way, even if they spend way too much time discussing jelly beans (yes, jelly beans).


• Cast Commentary features Lindsay Tuggey, Kara Eberle, Arryn Zech, Barbara Dunkelman, who are only slightly less raucous than the boys. The women have a tendency to talk over each other, which makes hearing what they're saying a bit difficult at times, but they pass along a few little tidbits (like some Easter Eggs like a hidden reference to Doctor Who).


• Red Trailer (1080i; 3:29)


• White Trailer (1080i; 3:47)


• Black Trailer (1080i; 5:12)


• Yellow Trailer (1080i; 5:44)


• Behind the Scenes (1080p; 7:02) features Monty Oum and some of the rest of the crew discussing the genesis of the project.


• Fan Art (1080p; 4:41) shows the winners of a fan contest.


• RWBY Cosplay (1080p; 2:34) shows fans dressed up like their favorite characters.


• Chapter 1 Storyboard (1080i; 11:08)

RWBY: Volume 1 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I'm personally withholding final judgment until I've seen at least a few more episodes of RWBY. On the plus side, this is often a very inventive looking series, but from a plot and character standpoint, it's just as often kind of hackneyed and tired seeming. Fans of Red vs. Blue may miss that series' insouciant sense of humor (and the absurd), but RWBY shows enough promise to warrant coming Recommended.