RWBY: Volume 4 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		3.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.5

RWBY: Volume 4 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 3, 2017

My hometown of Portland has been the host to Grimm for the past several years, employing countless local actors and craftsmen in the process (you can read my interview with Grimm’s dialect coach and Frau Pech, Mary McDonald Lewis, here). There’s been a little bit of “what are we going to do now?” going around amongst several of my friends who were associated with the show in one way or the other, but for them and for other Grimm fans, there’s another Grimm out there they may want to while away the hours with, namely some of the “bad guy” creatures from Rooster Teeth’s quasi-anime enterprise RWBY. Perhaps at least somewhat similarly to the late, lamented NBC series, these Grimms are multiple species (kind of like Grimm’s “bloodline”, but more various), although in this case they’re not intrepid hunters of occult (or at least folkloristic) phenomena, but truly nasty creatures intent on death and destruction, kind of the personification (or “animal”-ification, given their appearance) of the collective Id, a wild and out of control group that defies rationality and whose various incarnations seem to be lifted from the darkest recesses of the human imagination. The Grimms are front and center as RWBY kicks off its fourth season offering a variety of these frightening beasts, some of whom go by the name Beowolf and another one which is kind of a menacing King Kong type. It’s probably a little hard for newcomers to jump into the sometimes dense mythology that RWBY has attempted to weave over the course of the previous three years, but as with prior seasons of the show, the series’ rather interesting and unusual visual aesthetic may be enough to keep some viewers around even if they don’t fully understand what’s going on with a coterie of female fighters tasked with protecting their homeland from the incursions by nefarious beasts, making them the “Grimms” (in the Nick Burkhardt manner, so to speak) of this particular enterprise.

Our reviews of the previous seasons of RWBY can be accessed by clicking on the following links:

RWBY: Volume 1 Blu-ray review

RWBY: Volume 2 Blu-ray review

RWBY: Volume 3 Blu-ray review

Additionally, though we didn’t review it since it was simply a repackaging, for those who like steelbooks, there’s this edition collecting the first three seasons together:

RWBY 1-3: Beacon.

Maybe there’s an Oregon connection to RWBY as well, given the fact that the actual premiere episode in this season takes place in the castle of Salem, and that those nefarious Grimm manage to spawn in what look like rain puddles. Some time is spent detailing various intrigues surrounding Salem’s “gang”, but one of the more interesting developments of the season appears as a seemingly disjunctive intrusion, with a little boy awakening from a dream, something that seems to have no connection to what has gone before. RWBY plays its cards fairly close to its vest with regard to this mysterious character, ultimately offering at least a bit of explanation a few episodes down the path when it’s revealed he has what appears to be a psychic link with Professor Ozpin.

That boy, whose name turns out to be Oscar Pine, and Cinder Fall, now rendered (no pun intended, given this show’s CGI genesis) virtually mute and lacking one eye, also carry some longer throughlines this season, though the bulk of the stories almost tend to work as a diaspora of sorts, with the RWBY team spread out and trying to recover from the fall of Beacon. This quest aspect is able to broaden the storylines somewhat, though it also tends to have the series fall into “guest star of the week” (and/or episode) trap, with a number of new characters floating in (and then out) of the premises.

Despite certain story (and especially dialogue) deficits the series continues to exhibit, RWBY is graced with one of the more unusual and (for certain tastes, at least) interesting design aesthetics in contemporary animation. The show still tends to look like a videogame at times, especially with regard to some almost cubist looking backgrounds, but as is referred to in some of the supplements included on this release, higher tech rendering tools have given the show an increased fluidity that gives the visuals a rather unique allure.

RWBY: Volume 4 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

RWBY: Volume 4 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This is overall the best looking season of RWBY, perhaps due to the aforementioned uptick in Rooster Teeth's rendering software. While there are occasional very slight flirtings with banding and extremely minor rolling on line detail at times, the overall look of this season is sharp and well detailed, at least "detailed" within the sometimes flat looking context of the series, one which often (as has been mentioned in our previous reviews) resembles a higher end videogame. Colors continue to be one of this show's stronger points, and the palette is extremely vivid, varied and often gorgeously saturated this season. Select moments have been tweaked to look extra bright, something that perhaps gives a gossamer like softness to the proceedings, albeit intentionally so. Some of the Grimm come off as slightly blocking looking, but the human(oid?) characters are diverse and relatively natural in appearance.

RWBY: Volume 4 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Hey, Rooster Teeth and Cinedigm: have you ever heard of lossless audio? Once again, RWBY: Volume 4 follows in the questionable footsteps of the series' previous releases by offering only a lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix. While surround activity is quite prevalent throughout all of the episodes of this season, considering the action adventure elements and the glut of sound effects the series employs, why lossy audio continues to be offered on these Blu- ray releases is one (perhaps major) stumbling block for some fans. While not optimal, this track provides decent clarity and even some relative force in the low end, though that particular aspect would undeniably be improved with a lossless offering.

RWBY: Volume 4 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• A Grimm Introduction (1080p; 7:56) features various Rooster Teeth personnel discussing these villainous creatures.


• RWBY 4 Production Diary (1080p; 9:03) has some fun behind the scenes footage that proves (as I mentioned in our RWBY: Volume 3 Blu-ray review) that Rooster Teeth looks like it has to be one of the cooler places on the planet to work.


• CRWBY Photos (1080p; 00:51) is a slide show featuring production personnel.


• World of Remnant continues the Blu-ray releases offerings of featurettes shoring up the dense mythology of the series, and include:

  Kingdoms (1080p; 9:54)

  Between Kingdoms (1080p; 3:17)

  Faunus (1080p; 4:31)

  Schnee Dust Company (1080p; 4:21)

  The Great War (1080p; 7:13)

• Director Commentaries


• Crew Commentaries

This edition also comes with a "collectible Crescent Rose action card" which features a lenticular image.

RWBY: Volume 4 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I actually liked this fourth season of RWBY at least marginally more than the third season, finding its quest aspect with its dispersed characters refreshing. While newcomers like Oscar Pine are given substantial development, a number of other personnel seem to be there to simply fill any given episode. The show could probably use a bit stronger writing generally, especially in terms of some of the dialogue, which often comes off as stilted and overly melodramatic. That said, RWBY continues to ply one of the more distinctive design aesthetics in contemporary animation. Technical merits are excellent (video) to okay if improvable (audio), and RWBY: Volume 4 comes Recommended.