RWBY: Volume 5 Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

RWBY: Volume 5 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman June 1, 2018

A friend of my wife has a bright red Jeep she got recently and I noticed the other day that it is adorned with “vanity” license plates that have a rather unusual spelling of “ruby”, with a bunch of “o”’s replacing the “u”. I asked this friend if she had heard of RWBY, the Rooster Teeth enterprise that has had a perhaps surprisingly strong reaction from fans (not to mention a similarly unique way of spelling a particular crimson like color). I was downright shocked when the friend said that not only was she aware of the show, she had actually tried to get “RWBY” as her license plate, but that it turned out that spelling had already been taken by another “vanity” plate holder. I guess it’s an object lesson in not drawing any preconceived conclusions about what demographic may be tuning into any given show, since I had pretty much assumed that what I tend to think of as Rooster Teeth’s target audience, namely younger males, might be one of the largest, if not the largest, viewer groups watching the show, this despite the series’ emphasis on young female warriors. As should probably be expected with an enterprise that has had the relatively long shelf life that RWBY has enjoyed by this time, this “volume” (Rooster Teeth’s kinda sorta version of a season) has a novelistic approach toward a huge glut of characters that will probably make coming into the show a challenge for newcomers. Any given episode tends to ping pong between simultaneously unfolding plot arcs involving one or more central characters, and just for good measure there are occasional flashbacks or other “disruptions” in the chronological flow that may keep even devoted fans on their veritable toes. One of the best things about this fifth volume is a rather noticeable uptick in some elements of the animation style. RWBY has always had an incredibly distinctive style, one that kind of melds certain anime styles with a videogame ambience, but this volume features much better rendered backgrounds in particular, with less of an emphasis on the “blocky” look that tended at times to make the characters and locations look like they had wandered out of an early computer program.

For those wanting some background information on the story thus far, or at least a refresher course of sorts, our reviews of RWBY's previous "volumes" 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

RWBY: Volume 4 Blu-ray review

This season opens with a group of characters arriving in Mistral, and already the show’s somewhat more full bodied design aesthetic in on display in terms of the kind of quaint, old style “European village” look of some of the backgrounds. There’s still a somewhat “blocky” appearance at times with elements like some characters’ shocks of hair, but the show’s tendency to exploit a really bright palette continues and the difference in design approaches perhaps only tends to point out how vivid some of the hues utilized really are. In terms of plot mechanics, there’s a lot going on throughout this volume, with an early emphasis on finding the long missing Spring Maiden, and a perhaps unlikely revelation revolving around the mysterious Ozpin.

One of the things that soon becomes apparent in this group of episodes, is that due to the glut of supporting characters and competing plotlines, supposed focal (not to mention titular) characters Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang sometimes take almost a supporting role themselves. There are huge swaths this year given over to seemingly tangential characters like Leonardo Lionheart, Qrow and Raven, though it should be noted that there is a through line of sorts dealing with the aforementioned Spring Maiden and the “relic” that only she can properly handle. That said, this is an awfully vignette driven season, and one of the things that may frustrate viewers is its at times pretty glacial pace, where part of a storyline will play out in the opening block, and then several episodes later will suddenly return at exactly the same place (or even with a bit of a “rewind”, I guess to spark memories), something that kind of reminded me of old school soap operas.

There are at least a couple of purported “twists” offered this volume (some of which are addressed kind of interestingly in the commentaries for those episodes), but even with some unexpected developments, long swaths of RWBY seem to offer detours rather than destinations. The show is still stylistically quite impressive, but I personally would love for some ferocious story editor to get involve and whittle things down to a manageable size.

RWBY: Volume 5 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

RWBY: Volume 5 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Cinedigm with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. This was one of the more enjoyable seasons (and/or volumes) for me personally from a pure viewing perspective, with the show's traditionally lustrous palette still resonating extremely well in high definition, but with some of the increased detail in backgrounds especially (as noted above) really adding to the overall visual allure of the series. There are still some intentionally "weird" rendering choices, as in the also aforementioned blocky look to clumps of hair, or occasional "cubist" approaches toward props or backgrounds. But line detail tends to be nicely sharp and detail levels in terms of patterns on things like floors or outfits look precise as well. There are a couple of brief flirtations with banding during some sudden lighting changes, but otherwise this is a problem free presentation.

RWBY: Volume 5 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

RWBY: Volume 5 features a nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track that tends to offer good surround activity during action sequences, but then can be somewhat more restrained in dialogue scenes. There are a number of excellent sound design choices sprinkled throughout most of the episodes of this volume, including some fun things like an attack by huge mutant bee like drones that provide a glut of both buzzing and explosive noises dotting the surround channels. I'm not a complete fan of some of the voice work in this series (some of the women characters are a bit on the high screechy side for my personal taste), but fidelity supports all of the voicework effortlessly. Dynamic range is also appealingly wide on this problem free track.

RWBY: Volume 5 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Audio Commentaries for all episodes on this disc are available under the Setup Menu and feature a revolving cast of commentators (especially with regard to the crew commentaries):

  Writer / Director Commentary

  
  

  Crew Commentary

Disc Two

• Five Years of RWBY (1080p; 10:30) is a relatively brief but still enjoyable overview of the show, with some appealing interviews with the creative crew.


• Character Shorts

  Weiss Character Short (1080p; 3:55)

  
  

  Blake Character Short (1080p; 4:33)

  
  

  Yang Character Short (1080p; 4:02)

• CRWBY (1080p; 53:38) offers 14 behind the scenes EPKs that feature some interesting info and lots of fun candid footage.


• CRWBY Photos (1080p; 00:52) offers a slide show of the creative staff. In the perhaps unintended comedy category, they list the names of those not pictured each time, but not the names of those who are pictured.


• Trailers includes RWBY: Volume 5 (1080p; 1:31) along with trailers for other Rooster Teeth productions.

RWBY: Volume 5 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I wouldn't recommend jumping into RWBY at this late date, though I have to say this volume offers what is to my eyes the best designed set of episodes the series has offered. This is a huge, sprawling saga with arguably too many characters and too many competing subplots for any one element to really poke through and resonate, but from a pure design aesthetic standpoint, RWBY rarely fails to engage. Technical merits are solid, and with caveats noted, RWBY: Volume 5 comes Recommended.