Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.5
Extras		4.0
Overall		3.5

RWBY: Volume 8 Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman November 28, 2021

It's probably easily understandable that many people turn to animated fare (one hesitates to use "disparaging" terms like cartoons) for a bit of an escape, but in that regard, it might be salient to pay attention to the lyric of the opening theme to this eighth volume of RWBY:

We said goodbye
To all the things we loved
Gave up our lives
Just to find that it was not enough
We leapt in faith
Left our solitude
Our carefree peace
What we thought would change the world
Was just a childish dream
We failed to stop our own demise
The tragic end's before our eyes
Hope has no place here
Maybe the path that leads our way home will finally clear
Maybe the end we've tried to avoid is already here
Some roses will never bloom
Some dreams will rot on the vine
Some lives will end much too soon
Some evil will never ever die
Some wars will not end in peace
Some heroes choose the wrong side
Sometimes it's worth it all
To risk the fall
And fight for every life

Cheery, eh? I'm sure many can already feel their everyday cares and troubles melting away under the influence of the imagery conjured by this theme song's words (this is obviously said in jest). It may be hard to reconcile that "Sometimes it's worth it all / To risk the fall / And fight for every life" bit, considering the litany of disasters that lyrically precede the sentiment, but of course that is part and parcel of the labyrinthine tale RWBY has been spinning now for years in its own rather quirky way. This is a series that is well nigh impossible to join "in progress", meaning that any ostensible newcomers to the franchise may want to think twice about just jumping in with this particular volume, but for those who have been with the series since the beginning, or who in fact may have joined later but are relatively up to speed with a veritable glut of characters and interlocking storylines, this eighth volume of adventures, while almost unbearably Apocalyptic at times, will probably satisfy ardent fans pretty easily.

Due to some changes in distributors along the way, we don't have reviews for all of the previous volumes of RWBY (RWBY: Volume 6 was never provided to us for review purposes), but for those wanting at least some kind of "refresher course", the following links may provide a bit of information:

RWBY: Volume 1 Blu-ray review

RWBY: Volume 2 Blu-ray review

RWBY: Volume 3 Blu-ray review

RWBY: Volume 4 Blu-ray review

RWBY: Volume 5 Blu-ray review

RWBY: Volume 7 Blu-ray review

As with the previous volumes of RWBY Rooster Teeth has released on Blu-ray, some "behind the scenes" commentary tracks get into some of the "nuts and bolts" (and/or pixels) of the production side of things, and in that regard, there is an early admission that the first episode (and arguably even some of the following episodes) have almost incredible amounts of what the commentary track terms "setup", and which some others might jokingly call "information dumps", in order to get things to where they can ostensibly proceed apace. The series quickly establishes the dystopian, almost Dickens meets sci-fi, aspect of "life" in the aftermath of the maelstroms unleashed in RWBY: Volume 7, and in what has been something of a tradition for the series, the opening moments introduce and/or re-introduce a laundry list of characters, with Ruby (voiced by Lindsay Jones) and her other colorful cohorts kind of taking back seat for a moment as Cinder (voiced by Jessica Nigri) delivers a "very special present" to Salem (voiced by Jen Taylor). That gift isn't quite enough for the scheming character, which leads to the abduction of Oscar (Aaron Dismuke) at the hands (and/or paws) of a "new, improved" (?) version of the Grimm hounds.

Meanwhile, it may be up for debate as to whether Ironwood (voiced by Jason Rose) is really the fascist he seems to be, or is perhaps something else entirely. Whole other subplots involve a seemingly unending supply of "and the rest" characters, with a number of shifting alliances playing out which ultimately does bring an aspect of "some lives will end much too soon". It's hard not to be impressed by the sheer magnitude of RWBY's novelistic ambitions, but I might argue that the epic scale of this piece is also one of its more daunting obstacles. With a kind of silly aspect to some of the writing at times, that leaves the story often incredibly rich in minutiae, but lacking in real force.

RWBY: Volume 8 Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

RWBY Volume 8 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment and Rooster Teeth with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. Monty Oum's original vision for this series, one which combined elements of 3D and 2D into a style that, as I've mentioned in other reviews, is somewhere between anime and video game, continues to thrive in this volume. There's a very appealingly wide palette that is utilized which pops impressively throughout the over three hours of feature content. Line detail is typically strong, and if some of the CGI is intentionally stylized and in some ways minimalistic, the overall appearance of this transfer is sharp and nicely detailed. There are a couple of iffy moments during fade ins and fade outs where clear banding ripples can be spotted. This is a hard anomaly to actually capture (or at least it has been in my experience), but it was severe enough on this release that I was able to get just a glimmer of it, if you look at some of the gradations in light in screenshot 19.

RWBY: Volume 8 Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

RWBY Volume 8 features a nicely robust DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The series continues to benefit from some propulsive scoring choices, and both music and effects in the many action or sci-fi tinged sequences offer good, consistent engagement of the surround channels. There's some appealing floorboard rattling LFE that can pump through the subwoofer. Dialogue, while frankly kind of stilted at times, is presented cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English and French subtitles are available.

RWBY: Volume 8 Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Disc One

• Commentary features a revolving array of cast and crew and can be accessed under the Audio Menu.

Disc Two

• Talk Crwby to Me Season 1 (HD; 3:52:27) offers behind the scenes interviews with various cast and crew in Zoom like aggregations, with a lot of fun and interesting background information.


• Grimm Campaign Season 1 (HD; 46:38 and 48:53) offers more Zoom like interchanges with some of the voice cast.


• RTX Panel (HD; 58:25) follows the format of the two previous featurettes, with another group of folks taking part in a conversation tied to the RTX Animation Festival presented by HBO Max.


• Script 2 Screen Breakdown (HD; 10:23) gives side by side looks of scripts with various stages in the rendering/animating process.


• RWBY Volume 8 Trailer (HD; 1:11)


• Sundance Panel (HD; 59:46) is hosted by Julia Alexander in yet another video interchange tied to the series' 100th episode.

Additionally, ten art cards promoting the RWBY/Justice League tie-in are also included. Finally, packaging features a slipcover.

RWBY: Volume 8 Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

I've mentioned before in reviews of some of the previous volumes of RWBY that I think the series could benefit from some serious paring down, and that feeling is probably only increased for this particular volume. There are simply so many characters and interlocking stories to keep track of that it's often hard to see the CGI forest for the CGI trees. Still, this is an often impressive series that has its own very distinctive visual style, which continues to provide a lot of allure. Technical merits are generally solid, and the disc of supplements very enjoyable. With caveats noted, Recommended.