In early 2010, RWBY was unavoidable. Monty Oum created such an interesting premise for a new original series combining exciting anime elements such as magical girls, unique power systems, and weapons that can transform. There was immense hype when those red, white, black, and yellow trailers came out. When the actual product came out, many fans such as myself although acknowledging the apparent weakness in its writing stayed and supported it because of the amazing animations, superb character design, and interesting world-building. In addition, the shipping fandom made it really fun to root for characters, especially in team RWBY. But all these fun elements of the series can only grab my attention for so long as I slowly but surely got frustrated and confused with the direction of the writing which I believe most would agree start to go downhill after the passing of its original creator Monty Oum. But enough of the OG RWBY I am here to talk about this spinoff which is really one of studio Shaft's most disappointing productions.
I chose to watch this because I wanted to relive the excitement I had when I first watched the original RWBY. Knowing that studio shaft was producing this work made me really excited because I thought the dark magical aesthetic they are known for would definitely be an interesting fit for the world of RWBY. But from the first few episodes, it is clear something is wrong. I don't know if they ran out of budget or did not care about this series enough to give their best animation artwork or whatever but it is clear this is not up to the usual standard of studio shaft. Even the not-so-well-received Magia Record has superb visual and animation quality which I would argue far surpass the original strictly in a visual storytelling aspect. The animation quality of this spinoff for lack of a better word is just... not good. But... The OG RWBY was an indie low-budget project which has really mediocre production quality as well so maybe that is the intention? to relive the shitty production quality of the original? lmao
Poor production quality aside what is a major improvement is definitely the character writing. I really feel the dynamic between the characters is much stronger in this series. The development of each individual character and their relationships with one another is definitely improved in this series. The OG series suffer from really weak writing which simply persists and actually gets WORSE throughout the series. Characters don't feel like characters, they just feel like pawns to progress a plot that is equally uninteresting. But this spinoff definitely builds upon the foundations of the OG characters and breathes new life into them which gave us a really wholesome and believable story of a group of strangers coming to accept and befriend one another. I really like how they do not waste time establishing the world and characters in its first 3 episodes. Unless you are a total newcomer to the series there is no excuse for you to complain that it felt rushed because I wholly believe this spinoff is meant for fans that have seen the original. It wants to get that out of the way as soon as possible to tell its own unique character-driven story which I really appreciated.
So did this spinoff rejuvenate my love for the original series? Yes and No.
The OG RWBY definitely has a stronger charm being an indie project and whenever it exceeds expectations in its animation, especially in its exciting fight animation choreography it was such a treat to behold compared to the spinoff which just has terrible animation and art. But in terms of its character writing, I loved how the spinoff took the pieces from the original and greatly improved it. I don't really care much about the plot but seeing new life breathed into my decade-old favorite characters makes me feel quite happy.
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