Introduction
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Shaft had big dreams for Rwby and they clearly couldnt afford them making it turn into a visual nightmare. Despite the story having some potential, it didnt take long to see the downfall of the story unfold.
Story ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Rwby is a fantasy-concept franchise about cute girls doing not so cute things. The anime adaptation tried to present to the viewers the whole world of Rwby in the first 4 episodes and then focused on the main character's troubles concerning mainly one of the female leads, Weiss, who got trapped inside her dream and the goal (and apperently the plot point) was to wake her up. And thats the first mistake Rwby anime adaptation made. Personally, the 4 first episodes had me fairly interested, seeing a not so unique concept done pretty interestingly, i was really hooked.
When the whole trapped in a dream arc started, i thought it was gonna be 2-3 episodes. AND IT ENDED UP BEING THE WHOLE SEASON. Thats a huge fault right there. Introducing a magical academy, implying the anime is gonna be about MULTIPLE adventures of the female leads placed inside the academy, and ending up displaying the main plot point in the middle of the anime? It didnt work. Because it got really boring, and im pretty sure anyone who watches something about an academy is expecting more episodic adventures. It really bore me to see the same thing happen over and over again, it was repetitive and kinda lame seeing them just get into a dream then get kicked out etc etc with the explanation behind that being the "with the power of friendship" logic. The pacing was terrible, a consequence that occurred because of the plot problems mentioned prior. 
They handled the whole plot terribly, if they tried making that arc shorter and interlarding the anime with more small adventures it wouldve worked better. They could even do what demon slayer did, and try to make a 24ep anime introducing the general universe focusing more on the MAIN character (rwby) and then make arcs like that smaller sequels...which, they didnt have the budget for, so i cant see that working either, but its still sounds more approachable compared to what they did, since they killed the fame of rwby permenantly.
Characters ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This might sound surprising, considering i sound completely disappointed from the adaptation, but the characters werent bad at all. Did they have all have an unnecessarily bubbly personality and were really stereotypic? Yes, but its a magical girls anime, so i didnt expect anything else. The main character, Rwby, is a pretty dedicated and kinda annoying girl that dreams big and is full of that superfluous will charged from the power of friendship, but it fitted the already too up in the air concept, so im not mad. Then there was her sister, Yang, that was praised all her life and for some reason is the role model of her sister, which again, made sense, since we are talking about a MAGICAL GIRL anime.
We also have Weiss, that really self centred girl that has some really traumatic background. And lastly, Blake, which i liked the most out of the 4 since she felt like the more unique, and i really liked her character development, since she came from a really closed off society and ended up being a open person.
Sure they werent anything special, but fitted just right to the anime and lived up to the standardts of the concept, but i have to say, the werent the most memorable either, for the same exact reason. The side characters on the other hand felt more interesting, maybe because they didnt try to make them so stereotypical and focused more on adjusting them to the personalities of the main characters, which ended up making them look really unique.
Animation ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
. . . The disapointment of the grace of THE Shaft Studio. Visuals? Amazing! Designs? Phenomenal! Movement? Okay Cgi? OVERUSED! AND TERRIBLY DONE! There was cgi in scenes that there was 0 movement, and the action scenes that had cgi were all terrible (and let me tell you all the action scenes had cgi) It was so out of pocket and didnt fit the artstyle at all, the perfect way to describe it is roughly made.
(And thats a light example)
I sure didnt enjoy the visuals, and the designs of the characters where so pleasing to the eye but i cant forgive that HORRIFIC cgi i had to witness. C'mon Shaft, you can do better than that.
Music/Ost ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The ost of the opening was FUNNY. It seemed so pop cultured and made the anime seem more white washed than it already was, considering there were moments that characters RANDOMLY started to sing in English. But im willing to look past that, because at times the ost was great, especially towards the ending of the 12th episode or at important for the plot fights.
To sum it up.... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After all that, would I recommend watching Rwby? Surprisingly, yes. It was horrible sure but if you want a magical girl anime, give it a try, but set your standards LOW. 
