My relationship with the RWBY series is like a relationship with that one family member who talks all the time about how great they’re going to be, they are off to a good start, but they ultimately fail. And they fail so spectacularly that you cannot look away from this train wreck. You feel both pity and the urge to ridicule.

The original series is basically my guilty pleasure (with the exception of RWBY Chibi, it was the peak of the whole series and no one is going to change my mind about that) which I like to make fun of with friends. I'm not going to do the original series from RoosterTeeth here, so I'll summarise my opinion: the first three seasons were cool, from season four to season six it was weak, season seven was cool, and season eight went downhill faster than a peregrine falcon. As for season nine... I didn't even care to finish it. Even watching this ironically, I was unable to get anything out of myself to continue. I was as done with the series as Ruby was with herself.

Despite all this, I was hopeful for RWBY: Ice Queendom, especially since it was handled by studio Shaft, which has quite a few good productions to its credit like Bakemonogatari and Sayonara Zetsubou Sensei. Especially as the trailers also gave some hope that they would take the imperfect script of the first season and change what didn't work for the better. In the words of my colleague: "Shaft will do it well". Oh boy, how I love to remind him of those words to this day.

Starting with the story: in the world of Remnant there are Hunters who specialise in killing beasts called Grimms and young Ruby Rose wants to become a Huntress like her mother, so despite her young age she gets into the elite Beacon Academy to then form a RWBY team with her three friends and have adventures together. There is also magical Dust (which is totally not magical) and a superpower called Semblance (which is totally not a supernatural force that could be considered magic), which, like in My Hero Academia, practically everyone has. It's basically the basics of the first season's plot, which is adapted by the anime, with some minor changes here and there. It's only somewhere after three episodes that the plot completely steers off the track of the original series and focuses on the character of Weiss Schnee (if RWBY pretends to be anime in anything perfectly, it is in the Japanese style of creating German names) and the dream world.

The first three episodes are quite good. People who are not familiar with the original series will be rather pleased with the action, and fans will be rather pleased with the minor changes. Overall, a good start.

And then comes the thread with the dream world. I'll start with what I like, because there's a lot to like. First of all, the world is really creative and has an idea for itself in how it visually reflects the characters' problems, i.e. pathological family, obsessive striving for perfection imposed by others, etc.

So where is the problem when we have a setting that is not too bad for the characters? It lies in the speed of the show. The first three episodes go at a pace that is neither too fast nor too slow, the reason for which is probably that they had a finished script from the original series. But the arc with Ice Queendom is so unhurried and dragged out that the sloth from Zootopia seems like another member of the Flash Family.

Other than that, the setting is interesting, but it also seems to me that the full potential has not been realised. I think more abstract and quirky concepts would have worked to the benefit of the whole.

To be clear: this is not a bad story. It's just a story that was dragged out because the creators probably had no idea how to fill it in.

The plot I can still somehow defend, but what I will not defend is the graphics. Not because it is bad, on the contrary, because it is beautiful... in maybe three or four moments. The art is not bad, it's just ok, and the animation itself is acceptable. The problem is that a few times we get really beautifully choreographed fights that are as breathtaking as in the trailers... only for them to make up maybe 5% of the total. It's like arriving at a restaurant that serves you lobster baked with garlic-lime chilli butter as a starter, only to then get minced cutlets made from cheap meat for the main course. It's not that I don't like minced meat (my identity as a Pole forbids me from even suggesting this), but it doesn't change the fact that I feel somewhat cheated. I could even call it false advertising.

Most of the time, therefore, we are forced to watch very average-quality animation, only to actually get something nice once in a while. It stings so much that I feel like someone threw a porcupine in my face.

It's difficult for me to talk a bit about the characters without making comparisons to the original series, but I'll do my best. We have four main female characters: Ruby, who is the leader of the team and the female answer to the typical hyper-active shounen protagonist, her belligerent, adventurous sister, Yang Xiao Long, and Blake, who is basically a stoic ninja cat-girl and former terrorist. There’s also Weiss, who is "nice but can also be a little bit bitchy" (her voice actress' words, not mine), around whom most of the anime revolves.

I have mixed feelings because after a very short time we are supposed to believe that these four are very close to each other, but it doesn't really work. If they had adapted the entire first season of RWBY into an anime first and then made an arc with the dream world, I think it would have worked much better. However, they didn't, making us believe that after a few days they are best friends who know each other inside out. I don't buy it. If the whole setting of the dream world served to make them just get to know each other better and build something on it, then it could be justified, but it just doesn't happen. And so we have characters who are neither annoying nor overly interesting.

I can complain about the storyline, I can complain about the graphics, I can complain about the characters, but defy me Flying Spaghetti Monster, I won't complain about the music. I don't normally have much to say about music, and in such an average anime it's not worthy of extended comment. But no one can tell me that the opening “Beyond Selves” by the band Void_Chords is bland or not catchy. Overall, the music here is on point, working well with the music tracks from the original animated series and retaining that unique style. I'll admit: I didn't expect the best element I'd talk about in the RWBY anime to be the music. It's like praising a cake for having exceptionally good icing, somehow it's both an insult and a compliment to the baker.

What can I say in conclusion: I am disappointed with this anime. Mainly because the RWBY IP itself has a lot of potential that has been trampled on. I would recommend it with more confidence if it weren't for the slow pacing of the story, with little happening in too long a time.
Fans of the original RWBY who are after all 9 seasons (may God protect your souls) can add half a point to the rating, after so many poor seasons they deserve something too. Except for fans of the Enabler ship, you guys deserve a re-education camp.