RWBY (2013)

Volume 1

Director: Monty Oum
Studio: Rooster Teeth
Starring: Lindsay Jones, Kara Eberle, Arryn Zech
Episodes: 16

Synopsis:
A talented young fighter is accepted into a school that specializes in hunting monsters.

Impressions:
Now, I've been a fan of Monty Oum's work ever since I first came across "Haloid". When he joined the Rooster Teeth team to bring his talents to Red vs. Blue, I was duly psyched and when we started getting the teasers of an all-new series completely under his creative control, I was eagerly anticipating the debut. First, the good. The action scenes are everything you'd expect from Oum and there's some fascinating worldbuilding going on. I rather like the fusion of Eastern and Western folklore for the characters and general ambiance. The bad, however, is that the script is often awkward with performances to match. (During my first viewing, I would often just mute the audio.) While the fight scenes are gorgeous, simple everyday animation is often clumsy. Bear in mind, though, most of the cast aren't professional actors and we're not talking about a full-fledged animation studio behind the project. If you're willing to be generous toward the series' limitations, I think there's enough to make it a worthwhile viewing experience. It's a bit of a rough start, but there's a lot of promise here. Give it a shot.

Rating:
Watch It