RWBY

RWBY
Official logo for RWBY showing the four main characters.
Genre	Action, Adventure, Science-fantasy, Comedy-drama, Supernatural
Created by	Monty Oum
Written by	Miles Luna Kerry Shawcross Monty Oum
Directed by	Monty Oum Kerry Shawcross
Voices of	Lindsay Tuggey Kara Eberle Arryn Zech Barbara Dunkelman Miles Luna Shannon McCormick Kathleen Zuelch Monty Oum Samantha Ireland Jen Brown
Narrated by	Jen Taylor
Opening theme	"This Will Be the Day" by Jeff Williams and Casey Lee Williams
Composer(s)	Jeff Williams Steve Goldshein Alex Abraham
No. of seasons	1
No. of episodes	16 (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Matt Hullum Burnie Burns Kathleen Zuelch
Production company(s)	Rooster Teeth Productions LLC.
Broadcast
Original run	July 18, 2013 (2013-07-18) – present (present)
External links
Rooster Teeth Website

RWBY (pronounced "Ruby") is an anime-styled American CG-animated web-series created by the Rooster Teeth Productions' animation studio.^[1][2][3] The series is created and directed by animator Monty Oum. Episodes are released every Thursday on Rooster Teeth's website and simulcasted on Crunchyroll. One week after release they are also uploaded to YouTube. The first episode of RWBY premiered on July 5, 2013 at RTX 2013 and was released on the Rooster Teeth site on July 18, 2013.^[4][5][6] The second season was announced to be premièred at the 2014 RTX in July 4-6.^[7]

Plot

The story takes place in the world of Remnant, which is filled with supernatural forces and shadowy creatures known as the "Creatures of Grimm". Prior to the events of the series, mankind waged a battle of survival against the Grimm before discovering the power of a mysterious element called Dust, which allowed them to fight back against the monsters. In the present day, Dust is used to power magical abilities and weapons. Those who use these abilities to battle the Grimm are known as Huntsmen or Huntresses.^[1] The series focuses on four girls, each with her own unique weapon and powers. Together, they form a team at Beacon Academy in the city of Vale, where they are trained to become Huntresses alongside other similar teams.^[8][9]

Main characters

• Ruby Rose (Lindsay Tuggey): a girl with dark red hair who is the leader of Team RWBY. She is capable of reaching superhuman speeds and wields the Crescent Rose, a mechanical weapon that is a hybrid of a scythe and a sniper rifle. She alludes to Little Red Riding Hood and her name is a reference to the red jewel of the same name and a flower of the same color.
• Weiss Schnee (Kara Eberle): a white-haired girl who carries the Myrtenaster, a rapier equipped with glyphs that channel the energy of Dust. She is an allusion to Snow White, which is reflected in her name, translated from German as "white snow".
• Blake Belladonna (Arryn Zech): a black-haired Faunus girl who wields the Gambol Shroud, a folding katana with a sharpened sheath that has a pistol in the hilt, which is also attached to a long ribbon that Blake often uses in the style of a kusarigama. She is a Faunus, a species that looks human but has animal traits. Her name, "Blake", is an Old English term for black, and she draws influence from Belle of Beauty and the Beast.
• Yang Xiao Long (Barbara Dunkelman): a yellow-haired girl and Ruby's older sister. She wields twin shotgun gauntlets called Ember Celica. She is inspired by Goldilocks; and her name, Yang (陽), is Chinese for "sun" and "light".
• Jaune Arc (Miles Luna): a blond-haired student and the leader of Team JNPR (pronounced "juniper") who wields a sword and shield named Crocea Mors, an heirloom formerly belonging to his great-great-grandfather. The shield can fold into a sheath for his sword. His name is derived from Joan of Arc, with his first name, "Jaune", also being the French word for the color yellow.
• Nora Valkyrie (Samantha Ireland): an orange-haired student at Beacon who carries Magnhild, a grenade launcher that can be converted into a hammer. She and Ren are long-time friends. Her last name, "Valkyrie", is inspired by the female warriors found in Norse mythology.
• Pyrrha Nikos (Jen Brown): a red-haired student at Beacon Academy. She wields a rifle/javelin/xiphos combination weapon called Miló and a shield called Akoúo̱, and has the power to affect an object's magnetic polarity. She is named after the Greek mythological figure, and her last name is derived from the goddess Nike.
• Lie Ren (Monty Oum): a black-haired student at Beacon who uses dual-wield machine pistols with attached blades called StormFlower. He and Nora are long-time friends. His name in Chinese (猎人) translates to "hunter."
• Professor Ozpin (Shannon McCormick): the headmaster of Beacon Academy. His name is a reference to the title character of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.
• Glynda Goodwitch (Kathleen Zuelch): a huntress and teacher at Beacon Academy. Her name is derived from the character Glinda the Good Witch in The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

Episodes

Episodes vary in length. There are sixteen episodes in Volume One. The first episode, mid-volume episode, and finale are around eleven minutes long, and other episodes as short as five minutes long. Volume One concluded in November 2013, and is scheduled to be released on DVD and Blu-ray in the same month.^[1][10] Episodes premiere to the public Thursdays at 7 pm Central Standard Time (UTC-6) on the Rooster Teeth website and are released two hours early for sponsors.^[11] They are uploaded to YouTube a week later. Crunchyroll announced on August 16, 2013, that RWBY would be simulcast on the video streaming site.^[12] Monty Oum announced that the second season was to be premièred in July during the 2014 RTX.^[7]

Development

RWBY had been a long-standing concept of Oum's for years before it began development. Towards the end of his work on the 10th season of Rooster Teeth's Red vs. Blue, he developed the color-coding approach to character names and design as a hook for the series.^[8] During production on Red vs. Blue season 10, Oum asked series creator Burnie Burns if they could produce RWBY following the conclusion of that season. Burns, worried for the production schedule, told Oum "If you finish Season 10, then you can do whatever you want." Production on RWBY began as intended, with the first trailer being finished within two weeks and premiering after the credits of the Red vs. Blue season finale on November 5, 2012.^[13]

Oum designed the characters with assistance from artist Eileen "Einlee" Chang. The characters utilize designs inspired by classic fairy tale characters, and the first letter in the names of each of the four main characters come together to form the show's title.^[8] The series is written by Oum, along with fellow Rooster Teeth employees Miles Luna and Kerry Shawcross.^[14] Oum was initially concerned about a story focusing on female characters being developed by a primarily male crew, but said they managed to do well developing the female characters.^[13] The series is animated by Rooster Teeth's internal animation team using Smith Micro's Poser Software.^[15] The series' music is composed by Jeff Williams, who previously composed the soundtracks for Seasons 8-10 of Red vs. Blue, and features vocals by Williams' daughter, Casey Lee Williams.

The first episode premiered on July 5, 2013 at a panel at RTX 2013.^[4][5] It premiered online two weeks later on July 18, 2013.

Promotion

A series of four promotional trailers, one for each lead character, were released in the lead-up to the series premiere. They were primarily produced by Oum and assistant animator Shane Newville.^[16] Each trailer begins by unveiling one of the four primary characters and then showing a detailed action sequence.^[14] The Red trailer was shown after the credits for Red vs. Blue's season 10 finale in November 2012.^[14][17] It was followed by the White trailer in February 2013.^[18] The Black trailer was unveiled at a PAX East panel at the end of March and was the first to include voice-acted dialogue.^[16] Following the premiere of the Black trailer, Oum noted with regret that the first two trailers were shorter and had less character development.^[16] The Yellow trailer was shown at Rooster Teeth's A-Kon panel on June 1, 2013.^[19] Music from the trailers is being sold for digital download on several online retailers.^[20]

Soundtrack

The official soundtrack for RWBY: Volume 1 was released on the 12th of November, 2013. It includes all the songs used in the trailers, the intro to the series episodes and also the score music to each episode. The soundtrack also contains never before released songs such as "I May Fall" and "Wings".^[21] These songs were, however, briefly played at the end of various episodes.

Reception

Commentators discussing the promotional trailers lauded the show's animation style and its musical soundtrack. The trailers prompted enthusiastic anticipation for the series premiere.^[14][16][18] When the first episode premiered at RTX, it was popular with attendees to the point that seating was full at all three screenings. Amanda Rush, writing for Crunchyroll, noted the anime and Western influences of the series, and praised it as "quick-witted, exciting, lovely to look at" saying fans of anime would enjoy it.^[1] The Austin Chronicle described the premiere as making Oum the "rock star" of Rooster Teeth.^[22] The series has reportedly contributed to a 9% increase in views for Rooster Teeth's official YouTube channel.^[23] Kotaku's Richard Eisenbeis praised the series for its clever use of fairytale elements, fun and enjoyable dialogue, and the fighting choreography, but was critical about the short nature of the episodes, stating that, "The biggest drawback in doing a micro-series... is that there is precious little time for good characterization". He was also critical of the technical issues of the animation, mentioning that the animation is good when the audience is unable to see the character's feet. He ends by saying that "RWBY is a good first step into a world of possibilities."^[24]

Awards

References

External links

• Rooster Teeth Productions
• Rwby at the Internet Movie Database
• RWBY on Facebook