RWBY: Hjósecu teikoku

It's been about two or three years since the original RWBY was widely recommended to me, and I remember watching the first two episodes and not getting hooked at all. It has great characters, awesome fight choreography, a decent story, and excellent music – at least that’s what I've heard. I’m not crazy about the style of animation – I found it annoying after two short episodes. I just couldn't see the appeal of it. Maybe it needed more time, the animation supposedly gets better in the following seasons, but I wasn't in the mood for it, and I didn't have the time, so I put it off indefinitely. I wasn't originally planning on watching this reboot/spin-off either. But then three episodes came out at once, the summer anime season was just starting, and I didn’t have anything interesting to watch, so I figured I'd give it a shot. The first three episodes were really good. I liked the characters and the setting, and Ruby's first fight in the city in the first episode looked decent. The next fight, where the teams were to be formed, wasn’t as great and interesting, though. I was still curious to see how it would continue after the promising beginning. The main part of the story turned out to be quite disappointing because it wasn't half as imaginative as I had expected, and it didn't even meet my expectations for an interesting dream world animated by the Shaft studio. If you were expecting creative work with editing, color, camera, and composition based on the animation studio, then you're out of luck and probably should look elsewhere. Even though the setting had a lot of potential, in terms of animation and the use of color, music, and movement, it's an average anime that doesn’t stand out except for the first and the last two episodes. The rest is dull, not only in animation but also in terms of the story, with a few good ideas concerning various aspects and pitfalls of the human mind. What kept me watching were the characters, their motivations, relationships, and interesting background. On the other hand, I had a hard time believing they were that close, so "the power of friendship that conquers all" trope didn’t work for me in this case. Maybe if this happened further on in the story, when the girls already knew each other better, it would have been more convincing. In the end, what saved it for me and made it less dull and mediocre was the ending. The writers seemed to have made more effort in the last two episodes, so the fights in the penultimate episode were great, and the final friendly fight in the cafeteria was probably the best one. But it was all too little, too late, which is why I’m not giving it more than a 5.5/10. I'm curious to see what fans of the original RWBY will say about the series, as they are able to compare the two shows. I promise I’ll give the original another chance. (2022.09.18)