The RoosterTeeth production “RWBY” returned with its fifth volume last week. FIRST members of the RT website were able to view it Oct. 14, members simply registered to the site were able to watch on Oct. 17, and the general public had it uploaded to their YouTube channel where it became available on Oct. 21.
“RWBY” is an American anime web series created by Monty Oum. It stars a young girl named Ruby Rose. Her teammates are Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and her elder sister Yang Xiao Long. Together, they all attend the prestigious Beacon Academy, a school that trains those wishing to be huntresses and hunters how to properly fight the monsters that roam their world, which is known as Remnant.
The series was first brought into the public eye when the trailer “Red” was released on Nov. 7, 2012 after the tenth season finale of another popular RoosterTeeth animation called “Red vs. Blue” aired.
Following this were three other trailers appropriately titled “White”, “Black” and “Yellow” in correspondence to the color scheme of the four main heroines. However, even if they are referred to as trailers, each one acts more like a prequel mini story to introduce the girls prior to them all coming together in the opening episode of the first volume.
Volume One consists 16 episodes, though all episodes varied in length with most on the four to six minute side with a few reaching over ten minutes. This volume has several character introductions as well as explaining bit by bit how the overall world works and how Beacon functions as a school while slowly forming bonds between all the main cast and supporting characters.
Volume Two consists of 12 episodes, though each episode is at least 12 minutes long. This time around, however, episodes were not uploaded on a weekly basis and some weeks had a showing of a segment known as “World of Remnant” instead. These segments gave more information in regards to technology and the myth of Remnant.
Volume Three follows the same formula as its predecessor, though the episodes length extends to a full 16 minutes. “World of Remnant” shows up every third episode along with a week long break while the company did charity streams.
Volume Four continues the trend Volume Three set by having longer episodes as well as more “World of Remnant” segments, though they are now narrated by the character Qrow Branwen to explain each of the four kingdoms that exist on Remnant (Vale, Atlas, Mistral and Vacuo).
“RWBY” has also expanded to the point of getting a Japanese dub, a manga series, and having characters appear in games.
Sadly, Oum passed on Feb. 1, 2015 at the age of 33 after having a severe allergic reaction during a routine medical check-up on Jan. 22 that rendered him comatose.
After his death, fellow staff members at RoosterTeeth and fans have worked to memorialize him properly and have taken his motivational words to heart to continue on and enjoy his work.
In the words of Oum himself, “keep moving forward.”
Erika Brandenburg
Reporter