Wasn't sure whether to stick this in the TV show or Movie thread, considering how I watched it, but yeah...I finally got around to starting RWBY, a show I've put off seeing for a very long time based on how it visually looked like utter garbage every time I saw it. However, I stumbled across a BluRay set on Black Friday that had the first 5 Seasons or "Volumes" for $25, so I figured...what the hell?
The series is a series of micro episodes of varying length. The 1st & 2nd volumes let you watch the episodes either individually or strung together as a movie, and so far I highly recommend the latter.
So far, I've watched through the beginning of the 2nd "season/volume", and yeah...I'm onboard with this. The subject matter is as cliche as it comes so far (a bunch of students wanting to become monster hunters with absolutely fucking ridiculous weapons train to do so at an academy), but the show makes it work. The first season looks particularly bad, at some points even worse than the 1st season of Reboot. However, the show has a nice sense of style and energy that manages to cover for that, particularly in the excellently-scripted fight scenes (so far).
I'm a little wary of just how awesome the fight scenes are so far, as they are incredible to watch but they're already trending close to the line of being so over-the-top and elaborately staged that they cross into DBZ territory, where it's just a bunch of noise & flash without stakes or weight. They haven't crossed that line yet and they're damn entertaining, but the guy behind this show was also behind those old Final Fantasy fighting videos on Youtube and that's where those went eventually.
So far, I'm invested and I'm looking forward to seeing where this show goes. It's clearly setting things up for later story arcs. The 2nd season already looks like it got a noticeable bump in the animation budget, as characters seem higher res now with sharper outlines.