By: @ZalokTLOC
RWBY quickly establishes the bleakness of its world, Remnant, in the opening scene. An unknown woman explains over an appealing 2D animation style the origin of man, born from dust, and their battles against the constant threat of monsters known as the Grimm. Despite mentioning hope and powers granted by discovering a magical material called Dust, the narration implies that humanity struggles against these monsters.
The sad music, the narrator’s remarks about humanity’s fondness for legends, and the ideas of hope as light against the Grimm, born from darkness, give off a fairytale-like vibe. This fairy tale motif runs throughout the episode, especially with the main character, the Little Red Riding Hood-inspired Ruby Rose.
The narration about darkness returning then bleeds into a shot of Roman Torchwick and his goons walking through Beacon. Next, the animation switches to 3D as Roman’s group strides towards the Dust Shop, everyone fearing their presence.
Various long, wide shots further cement this world’s bleakness; the moon appears crumbling amidst the pitch-black night sky. Every bystander is featureless, just as black and as if consumed by darkness.
As the narration ends, Roman enters the dust shop and robs the elderly salesman of his dust blind. At the same time, Ruby Rose listens to music while looking at weapon magazines. One of Roman’s goons goes to rob her. Our young main character quickly reveals her weapon, a massive, mechanical red scythe, and dispatches Roman’s minions.
The fight choreography and cinematography are excellent. While the 3dRoman flees, and after confirming the safety of the salesperson, Ruby gives chase. Unfortunately, she runs into trouble as Roman flees in a small, carrier jet-like vehicle, and his mysterious mage associate almost kills her. Thankfully, Glynda Goodwhich saves her and forces the villainous pair to flee.
Ruby promptly calls Glynda a Huntress and asks for her autograph, to which she arrests and reprimands Ruby for her reckless actions. Huntsmen and Huntresses are warriors whose jobs are to fight the Grimm. It is a common profession where there are multiple schools for teenagers and young adults to go and learn, with Ruby being a student at Signal.
She wants to be a huntress and wishes to attend Beacon with her older sister. However, she is a few years too young to join, implying that Huntress educational institutes have different schooling levels, like elementary school versus college. Thankfully for her, Glynda’s boss and principal of Beacon Academy, Ozpin, is also there. After a quick conversation about Ruby’s abilities, he lets her into Beacon early. Ozpin’s presence is mysterious, but his involvement with Ruby’s apprehension implies that leaders among Huntress educational institutes possess authority over policing certain crimes.
The episode’s final scene involves Ruby riding a plane to Beacon with her older sister, Yang Xiao Long. She expresses concern over skipping grades, but Yang assures her she will be fine. After a news segment about a faction called the White Fang, a hologram of Glynda appears as she welcomes the group to Beacon. The episode ends as Ruby and Yang joke about not hoping they don’t get travel sick like another student on the flight, Jeanne.
Volume 1 Episode 1’s greatest strengths are worldbuilding, cinematography, and music. The world of Remnant is harsh, dark, and cruel, without much light. Even with the threat of Grimm, humanity doesn’t work together. Crimes and terrorist factions create additional problems besides bloodthirsty, man-eating monsters. Despite this, society has advanced enough to have hi-tech machines like planes, holograms, and transforming weapons, showing how long this world has dealt with the Grimm.
Ruby Rose’s design contrasts this with her massive red cape popping out, the huge red scythe twice as long as her body, and childish expressions. While I’d prefer to learn more about her past, we get a good glimpse of her character in this episode. However, the opening shows her kneeling before her mother’s grave. This review judges the episode on its own merits). Her cheerful enthusiasm at a life-threatening job contrasts with the darkness of Remnant’s world; Ruby sees being a Huntress in a romantic, heroic way, like how she saved the store owner. The episode also implies she has a weapons hobby with the magazine she was reading in her reveal shot. The clunky design of her scythe and Ozpin’s comments about how rare scythe users are imply she may have built it herself.
Another key part of RWBY’s character is her naivete. The way she shoves Ozpin’s cookies into her mouth gives a sense of childish naivete, and she doesn’t realize how dangerous of a world she is about to enter. The moment she corners Roman demonstrates how little she understands, as Ruby would have died if Lynda didn’t rescue her. Despite easily taking out the goons, Lynda and the mysterious woman fight at a much higher level than Ruby with how well they control their magical abilities.
The action is also great and creative with Ruby’s weapon and the use of magic by Glynda. You feel how fast Ruby is, and how she moves alongside the shots from her scythe shows her competency. Despite the stiff movements, the direction and camera work gives a fast-paced flow. You can only notice the flaws if you try and pick them apart. Even outside action scenes, the flow of each shot and scene to the next is fast and keeps you on your toes.
The sound design is also good. While the acting is mixed at best, Jeff Williams’s soundtrack is incredible and adds so much to every scene.
Sadly, despite how much I praised worldbuilding, there are some flaws. With this episode, I mainly focus on Dust and the Grimm. As the narration suggests, Dust is an extremely valuable resource. Magic crystals that are the main defense against Grimm shouldn’t be sold at convenience stores or at least guarded. While I like how they can come in crystals or stored in special containers, it feels like a valuable product enough for the old salesman to have some security funds.
Another point about the dust is the world’s technology. With Dust being so plentiful and powerful, I’d imagine that there would be incorporated more into most technology and structures. Suppose Dust is so common that people sell it alongside magazines. Why doesn’t everyone have Dust-powered devices or houses and vehicles? I assume Dust powers the planes and holograms. Still, Ruby’s scythe doesn’t appear to use Dust from its industrial-themes design. It even uses solid ammo when Dust would potentially allow her to attack with fireballs or magic blasts, which are arguably stronger. I don’t know if this is the case, but I am unsure based on how the Beacon looks and what the episode told me.
Also, there’s no Grimm in this episode. Suppose the opening narration expresses how dangerous they are. Why isn’t a Grimm ripping through Beacon and showing us the danger they possess in the first episode? We can’t have the funny scene of “You’re trying to rob me!” but it would help establish just how bleak the world is.
That brings me to my last point, and I don’t fully see Remnant as bleak as it wants me to see it. With how nice Beacon looks with entire, tall buildings, it feels that society has a decent hold on the Grimm, especially if they are training kids to fight them.
Overall, it is a decent start to the story. 6/10.
