RWBY: Hyousetsu Teikoku

Since ancient times, the world of Remnant has been under constant threat by the Grimm: creatures of nightmare obsessed with destroying both humans and the half-human Faunus. To protect themselves, the four kingdoms of the world established academies that train young people to become huntsmen: warriors tasked with destroying Grimm.

In the kingdom of Vale, the cheerful 15-year-old Ruby Rose has always dreamed of a life at the prestigious Beacon Academy. Sadly, being too young, she can only watch as her elder sister, Yang Xiao Long, sets off for the academy alone. But everything changes when Ruby fights off a group of armed robbers, and the news of her skillful exploit reaches Beacon's headmaster, Professor Ozpin.

Ruby is over the moon when she receives an invitation to join the academy alongside her sister. Meanwhile, halfway across the world in the kingdom of Atlas, corporate heiress Weiss Schnee defies her father's wish and sets off for Beacon, her heart brimming with anxious resolve. At the same time, lonesome rogue Blake Belladonna abandons her vigilante group in hopes of finding a better life at the academy. When their paths converge, the meeting between the four girls is anything but friendly. With vastly different personalities and beliefs, they often end up clashing. However, when they work together, team RWBY begins to create ripples across Beacon, the likes of which have never been seen before.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Rose, Ruby Main

Hayami, Saori Japanese

Schnee, Weiss Main

Hikasa, Youko Japanese

Xiao Long, Yang Main

Koshimizu, Ami Japanese

Belladonna, Blake Main

Shimamura, Yuu Japanese

Nikos, Pyrrha Supporting

Toyoguchi, Megumi Japanese

Valkyrie, Nora Supporting

Suzaki, Aya Japanese

Polendina, Penny Supporting

Han, Megumi Japanese

Torchwick, Roman Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Arc, Jaune Supporting

Shimono, Hiro Japanese

Ozpin Supporting

Inoue, Kazuhiko Japanese

Nishibe, Maho Producer

Matsukawa, Yuuya Producer

Murata, Hideyuki Producer

Okada, Kenjirou Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Sep 26, 2022

MewMewPurin

Recommended

Well-written

Ice Queendom offers something that RWBY proper has little time to deal with anymore. Character studies. To start, I watch the original RWBY so these characters are already engraved into my brain so I can't speak for how good of a job it does at introducing them to a new audience because I can't simply get rid of my biases, but as a fan of RWBY I think Ice Queendom handled the characters amazing! One of the things RWBY lacked, in my opinion, was some of the deep dives into what the characters were thinking especially back in Volume 1. Weiss reveals early on that ... the White Fang has harmed her and her family in physical and emotional ways and in the original she just sort of... gets over that. Don't get me wrong, I have such a fondness for Volume 1-3 of RWBY, but getting the chance to dive deeper into the complicated feelings that characters like Weiss and Blake were feeling over the situation was such a treat. Now to break down some of the pieces of the story,

CHARACTERS
Again, I can't get rid of my prior biases so this is coming from someone who has watched these characters for 8+ volumes and I have to say they did a great adaptation here. It's Volume 1 so most of the characters are fairly baseline and perhaps a little trope-y (Ruby = Genki, Weiss = Himedere, Blake = Kuudere, Yang = Onee-san ) but that leaves a lot of area open to expanding their characters. Using "nightmares" to bring out people's fears is such a fun character study that is even more fun with context of many of these characters.

STORY
Probably one of the weaker parts but I still don't think it's bad. There are points in the middle where it drags a bit, but I still found myself engaged. Many, mistakenly, thought this was a re-telling of Volumes 1-3 (prior to the Maya Animation Engine) so they likely found themselves confused and frustrated on the amount of time spent on Anime Original content. However, seeing as it was not advertised as a retelling, to judge it based off that is unfair. The Anime Original Content is unique and makes the team seem even closer for the events of Volume 2.

SETTING
Ice Queendom primarily takes place in The Ice Queendom (hold your gasps). Seeing that this is more of a character study rather than a journey like the original RWBY, this setting works great. Having the team travel all the way around Remnant would have distracted too much from the story that Ice Queendom is trying to tell.

ANIMATION
Shaft is rather notorious for putting out rushed products that are later fixed on the Blu-Ray (Meguca quality as a I call it) and Ice Queendom is no exceptions there were a couple episodes that were just bad with characters floating around and awkward 3D models that make the series original models look like a Pixar Film. But when the animation was good, it was GOOD. Holding out hope for a Blu-Ray fix, but that doesn't excuse the laziness of a few of the episodes especially with fight scenes something that RWBY is known for. On that note...

ACTION
If you've watched the original RWBY, you are probably expecting some amazing fight animation and unfortunately Ice Queendom rarely delivers on that front. Much like the animation, when it delivers on a fight scene it is a spectacle to behold. However, having a few really amazing fight scenes sprinkled throughout a collection of mid to bad fight scenes is not a good look. Given that I believe Ice Queendom to be a character study and therefore more focused on in depth view of the characters, the action is far from a deal breaker for me. However, if you don't care greatly for the characters (in particular team RWBY) and primarily watch/enjoy RWBY for the fight choreography then you would be better off watching clips of the good fights on Youtube and calling it a day.

OVERALL
This series was a treat for fans of the show, like myself, and hopefully an enjoyable series for new fans as well. It wasn't the best series in the world but it wasn't the worst. It told the story I felt like it was trying to tell and it made me smile so I can't ask for much more than that out of a series. I recommend everyone to give it a try if you like character study series and especially if you're a fan of the designs.

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Sep 18, 2022

Mcsuper

Mixed Feelings

Well-written

Ah, Studio Shaft, how I loved you. From the Monogatari series, to 3-gatsu no Lion, to Madoka Magica, I have enjoyed many of the amazing shows from Shaft that really pushed the boundaries of animation and storytelling. Let’s be real though, they haven’t been on their A-game for a while, and although RWBY’s visuals are a clear improvement to the original from Rooster Teeth, I can’t say that any other aspects were all that impressive and immersive.

This show is a bit of an enigma to me, because it feels drawn out and rushed at the same time. The first couple of volumes were rushed in ... the beginning, then we’re in the same setting for basically two-thirds of the entire series, and the pacing of the fights and the conclusion to the entire thing felt so quick.

My grading criteria: Story: /25 Art: /10 Music: /10 Characters: /20 Enjoyment /15 Thematic Execution /20

STORY: 10/25

The story is quite simple to understand. The world is being ravaged by the Grimm, which are nightmare-esque creatures that seek to put humans and the demi-human Faunus under their spell. Academies were established to train young people to hunt down the Grimm, to protect the world.

15 year old Ruby Rose always aspired to be one of these hunters, and had dreams to go to the prestigious Beacon Academy, but being too young, she couldn’t, until she fought off robbers and caught the attention of the academy headmaster.

This first part was probably the more enjoyable part of the series, and then after Ruby entered the school, Weiss, a member of team RWBY, fell victim to the Grimm, the main characters entered her dream, and found an entirely new world inside there. The power systems, the action, and the little backstories that we learned about were interesting, but since most of the show took place in this dream, it felt quite bland over time.

The biggest issue in the narrative lies in the pacing. The pacing at the start was excruciatingly fast, to adapt the first few volumes of the original RWBY series, and then, the pacing was a mix of being rushed and drawn out, as the dream sequence lasted for quite some time, and any resolution and conclusion felt half-baked and too simplistic.

ART: 8.5/10

Although not perfect, the animation was probably one of the stronger points of this show, especially at the start of the series. There were definitely some signs of degradation in the quality as the show progressed, with blends of 2D and 3DCG which felt awkward, but overall, I enjoyed watching the visuals.

MUSIC: 8.3/10

The OST hits hard in the important moments, and it’s solid, but the music seemed a bit underused. The OST direction could have been handled a bit better for better immersion, but it wasn’t bad. The opening from Void_Chords was okay, but compared to something like the OP from Princess Principal, it felt a bit lacking. The ending from well sung by Saori Hayami, though I wasn’t the biggest fan of it.

For a series that was heavily praised for its OST, I can’t help but just be a little disappointed. It’s still decent though.

CHARACTERS: 8.5/20

There’s nothing inherently wrong with the characters themselves, but I just found them very boring to watch. The traits each character has are very simplistic and don’t have enough depth. I think that some things could have been flushed out a bit better, such as Weiss’s backstory, or the relationship between the humans and the Faunus. Overall, quite forgettable characters, and I would imagine the original series wrote the characters a bit better than this series did.

ENJOYMENT: 7.5/15

I enjoyed some of the action sequences, but I found myself checked out at times, as I didn’t enjoy some of the pacing.

THEMATIC EXECUTION: 9.5/20

The pacing once again hurts the execution of the themes of the show. Like I said, some elements could have been flushed out more, and while sakuga can save the show a little, it can’t save it all.

OVERALL: 52.3/100

I have never watched the original RWBY by Monty Oum, but for one, I can say that he’d probably be proud of the visuals. The ideal combination would obviously be using these levels of visuals with the original storyboarding from Rooster Teeth. I can’t speak on which version of RWBY is better, but what I can say is, this anime was quite the up and down ride, and quite the average one, so RWBY fans, maybe just stick to the original.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Oct 21, 2023

KoraxCatalyst

Not Recommended

Well-written

I don't really watch seasonal anime anymore. After a solid streak of two years, I started falling behind on weekly shows when life got too busy for me to juggle that form of content consumption, on top of the shows I used to get through the behemoth that is my plan to watch list. But when I heard there was going to be a RWBY anime when I woke up March 25th, made by Shaft of all studios, I thought I'd make an exception for the sake of history.

RWBY is a franchise I have a strange relationship with, it’s been around since I was a ... wee teen. And as I matured, I began to see the series for the faults it had, to the extent that by the time volume four released I had completely lost interest. But I still have fond memories of discussing RWBY's initial run to my best friend at the time in Freshman year English, only a few short weeks before he rescinded from the public education system entirely and was home schooled, because he hated every second of high school from the moment he stepped foot off the bus.

I would never see that kid again, though I did have his number, and one of the last things we talked about before he went radio silent was, funnily enough, RWBY.

I wanted to tell this story to communicate as best as I can that I don't hate RWBY, in fact, despite all of the discourse that has followed the show in last half decade, part of me is ostensibly still interested in the show. In all honesty, part of me was excited, in that I could reconnect with this evanescent figment of my adolescence but in a format that my contemporary self could appreciate. Unfortunately, that goodwill would be slowly tarnished over the course of three months, in short, want my hype back.

RWBY: Ice Queendom, is the worst show I've finished from the last four years. That isn't to say it's the worst show I've seen (Ex-Arm easily takes the cake by miles), but in terms of me sitting down and suffering through an entire obnoxious ugly snorefest for the totality of its runtime, Ice Queendom can go home with that participation trophy. And even though I didn't want to believe it at the time, I could've seen this coming from a mile away even by the announcement, I'll explain why.

The general interest in Ice Queendom mainly belied in two brands: Studio Shaft, and Gen Urobuchi.

Gen Urobuchi is one of the few anime screenwriters’ western fans know by name—due to his work on three highly acclaimed and exceptionally popular original projects or adaptations of things he wrote, Fate/Zero, Psycho-Pass, and Madoka Magica respectively. However, much like the other anime released with Gen's name on them in the near decade since his ostensible departure from the industry, Ice Queendom isn't actually written by the man. In truth, the Ice Queendom’s Series Composer is Tow Ubukata, someone whose shows have never entirely cracked the western market, outside of Psycho-Pass 2 which everyone says is bad. It feels like the only reason he was chosen to be lead writer is just because he has written for Gen projects in the past, and he has somewhat of a relationship with Director Toshimasa Suzuki from Fanir of the Blue Sky. Outside of those two things, I can't tell why they picked him specifically.

It's a shame too, because I personally don't think Ubukata was suited for the show. The pacing, for one, was all over the place. Blazing through a season's worth of content in two and a half episodes, only to then drag out the main arc of the series for eight when it's clear to anyone watching that it wasn't necessary, appearing like a lack of poor planning. On top of that, many of the original characters and concepts found in Weiss' dream, such as the sillies, are to me extremely obnoxious, notwithstanding their names which come off as stiff and pretentious whimsy. What this amounts to, is me saying "This is so stupid" out loud for a majority of the show's runtime, which doesn't really add to a viewer’s experience. Outside of that, the story itself was pretty placid, there really isn't anything to comment on because it's all so uninteresting, the plot gets from A to B fine enough, the characters are largely fine enough. I honestly stopped caring about the plot once the chess pieces started showing up, but it's not like I couldn't follow what was happening. The show thankfully doesn't puddle at the sight of its racism commentary so I have to commend it for that. Though to be fair it's a Japanese anime and my standards for that particular theme are very low. To cut to the chase, Gen was basically used as marketing for the show, more than anything else which sucks to see, given that he's on a level far above what most screenwriters could ever dream of.

If the writing was the sole problem of Ice Queendom, I would've probably given this show a 5 and wouldn't have penned a review, but unfortunately much of my disappointment with Ice Queendom comes from the animation department.

Shaft is somewhat of a darling among anime fans for its experimental but always consistent aesthetic sensibilities, featured in highly acclaimed titles such as Madoka Magica, Sangatsu no Lion, and the 100-episode Monogatari series. Shaft is understood to be a studio always willing to push the envelope as to how anime can be presented, and how digital techniques can be used to disrupt the transient-like motion picture and turn it into something even more absurd and dreamlike without breaking immersion. And I consider myself an anime fan who accepts the medium holistically, I don't need every show to look or move at the level of visual quality or consistency of Kimetsu no Yaiba or Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann. But RWBY: Ice Queendom looks like hot garbage, with super inconsistent—if not sometimes atrocious looking character art, with designs that move stiffly like action figures. Animation that starts out solid, but by episode 10 devolves into Yang running in place and having to jump cut away from character movement to save on animation time. The backgrounds look cheap and digital, despite clearly trying their best to be dynamic and interesting, at least in the dream realms. CG that ranges from solid to off-putting when it’s eventually used in the MIDDLE of action sequences (ironic, given that it's RWBY). With the most pedestrian looking storyboarding I have ever seen from Studio Shaft. Honestly, if you looked at the show, outside of episodes 1, 6, and 12, you probably wouldn't even know it's Shaft at all. Episode 10, despite being decently written (It's action so it's hard to mess up), is one of the worst episodes I've anime I've seen in years, because it includes all of the problems I mentioned above.

It's clear that Shaft has fallen on hard times in the last few years, Covid I'm sure not helping this show's production in any way. But I honestly could tell the show's look was going to be a problem just from the staff list alone. Outside of Huke on the designs and the producers, the rest of the head creative staff were people without any serious credits. But with four Chief Animation Directors and six ADs on episode 6 alone, an episode that served as an interlude to cool down the pacing, speaks to me as a deeply troubled production. Even the compositing looks bland, which, given that the director of photography is Takayuki Aizu, who worked the first six entries of the Monogatari series—including the immaculately crafted Kizumonogatari film triology, designates a level of wasted talent that is insanely common in the industry. A problem Shaft was dodging in large part due to the creative visionaries who’ve worked at the studio in the nearly 20 years since the arrival of their golden goose.

Speaking of which, the main concern I had with the staff list of Ice Queendom, outside of Tow Ubukata as the head writer, was the lack of one man, Akiyuki Shinbo.

Akiyuki Shinbo is one of the great outstanding directors in anime's metatextual cannon. Much like other contemporaries of his generation such as Kunihiko Ikuhara or Hideaki Anno, Shinbo is an animation savant who genuinely tries to push the cinematic limitations of anime as far as he can. One of the main reasons Yu Yu Hakusho holds up visually as well as it does is because he seemingly became the most influential creator on the project despite NOT being the lead director. It's unclear these days how much work Shinbo even does at shaft, given that his role as "chief director" on shows tends to be quite nebulous, nevertheless Shaft's style exists because of Shinbo. But Shinbo wasn't to be found on Ice Queendom, which surprised me at the time but honestly shouldn't have. Shaft has made five serious projects since Zoku Owarimonogatari in 2018 and Shinbo only worked on one of them. If this indicates anything, it's that Shaft has been in a massive identity crisis since their staff bottomed out due to their workplace environment being uniquely poor for the industry, and that's REALLY saying something.

By episode 7, while stewing in a regret-filled overtired haze, I asked myself a simple question, why in god's name was this made? On the surface I could understand, because of RWBY's popularity in Japan, and so the boys back in Austin could claim that "there's an anime about a show I made" to impress people at parties, a 2D RWBY anime sounded like a natural conclusion. But after seriously considering it, the question still stands, WHY was this show made? RWBY as a series has been out for so long that anyone who would have been interested, has already seen it. So outside of emboldening a preexisting fanbase, and maybe reminding a few thousand people whom, like me, don't really think about the franchise that often, the brand is not expanding its audience in any significant way. So, the production seems almost a bit frivolous, that is, until you look at one of the top companies funding the show—Good Smile Company, an anime merch distributor that specializes in figures.

Meaning, effectively, RWBY: Ice Queendom is a fancy toy commercial.

That isn't to say that anime designed to sell toys is intrinsically bad, I mean just look at every mecha since the 70's. But with Ice Queendom particularly, it coats the project in a kind of cynicism that becomes apparent when paying attention. That's why every character gets an alternative outfit, if not multiple outfits, with slightly different weapons than the normal series. A bunch of the dumb anime exclusive concepts or characters suddenly make sense, in that they are created to have models made based off of their design. Not to say the entire project is cynical, Takanori Aki stated in an interview about Ice Queendom that the idea of a RWBY anime came from a correspondence he had with Monty Oum following the release of volume 1, so in some loose way the show was made to posthumously fulfill a promise. But nevertheless, the justification for a RWBY spin-off show was to excavate for new ways to merchandize the RWBY brand. It leads to a show whose intention is messy from the beginning and it becomes apparent in the final product.

RWBY: Ice Queendom ultimately leaves me disappointed, which is what I really didn't want from this show, I genuinely desired to like it. But I knew even in March that there was a solid chance the series was going to be bad, I just purposely looked over the red flags. What surprises me about the show after finishing it, is that I didn't hate it more; given everything I've written, I honestly should give Ice Queendom a lower score. However, reflecting on my experience watching Ice Queendom, I can recognize times where I was somewhat enjoying myself, where my own irritation washed away for a few brief moments. I remember specifically in the final episode, when RWBY threw down a binder on the lunch table and emphatically announced about her plan to have a best day ever, followed by this show's luxurious rendition of one of the most iconic sequences of RWBY, I can't help but admit I had a tiny smile on my face. A small memento from a time in which I innocently liked the writing of basically everything I watched, the sentimentality of the sequence in light of everything that has happened in the years since the volume's airing definitely added to the effect.

And the show's ability to sincerely tap into the small twinges of nostalgia I have, with the earnestness of Ruby Rose herself—the least amount of manipulation intended, is something that I at the very least, can respect.

Have a nice day.

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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	YO IS THIS CANNON TO THE ACTUAL RWBY SHOW Superninjaboy2 - Aug 28	8 replies	by kalebsmoker »» Aug 31, 8:19 AM
	Poll: RWBY: Hyousetsu Teikoku Episode 1 Discussion ( 1 2 ) KANLen09 - Jun 24, 2022	51 replies	by Pingl0sek »» Nov 26, 2023 12:00 PM
	Which will happen first Tank895 - Aug 26, 2023	14 replies	by PinkRawChicken »» Aug 30, 2023 9:43 AM
	Poll: RWBY: Hyousetsu Teikoku Episode 3 Discussion ( 1 2 3 ) KANLen09 - Jun 24, 2022	104 replies	by MABEL_APPLE »» Mar 14, 2023 7:29 AM
	Poll: RWBY: Hyousetsu Teikoku Episode 8 Discussion KANLen09 - Aug 21, 2022	40 replies	by kitsune0 »» Feb 25, 2023 12:22 AM