RWBY Volume 3 Begins
Somewhere, Monty Oum is surely smiling.
The opening of RWBY:Volume 3 continued the shows general trend of considerable improvements in production quality and pacing seen over the last two seasons. The Vytal Festival, which has been "right around the corner" for most of the last two seasons and somewhat hyped, has finally arrived. Naturally, this episode has a fair amount of "smashies" and "splodies"which allow us to conclude that Dillon Gu (who was hired as action animator/choreographer after Mr. Oum's death) is, indeed, up to the task.
Action aside, the pacing and writing of the episode are quite good as is the voice acting.
Apart from the fact that this is a tournament cour that will last at least a couple of more episodes, we do find out three things of varying levels of importance.
"Oooh! Oooh! What things? What Things?"
Well for one thing, to everyone's astonishment, it's revealed that...
"RWBY's dad wears Lederhosen!"
No. just. No.....I mean he does, but...Dammit...
Fine..
Amongst the MANY things that we've learned...
The hapless shopkeeper, who, do to the local crime wave, has switched from a high overhead retail establishment involving crystal MacGuffins to a more easily insurable noodle kiosk, may, in fact, be more than meets the eye. He is certainly well versed in the esoteric art of card-fu.
'That was rude, but kind of awesome."
Somewhat surprisingly, we are quickly introduced to that new character from the trailer who has been getting so much fan attention for the last week. While her time on screen is brief we do get a surprising amount of insight into her character and motivations.
Liquorice
Apparently, Team JNPR has been having some extracurricular adventures of their own, albeit off camera...
"You know. All those times WE dealt with murderers."
It was an offhand comment, but it was certainly interesting.
Equally offhanded but rather less likely to be a continuity error, was the revelation that Rin and Nora are not only both orphans, but they both no longer have homes to return to.
Not so much revelation as confirmation is the fact that the episodes are 17 minutes and three seconds with credits. This means that we've got to wait a week to see that bit at the rest of the next fight and whether or not the lowbrow foreshadowing will pan out.
I will be strangely (and very slightly) disappointed if Vomit Boy does not live up to his name next week, though perhaps not to the extent that I'll be relieved if he doesn't
This season is off to a resoundingly promising start.
1
I was greatly surprised by the massive improvement in graphical quality. Particularly in the backgrounds, this show now looks really good.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Mon Oct 26 02:33:44 2015 (a12rG)
2Equally offhanded but rather less likely to be a continuity error, was
the revelation that Rin and Nora are not only both orphans, but they
both no longer have homes to return to.
This is actually supported, at least in Nora's case, by the song "Boop". If you take the lyric:
Always there for me / You've been my family...
...at face value, that is.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Mon Oct 26 18:22:44 2015 (a12rG)
3
Its also lampshaded in other ways. The World of Remnant short on the Grimm makes note of the fact that small communities outside the walls of the major kingdoms fare not infrequently annihilated.
Additionally, there was a bit of dialog in last season's finale when Jaune decided (fortuitously) to blow off their plans for the day and run towards the sound of the guns. Ren was quite anxious to visit some town in the wastes.
Jaune promised him that they would go there. Thus even if JNPR is eliminated in a humiliating rout landing them in a pool of their own foreshadowed vomit, they may use their resulting copious free time to follow up on that thread
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Oct 26 19:15:39 2015 (LImEF)
4
I looked up the lyrics to the new intro song and was struck by how much grimmer it is than season 2's, which was already grimmer than season 1's.
Posted by: Rick C at Thu Oct 29 11:56:46 2015 (ECH2/)
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Thu Oct 29 15:17:56 2015 (5oCPR)
6
One thing I didn't quite get... was there anything that foreshadowed Weiss' card being rejected?
(I always watch on RoosterTeeth, but their current player no longer lets me buffer the entire episode as their old one did).
Posted by: Mauser at Fri Oct 30 06:06:15 2015 (TJ7ih)
7
Maybe--she rejected a phone call from her father just before.
Posted by: Rick C at Fri Oct 30 15:59:38 2015 (ECH2/)
8
There are indications that her father does NOT approve of her career choice. In addition to her not picking up the phone this time, during the episode last season where RWBY was wearing the cool looking costumes (and fighting a giant robot) Weiss rebuffed a chance to talk to both her dad and her sister.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Fri Oct 30 17:25:52 2015 (5oCPR)
That time at the Chinese restaurant I decided to try something completely new and off the wall...and so I ordered the jellyfish.
Well, there are similarities: I have the sneaking suspicion that a terrible prank has been played on me and a general sensation of horrible wrongness. On the other hand, the Jellyfish did not make me fear I had lost brain cells.
After watching the show I checked the '"about" bar to see if any side effects were listed, what their symptoms were and if there were any counter agents recommended.
But all I got was this...
The story takes place in a certain ordinary town where it is natural for everyone to wear an animal costume head. It depicts the everyday life of the main character MILPOM and her friends who live there, filled with the essence of Kawaii and a little bit cynical girls.
I read it twice and it didn't put me at ease at all.
OwarimonogatariOwarimonogatari is supposed to be the finale of the Bakemonogatari franchise and it shares the tone, pacing and aggressively surrealist art direction of its predecessors as well as being fairly dialog heavy...and text heavy... having bursts of 'textposition' onscreen for such a short period of time that they frequently defy even the pause button.
Araragi, the (former vampire highschool student who is theoretically the protagonist) has tended heretofore to deal with various flavors of supernatural horror. This time a really creepy transfer student has gotten him looking into something much more mundane.
Or not...
The narrator and point of view are not particularly honest and there seem to be very peculiar goings on...assuming that they are happening.
It takes two episodes to finally get the ground rules set...
...and now the show is off running; down a flight of stairs in an M.C. Escher painting.
This one is looking to be quite good, being both clever and genuinely creepy at times.
1
I've been collecting all the series with the intent of giving them the attention they are due.
I've found it's best to watch an episode through without pausing, then later go through trying to read all the text cards.
The one thing I'm really missing though is the original movie where Araragi was first turned into a vampire. So much of the plat traces back to that, it's a shame to be missing it.
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Oct 25 06:05:12 2015 (TJ7ih)
Watched Ep3 last night. The refrigerator moment later was the realization that there was no screen action. None. I could have printed out the subs and read them in five minutes rather than looking at nothing for 28.
Don't get me wrong: we love these shows and have seen them all; but, I wonder if at this point the studio is just playing with us.
Posted by: Clayton Barnett at Sun Oct 25 11:19:48 2015 (lU4ZJ)
Well..she pretty much sums up the series, but sacred honor demands that I write something.
Super Robot Girls Z Plus never quite came together. It could have been a great show for parents to watch with their kids if they had toned the vulgarity down a notch. The fact that it was a 10 minute show that aired once a month did not help. As it was it was, it was this silly show made me chuckle quite a few guilty chuckles mainly because being an old fart, I got most of the obscure super-robot show references (and am a bad person).
In fairness though, it did pick up towards the end, especially with the revelation that the season two big-bad is a special kind of malevolent....
Zounds!
Lots of structural stupidity in this show, but with the main villain's motivations being a contempt for the suburbs and a hatred for weirdoes it's not without merit if one can minimize the number of one's brain cells the show kills.
1
That's exactly how I've been feeling. The trailers and teasers have so many elements that look wonderful, but I don't have any faith in what Abrams will create. Star Wars isn't high art, but it does have certain beats that you have to get right. As George Lucas proved, just putting some canon names in the movie doesn't make it all OK.
Posted by: Ben at Wed Oct 21 10:19:56 2015 (SqM8E)
1
I remember seeing this at an anime club in Philly, then seeing the translated version (I think in a theater). Back then, of course, no importer would ever THINK of leaving a film completely intact, they had to prove they were important by editing it. So for some reason they changed the order of the segments, and I think they left one out, but I could never be sure.
Posted by: Mauser at Mon Oct 19 04:21:29 2015 (TJ7ih)
Posted by: Mauser at Sun Oct 11 03:22:09 2015 (TJ7ih)
2
Well, this tournament has been upcoming for two seasons now. If they didn't do it there would be grief.
Also Cinder appears to be planning to set her plan in motion during this festival. At least that's what the dialog concerning Torchwick's 'jumping the gun' seemed to imply.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Sun Oct 11 03:46:40 2015 (LImEF)
3
Love the characters, but once I realized the story was actually headed toward a tournament I lost some enthusiasm. Every time an action show does a tournament I usually stop watching; it's just too tropey and predictable.
Of course, considering Monty Oum created the storyline, I should have expected a fighting tournament.
Posted by: Ben at Sun Oct 11 14:10:37 2015 (DRaH+)
4
If I remember correctly, they talk about "the tournament" in the very first episode. This is not news, this is not a surprise, and given the track record of the show, I'm willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. While I surely can't tell you what to do, I can certainly suggest that you do the same.
Posted by: Wonderduck at Sun Oct 11 15:52:26 2015 (a12rG)
5
They did, but I never felt like that's what the show was about. I thought I'd was just background information or a setting detail. I'll certainly give the new series a try; Oum demonstrated with Dead Fantasy that he can make a straight fight scene interesting. I'm just hoping it's not a "Match One, Match Two, Match Three, etc." thing.
Posted by: Ben at Sun Oct 11 20:16:21 2015 (gPTe0)
Questions For My Readers Regarding Matters of No Importance
Some months ago, in a moment of indiscipline, I picked up a DVD ofDid You Order the Hossenfeffer?and, having watched the first three episodes I'm wondering if I've missed something.
Where ARE they? It looks like Rotterdam and I initially thought that the protagonist (Cocoa) was, in fact, an exchange student, but everyone else has (unlikely) Japanese names and the mannerisms, school related rituals and references to samurai indicate this is not the case. Sentai's subtitling seemed a tad off at first, and I was wondering if I'd missed something or this is just set in "Myazaki land", a theme park...or perhaps Hokkaido.
Setting aside, the show seems to be a standard CGDCT series but has made me laugh a couple of times. However, the cast has transcended quirky and appears to have been generated by randomly pulling approved ipseities from Tumbler. We've got the directionally challenged, the lesbian, the autistic cubist, the girl intimately in touch with her exotic culture who is not from the American southeast, and the tribble who identifies as a pre-op transexual rabbit. In contrast, there is also something of a combo breaker...
...the badass barista of competence who warrants a completely different sort of trigger warning. There is no indication as of yet that her Browning is an air-soft...which simply adds more questions about the setting.
(I've noted no zombies as of yet but remain hopeful)
1
The "Fake Europe" setting is rather common. Sometimes it's rather medieval (an excellent example of it can be seen in GBF of all things!
It's Matsushita's original world and it's stolen from one of old Gundams.). Other times it's a fantasy tinged, such as in Haibane Renmei. Or it may be "realistic fake Europe" like in Kokoro Toshokan. Either way, it's a common idiom and Gochuumon wa Usagi Desuka follows it right on center. I specifically mean a common idiom outside of sword-and-sourcery genre, where it is a part of the standard setting both in Japan and U.S.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Oct 5 15:13:01 2015 (RqRa5)
2
Oh, and just for the record, GochiUsa didn't earn top marks at Ani-nouto. Even came close to being dropped, despite being intensely popular among my co-workers. Steven was more positive, but he's in it for screencaps.
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Oct 5 15:25:10 2015 (RqRa5)
As Pete says, all I did was scan through it looking for plunder. But if there's any actual plot to the series I couldn't discern it. It's pure "cute girls doing cute things" from one end to the other.
Rize (the one in your picture) is the prize, though. She's the one who owns all the guns.
4
I wan't sure.
There were an awful lot of Japanese specific cultural references and those threw me.
It's pleasant enough, I've laughed out loud a couple of times, but it cranks the möe up to disturbing levels. 3 episodes may be the maximum safe dose in a sitting without risking insulin shock.
Rize, however, Rize is win.
Posted by: The Brickmuppet at Mon Oct 5 17:12:02 2015 (LImEF)
Posted by: Pete Zaitcev at Mon Oct 5 17:25:57 2015 (RqRa5)
6
My owner and I tried as hard as we could to like this show. I think we made it to ep nine or so, then gave up. It may have been their attempt to introduce a plot that finally ruined it for us. Many, many charming elements along the way, though.
Posted by: Clayton Barnett at Mon Oct 5 17:53:34 2015 (lU4ZJ)
7
The second season starts on Saturday if you're after more.
Posted by: Riktol at Wed Oct 7 14:35:34 2015 (7kvRN)
One of THOSE Days...
Amongst other things, I've managed to loose two posts, one to a power failure, and one to a PEBKAC error. I'm turning in. As compensation, here is Sakuya, who is also having one of THOSE days but is much more pleasant to look at.
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