Manga Review: RWBY Official Manga Anthology, Volume 1

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: VIZ Signature (VIZ Media)

Release Date: May 2018

Volumes: 4.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. RightStuf.

Volume: 2.

Goodreads Synopsis:

 Straight from Rooster Teeth’s hit animation series, a new four-volume anthology series featuring stories from various manga creators, each focusing on a different member of Team RWBY!

The world of Remnant is filled with horrific monsters bent on the destruction of humanity. Fortunately, the kingdoms of the world have risen to combat these forces by training powerful Huntsmen and Huntresses at academies around the planet. Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long are four such Huntresses in training.

All new short stories set in the world of RWBY from no less than twenty different manga creators in one single volume!

Includes a full color four-page story and four full-color illustrations. This volume focuses on Ruby Rose from TEAM RWBY.

Plus, bonus messages from the illustrators and creators, with longer notes from RWBY character designer Ein Lee and actress Lindsay Jones, the voice of Ruby Rose herself!

Review:

This is an anthology volume, by a ton of apparently new mangaka, and each volume is apparently about one character. This volume was about Ruby.

To note, I didn't recognize any of the authors. Some of them had better art than others, and there was a variety of styles. There was normal action plots, there were comedy and slice-of-life stories, and there were a few chibi and 4-koma ones.

I haven't read much of RWBY stuff, and I haven't watched the show. So I have very little to go by, aside from just reading some fun random stories. Some of these stories were a little too cheesy for me, and some were a little too random. I would like to think that it gave me a little more idea of what the girls' relationship with each other is. They're close, but still getting to know each other, it seems to me.

I didn't mind this volume. But I will admit that I don't think I love RWBY, at least not from what I've seen. I'm not sold.

 A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, for an honest review. Thank you so, so much!

Manga Review: RWBY by Shirow Miwa

Rating (Out of 5): ~3

Publisher: VIZ Signature (VIZ Media)

Release Date: January 2018

Volumes: 1.

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. RightStuf.

Goodreads Synopsis:

In adventures based on Rooster Teeth’s hit animation series, Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang are students at Beacon Academy, learning to protect the world from the fearsome Grimm.

When the people of Remnant aren't fighting monsters, they still find conflict among themselves. Now they are at fierce odds. Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long are Team RWBY. Together they are learning the deadly craft of hunting the monstrous species known as the Grimm.

Never before revealed adventures of Team RWBY featuring Ruby, Weiss, Blake & Yang before academy and before they were teammates. Plus, a Team JNPR battle featuring a much-younger Jaune!

Review:

I haven't seen or read anything related to RWBY before, so I went into this book with no idea what to expect.

The book starts with a little bang, and then it goes into an introduction for each character. They all get a chapter to themselves, where we find out what brought them to this point, to this school and working together. In the latter half of the volume, it brings them all back together, where we get some glimpses of their friendships and how they're growing closer, and a competition with another group at their school, and finally where they all work together to defeat a creature attacking.

Knowing so little about this series, this was an interesting volume. But it also felt rather one-dimensional. The enemy at the end, the other groups they meet with, none of that left an impression on me. Even the chapters where we met the four characters on their own felt too rushed and not expanded enough. I didn't really feel like I knew the characters very well by the end, only had a base understanding of their characters.

It was honestly a little disappointing, though I'm curious about seeing the original or reading another interpretation, as it definitely felt like there could be more.

 A review copy was provided by the publisher, VIZ Media, for an honest review. Thank you so, so much!