Spoiler-Free Anime Review:
RWBY Chibi Season 1
Rating: 6 out of 10 stars
Intro
After watching six volumes of RWBY, my sisters and I discovered the series RWBY Chibi. The comedic aspects of this show were refreshing after the darker scenes of the later volumes of RWBY, but Season 1 of RWBY Chibi, while humorous, was not altogether satisfying.
Background
RWBY Chibi Season 1 was released in 2016 and is a RWBY spin-off show. It contains serious spoilers for Volumes 1-3 of RWBY.
It can be watched in its entirety on Amazon Prime, or as individual episodes on Youtube or the Rooster Teeth Website.
Summary
RWBY Chibi consists of comedy segments featuring characters from RWBY. The show is not considered canon.
Pros
- Clever use of character traits and personalities for humor
- Poking fun at character relationships
- The studio’s self-deprecating sense of humor
- Clever breaking of the fourth wall
- Junior Detectives segment
- Frequent references to western culture make it a unique anime
Cons
- Extremely limited audience that it is unlikely to satisfy
- Segment of Faunus racial profiling played for laughs
- Distractingly strong exaggeration of Pyrrha’s accent
Review
Humor
The show used traits of the characters in exaggerated ways to increase the humor. For instance, it cleverly utilized Neptune’s fear of water, Pyrrha’s polarity, and Blake’s semblance to create hilarious scenarios.
The comedy also poked fun at Jaune’s obsession with Weiss, Weiss’s attempts to team up with Pyrrha, Pyrrha’s efforts to spend time with Jaune, and Nora and Ren’s awkward relationship.
My favorite part was when the studio created humor at their own expense by making fun of the poor animation of Volume 1 of RWBY, in particular the dark silhouettes that took the place of actual background characters.
Breaking the fourth wall was another tactic used, but not overused like it often is in other shows and movies. Nora used it to great effect to emphasize the fact that RWBY Chibi was a comedy and would not permit themes like death.
The Junior Detectives segment was amusing, and followed the antics of Sun and Neptune. I definitely got the feeling that Neptune was much more of a star in RWBY Chibi than he was in RWBY.
References
Frequent references to Western culture made this a unique anime. For example, there were references to Little Red Riding Hood and Jaune be nimble (instead of Jack be nimble).
Audience
This show would make no sense and would not be amusing to anyone who hasn’t watched RWBY.
Even if you watched RWBY, the show is clever but not as funny as one might hope.
Racial Profiling
Blake is part cat. We get it. But making racial profiling part of a joke, especially when the situation of the Faunus was so terrible in RWBY, is not funny.
Over-exaggeration
Over-exaggeration was only really a problem when it came to Pyrrha’s accent. It was exaggerated so that it didn’t really sound like her.
Conclusion
If you watched RWBY, this may be worth your time, but otherwise, don’t bother. It’s good for a few laughs, but don’t expect anything phenomenal.
The content is appropriate for audiences of all ages.
Links
- Official website of RWBY Chibi
The Queer Schizophrenic 