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Manga Thoughts: RWBY
Hearing people in Japan were managing to see RWBY caught my attention. The further news of a Japanese-dubbed release of the "web series," computer-animated on this side of the Pacific, seemed to cut through a number of the things tangled up with "people outside Japan getting so into comics and animation from that island nation they try making something like it themselves." It was far from the only thing keeping up my own interest in the series, but it was something.
After having the chance to see at least some of the Japanese version myself, a manga version I'd also heard about became available over here too. I went ahead and bought a copy, convinced by its cover the character artwork would have more personality and liveliness than the somewhat austere computer animation. (In a calendar store closing down as the year rolled over, I saw a RWBY calendar, and as much a revival of the "novelty" that had first attracted me to the series it was on first sight, the back cover had me thinking inside it was all close-ups of the computer-generated characters, not that interesting to me.)
However, I did realise almost at once that Shirow Miwa's art left the characters against white voids for backgrounds most of the time, and that might somehow have added to an impression that, in adapting and building on the four introductory animations that had pulled me into the series in those first salad days of novelty, the manga might not be all that easy to follow for someone just starting out with it just as its efforts to break action animation down into still moments could be a bit hard to follow too. Still, I wanted to try and make the best of my purchase, and I picked up on a suggestion in the adaptation of the second introductory animation. At the time it had seemed more sheer action than stage-setting, but since then I'd realised things from it were being built up again in the personal story of the icy heiress Weiss, but still not quite fully explained. Even if the suggestion in the manga isn't "official," it did lend a good bit more context to the action at last.
Not that long after finishing the manga, anyway, the fifth and latest "season" of animation wrapped up. The four main characters reunited at last after recuperation and adventures of their own (although there was one cliffhanger that did have me worried one letter was about to be struck from the title), and all in all I enjoyed watching it and can look forward to the story being continued. I also managed to see another RWBY manga is being licensed from Japan; there, I suppose, hope springs eternal.
After having the chance to see at least some of the Japanese version myself, a manga version I'd also heard about became available over here too. I went ahead and bought a copy, convinced by its cover the character artwork would have more personality and liveliness than the somewhat austere computer animation. (In a calendar store closing down as the year rolled over, I saw a RWBY calendar, and as much a revival of the "novelty" that had first attracted me to the series it was on first sight, the back cover had me thinking inside it was all close-ups of the computer-generated characters, not that interesting to me.)
However, I did realise almost at once that Shirow Miwa's art left the characters against white voids for backgrounds most of the time, and that might somehow have added to an impression that, in adapting and building on the four introductory animations that had pulled me into the series in those first salad days of novelty, the manga might not be all that easy to follow for someone just starting out with it just as its efforts to break action animation down into still moments could be a bit hard to follow too. Still, I wanted to try and make the best of my purchase, and I picked up on a suggestion in the adaptation of the second introductory animation. At the time it had seemed more sheer action than stage-setting, but since then I'd realised things from it were being built up again in the personal story of the icy heiress Weiss, but still not quite fully explained. Even if the suggestion in the manga isn't "official," it did lend a good bit more context to the action at last.
Not that long after finishing the manga, anyway, the fifth and latest "season" of animation wrapped up. The four main characters reunited at last after recuperation and adventures of their own (although there was one cliffhanger that did have me worried one letter was about to be struck from the title), and all in all I enjoyed watching it and can look forward to the story being continued. I also managed to see another RWBY manga is being licensed from Japan; there, I suppose, hope springs eternal.