RWBY: Ice Queendom – 1/2/3 [Red, White, Black, Yellow/This is Beacon/Nightmare Comes]

Welcome everyone, to the first airing show of the Summer 2022 season, RWBY: Ice Queendom! The first 3 episodes pre-aired for some reason, so despite our opening seasonal coverage not coming out until this weekend I decided to go for it. Don’t worry, you don’t have to know anything about RWBY to read along. It’s most just going to be me explaining and reaming into it. So without further ado, lets jump in!

First up lets get this out of the way, Queendom looks wildly inconsistent. This isn’t a huge surprise, its Shaft post-exodus so it was always going to be rough. But it still hurts to actually see. Once or twice an episode we will get an absolutely bonkers Hiroto Nagata cut, and it will be glorious. I’m talking everything I ever wanted an anime RWBY to be. Outside that however… The stills look nice, huke’s art style is always great, but the moment things begin to move it falls apart. Everyone becomes stiff, like they can’t handle the character designs in motion. Meanwhile the bullheads and airships look like literal toys, sliding across the screen motionless. And the backgrounds? They are occasionally nice, but nothing to write home about. They do their job and nothing more, rarely pulling us deeper into this world. Basically what I’m saying is, Queendom looks… meh.

With that we can get into the episodes proper! And… Oh god… They are blitzing through it. In the span of 3 episodes Queendom just completed the entire first season of RWBY PLUS added in the start of its own original arc. Now to be fair, this isn’t as bad as it sounds. The OG RWBY episodes were 5-10 minutes in length, so the entire first season is only 2 hours long. But it’s still cutting the original story in half. And that’s before you consider that they basically redid the announcement trailers as well. And it feels like they are burning through the content, skipping entire scenes and interactions, just to hit their original content faster. I’m no strict adaptationist, I think changing a work to make it better or fit a format is generally good, but this is not the way to go about it.

Instead I was hoping that Shaft would take this opportunity to rewrite some stuff. Expand on what was already there, give a bit more depth to the relationships that took the original RWBY years to build. I’m talking about better classroom dynamics, more cross-team interactions, earlier indications of behavior like Yang and Blake, etc. Instead because of the rushed content, Queendom kind of screws up what was already there. Weiss isn’t the kind of person to cry like that, we never got to see her properly talk to and make up with Ruby about their leadership conflict, Pyrrha has had barely any chance to see Jaune for more than a bumbling fool. Hell, we barely got any indication regarding her feelings about being famous, not to mention all the other character nuances these kids are supposed to have. Basically, it feels narratively rushed, which it is.

On top of that, and I realize I’m getting into a rant here but I promise its almost over, Queendom has lost something intrinsic to the original RWBY: The Montyisms. The choreography. This sort of translates back into the issue with animation, and isn’t the case with any of Nagata’s cuts, but so much of the combat lacks the personality it used to have. Nora’s boop, or launching off of Pyrrha’s shield for the final blow. Penny’s lazer and blade movement, or Adam literally changing the entire color palette of the show with a single cut. These are obviously small nitpicks, the kind of things that people unfamiliar with the original will never notice or care about. But as someone who has watched the original, who does care and who did want Queendom still feel like RWBY, this is a shame.

Anyways there is one good thing that might come out of all of this, one flimsy hope I have: That now that Queendom has burned through what it needed to, it will calm down and give everything a chance to just… breathe. Characters will get to have relaxed conversations with each other, we can establish relationships, there might not be a fight every 2 minutes allowing the production a chance to catch up. Kind of like with Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood, we are through with the recap/need to know and now they can tell the story they want to tell.

Speaking of the new stuff, it’s honestly not bad. I’m not opposed to the idea of a unique Grimm that invades dreams. Not only is it more interesting than a generic “big and strong” monster, but it’s even akin to something shown in Season 6 of RWBY, the Apathy. Apathy isn’t a very physical monster. It’s presence drives people into inaction, slowly draining people of their will until they are to weak to move or fight back. It’s a more emotional, intellectual conflict than some mindless monsters. So I actually think this isn’t that wild of an idea. It definitely fits into the “creatures of darkness” and fairy tale vibes the series is known for. I do wonder just how far Queendom will take this concept, but as far as it existing I think it passes.

Similarly, I don’t dislike the Queendom original character, Shion Zaiden. The name doesn’t fit the show at all, not by its in universe naming rules nor in a meta sense. But that isn’t to surprising since most of the other names come from western myths and stories, and this is a Japanese production. Visually however I think Shion is fine. RWBY is a show defined by being extra. Just look at everyone’s outfits, whether the be in a combat skirt with a cape and crosses or dressed like an Amazonian warrior, designs run by the rule of cool. And luckily for Shion, that’s exactly where their design fits as well. The weapon might not make much sense in a world where everything is again, but again, Dust, magic and the Rule of Cool that is RWBY’s lifeblood helps it all just… click without much issue. Just don’t think to hard.

As for the plot with the dreaming Grimm itself, this is clearly where the alternative outfits we saw in the promo art will be coming from. From the looks of things we are going to be diving into Weiss’ dream, and these outfits are going to reflect how she sees both herself and everyone else. We got a small look at that with Jaune’s dream, where he saw himself in his onesie, so I figure that will happen here to. I think this could be good fun! It lets the team play with the RWBY characters, reimagine them, without trampling on or impacting with the originals that people are attached to. If done right, they won’t even need to spend a lot of time introducing them because they will just be slightly different versions of characters we already have.

Of course that’s also where my major concern comes into play. Basically, since Queendom blitzed through the first season of RWBY, the interpersonal relationships haven’t been properly built up yet. It blasted through Blake and Weiss’s confrontation, skipping right to them making up just like it did Weiss and Ruby’s spat about leadership. Similarly it really skimmed over Jaune and Pyrrha’s relationship and why they click so well, Jaune needing support and affirmation while Pyrrha wants to be seen for herself and not her fame. None of this is properly established! And yet the coming arc about Weiss’ insecurities and alternative perspective versions of the characters is no doubt going to lean heavily on these “established” relationships. I think it’s going to end up as a really tough sell to be honest, at least for anyone not already familiar with these characters and how they click.

So yeah, will the series end up good? Can it be good? I think it has potential. At the moment Queendom is coasting on being an anime adaptation of a guilty pleasure I’ve had for the last decade. My desire to see Nagata’s cuts turn Monty’s vision into something badass. But if it wasn’t to last the full season, to be anything more than mediocre, it’s going to have to slow down and start working hard. To start building these relationships, playing them off of each other and just letting the characters interact more. If the original content can get over that hump, maybe I can have a good time. I doubt it will ever be anything amazing, I just don’t think that’s in the cards for Shaft right now, but it could at least be fun. And that would be enough for me to be happy.

All in all I would say these three episodes were “concerning” with a hint of “hope”. Not what I wanted, but better than I feared it could have been. It hit a few of the character building moments, like Weiss visiting Ruby’s bed to find her asleep from studying, or Sun and Blake, or Jaune and Pyrrha’s rooftop scene. Queendom just failed to give them the importance they needed for what they meant regarding those relationships. Also Pyrrha looks like a god damn snack, so at least I got that out of huke’s art. Mmmmm. Also from the looks of things Casey Lee Williams was seen in the credits, so we might get some good old William’s music as well.

P.S. I am aware Kazuki Kawata is involved as well, and his stuff is good, but I can’t list both names every time I gush alright. And Nagata did my favorite cuts so he wins.