Welcome back everyone, to another week of RWBY: Ice Queendom! This episode continues the trend of “I like this narrative, dear god it looks like shit”. Sometimes I wonder what’s happened at Shaft that this kind of mismanagement has become their norm, but that’s outside the scope of this post. So without further ado, lets dive into the episode!
Like usual, this episode looked like garbage. And I’m not just talking about the regular jank Queendom has had throughout the season. Oh no, this week was extra bad. If you check the episode credits, you’ll find that they fused the 2nd Key Animation and Douga roles. For those who don’t know what that means, they basically merged the initial creation and cleanup steps for part of the process. On top of that, it’s like the compositing team didn’t even show up for work this week, so badly do the animation fit into their surroundings. All of this on it’s own isn’t anything to new, Queendom has looked like shit before. But what makes it worse is that this week, Hiroto Nagata and others made their return! So spliced between all this shit are moments that look great. And you’re just left wondering… Why can’t the rest look like that?
As for the actual narrative of the episode, it continues to be surprisingly competent. The episode picks up by rewinding us a bit to before Blake’s attack on Weiss, allowing us to hear her plan. And while I find it amusing that Blake asked for caution only to do something incredibly reckless, as it’s core I think this idea of fighting Nightmare with Nightmare still works. Power wise, it’s the obvious answer to Nega-Weiss. No one can stand up to her in her dream except for those she herself dreams as comparable. Or, alternatively, a competing dream/nightmare attempting to overlap the same space. With Blake’s plan of absorbing the first Nightmare, nice use of Chekov’s Gun here, she effectively becomes both. For the first time, Queendom has someone who can stand toe-to-toe with Nega-Weiss. It just happens to come with a cost, and threat, to Blake.
Meanwhile thematically, Blake and Weiss are, two sides of the same coin. Both were born into or joined something that they would later come to regret being associated with, Weiss the SDC and Blake the White Fang. Both of these entities became increasingly militant and abusive towards the other side. Effectively, they became two different racist extremes. So of course their nightmares are going to be similar, and aggressive, towards each other. They are, by their very nature, mutually exclusive. Thus ensuring conflict between the two rather than just adding another enemy to the fight. By the same note though, Blake and Weiss also have the mutual desire to escape those extremes. And so there’s a decent chance that either one of them could pull the other out, if either one manages to see themselves in the other. Effectively, Queendom is forcing them to confront their mutual issues. It works!
Beyond that, I really enjoyed Yang’s moments in all of this as well. Queendom did a good job, with what limited animation it had, of showing her struggle. Does she push back, trying to protect her and insisting Blake not risk herself? Or does she trust her ability to make her own decisions and plans, just like Nega-Weiss taunted her with about Ruby earlier on? Combine that with the meta-knowledge from the OG RWBY about where their relationship goes, and it’s some good stuff. It’s actually really surprising how much attention each member of Team RWBY is getting in a show ostensibly centered around Weiss. It really makes you think about just how good this could have been if the production wasn’t tied around it’s feet like a god damn anchor.
Speaking of that anchor, lets just take one more moment to talk about that. Because I cannot understate just how much this production is fucking Queendom over. Remember how positive I was about Blake and Weiss just a few paragraphs up? How much I liked this idea? Well Queendom’s absolutely appalling presentation of their fight, and the invasion at large, almost single handedly ruined it. Their fight looks stuttery and floaty, the two barely interacting with each other. Meanwhile the Grimm Fang and Schnee Robots are battling it out in the background like CGI puppets. Yang look’s like she’s driving on a completely different plane of existence to the manor while the Giant Nicholas robot might as well not exist for how interactive it’s been with the cast. I just… It’s so hard to buy into these moments when I could have a better experience just closing my eyes.
Finally, if there’s one thing I’m disappointed about beyond just the production, it has to be the treatment of JNPR. I get that this is RWBY’s story, the show is named after them for gods sake. But I was really hoping that they would get… something. Let Pyrrha get a Nagata cut, explore Jaune and Pyrrha’s relationship a bit or hell, even Ren and Nora. Something to make them actual characters and not just non-entities. Because while Jaune has gotten a bit of attention so far, Pyrrha, Ren and Nora have maybe 1 line an episode. If that! Dream-Pyrrha especially is just standing around, silent, never speaking a word and it’s just… I’m imagining how much more could have been done with them and it’s making me sad. At least Jaune might get a big moment against Knight-Jacques next week, right?
So yeah, all in all this was a really bad episode for Queendom. The production is just getting worse and worse. At this point, not even Nagata and co giving us an absolutely bombastic finale could recover this show. Meanwhile narratively I continue to enjoy it, sure. But I honestly have no idea how much of that is my previous attachment and rose-tinted nostalgia for RWBY as an IP vs Queendom having some actually decent writing. I suspect it’s the former.
This series would be berrer if Bones was doing the animation.
Hmm… Maybe. Depends what team. Some of them, like Studio C, are struggling to produce yearly My Hero Academia. Meanwhile Studio E is stuck on Eureka Seven for the past like… 5 years. Studio B would be good, but they are on Mob Psycho at the moment and I’ll admit I want that far more. That only leaves Studio’s A and D, both of which are pretty hit or miss with me.
The animation industry as a whole is kind of contracting it feels like right now so maybe RWBY just didn’t have a chance. But god damn is Shaft especially imploding right now.