RWBY: The Official Manga, Vol. 1
- WRITER
- Monty Oum, Bunta Kinami
- Artist
- Bunta Kinami
- Publisher
- Viz Media
- Price
- 12.99
- Release Date
- 2020-07-21
If yoyu're unfamiliar with RWBY, then this manga is probably not the best place to start. RWBY is the insanely popular web-series produced by Rooster Teeth, initially created by the late animator Monty Oum. It serves as a pastiche of anime tropes, making it logical that, eventually, it would gain a manga adaptation, returning to the medium that fueled its creation. However, as a direct adaptation of the first six episodes, RWBY: The Official Manga Vol. 1 does very little to distinguish itself from its source material.
Ruby Rose is a young girl who manages to skip two grades to enter into Beacon Academy, an elite school designed to train Hunters who fight monsters called Grim. However, she's out of touch with how to connect her fellow classmates, including her sister Yang, cold rich girl Weiss and aloof rogue Blake. The manga covers their early experiences at Beacon Academy, which essentially sees these four separate students come together as a team.
It's impossible to read RWBY: The Official Manga without comparing it to the original anime series. RWBY's animation is done through sometimes clunky computer-generation. While the early seasons of the show were definitely amateurish, the series improved its technical quality over time. One element Monty Oum excelled at was fight choreography. The fights in RWBY proper are bombastic, absurd affairs accompanied by high-octane rock music.
In comparison, RWBY: The Official Manga feels oddly lacking. While the characters are more visually expressive, and the Grim look downright nightmarish in artist Bunta Kinami's line illustrations, there are a few distinct weaknesses with how RWBY translates as a manga. Two big issues are the sketchy and at times non-existent backgrounds and the hard-to-follow combat scenes. RWBY became popular thanks to its action scenes, yet in the manga, none of the action flows quite right. Readers rarely feel the weight of attacks, with it sometimes being unclear what is happening in sequence. Individual panels are nice to look at, but it's hard to determine who is hitting what and how at times. In addition, many of the fights drag on with confusing exposition.
It's clear that Kinami is not interested in recreating Oum's combat. What RWBY: The Official Manga is more interested in, and does fairly well, is developing two of the main characters: Ruby and Weiss. Their dynamic here is fleshed out and given real dimension. We see Ruby and Weiss at odds with each other before reluctantly coming together. While this dynamic was in the original, it was far less nuanced than in the manga.
Sadly, though, the rest of the cast is less fortunate. Characters like Pyrrha and Jaune are given less focus. Many of their scenes play out the same, but the way they're both de-emphasized in the narrative makes them less memorable. This is at least better than characters like Nora, who are left undeveloped, especially compared to how much the original series does with their few early scenes. Even the other members of Team RWBY aren't exempt, though Yang and Blake have less to do in this early portion of the RWBY series proper.
This all begs the question: who is this manga for? It's clearly for hardcore RWBY fans, but due to the lack of real distinction from the original series, this manga does little to innovate upon what is already known, save for the fleshed-out Ruby and Weiss dynamic. What is lost in adaptation might result in a dull experience for fans. Casual manga fans interested in a quick read with little thought might find RWBY, now without its action-heavy flare, somewhat derivative of other manga out there like My Hero Academia. Add to it the price tag, and you're essentially paying too much money for a product you can watch better for free on Youtube.
RWBY: The Official Manga isn't exactly bad. The problem is you will read the whole manga and end up feeling absolutely neutral on it. There is nothing really here that leaves an impression, save for some occasionally beautiful monster and character art.
RWBY: The Official Manga Vol. 1 will be available from Viz Media July 21.