MANGA TITLE: RWBY: Official Manga Anthology 1
STORY & ART by Multiple Artists
PUBLISHED BY: Viz Signature
RELEASE DATE: May 15, 2018
Back in 2013, Monty Oum created “RWBY” (pronounced as Ruby), an American anime-style web series for Rooster Teeth, an American media and entertainment company located in Austin, Texas known for the production of “Red vs. Blue”.
The first episode was screened at the Rooster Teeth convention RTX and then released on their website, to their subscribers and then Youtube where it would become a viral hit.
Unfortunately, on February 2015, Monty Oum who was working on vol. 3, passed away from a coma caused by an allergic reaction during a medical procedure and while the future of the series was uncertain, Rooter Teeth went ahead and continued with the series which was streamed on Netflux and Crunchyroll. And it would be released (and dubbed in Japanese) by Tokyo MX, in partnership with Warner Bros. Japan.
The series would lead to a video game called “RWBY: Grimm Eclipse” and a spin-off series titled “RWBY Chibi”.
“RWBY” takes place in the world of Remnant, Creatures of Grimm threatens the world and mankind fought back. Fortunately, they discovered a mysterious element known as Dust to fight back against the monsters by using it to augment people’s abilities and powers.
Those who train to battle the Grimm are known as Huntsmen or Huntresses.
The series focuses on the team RWBY (Ruby) at Beacon Academy. The main four characters of RWBY are:
- Ruby Rose – A 15-year-old girl who wields the Crescent Rose. While a little naive at times, she shows great resolve and proving why she is a worthy leader to Team RWBY. Ruby strives to become a Huntress to protect the world of evil.
- Weiss Schnee is a spoiled, self-centered 17-year-old girl with long white hair and a scar above her left eye. She carries a Dust revolver/rapier known as Myrtenaster. She is an heiress to the Schnee Dust Company, one of the most powerful and richest (and corrupt) corporations in the kingdom. She does not agree with her father’s business methods.
- Blake Belladonna – A Faunus with cat ears. She wields the Gambol Shroud, a variant ballistic chain scythe. She is quite and loves reading books.
- Yang Xiao Long – A blonde 17-year-old girl who happens to be Ruby’s older half-sister. She wields twin shotgun gauntlets known as Ember Celica. She is the most optimistic of the group members.
And now, Viz Media will release “RWBY: Official Manga Anthology 1”, a collection of short stories featuring the group in many gag stories.
For those who love the series “RWBY” will enjoy these non-canon short gag stories featuring the members of Team RWBY and if anything, showing the strength of friendship and teamwork.
The stories vary, from one featuring Ruby Rose as a tiny girl and everyone is like a giant, another features RWBY searching for Torchwick; another story featuring Ruby and her diary, A story of Ruby making chocolate chip cookies and going to a dance, another features Ruby wanting to dye her hair red to match her name, Ruby who loves manga going out to find a boyfriend like the character she likes from a manga, Ruby wanting the group to wear uniforms, an imposter Ruby running around the school and more!
If anything, this is a manga series that is based on the characters and doesn’t require one to know the series before reading. Because these are short contained gag stories, the anthology is quite easy to follow.
The art and character designs are really well-done for this anthology and overall, I think fans will be content with these fun, short stories.
Overall, if you are a fan of “RWBY”, then definitely check out “RWBY: Official Manga Anthology”!