RWBY Ice Queendom is a RWBY spinoff, but this time done by an actual anime studio in Shaft. That means the show is actually good, right? Wrong! Despite being done by a studio known for masterpieces like Madoka Magica and the Monogatari Series, Ice Queendom might be the worst thing I've seen from this franchise. When RWBY volumes 1, 5, and 8 are all things I'd rather revisit than this there is a serious problem. Also, there will be some minor spoilers.
It sucks because this is a series I was looking forward to. I've been a fan of anime my entire life and have been a RWBY fan since 2016. I've often wondered what RWBY would be like as a tradition al anime. So, when this anime got announced I was excited. When the first promotional image of an evil Esdeath Weiss my mind went wild. I wondered if this would be an alternate timeline to the original timeline, like a RWBY version of Flashpoint. But no. Because that's an actually cool idea.
Instead, the first few episodes are a clumsy readaptation of volume 1. The last episode is a readaptation of the first episode of V2. And the remaining 8 episodes are the RWBY version of The Cell or Inception, which sounds a lot cooler than it is. Essentially, Weiss gets trapped inside her dreams by this new nightmare grim, and it's up to her team, and Team JNPR, to rescue her, whilst fighting an evil version of Weiss.
Now, does that sound like a plot that should last 8 episodes. This is the creators taking what should be a 1-2 episode arc (3 episodes at most) and extending it to 8. So, you can imagine how bad the pacing is in this. That's the biggest problem with Ice Queendom. It's incredibly boring, tedious, and pretentious. Admittedly, the dream world they're in can be inventive, but even that gets old really fast.
On top of that, it's just not animated that well. All the best animated bits are in the trailer. Overall, the animation ranges from average to subpar. That's bad because the action, especially in the early volumes, is one of RWBY's key strengths. Even the character designs weren't that great, in my opinion.
I don't think Shaft was the right choice for this. Yes, they've done great stuff before, but not much really super action driven, at least not like RWBY. After watching Lycoris Recoil, I think A-1 would've been a better choice. Or Trigger.
What really annoys me is that there are people in the RWBY fandom that defend this, saying it's good enough. But then in the same year you see something like Cyberpunk Edgerunners, which is also based on a divisive Western property, and how great that was. When you compare that to Ice Queendom the difference in quality is night and day.
That's why I hate Ice Queendom. Because this was their chance to bring in a new fan base. The greatest barrier RWBY has always had to attracting new fans has been its look. The animation, especially early on, is quite rough, and it puts many people off it. They had the chance to have a RWBY series in traditional animation to get those people onboard, and they squandered it with this garbage side story.
There was so much else that could have been done with a RWBY anime. This either should have been a complete alternate timeline, like I previously mentioned, or it should've been a straight-up readaptation. If this had been a straight-up readaptation of volumes 1&2 that would've been much better. This could've been an adaptation of the recent VIZ manga by Bunta Kinami. Also, they should've gone to a different studio like A-1.
RWBY is a franchise I've always thought had potential. I've always been fond of the world and characters of the series. It's why I've been a fan for so many years despite the series' myriad of problems. It deserves better than this. Imagine if RWBY got the same treatment as Cyberpunk did with its anime. That would've been truly amazing.