RWBY: Volume 7 Blu-ray delivers stunning video and audio in this enjoyable Blu-ray release
Team RWBY is reunited, and their first mission is one of grave importance: escorting the Relic of Knowledge to Atlas. With the world seemingly crumbling around them and Grimm lurking around every corner, traversing Remnant to reach their destination will be more dangerous than anyone could have imagined.
For more about RWBY: Volume 7 and the RWBY: Volume 7 Blu-ray release, see RWBY: Volume 7 Blu-ray Review published by Jeffrey Kauffman on October 7, 2020 where this Blu-ray release scored 3.5 out of 5.
Here's an idea for a so-called "crossover" between animated properties which will frankly probably never happen, but which might be fun to think
about at least with regard to some of the supplements that could be included on a Blu-ray release (hey, I'm a dreamer): how about if Rick and Morty managed to port themselves
into
RWBY? Now, the two shows are manifestly different, of course (which for me is part of the fun of imagining what a mash up of the two
might look and play like), but one of the things I've mentioned in reviews of both Rooster Teeth's shows and some of the Rick and Morty
seasons that have been released on Blu-ray is how the supplements have painted great pictures of what fun (if demanding) places to work the
animation
production houses seem to be. That's once again the case with this latest release of the now maybe surprisingly long running RWBY
franchise, where if the show can more than occasionally lapse into labyrinthine subplots, you can at least listen to appealing commentaries or see
some other production material in the supplements. I have to start this by saying I'm at a bit of a loss since, perhaps due to a changing
distribution environment (the show is now out on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Brothers, whereas it was initially a Cinedigm release), I never got a
review copy for RWBY: Volume 6, and so I'm having
to piece together some interstitial material. That said, RWBY has often played like one of those old time serials where, despite an overall
story arc being at least attempted, it is still possible to accept any given episode as its own standalone moment.
For reviews of the "volumes" of RWBY that I have done, please click on the following links:
Kind of amusingly, given the fact that I never got the sixth volume of this show, the seventh volume begins much in the same way the fifth
volume did, with a gaggle of characters arriving at new location, in this case Mantle, the kind of teeming, downtrodden, near fascistic
environment which exists under the "sky city" called Atlas (which will no doubt remind people of everything from Elysium to Cloud Atlas). A lot of this seventh outing deals in some of the supposed political ramifications brought about by General Ironwood,
and
there's perhaps a lingering suspicion implied about whether or not team RWBY can completely trust his motives. Some of the "police state" aspects
may tend to remind animation fans of dystopian future entries like Ghost in the Shell 4K, though it would be fanciful to suggest that RWBY ever really wants to develop any
"metaphysical" ideas, choosing instead to feature a mythologically infused context with ample amounts of female empowerment and resultant butt
kicking.
The almost hilariously arcane terminology and usage of redolent names like Salem and Grimm (along with Atlas, as a matter of fact) continues
apace as Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang supposedly run afoul of things in Mantle, only to be delivered (and themselves delivering the Relic of
Knowledge) to Ironwood. The series continues to ply a patently wending array of subplots which tend to have an increasingly paranoiac feeling,
something that's perhaps aided and abetted by a quasi-VR element that shows up, so that even supposed "reality" is questionable.
As I've mentioned in some of the reviews in previous seasons, part of what makes RWBY both interesting but also perhaps a challenge
(especially for newcomers) is its tendency to feature so many characters and competing subplots at one time. That allows the show to feature
what are more or less vignettes highlighting any given character and/or group (as in Team RWBY), but which continues to give the show a
sometimes convoluted quality.
The series' design aesthetic continues to be quite inviting a lot of the time in this volume, once again tending to push the envelope and/or CGI to a
place kind of
halfway between the look of a videogame and more traditional anime fare.
RWBY: Volume 7 is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Brothers Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.78:1. I
really didn't notice any quality difference between this release and the last several from Cinedigm, but while the show continues to be quite interesting
from a design perspective a lot of the time, there are occasional slightly rough looking moments where detail levels aren't especially strong this season
(it doesn't look like there were any production issues with regard to the pandemic, so there may have been other exigencies at play). The series
continues to mine a rather distinctive looking design aesthetic which continues to have a slightly wooden aspect with regard to movements, but which
often features incredibly bright colors and where backgrounds in particular can be evocative looking.
RWBY: Volume 7 features another nicely immersive DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track. The battle scenes offer a glut of effects, with some
whomping LFE and good panning activity. Space material also provides a bit of background clamor. The series' score also spreads out nicely into the
surround channels, and dialogue is presented cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.
Commentary can be accessed under the Audio Menu and features various cast and crew (and/or cast/crew) members. It's
mentioned up front that this was recorded at the beginning of the Covid 19 pandemic, and so everyone is quarantined at their own homes, with a
warning about potential audio quality suffering as a result, but in spot checking this, I didn't notice anything horrible sounding. This is a typically
enjoyable conversation that gets into both general production and episode specific issues.
I frankly had to kind of go with the flow for this volume of RWBY, having not seen the sixth outing, but that said, the underlying plot elements
of intrigue and "whom can you trust?" were easy enough to follow. As I mentioned in our RWBY: Volume 5 Blu-ray review, I was a bit surprised to have a personal interaction with someone I would not have
assumed was a "typical" fan of RWBY, which may, along with the series' very survival for this long, indicate it has a rather broad based
demographic interested in it. Those who have followed the story thus far will find a lot to like in this set of episodes, though once again the show
features a lot of different characters in a variety of sometimes competing situations. Technical merits are solid, and for the initiated at least,
RWBY: Volume 7 comes Recommended.
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