RWBY: Volume 9 (2023) User Reviews

Hopefully not the end

[char4595 · 8/10 · 10 November 2023]

RWBY has always been inspired by fairy tales, myths and fables, this season takes Alice in Wonderland, twists it and turns it up to eleven. I instantly fell in love with the world and characters, which felt both familiar and new.

Stand out new characters like the Curious Cat and Little highlight how unusual, cunning and innocent the Ever After is. The main cast, especially Ruby, Neo and Jaune, get lots of development, much needed therapy and props to the voice cast as they deliver great vocal performances (except for Neo of course).

Music is just as good as always spear-headed by Casey Williams, Martin Gonzalez with other talented artists. You can defiantly hear some of Jeff's influences but also their own style. Inside, Checkmate and Guide My Way have found permeant places on my Spotify playlist.

Unfortunately this season doesn't escape the pacing curse. You cant shake the feeling of this season being rushed or unfinished which is because it is. As stated by both CRWBY commentaries and the RWBY panel, two episodes and the epilogue had to be cut and much production was during COVID-19 at home. The epilogue was shown at RTX and whilst i felt the conversation with the Blacksmith and the scene of Ruby and the gang looking at the assemble fleet at Vacuo is a satisfying ending to the season, I hope not the series as a whole, I feel sad at not knowing what could have been with the missing episodes.

I sincerely hope this is not the end for the characters and world I've grown up watching. If this is the end I will echo Ruby's words "Thank You".

Ultimately its up to you if you wish to watch but I don't regret it at all.

I really liked the season

[doglovers-56957 · 9/10 · 22 March 2024]

I liked having a more ruby centric season because I feel like RWBY doesn't do a lot with her character so I liked seeing that here! Bumblb got confirmed!!!! And the girls got to interact just the four of them without the gigantic roster of characters we usually have and don't get me wrong I do love those characters it just feels like it's been forever since team RWBY spent time together with just them and I love them getting into shenanigans and throwing in some emotional turmoil for RWBY was just great. Overall a fun season that starts out really fun and then the back half evolves into some of the best RWBY in a while! And I mean episode 8 is just probably the best episode of RWBY period.

Odd writing choices

[jonah_wood · 1/10 · 31 August 2023]

Not a fan of the part where the main character tries to kill herself in front of her friends and they're all extremely cool with it. Matter of fact I'm not a fan of how much this volume as a whole depicts characters trying to end their lives and getting better as a result. There's a lot of ways one could go about writing an story arc involving their protagonist struggling with depression but I can't for the life of me figure out what inspired them to have the main character go through a depressive spiral that culminates in a magic suicide attempt that her friends start talking about like it's a personal decision they gotta respect.

RWBY's last gasp

[paulim1594 · 3/10 · 26 September 2023]

Where to even begin with this dreck?

All the good parts of this volume are too little, too late, and all the bad parts-which far outweigh the good-prove that it just didn't know what kind of story it wanted to tell anymore. Additionally, it trivializes suicide, ignores any and all prior worldbuilding and yes, caves in to the will of the most toxic fans to exist in recent memory just so a certain ship that must not be named can become canon. And the worst of it all is that it still doesn't fix the show's greatest flaw: that none of the elements introduced will ever likely return-assuming there will even be another volume, God forbid. If there's one redeeming quality, it's that the fight scene animations finally approach the level that they were at in Volumes 1 and 2, but again, too little, too late.

Overall, this is sure to be RWBY's last volume, and good riddance to it.

Ok, but......

[jimvandemoter · 5/10 · 9 October 2023]

I'm trying to figure out what the writers were trying to accomplish here. Taken by itself the story wasn't too bad but it just didn't fit the whole RWBY canon. First the story was a blatant rip off of "Alice In Wonderland." Up till now the writers didn't need to rip off the work of classic writers, they had enough original ideas. Second, the openly gay relationship between Blake and Yang was, for me (a dedicated heterosexual) a big turn off. I'm tolerant of people's sexuality, but I don't appreciate having it slapped across the screen in such a way. That said, this story did have it's good, even great moments. People always talk about the action but, for me, I also like good story telling. If this is taken as a single, stand alone piece, it's not bad, it just doesn't fit the rest of RWBY.