Shorts Review: RWBY ”A Minor Hiccup (season 2, episode 3)”

This week’s episode was a big push in the rolling ball that is this seasons plot. The ep focused on the early steps into team RWBY’s investigation of the White Fang and what happened the night they fought on the docks last season. However it took a major side turn when the mysterious Penny girl from last season turns up.

This Penny we see here now is not the same girl we last saw. Her quirky personality is replaced with something more serious. The person we see now is not only more serious and less quirky, but she is secretive and seems deeply troubled. She also seems to have a case of the hiccups, which I guess is what the title of the episode is referencing. When Ruby presses for more answers as to where the girl has been the last few weeks, Penny doesn’t give strait answers and is very evasive. She tells Ruby that they couldn’t even talk in public. Although it’s never outright said, there seems to be a less than positive connection between her and the head of Beacon, General Ironwood. This all leads to the climax where we find out that Penny is not a normal human after all and confirms what a lot of fans of the show suspected.

Beyond Ruby and Penny’s story we can’t overlook Weiss’s actions either. During her trip to the communications tower to retrieve these documents she seems happy and content about things until right as she gets to the hub, She has a terrible frown on her face. This could either be a part of the CG animation but I’m tempted to think there is more in her expression than that. Is she worried her family is involved in what happened? Is she conflicted about getting such sensitive info from her family? It is very obvious something is bothering her. Another part of this is also the operator she talks to. While the greeters at the communications hub are holographic projections, Weiss spoke to a real person when she acquired this information. The operator even asked her about why she would need these kinds of things. It makes you wonder if this operator may end up reporting that Weiss now has this information in her possession to a higher up or even Weiss’s father himself.

Although this chapter had some cute moments, like Juane hitting on Weiss in class and the splitting up of teams, this chapter was more serious than anything and revealed quite a lot in terms of the over all storyline while adding in a new wrinkle as well. With each member of RWBY having a clear cut objective now in part of the investigation, I would think this maps things out in terms of chapters for a good part of the rest of the series. Weiss went and retrieved several sensitive documents from her family’s business, Yang is off to meet whatever contacts she has, and Blake is going to sneak into the White Fang’s meeting to find out what is going on there. Add to that Ruby’s involvement with Penny and you’ve got quite a lot going on in terms of a story to tell.

This chapter more than either of the last two, really set the stage for what is to come in the rest of the season. It didn’t really answer a whole lot but it brought up a ton of questions that hopefully will be answered as the season goes on. Things will only get more complicated I’m sure when we check in on Yang and Blake and their attempts to get answers, and there is a lot more going on with Penny than we even found out in this episode. Added into all this was the reveal at the end of the last chapter where we saw the enemy posing as visiting foreign students within Beacon and the big tournament coming up. The plot of the series just exploded and we are only just beginning.

Once again this series is great in not only what it gives you, but also the incredible way they time everything out. They do more in 15 minutes what some shows fail to do in an hour, and this chapter is the shining example of that.  It gave you a bit of comedy, expanding character depth, and gives you a whole lot of reasons to come back and keep watching just to find out how things will play out. The animation may have some work to do but I’ve already gone into that before. But even with it’s short comings, the animation does not take away from the characters or the plot. Those are the things that really drive this series and I commend them for it.

In short I love this series and can not recommend it enough.