Review: RWBY “Breach” (Season 2, Chapter 12)

RWBY

Spoilers Below

DAMN!

THAT’S how you follow up last week’s episode!

Picking right up where last week ended, the shit had hit the fan and a massive amount of angry, pissed off, wild Grimm were now loose in the center of town. What followed was another epic battle scene even bigger than last week’s. Team RWBY was there of course (including Oobleck and Zwei who once again kicked ass) and thanks to a hunch and a loud city alarm Team JNPR joined in as well, along with the Military, Sun and Neptune, and in their first real scene, Team CFVY. Not only was this battle a big one, but also took a big plot twist with having Cinder, Emerald and Mercury join in as well! This was just an incredible scene, but they also showed us a lot of things surrounding the events as well.

This episode had a lot of things going on in multiple story lines, but didn’t feel like overload or that it was too much to follow, largely because they all pretty much revolved around the single point of the attack and the Grimm that were released.  You got to see the students in action, even with the team that largely hasn’t had any real scream time yet. You saw both the signs of the story line of Juane and his abilities come to an end when he is able to take down a bear Grimm by himself, but at the same time you see signs of another one begin as it seems there might be a power struggle within team JNPR as to who the leader really is. Also as a result of the attack the struggle between Ironwood and Ozpin has taken a new turn as well. As I said in a review a number of episodes ago, this is leading to something that will possibly very big. The leader of a school against a large government/military power? If the Harry Potter series taught us anything is that thing usually won’t end peacefully is that situation. The scene at the very end with Yang and presumably her mother opens up a whole new story line to the mix and makes you wonder how this meeting will affect things for Yang and Team RWBY at this point. Is it part of a bigger happening that hasn’t been revealed yet? We will have to find out. Even the bad guys got there own advancement as with Roman captured. the events not playing out as they planned, what appears to be an existential mass slaughter of several White Fang members, and this mysterious new arrival to the team all radically change the mix of what they are all up to. How much does this change for Cinder and her group, if anything at all? What is the next step here and where do they take things? And how does this new man play into everything? I can’t wait to find out.

Animation wise it was great. Once again like the last episode they paced things rather well. Things slowed down during the funny or series parts, but then went full gear on the fighting and action scenes. The fight is top notch and I’d say the fighting in this episode was just as good, if not better, than the last episode. This fight was even more than a big deal and we got to see something from just about everyone. If there was a glitch, it did seem that between the finale of the last episode and the beginning of this one, it seemed to have jumped form day to night to morning again a lot quicker than it should be. It was night when the girls went into the tunnel, was daylight when they came out, seemingly was night again when Juane was sleeping, and morning again when the battle happened. Maybe it was just really dark in Juane’s room?

Humor was spot on here. Right from the get go they spaced out the typical RWBY style humor, without taking away from the scene. They didn’t set things up for a big punch line but it was just little things that brought a light hearted side to the show. Even during the big battle scene you had little things like Juane fighting with the beat Grimm (hell just the LOOK he had when the bear Grimm would have been fine) to one poor Grimm getting a shot to the rwbys. Everything worked out very well. Even in the more serious scene of Roman being in custody was able to bring some humor without being out of place. Sure Roman’s snarky, it fits in with his character and didn’t take anything away or was forced into things to make a joke. It just worked.

Something I really wanted to mention this episode, something I don’t usually bring attention to, was the soundtrack. This was the first episode in the series that really made use of the soundtrack of an episode for not only enhancing a scene, but also bringing attention to the characters in it. During the fight secnes with team RWBY you got the normal music, when the Military showed up you got the epic movie military theme anthem playing, and when Team CFVY arrived and they started in, you got a kick ass metal song. Not only did it set the mood, but in CFVY’s case it was a small way into introducing just what kind of team this group is.

All around this was a GREAT way to follow up on the last episode. Everything seemed to work out so well, not even a hint of being predicable. Like I mentioned last time, you think you know where it is going but they manage to do something different without it being awkward or out of place. It really sets the table for upcoming events and gives us a hint of who to look out for coming up. You know the villain’s plan is still ongoing but I’m anxious to see where things go with the events that took place. Yang’s meeting also is a big point of anticipation and I want to see where that leads us with her as a character. The military v/s the school now seems like a bigger point we need to look out for as well with the tournament coming up. It had the feeling of a season finale but that isn’t the case. Makes you wonder what the team has planned for what the tournament will bring us.

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