Review: RWBY: Official Manga Anthology Volume 2 “Mirror, Mirror”

A kingdom of isolation and it looks like she’s the queen.

The character-themed RWBY fan compilations continue with the second member of Team RWBY, the wild, wonderful, and sometimes wishy-washy Weiss Schnee. First appearing in the “White Trailer” over five years ago before the show started, Weiss has had a bit of a rocky time since from both in-universe and out. She began the first season almost completely irredeemable, then took a backseat in development for the next two before finally getting some real attention in the fourth…which ended pretty anti-climactically, all the while gaining a reputation for constantly losing fights. Regardless, she’s still managed to win much of the fandom’s hearts since first showing up and has really forged a path for herself through the first four seasons. I say “first four” mainly because whatever arc she might’ve started on in Volume 5 kinda got swallowed up by Yang’s early on, but with the story shifting focus to her home country of Atlas, she could be seeing the spotlight again very soon as she reunites and confronts her family and its dysfunction.

Out of the three families of Team RWBY, the Schnees are the most broken by far. Where Ruby, Yang, and Blake all have one or two loving parents, Weiss’ mother and father despise each other, which in turn has harmed their three children. So naturally, a major theme of a book about Weiss is going to be at least partly about “family”, both by blood and by friends who become so. Spending time with family, living up to expectations, looking up to role models, looking after and being looked after, arguing, having fun, and most of all, communicating with family. Part of that is specifically Weiss and her sister Winter’s relationship in regards to living up to her example, but multiple stories also put emphasis on Team RWBY being a family that’s come together from multiple walks of life, as well as how Weiss has reacted and grown accustomed to her three new sisters who she doesn’t idolize like Winter or feel distant towards like her brother Whitley.

Though while there is at least one short story to show Weiss’ growing bonds with Blake and Yang, a sizable portion are about her and Ruby. Much like the last volume (which shares many of the same authors and artists with this one), their relationship is essential with Weiss as the responsible busy-body who wants to improve herself through study and training, while Ruby is more carefree and expressive. With this coming from Weiss’ perspective, it mainly shows how she sometimes overworks or overthinks to the point of making herself sick, but relies on the positive impact of Ruby’s good nature to keep her going. And much like the use of that last volume, I would sure like it if we had gotten to see nearly as much of that in the show as we seem to in fan-written material.

While the art can be a bit rough in places and much of the stories pretty much fluff, this is a pretty good character exploration for fans of the show and especially fans of Weiss Schnee. Between this, the recent Adam focused short, RWBY CHIBI, and the upcoming Volume 6, RWBY fans sure have their cups runneth over. Next time, we see if black cats are truly unlucky with “From Shadows” in November when we will be waist deep in V6.