#Bunta Kinami

[howlingday]

I just finished RWBY: The Official Manga by Bunta Kinami. And it... was...

AMAZING~!

It's so good, I just gotta AAAAAAAAAARGH! THIS is how RWBY should've started! RGH! Erm... No offense, of course, to the late and great Monty Oum and the staff of CRWBY. But still, there was so much I loved about this, mostly how the characters interact with each other and the epic fights all around!

But... there's also a couple things that seem off to me, though it's mostly with what happens at the end. See, the manga starts from Episode 1 ands at V2 finale. At the end, Blake fights White Fang Lieutenant Banesaw while Yang goes against Neopolitan. These fights are fine, but the interaction between Roman and Neopolitan is... I'll be honest, it's the one part I absolutely do not like about the manga. They're not friends or partners or anything; at most, they're coworkers with Neo working for Cinder. Roman even threatens to kill her if she gets in the way of his fight.

Oho, but I will say that this is my favorite iteration of Torchwick! Dude is acting as the perfectly villainous foil to Ruby, bantering with her and challenging her views with his own. Then, his friggin switch suddenly flips from "Look Pimpin" to "So Cold" and he starts getting in Ruby's face!

Bunta Kinami, you have gone above and beyond your tasking. Bravo~!

On a scale of 1-10, I give you a... Aw, heck! Danouddadan! YUP! 10/10! Well... that could just be the high from the fight talking. Might be something less than that, but... It's still high.

[readtilyoudie]

RWBY VOLUME 1

[subsoniic]

[takeshi-no-uta]

Good Night!

Source: Alice-san Chi no Iroribata

By: Kinami Bunta

[thislongstandinggrudge]

Frame Excerpt from RWBY Manga Vol.1 by Bunta Kinami

Blake Does Not Like Zwei

[bekahrooscoolreviews]

Penny's one of my favorite characters.

"You are the most optimal friend I have ever known."

Source: RWBY: The Official Manga, Vol. 2: The Beacon Arc, story and art by Bunta Kinami, based on series created by Monty Oum, Translated by Caleb D. Cook.

[the-path-to-redemption]

Poor Ren and Ruby. If the world was ending and I was surrounded by morons with zilch of self-awareness and ability to self-reflect I'd shut down too.

Ren did not bust his fucking spine saving Oscar from a Grimm across the tundra for Yang's bitch ass to get all morally righteous on him. Bitch, shut the fuck up. Ren sir, pick up the kids and run into the sunset away from these goobers, you deserve SO much better.

And Ruby...Oh sweet child...

She's only a product to promote the show, not its protagonist. I say that, because other writers have written her better. Shirow Miwa, Bunta Kinami, fan creators even! They all cared about her even if there's barely any substance to her, more than her actual writers do.

Lord, if there is any grace on this Earth, please get these two better writers and friends. Blessings and hoping.

[sytokun]

Hey. I have a stereo type of rwde and I want to prove it that it's not true. So if you can, what do you like about rwby and why do you still watch it? and no pointing out is flaws and saying what could have been done better.

Thanks for asking! I relish the challenge.

So RWDE, much like the main fandom, is made up of people with different views. For every Adam stan in RWDE, there's another who doesn't like him. For every person who hates Team RWBY, another loves them, etc.

To answer the second question, I have a very large investment in RWBY. I started watching just before Volume 2, around the time the Production Diaries were coming out, and I was hooked. While most members of RWDE are different, I think most of them agree that either now or in the past, they did like RWBY.

You can sort of picture it the same way some people that are huge Star Wars fans do not like the sequel trilogy, but may still love watching The Mandalorian or Andor. It's not as straightforward as "I hate all of Star Wars, it's all shit" or "I love every single Star Wars show, they're all 10/10". The same goes for RWBY.

I loved Volumes 1 and 2. This is regardless of its quality. Meaning even if Volume 1 is considered the worst Volume by most people, I still love watching it. A lot of it is nostalgia yes, and I may give reasons why I prefer them over newer Volumes, but in the end it's my subjective experience. Ask anyone which Volume is their favourite and you'll get wildly different answers with different reasons for each.

I do not like the more recent Volumes, but I really enjoyed the manga: the first by Shirow Miwa, the official by Bunta Kinami, and all the anthologies. I have physical copies of all of them, save for the JNPR anthology. And I think it's because one of my favourite things about RWBY is seeing other people's interpretations of it, whether in official content or not.

I loved Mark's SLVR trailers. I love watching fan animations like R.U.B.Y. and DARK. I watch a lot of RWBY reactor channels, from channels who started with RWBY and grew big like All Ages Of Geek, to hidden but lost gems like Charfox, and I know Volume 1 pretty much from heart just from watching so many reactors starting the show. And every time I watch them react to Players and Pieces and Ruby slingshots herself towards the Nevermore, I get the same chills I got when I first watched it on my own. I enjoy watching other people enjoy RWBY.

I remember a time where JACOneManBand was a growing RWBY YouTuber, who at the time was the only other person besides MurderOfBirds making RWBY content on YouTube, and playing his RWBY Theory and RWBY Hunger Games videos in the background while I was drawing. Could you imagine a time where there were only TWO RWBY YouTubers? I fuckin' remember. It was such a fun time - we barely knew anything about Remnant, and theory/lore videos were the fandom's lifeblood. Back then, there was no RWDE. There was only the RWBY Fandom, and we were all happy to be a part of it.

Yes, believe it or not, there was a time where YouTube wasn't filled with RWBY critique and rewrite videos, and I loved it! I loved it when everyone could just enjoy the show and make videos talking about its lore, make OCs for it and make their own fan animations. It was a simple, innocent time where we placed full trust in RWBY and into Rooster Teeth.

So really, if you ask me, when someone from anti-RWDE says that RWDE hates RWBY, it barely scratches the truth. Just because I don't enjoy the new, canon Volumes, doesn't mean I don't enjoy reading RWBY manga, or watching reactions, or reading fan theories, or looking at fanart. I enjoy all of those things, things that are so much wider beyond the scope of the canon show - I just don't like the canon show's current Volumes.

Back to the Star Wars analogy. Someone can not like Episode 9 or even the whole sequel trilogy, but you know what? They can love the original trilogy, the prequels, The Mandalorian, Andor, the Solo movie, Rogue One, going to Star Wars fan conventions, reading Star Wars comics, cosplaying as a stormtrooper, etc.

And if they're a real fan, they would have no problems letting others enjoy things that they don't, and have no problems letting others not enjoy things that they do. Does that make them a fake fan, or a hater? Absolutely not! To think so is to have an incredibly narrow view of what being a "fan" means, and the same goes for RWBY.

I still watch RWBY because I am still a fan of RWBY as a franchise; I'm just not a fan of the main show. That may be hard to really grasp, but that's how it goes - the Volumes are the main reason the RWBY fandom keeps going, but they aren't the be-all and end-all of things to love about RWBY.

So yeah. I am only a part of RWDE because people like me are pressured to use a specific hashtag, away from the larger community. But that is a label that other people have imposed on us. I consider myself a RWBY fan, and nothing anyone can say about my opinions or my character can change that. They may not like it, but that's what I and a lot of other people are.

And the sooner they acknowledge that and we see eye-to-eye, that we all can like and dislike what we want and not be treated as unknowable aliens, dangerous outsiders or some stupid secret conspiracy trying to destroy RWBY, the sooner we can go back to those golden years, where there are no "true fans", "hatedom" or "critics". Just the RWBY fandom.

[dragynkeep]

This has been an unpopular opinion in my experience but I really love the RWBY manga that Bunta Kinami did. The art is gorgeous, the Grimm are stylized in a way that’s both so good to look at while making them intimidating forces of darkness, and since it only goes to the v2 finale there was a lot of streamlining the plot and an emphasis put on RWBY actually interacting with one another. It just...gives me a good time in a way RWBY content hasn’t in a long while

i loved the bunta kinami manga, even if i think that trimming it down so much that we lost the “burning the candle” talk between blake & yang was to it’s detriment. that moment in the show proper was really the start of a character definition for yang. before that, she was kind of just there with no motivation, barely any characterization & she genuinely didn’t seem that much closer to blake, who was meant to be her partner, more than anyone else in the friend group.

that aside, the stylization of the characters & the grimm was fantastic. they genuinely look like dangerous, monstrous creatures of darkness & i love the way the girls are drawn, blake especially. i’m always of straight bangs blake supremacy over that mess she’s given in canon.

[remnantoforario]

I think I'm only one of like 5 people that genuinely like the Kinami manga over most of canon, but I'll stand in that small hill proudly.

[readtilyoudie]

RWBY VOLUME 3

[thecomicon]

Advance Review: Enter The Faunus In 'RWBY: The Official Manga – Volume 2'

Advance Review: Enter The Faunus In ‘RWBY: The Official Manga – Volume 2’

The world of RWBY continues in the next volume of the manga based on the Rooster Teeth series from Monty Oum. As the new students of Beacon Academy get settled into their group and surroundings, they encounter a beings that are part animal called Faunus. They’ll have to use their considerable skills to keep these creatures at bay while still learning how to work together as a team. RWBY is still…

[takeshi-no-uta]

Good Night!

Source: Alice-san Chi no Iroribata

By: Kinami Bunta

[thislongstandinggrudge]

RWBY Official Manga Vol. 3 (Bunta Kinami)

[darksaiyangoku]

RWBY: The Official Manga Review

Back in November of 2018, it was announced by Viz Media that Rooster Teeth’s hit show, RWBY, would be getting a manga adaptation published by Shueisha.

This sounded like great news at the time. I mean, a manga adaptation of RWBY being published by Shueisha, creators of Shonen classics such as Dragon Ball, Naruto, Bleach, One Piece and Hunter x Hunter? What part of that does not sound awesome?!

Now this isn’t the first time that RWBY had manga series, mind you. There was of course the manga written and illustrated by Shirow Miwa that was released in 2015 and the Manga Anthology collection in 2017.

But this manga was different from the others. Instead of being a spin off or a side story, it was an adaptation of RWBY itself, taking the story of the show and retelling it as a manga. Aside from anime, manga and comics are my favourite mediums of entertainment, so naturally this was something that I was very much looking forward to, even if I was pretty new to RWBY at the time.

The series was written and illustrated by Bunta Kinami and had a monthly release schedule, concluding in June of this year at 19 chapters total. Instead of reviewing this volume by volume, I’m going to be reviewing the whole thing. Without further ado, let’s get right into it. Here is my review of RWBY: The Official Manga.

Plot

Similar to the show, the manga opens up with notorious criminal, Roman Torchwick, robbing a Dust Shop in the middle of the night. It’s with the timely intervention of aspiring Huntress, Ruby Rose, that he’s thwarted. After an interrogation from the Professors of Beacon Academy, Ozpin and Glynda Goodwitch, Ruby finds herself being admitted to the Huntsman Academy, much to her surprise. Together with her half-sister Yang Xiao Long, heiress Weiss Schnee and the mysterious Blake Belladonna, they form the Huntress group Team RWBY!

For the most part, it is a straight adaptation and retailing of the RWBY anime. It follows very similar story beats, such as the entrance exam, Blake’s revelation as a Faunus, meeting Sun and Penny, the revelation that Roman was working with Cinder, the infiltration of the school dance and the breach of Vale. With this new retelling, there was also the possibility of expanding on the source material and putting a cool new spin on a beloved series. Surely the writer would take advantage of that, right?

Well, no. He doesn’t. Not only is there very little in adding anything new to the story, but there’s a lot of things that have been either heavily condensed or flat out removed entirely. It’s almost as if Bunta goes out of his way to cut content. These aren’t just little moments either, a lot of what’s gone are plot points that are essential to the overarching story, making this adaptation feel hollow. It isn’t just the story that suffers, but so do the characters.

Characters

Team RWBY

Team RWBY come across as bizarro versions compared to their anime counterparts. For example, Ruby isn’t the cheery, optimistic aspiring hero that she is canon. Instead, she comes across more serious and sullen, but without any of the charm. Weiss is portrayed as nicer compared to canon. While this might seem like a good thing, I actually think it hurts her character development, where she starts out as fairly unlikeable but gradually becomes a better person, throwing away her shameful old prejudices. Blake seems less of a character here, having a lot of her endearing quirks completely removed. My least favourite, however, is what happened to Yang. Much of her personality is downplayed, to the point where I can’t even call her same character anymore. She doesn’t have that loveable “party girl” vibe alongside being the cool big sister. If that wasn’t bad enough, her backstory and motivation are also downplayed, which was essential in not only establishing and developing her and Blake’s friendship, but it also removes a key plot point for the Mistral Arc, which was the revelation of who Raven was and what she was doing all this time.

Team JNPR

Oh god, no characters have suffered more than Team JNPR. Their roles are severely downplayed, to the point where I’m questioning why they were even added to the manga in the first place. Ruby and Jaune’s friendship is almost non-existent, Ren and Nora’s fin shenanigans are gone and Pyrrha isn’t treated as a big celebrity athlete. Instead, she’s just another student. Such a waste.

Penny, Sun and Neptune

Penny doesn’t have any of the fun, cute quirks that she has in canon. Instead, she’s more desperate to be accepted and pushy wanting friends. As for Sun and Neptune? For the most part, they’re kept intact and there are few extended bits of dialogue they have, but that’s about it.

Roman Torchwick

All of the wit and humour from the canon is gone from this version of Roman Torchwick and he’s instead a cold, callous and sometimes downright psychotic. While that would normally sound right up my alley, there was nothing wrong with how Torchwick originally was! He was a fan favourite because of his wit and humour and that didn’t make him any less of a credible threat. Here, he acts more like Cinder, which is weird considering she is in this manga! Just... why?

Artwork

I’ll be blunt here, I don’t like the artwork here at all. A lot of it looks like it’s unfinished, especially the backgrounds and a lot of the characters look dangerously thin. I don’t know what kind of style Kinami was trying to go for, but it just doesn’t work. It doesn’t feel vibrant or colourful, it feels like a ghost, a shell of its former self.

Verdict

Overall, this is a very, VERY poor adaptation of RWBY. All of the charm, fun, heart and soul that made me fall in love with the original is nowhere to be found in this manga. Most of the cast have great personality shifts or have many of their signature characteristics downplayed, essential plot points that develop both the story and characters have been cut, the artwork is half-baked and there’s a real lack of effort put into this project. From what it looks like, it seems that Miles and Kerry had little to no involvement with this and gave Bunta free reign. With all that power, he decided to strip RWBY of its core and reduce it to something barebones and soulless. Some of you might be wondering if there is anything good in here and I will admit that there are two moments that I liked; Weiss actually apologising to Blake and Sun and Neptune taking a more active role in the fight against the Paladin. Other than that, there are absolutely no redeeming qualities to this adaptation. If you want RWBY manga, stick to either Shirow Miwa’s version or the anthologies.

Final score: 2/10