I have to assume that the reason everyone likes the chibi style is that all the characters are just so darn cute. I mean, the proportions are closer to a baby than an adult, so there may be a natural affinity towards it. I have also noticed that a lot of shows do a type of chibi adjunct, whether it was “Black Clover” and their ‘Petit Clover’ segment, or ‘Girls’ Last Class’, a short run series from “Girls’ Last Tour” or “Strike Witches” who did a short pull series in a pseudo-chibi style. Not wanting to be left in the dust, RWBY has thrown their hat into the ring (or gauntlet or maybe a vial of dust) and have come up with “RWBY Chibi”.

The main series is rather grim and unrelenting in the drama, so these segments are stupid and inane; the place where all the jokes came to, as they could not be in the series. The thing is that everyone and that is EVERYONE, is reduced down to one component of their personality, so Ruby is ditzy and Yang wants to fight all the time and Blake has her feline aspects take over. Even the villains are a cartoony, Batman TV series kind of evil. I mean, the ‘worst’ thing they do is try to compel one of their new hirees to kick dogs. Yeah, that is unrelentingly evil.

The shows are not much more than a 4-chan approach to things, so we set up a situation and have some kind of cornball idea to it, then have the punch line. We all have a good laugh, ha, ha, ha, as seen above, and we move on to the next gag.

There was a later segment, which I found more enjoyable to watch and that was the on-going escapades of Mike and Marty, a pair of beowolves. They really are the voice of the line grunts, who have to do all the heavy lifting, and they are tired of the job and bored with management and their pointless plans. It was a refreshing change of pace, as they are the real eyes and ears of the villains.

It’s not bad, overall, but it is the heavy 3D approach to things that got to me, unless it was determined to leave the lighter CG to the show and get a bit more obvious with the throw-away gags. The only thing I would suggest is not to binge them. Unlike the series, things start to wear thin with a massive watch, so I would do two or three episodes (as they can have between two and five segments), head back to the show, and come on down for another two or three episodes. Oh, and there are about 60 or so episodes, so it may take a while to get through.

On a scale of 1 to 10:

Artwork           7 (Tries too hard)
Plot                  7 (Very sit-com)
Pacing              8 (Good pacing with the twists and turns)
Effectiveness   7 (We’re here for the jokes, OK?)
Conclusion      5 (It reaches a ‘coupler point’, but hasn’t ended)
Fan Service     0 (A similar show would be “Honey and Clover”)
Bingeability    5 (It’s best in small doses)

Overall            8 (An amusing waste of time)

And remember, it’s first run until you’ve seen it. Let’s get some coffee.