Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, Ruby, do ya know what you’re doing to me?

While RWBY fans wait for Chibi to come back in June and the main show to return in October, the second of five manga volumes arrives from overseas, and is the first of four to be completely made by fans for fans, and named after the first character songs heard in the trailers that started it all. While the Shiro Miwa series gave control entirely to one artist/author, each of the four volumes of the Official Manga Anthology focus on a single member of the main titular team as a main theme, giving lesser known (or at least lesser known from what I can tell) manga artists a chance to throw each of the RWBY girls into new short stories and situations that the show might not have time for. And for its inaugural edition, what better focus than the leader of the team herself, Ruby Rose.

There’s no real plot to speak of for an anthology, so let’s move onto…

OUR TAKE

It’s no secret around here that Ruby is rather lacking in the character development department, with her teammates, friends, and superiors often leaving not much time to flesh herself out while they take the spotlight. Obviously, this hasn’t stopped her from resonating with a large portion of the show’s fanbase, but the featured artists here seem eager to finally touch on things the series has only barely bothered to touch on.

For one, Ruby is a very hopeful person who is eager to lead and can inspire those around her. She’s also pretty childish at times, especially given her two-year age difference with her peers, but channels that into innocent acts of kindness. And she’s also curious about growing up and feeling included but is also still confused and worried about things like meeting guys or growing or dying her hair. We even get some insight into her motivations and how much the loss of her mother impacted her. All of that, plus the spunky weapons fanatic we’ve come to know and love. These are all mundane but relatable character traits that are so refreshing to see in her here, but it’s REALLY bittersweet because of how it took a fan production to really bring it out when the source material could so easily give us more.

A sizable portion of the book puts emphasis on her relationships with other people, in particular, Yang and Penny (Blake and Ruby continue to not have ANY discernable relationship), though Weiss seems to get a significant amount of focus. Being that this is meant to be set in the early days of the show, they can’t go to places the White Rose shippers would probably like, but it does help to support a clear double act between them: Ruby is headstrong, optimistic, inexperienced, and doesn’t plan ahead while Weiss is responsible and uptight but wants the best for her friend and leader. An understandable and likable basis for their friendship that, you guessed it, IS NOWHERE TO BE SEEN IN THE SHOW. Any chance some of these artists could come in to write some episodes?

With each of the stories taking place sporadically between pre-Volume 1 and post-Volume 2, we get a chance to fill in the blanks during certain scenes. Ever wonder how Weiss and Ruby got on that Nevermore during the initiation? Or what Beacon did to celebrate arresting Roman Torchwick? Well, wonder no more as we finally learn those events in a semi-canonical capacity! I’m actually pretty fond of side stories that can fit snuggly into a story’s timeline, so this is a welcome addition.

And lastly, there’s a handful of gag stories that are just there for fun’s sake.

Like with Shiro Miwa’s run, this is really only for those who are familiar with the show itself, though “bittersweet” is the word of the day. I’m not saying this is some sort of bounty of complex character work, but it goes to show how little work has been put into Ruby’s personality that fans have been able to put together her a much more interesting and relatable version of her entirely through guesswork. What I will say is that I very much enjoyed this volume for what it was, and eagerly look forward to seeing what this group can do when focusing on characters who have had actual development. We’ll get a look at that when Volume 2: Mirror Mirror releases in August.

Score 7/10