Described as a “Western anime,” Roosterteeth’s RWBY developed a major fan following over the course of its four volumes (seasons). RWBY (pronounced “Ruby”) takes place in the world of Remnant, where legions of twisted monsters necessitate capable young men and women to train at special academies to become “huntsmen and huntresses.”

The series has received praise for its unique animation, colorful cast of characters and intricate combat sequences. Starting in 2016, RWBY received a dub and release in Japan, lending to its self-described anime status.

The RWBY Panel at New York Comic Con was a clear indicator of the web series’ viral success, with seats being completely filled at the Theater at Madison Square Garden.

As someone who has attended many panels, I have to applaud the RWBY team for setting some pivotal guidelines that I wish every convention panel would follow: “No spoiler questions,” “No long stories, three-part, kind of a downer,” and “No shout-outs.” They adore their fans, but they also know how to direct a proper Q & A session.

After the panel, AsianCrush was fortunate to obtain an interview with two pivotal players in RWBY’s creation: Director Kerry Shawcross, who also voices Neptune Vasilias, and voice actress Arryn Zech, who stars as Blake Belladonna.

Otter Lee (AsianCrush): How have you been enjoying New York and the convention so far?

AZ: It’s been a lot of fun. It’s quite hectic actually. I wasn’t expecting it to be so busy in terms of like, doing a bunch of stuff. I knew the convention itself was going to be quite busy, it’s New York Comic Con.

KS: It gets bigger and bigger every year though.

AZ:And our booth gets bigger and bigger. We’ve got like a 50 by 50 little space. It’s like a small apartment.

KS: It’s got a stage and stuff.

AZ: I think our booth space is bigger than my apartment. I’m actually fairly certain that it is.

KS: Have you seen what they’re doing with it afterwards? Maybe you can ask to take it with you.

AZ: Yeah! ‘Excuse me, can I have this space?’

Have you had any down time or have you just been running around from event to event?

KS: Pretty much just event to event. Production on Volume 5 is still going on right now, too, so I mean like, especially the first night, I just went back to my room and kept working.

AZ: You’re SO hardcore.

KS: You gotta get stuff done! There are so many events and stuff. People want to meet up with us. I think we’re all going to sleep well Sunday night.

AZ: Ohmigosh. I’m going to sleep well TONIGHT.

You practically sold out Madison Square Garden Theater. When did you realize you were part of such a huge cultural phenomenon?

AZ: When we got with WB Japan.

KS: Yeah, that was definitely one of the first more tangible indicators. I mean, before the show even came out there were cosplayers and fan art. And like, seeing our stuff on Crunchy Roll has always been crazy, but getting dubbed in Japan. It was like, “Here is something we can point to—this is crazy!” it’s awesome. They’re wonderful to work with.

AZ: Miles made the analogy of Japan creating these wonderful works of art like Monet and we show up with like our little macramé paintings, and Japan just like stuck it up on their fridge. We’re on Japan’s fridge hahahaha!

How are you two similar to your characters, and how are you different?

AZ: (Turning to Kerry) Yeah, how ARE you similar to your character? Haha.

KS: I am the exact same height as Neptune. He is definitely 5 ‘6.’

AZ: He’s so full of ****.

KS: Yeah, he’s like 6 ‘1’ I think. Hopefully I’m not too much like Neptune. I think a lot of the ways Neptune and Sun hang out are like the way Michael Jones and I will hang out sometime. That’s probably the closest thing, my Sun interactions.

AZ: I love Neptune. Neptune is definitely underrated. He’s super layered. He gives off this aura of too cool for school, and then you get through it and you’re like ‘Wait a minute. You’re just cute.’

KS: You are in the minority.

AZ: I fluctuate between being really introverted and really extroverted, and I find myself being like Blake when I am in the introverted phase. Instead of going out, I would much prefer to stay home, watch a show, or read a book, and drink tea or coffee like it’s no one’s business. I’m much more to myself, but I think I talk WAY more than she does. I’m not very pragmatic in what I say, and I think I say WAY too much sometimes.

KS: Blake on caffeine.

AZ: Yeah. I’m an Adderall Blake!

Is there anything you can tell us about Volume 5? If not in terms of plot, maybe thematically speaking?

KS: One of the things we’ve been saying about Volume 4, is that it’s a season of characters getting over the events of Volume 3, and when we were discussing Volume 4 and talking to press and stuff, we would describe Volume 4 as this kind of journey arc, both physical and emotional. Some of them are getting to Haven, some of them are getting where they need to go, and then some of them sorting through their emotions.

Volume 5 is now where some of it’s been sorted through, some of it they’re still working on, but it’s about taking that and moving forward and not letting the past hold you back and using it to kind of push you forward instead. I would say the theme is ‘there’s a lot going on.’ We’re really excited. This is definitely a season that fans are going to enjoy. We think there’s going to be a lot of moments they’ll appreciate.

The series has gotten darker over time, but Blake has always been in tune with that darkness.

KS: From shadows.

AZ: (singing Blake’s theme) From the shadows!!!

Were you given all of Blake’s backstory and reasons for her angst right away, or was it something you found out later?

AZ: I was given the majority of it all. I think she developed along the way, but her past with the White Fang and Adam was something I was told about and I knew. Naturally it helped me to know because it helped me portray the character in a more authentic way. So yeah, I did know [everything].

Were you aware she has a pretty decent relationship with her parents–well, compared to Weiss, maybe?

AZ: I don’t think she did have a decent relationship with her parents. That’s why in Volume 4 it was so important for her to go back to Menagerie because she needed to mend that relationship with her parents.

KS: A lot of people thought that Blake might not have parents.

AZ: Yeah, there was definitely a question of ‘Is she like, an orphan?’ ‘Cause there was that [image of the] little girl with the sign just being by herself that had people going “Yeah, you’re an orphan.”

KS: I understand where a bit of the confusion came from too. It’s like you’re saying, her parents are very warm and still receptive to her, but she did not leave them on good terms.

AZ: Yeah. She estranged herself.

So it’s more a testament to their unconditional love?

KS: They put everything aside. I’m sure they were upset at the beginning, but they put everything aside years ago.

AZ: That’s what my parents do to me haha.

Do you have a good relationship with your parents?

AZ: I really do actually. I love my parents. I’m an only child, so I think I’m pretty much like Blake with her parents. Like you screw up sometimes, but they’ll always forgive you.

Arryn, how did you find your way into acting and voice acting?

AZ: I’ve always been a theatre kid. I’ve always been a singer and in musical theatre. That kind of thing.

Which shows have you been in? Did you have a favorite role?

AZ: This is like my high school plays we’re talking about. I was in Beauty and the Beast. I was in The Mikado. I was in Cats. I was in A Little Night Music. I was in Carousel. We did three shows every year for four years.

I don’t really have a favorite role. I liked singing in A Little Night Music, but that’s because I got to sing like the highest part—I had this solo.

KS: Who were you in Beauty and the Beast?

AZ: I was a gargoyle hahaha.

Who were you in Carousel?

Arminy. She comes in at the end.

KS: You should go back and be a theatre teacher there.

AZ:

(Striking a dramatic pose)

Yeah, look what I’m doing now!

Monty was actually the one who posed this opportunity to me. Basically, he was just like ‘I want you to do this thing,’ and I did it. It took a little bit to make it work in a way because I was so used to doing theatre and on camera work. You don’t realize how much of the work you do on camera, your emotions are portrayed on your face, so going into the booth and trying to do it the same way didn’t work. And it was very frustrating. Especially with like, Blake’s low register.

KS: I remember that being a thing when we were first trying to find your voice.

AZ: We did it like three times.

KS: It’s very hard to have a drier, monotone fighter character without having them be boring. It took awhile to get it right. I think you really nailed it.

AZ: I figured it out.

Kerry, can you tell us how you found your way to Roosterteeth?

KS: I was a really big fan of RVB (Red Vs. Blue) pretty much from the beginning of Season One, which I shouldn’t have been because I was like in middle school. I’ve just always been a fan of the company and I found myself going to PAX a lot when it was just the one PAX in Seattle.

My high school had a mentorship program where you were supposed to go out into a field you wanted to study and find someone who would mentor you for the year. I somehow convinced Burnie to do it—this is the part where he always tells me I have to tell everybody that it’s not going to happen again, so don’t ask, but I convinced him to let me do that. For a year every like six weeks or so, I would talk to him on AIM for like an hour. That’s all I would get. I was like ‘that’s fine.’ I was supposed do it twice as often, and I just lied to my teacher. So that’s just how I got to know him. One time I was stopping by his office to drop something off, and Joel who plays Caboose and Professor Oobleck; he was working on something, like Machinama for a commercial. I ended up just spending most of the day there helping out doing odd jobs, and at the end of the day, I asked ‘Hey, do you guys do internships or anything like that?’ And he said ‘Yeah, we’re looking for one right now.’ And I was like ‘If I could apply or something that’d be great.’ And he said ‘Alright. Yeah, yeah. You can start in like two months or so.’ And I said ‘Okay, I’ll move—I’ll be here in two months! I was 19 and that’s just kind of how it started. I never left. They tried, but I never left.

What were your AIM screennames? Now that it’s going.

KS: Mine was lame. It was just my name. When I talked to Burnie it was my name, but before then, I used Bender. I liked Futurama a lot.

AZ: I think I was like Chatterbox or something really lame. DeuceKitty? I had a cat named Deuce. He was a kitty.

What have been your favorite moments or lines with your characters?

AZ: I really enjoyed the scene that Blake has with her dad because Blake is typically pretty angsty and I’ve kind of figured out how to do that without trying to hard, which I know sounds really lame and cheap, but doing that scene with her dad had a lot more depth, and I was really excited for that challenge. I think that it turned out really well.

KS: I just like saying ‘Lockdown,’ its fun.

Kerry, Can you speak to any examples of where fan reactions influenced events on the show?

KS: It general, we’re always reading comments and listening to what people say. There’s a delicate balance of listening to critiques and comments, and we still want to make sure we’re making the show we want to make. I can’t think of a super specific example.

One thing that worked out really well: For Volume 4 we talked about Menagerie being a very dense place, but because of budget and constraints we weren’t able to add as many extras as we wanted to, so that’s something we really pushed for in Volume 5.

AZ: Are we gonna be crowded? Cool!

KS: The response from the Blake Trailer, was something like ‘Oh wow. It feels a lot busier.’ That’s definitely one thing. We want to listen to everything everyone has to say and we’ll take that, and just keep doing our best.

Blake’s partnership with Yang at the beginning of the series was one of her defining relationships. How do you imagine things would have turned out if she had been paired with Ruby or Weiss instead?

AZ: They paired together in the forest, right? I don’t know…. I think if she had been paired with Weiss at first it would not have gone well at all. If they had been initially paired, I don’t think they would have been able to create an actual friendship later.

KS: It would have been too much too quickly.

AZ: And I think with Ruby she would have separated herself more mentally because Ruby is very much the opposite of her. Her excitement and that kind of thing, so she would have shut herself down and it would have been easy too because Ruby is pretty disconnected—she doesn’t really dig into things.

KS: I think Yang can kind of tell. Ruby would have been like ‘Ohhh, what’s that. What’s that?”

AZ: Ruby doesn’t read situations like Yang does so I think she and Blake would have been cut off a bit more. And with Weiss she would not have been friends at all.

KS: Plus with those four letters, that’s like the only easy way to pronounce it— RBWY doesn’t work well. It kinda had to be the way it did.

AZ: Technicalities.

One last question. How do you feel about the Sea Monkeys ship between Neptune and Sun?

AZ: I LOVE the Sea Monkeys ship.

KS: One hundred percent.

AZ: YES! I love Sea Monkeys! I LOVE IT!

KS: It’s basically just real life.

AZ: It’s got such a fun name hahaha.

RWBY Volume 5 premieres on October 14th. Fathom Events will have an early screening event in theaters around the United States on October 12 that will also include some Volume 4 episodes on the big screen and some bonus commentary.