



It’s no secret within the RWBY fan base that the phrase, “show, don’t tell”, is among one of the most widely spoken pieces of criticism post-volume 5. It thus shouldn’t also be any secret how much the show’s director, Kerry Shawcross and co-writer, Miles Luna have both taken said-criticism personally for the production of volume 6. However, none of this should dismiss the efforts made and strides taken to better portray visual direction over the past several years since the Red trailer was first made public back in 2012.

As stated in the two-part posts about RWBY’s cinematic techniques, gone are the days where deadlines for storyboards struggled to meet, choices of cinematography were casually experimental and the animators doubled as the story artists during volumes 1 and 2. By volume 3, separate teams for both storyboards and camera layout were set and certain techniques were established and organized and then cultivated from volume 4, onward. While there were conscious attempts to continue this path into volume 5, the constant negative feedback served as fuel for having the story in volume 6 be better communicated visually. After all, criticism, as Miles Luna stated, is a “painful and necessary process.” That said, given how arguably unrelenting and even questionable some criticisms have been, it’s equally warranted to give credit where credit is due and that’s what this blog post is here for.

At more than the halfway point with eight chapters having premiered into volume 6′s run and the CRWBY on holiday break, it’s only sensible to celebrate the instances where examples of “show, don’t tell” were applied at their strongest. And there are definitely many instances of just that. The idea is to pick one scene from each chapter and rank them accordingly, while a mentioning another scene from the same episode as a honorable mention. This will be in a manner similar to Anime Ajay’s video on the top 5 storyboards for Dragon Ball Super, so if you want to get an idea as to how this will be structured, do check out the video below first. The only caveat however is that names regarding who did which storyboards will not likely be cited since information on who did which scenes in a given episode are pretty scarce. At any rate, without further ado, let’s get started.

8) Team RWBY and Maria Struggling to Escape from the Apathy





Beginning at the eighth spot is one of the most haunting scenes RWBY has done thus far. Given how the Apathy were among Miles’ favorite Grimm for the longest time, being one of many ideas to have been conceived prior to the script for volume 1 being written, a lot of anticipation followed to make sure the sense of fright and fear towards team RWBY was captured.

But what made the scene in this chapter work outside of the Grimm’s depictions were the use of shot composition. The camera made great use of highlighting the overall space of the interior feel wide enough to make it clear that the Apathy were everywhere and in hoards while team RWBY and Maria run all over a maze of tunnels, but also short enough to feel like they were trapped underground, emitting a small, potentially claustrophobic vibe. Few shots also used dutch angles to show the heightened intensity and eeriness while others made every effort feel like a struggle under the Grimm’s howling spell such as Yang failing to reach the cellar door. An added bonus was seeing Maria’s color-blinded point-of-view and then have Ruby’s perspective follow to show how one is guiding the other on how to use the silver eyes.





Honorable mention: Ruby debating with the others about their mission

It was somewhat challenging to pick the top 8 spot but even more-so to pick an honorable mention within the same chapter. As much as Ruby trying to wake up and console Qrow left some intrigue in terms of shot composition like the failed attempt at the former connecting with the latter through the window frames, the scene that came right after was a touch stronger. Things don’t pick up until Yang expresses fatigue, but when it does, Ruby being at odds with the defeatist nature of her peers can be felt with the way certain characters are positioned, the quiet, snowy setting and the trees, slightly swaying in the background. And once Ruby takes the lamp and holds it over the well, the way the camera moves feels like she’s been mentally influenced by something, similar to how the camera moves when Qrow is explicitly drunk.

As much as this scene impressed me, the Apathy Grimm scene more consistently engaged me throughout.





7) The main cast at the Atlessian base in Argus





Every scene in this episode was very noteworthy for one reason or another. Jaune snapping at Oscar had some well-timed cutting to support the emotional intensity with some great framing of team RWBY and Oscar’s state of mind during the cool-down moment right after. Meanwhile, Maria and Ruby’s teaching session about the silver eyes definitely provided an opportunity to be spiritually atmospheric in a more relatively optimistic manner with the butterflies compared to Jaune training through Pyrrha’s recording in volume 4 that approached the same idea with fireflies but more sorrowfully.

However, for the sake of giving comic relief a place in this list, the gang consulting Caroline Cordovin and her Nubuck guards takes the number 7 spot. It’s not easy for a scene in the main show these days to have the comedic tone be on par with that of a RWBY Chibi episode and get away with it. But I think it did it well by having it mostly emitted from the newly introduced characters.To elaborate, much of the visual direction often seen in RWBY Chibi such as split-second panning and zooming between characters in focus (of which can be compared to similarly presented scenes in previous episodes in the main serious) are prominent in this scene, as well as dramatic brief camera rumbling when sudden gestures are done. Combine that with the camera highlighting Caroline’s height compared to everyone else and it gives this vibe how the cinematography sells what is implied to be an extreme Napoleon complex.

It’s strange, it may even seem a tad tonally out of place for some. But given what it intended to say about a few characters that invoke friction towards everyone else, it succeeded by taking strong cues from the show’s more gag-oriented spin-off series. The cinematography definitely helped elevate the humor to get a good laugh out of me.





Honorable mention: Maria and Ruby’s talk about the silver eyes

As I said, picking the honorable mention was just as tricky as picking the seventh spot. But between Jaune, Ren and Nora responding to the matter of there not being a grand plan and Maria and Ruby discussing about the silver eyes, the latter beats the former a little. None of this is to sell the meeting in Jaune’s sister’s home short though, considering that it sold tension and disconnect in the ways I mentioned earlier. It’s just that the garden scene provided took advantage of being spiritually insightful, of which that vibe has rarely been done in a scene before. The series setting and shot composition also helped show and hear how Maria’s semblance functions.





6) Blake and Yang at the Shed

Given how these two characters have never really had any one-on-one conversations for a few volumes up until this point, it’s important to establish how their interactions would translate to the viewer. On top of the character gestures in the animations, the voice acting and lack of audio, the shot composition especially captures the sense of awkwardness when the latter two members of Team RWBY attempt to communicate to each other.

Once Blake and Yang enter the shed, the camera remains distant in the form of long shots and only slowly with each passing cut does the camera go closer in the form of medium shots. Once Blake attempts to console Yang when talking about Adam, close-up shots of the former followed by the latter are shown. But with the wrong choice of words, the camera pulls back to a long shot and finally we see Blake from outside of the shed through the window with the harsh snow storm going on. It’s a simple scene and it’s seamless, but the techniques in visual direction are great at presenting the subtext of the failed attempt at Blake further connecting with Yang. Because it’s also more consistent throughout the scene, it’s a stronger version of Ruby and Qrow’s scene in chapter 6 despite doing a similar framing technique with the window.





Honorable mention: Cinder vs Neo

Whether she’s considered overrated or not, Neo is without question a fan-favorite character and her return to the main story provided an opportunity for great choreography in her fight against Cinder. However, because Neo is a mute character, she can express contextual information about her without dialogue, making way for other visual elements. In the case of when she fights Cinder, her hostility is expressed through where she is in the shot.

Height is the motif of Neo and Cinder’s fight and despite being one of the shortest characters in the ensemble cast, Neo is purposefully seen towering over Cinder. Her shoes and parasol are framed around Cinder making it clear who her target is and two cuts later, she is well above Cinder before she lunges down as a means of aggression. What’s funny about this is that after the exchange of blows, Cinder gets increasingly aggressive herself until Little Miss Malachite halts the fight and we’re left with a shot of Cinder and Neo having their positions entirely reversed to give off a sense of power struggle. This is actually similar to how Ilia was seen whenever she confronted Blake in certain shots throughout volume 5. Both Cinder vs Neo and the Blake and Yang scene apply subtext through cinematography in different ways and both cases are executed very well. But the latter earns the number six spot by just a hair.





5) Maria vs the Nevermore





Some might wonder why I pick Maria vs the Nevermore specifically as oppose to Maria vs Tock and the bandits. Make no mistake, the latter fight applied more constant choreography and rhythm which makes sense given the ticking sound being prominent throughout the conflict and there was a lot of swift, dynamic movement and camera angles to invoke the intensity. However, where that sequence portrayed how strong and capable of a fighter she can be against 4 bandits, Maria’s bout against the Nevermore more effectively sold what her reputation as the Grimm reaper meant to Qrow and by proxy, Ruby through callbacks.

Think back to how the types of shots used in the Red trailer, chapter 8 of volume 1, chapter 11 of volume 3 and the volume 4 character short and then compare all of them to Maria’s flashback scene. RWBY as a show has been around long enough to cultivate visual reminders and have them mean something instinctively to a given fan. One example of this, as stated by storyboard and camera layout artist, Rachel Doda, was the sequence where Weiss got stabbed by Cinder’s spear which served as a conscious callback to how both Pyrrha and Amber were shot. These choices are done by design and in the case of Maria at the bridge, certain visual cues from the episodes and shorts/trailers previously mentioned are applied here. The establishing shot of Maria crossing the bridge is akin to Ruby trekking through the forest in the red trailer, as well as the medium shots of Maria and Ruby stopping to detect Grimm nearby. Then there is the way Maria’s weapon is brought forth which is similar to how Qrow first showed the scythe mode of his weapon in volume 3 and how Ruby took out her Crescent Rose during the volume 4 character short. And of course, when Maria activates the gravity dust in her weapons to reach towards the Nevermore, it can be compared to the way Ruby was catapulted in volume 1.

What’s being communicated through all of this is how much Maria as the Grimm Reaper had a big influence on Qrow and Ruby in terms of the profession they are pursuing.





Honorable mention: The cast traveling to and reaching Argus.

This sequence is comparatively more simplistic to the previous one in the same chapter, but serves the purpose it needs to serve very competently. Here, we see Maria’s back facing the rest of the cast as dialogue is exchanged about her reputation as the Grimm reaper long ago. While others look at her with surprise and admiration, she can’t help but express shame and the shot composition demonstrates that through showing Maria and just her via a medium shot to present isolation. Then there’s a moment where it she seemingly praises Yang’s tenacity as an aspiring huntress and Yang’s expression expresses a similar shame while other all eyes are briefly on her.

Of course, the latter half of the scene is well-executed by having Jaune’s call serve as an uplifting transition and when Ruby points her scroll towards the top of the hill, the color of the skies are appropriately warmer. Yang eagerly driving the others up the hill greatly captures the feeling of the home stretch and the sight of the gang seeing Argus in their sight in more warmer, sunset colors gives off a very cathartic vibe.





4) Ozma Being Tasked by the God of Light





Chapter 3 of volume 6 was by far one of the most ambitiously presented episodes to date for a number of reasons, one of which being the visual direction. And there were certainly a number of competent scenes to choose from such as Salem first consulting the God of Light, using his antlers as he rises from his pool to frame a sense of omnipresence around Salem and once again through the tails and whiskers of his dragon form in the God of Darkness realm . Another great example would’ve been Ozma’s first reincarnation seeing Salem again and how it communicated the latter’s slowly growing god complex.

But what seals the deal for Ozma meeting the God of Light between realms as the number 4 spot is how aptly the scene depicts his psyche in a very minimalist setting. The in-between realm is a whitish void so nothing else can help depict the cinematography other than the characters seen and here we see through clever shot composition how Ozma is interpreting what he is told. In one instance, we’re cut to two different angles of his facial expression as he learns what would happen if he were to either succeed or fail his mission. And in reaction, he kneels down crumbling to the pressure and we see Oscar standing behind him who as the current incarnation is realizing this is also his task. The way Ozma drops down also serves as a callback to the way Oscar was being pressured to heed Ozpin’s advisory back in chapter 7 of volume 4. Even what Ozpin said about not initially agreeing to the task he was burdened with directly ties into this scene.





Honorable Mention : Salem striking back against the Gods

As I said, chapter 3 had a lot more going on than most, and it was just as difficult to pick the number four spot as it was to pick a runner-up. With that said, Salem’s efforts at rebelling against the Gods of Light and Darkness greatly illustrated how cunning she can be by persuading every king and queen during her time through the way the camera steadily rotated as if she’s providing a performance, all while having Jinn’s mist effects constantly change every other character and setting to transition the time. When the armies invade the God of Light’s realm, Salem’s spiteful actions are demonstrated by having the soldiers stomp on the flowers she gently left in an earlier scene and the shots up the stairs being the same but timed more rapidly. The icing on the cake is a bit later when Salem sheds tears of anguish after the Gods flee her world and she has to gaze up at the shattered pieces of the moon fall toward her and hopelessly kneel and scream in the midst of the destruction.

That scene and all the other ones this chapter were all very enticing, but where Salem’s scene had a lot of set pieces to work with, Ozma’s had almost none, hence why the latter gripped me more.

3) Salem Scolding Her Followers





Since her first appearance as the main antagonist, she has been seen as mysterious, eerie, authoritative, instructive and menacing. However in that last case, what little we have seen her posing as a threat prior to volume 6 was more indirect through her seer Grimm against Lionheart.

That is not the case in chapter 4 of volume 6. Here we see Salem’s temper and disciplinary aspects front and center, and towards her own followers no less. It’s all delivered well through both the character acting and how shots are framed and angled. Salem is made clear to be a threat through low angles and her door greatly looms over Hazel, the tallest character in the show while the large crystals besides her surround Emerald and Mercury. Even the more conservative shots of Salem talking to Emerald and then staring at Watts while Hazel is still seen being pinned down maintain that stern vibe. More than any of that though is the direction from when Hazel utters Ozpin’s status. It takes five cuts, about 20 seconds before we see Salem seething through her emitting aura (figuratively and maybe literally? Does Salem have an aura since she’s grimm-ified). This gives a lot of time to build up her wrath and all we see until then are the cracking windows and the shot of all the other characters being shown thrown the windows is perfect composition.





Honorable mention: Team RWBY and Qrow antagonizing Ozpin

This scene falls behind the Salem one due to simply how Ozpin getting punched by Qrow, a very impactful moment, comes off too sudden and sillier-looking than intended. However, that alone does not completely detract from an otherwise well-presented sequence. Ozpin is seen at his most guilty and is towered over by everyone, with Qrow of course being seen looking away multiple times with the same disheartened expression even after giving a resentful right hook, showing how he was taking things harder than everyone else. And then there’s a slightly later shot of Oscar and Ruby standing in front of each other with the one tree separating between them. Oscar’s posture expresses how depressed and anxious he is while Ruby of course leans in to try and console him.

It’s not the most consistently well-executed scene, but it still showed much of what it needed to very effectively.





2) Team RWBY, Team JN_R, Qrow, Oscar and Dudley warding off against the Sphinx and Manticore Grimm





To avoid confusion, I’m referring specifically to the second of three fight sequences in the premiere episode of volume 6. None of this is to say the other two sequences were lacking in great direction and choreography, but more on why neither the first or third one rank at number two later.

One of the most colossal criticisms about volume 5 in hindsight was the set of episodes making up the battle of Haven. Every fan had reasons for their issues with the last phase of the volume that all varied from each other, but one particular issue was having the fights be in an open space. Some fans even argued that having characters be enclosed in separate rooms would be a better choice. The rhyme and reason behind that criticism makes sense and is valid, but it also suggests that open spaces where multiple characters can be seen at the same time is inherently a bad idea. Personally, I believe keeping characters in an open space is not capable of inviting poor action sequences any more than keeping characters in separate spaces. There are examples in other works of action-oriented fiction that do the former right and the second fight sequence on the train in chapter one of volume 6 demonstrates how it can be done well in RWBY.

In this fight, there is great emphasis on characters like Dudley, Oscar, and the Sphinx Grimm either panning shots or transitioning between them to make it clear where every character is. And there are a lot of them on top of this one train. This is something we saw certain sequences in the Battle of Haven episodes do on occasion but not go the extra mile on. Here on the train, we first see the camera swiftly zoom out to show whether other characters are between each other, then we see the camera focus and pan on Oscar as he gets back in the train car before bumping into Jaune, and then we see Dudley run past Ruby and Weiss and then pass by Qrow after slaying a few Grimm. We later see the Sphinx Grimm’s attention being drawn to the turrets after fighting with Qrow through a panning shot and afterward, it screeches to call out the Manticore Grimm via a snappy zoom out shot. And of course there’s Oscar, Jaune, Ren and Nora climbing up to the train with Oscar running towards Qrow who then goes off to advise Dudley as we see dutch angle shots and the camera drawing focus on Oscar to make his leaps and dodges feel like a really big deal for him.

There’s so much going on between all the characters and the Grimm they’re facing, it’s all chaotic and yet unlike the Battle of Haven, moments between characters transition more seamlessly. That’s not easy to do and between the three fight sequences in the show, the second one was done most brilliantly.





Honorable mention: Adam in the White Fang throne room

As much as the volume 6 premiere was chock full of very kinetic action bits with a lot going on, there were dialogue-oriented moments worth noting and of them Adam’s return to the throne room deserves an honorable mention. It couldn’t have been timed any better, coming right after the exciting first minute-in-a-half of seeing the main cast fighting off the Grimm and when Ruby and Weiss take cover, it’s just brief, dead silence in black once the petals drop. From then on, all we see is a steady pan of the White Fang throne room but the audio plays the biggest role. The exchange of tonal dialogue between Adam’s short temper and the White Fang members talking back tell the viewer something bad is about to go do when in actuality, things already went down and it’s just Adam reflecting on what happened once we see Adam sitting in front of all the dead bodies.

There are not a lot of opportunities to learn of Adam’s character from his own perspective, so to hear his thoughts play out of how much his failed mission at Haven academy frustrate him by lashing out on his former followers and thinking of the phrase, “Belladonna girl” is very clever. It’s a more contextual version of the moments of dialogue spoken in a black scene in chapter 7 of volume 3 and thus deserves the mention for its unique direction. Plus, it takes advantage of the throne room environment being as large as it is.





1) Team RWBY Interrogating Ozpin





When RWBY as a series started, its first couple of volumes were overall more tonally upbeat and lower in stakes. Characters were more concerned with whether their teammates would get along with each other, being blackmailed by less favorable peers, or if their friends would care to go to a school dance. While this was all intentional in the grand scheme of things, the moments where the story decided to be more serious through character conflicts were somewhat lacking in tension, arguably more-so in fight sequences. Part of the reason for this was due to more static storyboards back then. As stated, the storyboard phase often struggled to meet deadlines so not a lot of time could be spent searching for more gripping ways to present conflict through the cinematography as subtext.

Strongly delivering tension between characters though the visuals was something the show sorely needed over time and it’s exactly why team RWBY interrogating Ozpin holds the number one spot for me. For the first time, a character who has been seen as kind, wise and trustworthy with Ironwood and Raven serving as rare exceptions due to questioning his methods is now being argued with by the main four characters and shot composition very well captures the emotional strain. When Yang puts her foot down, arguing against Ozpin, a long shot is seen of team RWBY and Qrow on top of the snowy hill while Ozpin is at the bottom with Maria staring at him. Between that and the next shot of him explaining himself to Yang, Weiss and Blake who are framed around him, he is treated like a defendant in a court room. When the subject shifts to talking about Lionheart, he gets increasingly defensive as he walks away. We see a shot of his back which combined with his posture indicates his distance from the audience, as if he is speaking from a place the main cast doesn’t understand. And when Ozpin argues about how he had been betrayed before through a close-up, we cut to the being very far away as the wind dramatically blows by to mark a figurative period in his sentence.

At this point in the story, it’s not yet clear why Ozpin lies and tells half-truths but the cinematography greatly states he has reasons and secrets and is committed to guarding them. But if that’s all there was to this scene, it wouldn’t be in the number one spot. There’s also the titular character, Ruby, who expresses doubt towards Ozpin and the moment where the camera slowly zooms towards her as Ozpin’s hand drops off-camera amplifies the notion that even her trust is wavering. From here on, it’s just shots of Ozpin by himself and one shot of Ruby being seen with her teammates. Then when Oscar tries his best to take control, the camera combined with the character acting does a fantastic job at showing how much energy he is putting just to stay in control while saying his message. And then right before Ruby summons Jinn, the hair and clothing once again dramatically flow wildly and we get dutch angles and close-up shots to build up the suspense until the scene cuts to a long shot of the cast surrounded by the snowfall suddenly pausing just to slowly reveal Jinn’s form.

This entire scene not only excels at saying what it needed to say, but more importantly, it proves to be a great case of how RWBY as a show can be and deserves to be taken seriously. We’re long done with the days where the show started off being seen as too incompetently silly and amateurish by anime critics and was dismissed for either having no redeeming value or doing things that they believed other anime did better. RWBY can having compelling cinematography and this scene in chapter 2 served as the cream of the crop in my eyes.





Honorable mention: Ozpin’s secret unveiled

It may risk coming off as repetitive, but I would be lying to myself I if said the next scene featuring Ozpin and the others to come after did not come in close. Just like the previous scene, part of this one also greatly captures tension through shot composition between Ozpin desperately struggling to prevent his secret from being unveiled, the character’s reactions, and Qrow being framed as siding with Ozpin only to have him be pointed at with Weiss’s weapon a few cuts later. And when we get to the unveiling itself, it starts as confused nothingness until we get more context through Jinn’s wispy smoke effects and then finally, a reveal of Salem’s old self is shown as a deliberate callback to the way she was first introduced at the end of volume 3.

It doesn’t one-hundred percent carry as much intensity as the previously mentioned scene, but was still gripping for all the reasons it was.





As mentioned, RWBY is at a place now where cinematography and visual direction can help the show be treated more earnestly by both its fans and its critics. Whether you agreed with my picks or have your own choices for best scenes in volume 6 thus far, hopefully this post serves as a fun, insightful way to contextualize what has helped make the show more compelling to watch through the various film-making techniques mentioned. While I unfortunately couldn’t properly confirm who provided the boards or camera work for all the scenes I mentioned, the storyboard, camera layout, and animation departments, as well as everyone else in the CRWBY, including of course Miles and Kerry, deserve praise for it.