RWBY Panel Teases Volume 5 and Upcoming RWBY Videos and Events

When I walked into the Madison Square Garden Theater, I was amazed by the number of people attending. The theater wasn’t packed, but it still had more than I anticipated, but that was nothing compared to the announcements and trailers that premiered during the panel. Nobody had ever seen these or heard them before, and I count myself privileged to have witnessed them

The panel of this esteemed web series started with, what else, merchandise. No, the cast and crew didn’t give out free RWBY shirts or socks (although that would have been cool). Instead, they provided a friendly PSA about an new RWBY McFarlane figure featuring the protagonist Ruby Rose in her updated Volume 4 costume, as well as a poster to celebrate the encroaching release of Volume 5. The poster and figure are currently only available at the Rooster Teeth booth at New York Comic Con, but these pieces of merchandise should hit the Rooster Teeth online store eventually. However, the biggest news, news that as a RWBY fan I regret not knowing beforehand, is this January, the RWBY manga by Shirow Miwa is finally coming to America by Viz Media. I’m used to Japanese anime being adaptations of manga and never thought I would see the day a Japanese manga is an adaptation of an American anime.

After the merchandise plug (I don’t mean that in a bad way), the RWBY panel turned to the premier of Volume 5. Of course, those in attendance got to see a sneak peak, which involved a short clip of the very-Chinese Haven Academy, built into a mountain and apparently with its own black market. Of course, those who weren’t able to attend will witness the beauty of this clip October 14th, assuming it is from the first episode (there are 14 instead of he usual 12 this season). Although, technically Volume 5 premiers October 12, because Rooster Teeth managed to work out a theatrical premier event that will only be available in limited theaters, but that’s not all. Starting Monday, viewers who have just been introduced to the world of RWBY and longtime fans alike can watch a marathon streaming of RWBY Volumes 1-4 on Twitch. I highly recommend joining in.

The Volume 5 clip wasn’t the only leak attendees were privy to; Rooster Teeth was also kind enough to show everyone a special, never-before-seen short featuring Ruby’s big sister Yang. The animators and director for this short were in top form, as they created an amazing fight between Yang and…well, I can’t just go and spoil it, now can I? Let’s just say the video demonstrates why Yang is my favorite character.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen a webseries achieve the amount of fame and success RWBY has received. Between the upcoming fifth volume of RWBY, the RWBY board game Kickstarter campaign (which has raised over $350,000, surpassing its $250,000 goal), and Ruby cameoing in the upcoming BlazBlue Cross Tag Battle, RWBY seems to have surpassed many big-name television shows and movies. I think I can say with theutmost certainty that we can expect great things from Rooster Teeth and RWBY, and even when the web series eventually ends, gen:lock might serve as a worthy successor. What’s gen:lock? It’s a new animated series announced several months ago, and RWBY panel attendees got to see a sneak peak at the show. It’s very different from RWBY, but given what Rooster Teeth has done so far, different is a good thing.