Having seen trailers for the RWBY anime, I was interested to know more about the story and jumped at the chance to read this first volume of the manga. Overall, I loved the story premise and thought the characters were original and engaging. There was plenty of potential for lots of action and adventure, and I could see myself getting caught up in the world and its events. However, I wasn't completely taken with the drawing style in this manga. It had an 'unfinished', minimal look that didn't appeal to me, so that was a little off-putting as I was reading. Obviously that will be a personal thing for each reader, though, so if you like fantasy adventure mangas, I would recommend giving this one a try. I probably won't rush to read on myself, but I may check out the anime. 3.5 stars from me.

I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

For starters, I really like the art style, which is honestly one of the most important features of any comic or graphic novel, for me. However, it was sometimes difficult to tell who was saying what or what. I had to go off of context clues and my knowledge of the series from watching Volume 1 of the anime, and even then I couldn’t always figure it out.

The story is a faithful adaptation, at least from what I can remember. I haven’t watched RWBY Volume 1 since it came out in 2013. But the characters and setting are the same, and the plot is the same, except where it’s been condensed to fit sixteen episodes into a single book. A lot of this first volume was exposition and world building, as you might expect, but there was enough action mixed in that it was never boring.

Speaking of action, it definitely came across better in the anime than in the manga, which I think is just a limitation of the medium. Overall, I would recommend this to fans of RWBY who have already seen the show and who like the manga’s art style. It was a fun little nostalgic revisit to Volume 1, and it’s convinced me to go back and watch it again.

this is a classroom story where the characters are learning to become huntresses and hunters. Their goal is to hunt down monsters, and take them out.

The main character is a prodigy named Ruby. Her goal is to become a huntress and save people from monsters.

I like that this story contains primarily women who are trying to protect the world, and that the monsters seem unique.

I received this title as an arc from NetGalley.

First of all, let me say that I have seen the anime version of this and absolutely loved it, so I was really looking forward to reading this. That said, I had some issues with the manga version. While I still loved all the characters and the story was really intriguing and fun, I felt like it was missing something. I felt like I kept skipping pages somehow. And this really needed color. Maybe that is just the ARC version, but without color it didn’t feel the same. It was hard to pick out what was happening in the black and white and, even knowing who the characters were going in, it was hard to tell them apart with no color differentiation. I would be interested to see this when it is released and see what changes. Right now I will definitely say I prefer the anime to the manga, and if I didn’t have a sense of who everyone was beforehand, I think I would probably be really confused.

ARC Copy...basically if you have seen the first episode you can guess what will happen. The already manga style fits nicely also and the pacing/action shots fallows more manga styling too but...would be nice to have some colour seeing colour schemes are important in this "verse" and characterization....what's Ruby without her red colours?

Thank you Netgalley and Viz Media for a review copy.

RWBY is one of my favorite animes and this manga was perfect to go along with it. It follows the first season pretty much scene for scene. The art is a bit simpler but still catches the characters and things going on during the panels. This manga is perfect for fans of the show or just someone wanting something new to get into.

I have recently gotten into manga and I can honestly say that I don't think this series is for me unfortunately.

<i>arc provided by the publisher and netgalley in exchange for an honest review</i>

I didn’t know what to expect going into this, I just knew that I was drawn in by the cover. But then we got badass female characters, an academy setting and enemies forced to pair up and begrudgingly become friends and a super cool and intriguing magic system?? This had everything I love in a book and I absolutely loved every page and every moment reading this. I flew through it.

This had all my buzz words and I am so glad I got a chance to read this. I will definitely be continuing on with this series in the future! If any of those are buzz words for you too, definitely give this one a read!


5/5 ⭐️

I was initially drawn to this manga because of the art. While I've heard a little about RWBY from my friends, I'm not familiar with the overall story/premise. From what I gather, the story follows students of the Beacon Academy, as they learn to fight monsters called Grimms, in order to become huntsmen. Each character has a special skill, such as power over illusions, or super speed. There is also a shadowy thief character, who steals Dust, which is used as a catalyst for magic.

The main character, Ruby, is initially recruited early into Beacon Academy after an encounter with the Dust Thief. She is endearing, energetic, and earnest; a classic hero/main character combination. The other characters each have their own quirks, such as Yang, Ruby's older sister's protectiveness over her little sister, and Juane's silliness. Overall, the cast is quite cute, and I look forward to seeing more from them and seeing their relationships develop over the series.

While the action was very exciting and the art beautiful, it was a little hard to follow at times (and the large watermark certainly didn't help). The characters were a little difficult to tell apart given that the majority of them are girls with long hair, so that was occasionally confusing as well.

I am definitely intrigued by the story and would be interested in continuing to follow RWBY.

Thank you to the publisher, the author, and Netgalley for an advanced e-copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.