Alright, so I’ve talked about music, atmosphere, and foley in the past few episodes. That leaves the most controversial sound-aspect of RWBY: Voice Acting. This episode had its ups and downs, but a few standout performances completely redeemed the episode.
So to start, let’s talk about the general pros and cons. The actual dialogue is fairly well done; it’s already a vast improvement from the previous volumes. But one thing that felt a bit off was Velvet. Her efforts (i.e. grunts and non-dialogue vocalizations) during the mech fight didn’t seem to blend in well with the rest of the soundscape. They just felt tacked on. But again, that’s really nitpicky, and totally redeemed by the performances of two specific characters.
To start off, freaking Torchwick. Now Torchwick’s VA has always done a fantastic job, but he was really given a chance to shine during his monologue this episode. The subtle difference in the way that Torchwick talked compared to the rest of the series really helped show how he was nearing his breaking point. But, again, that’s not really surprising, given how well his VA has done in the past.
What really surprised me was Adam. Oh my god, Adam. Everyone gave him shit because of how cheesy his voice sounded, myself included, but I was shocked by how well his monologue was done. He went straight from edgy teenager to obsessive psychopath. He went from Shadow the Edgehog to Zebediah Killgrave in 3.2 seconds. Don’t get me wrong, there are still a few hiccups, but in this episode, Adam’s VA improved immensely. I have no idea what changed, but let’s hope it continues in this direction.
There are so many other things I loved about the voice work this episode. Ozpin’s performance. Ruby being Ruby. Yang’s scream. All of them were just great. When I look at the earlier volumes and see how much it has improved, I just get so excited to see what will happen in future volumes.
