In rough outline it's no different from Sailor Moon, but in execution, a completely different animal.
BSSM uses slice of life extensively to characterize its heroes and villains, and to provide the light to contrast the darkness. So, so well on the second point. But I can't remember the last time our team RWBY or JNPR even went in a classroom.
BSSM reveals the MacGuffin in Act 1, which is where it belongs. The four mikos thing in RWBY came out of left field in early Act 3, and I'm still sort of doing a "so kind of like Star Driver, but without the mecha" to explain it to myself. I would have expected Dust to be the MacGuffin in some way, but it obviously didn't happen. But the current plot is to me so jarring that it seems like they just had to come up with an idea because Monty never told anyone what was coming next.
And, in all this time, I really don't feel like the I understand motivations of the villain group. The backstory episode was kind of a failure on that count, even compared to a very similar backstory episode in Kill la Kill. I mean, that's a pretty low bar. And if we're mid-Act 3, like ECSNorway is suggesting, then this is way too late to set up the proper dramatic tension.
So yeah, it might look almost like standard anime plots, but there are structural deficiencies underneath that make this a bit weaker of a show. They give medals for almost: they're called silver.
It's still well acted and animated, and the storyline that does exist is well-written. Personally, because the fight scenes are less interesting than character development, the long string of losses by the protagonists have made this season not very enjoyable to me. Eucatastrophe is starting to look like the only hope left for the protagonists, and well, I'm starting to wonder if Vale is actually going to fall. It could make for a very interesting season 4.
-- ∇×V
BSSM uses slice of life extensively to characterize its heroes and villains, and to provide the light to contrast the darkness. So, so well on the second point. But I can't remember the last time our team RWBY or JNPR even went in a classroom.
BSSM reveals the MacGuffin in Act 1, which is where it belongs. The four mikos thing in RWBY came out of left field in early Act 3, and I'm still sort of doing a "so kind of like Star Driver, but without the mecha" to explain it to myself. I would have expected Dust to be the MacGuffin in some way, but it obviously didn't happen. But the current plot is to me so jarring that it seems like they just had to come up with an idea because Monty never told anyone what was coming next.
And, in all this time, I really don't feel like the I understand motivations of the villain group. The backstory episode was kind of a failure on that count, even compared to a very similar backstory episode in Kill la Kill. I mean, that's a pretty low bar. And if we're mid-Act 3, like ECSNorway is suggesting, then this is way too late to set up the proper dramatic tension.
So yeah, it might look almost like standard anime plots, but there are structural deficiencies underneath that make this a bit weaker of a show. They give medals for almost: they're called silver.
It's still well acted and animated, and the storyline that does exist is well-written. Personally, because the fight scenes are less interesting than character development, the long string of losses by the protagonists have made this season not very enjoyable to me. Eucatastrophe is starting to look like the only hope left for the protagonists, and well, I'm starting to wonder if Vale is actually going to fall. It could make for a very interesting season 4.
-- ∇×V