I just finished volume 9 and I gotta admit, I was a little worried about it at the start. I've really enjoyed the show thoroughly from volume 1-8 but volume 9 just felt like a... Break in the story, or a detour.
To me it felt quite random and strange. There was an expectation that the series would go to Vacuo and then it just didn't right away. It was quite strange going from such a large cast (which I really enjoyed) back to basically just team RWBY and Jaune.
As if that wasn't enough, I felt like the tone had massively shifted - it was suddenly full of these cartoonish gags, which I wouldn't really mind but (1) they were surrounded by otherwise quite serious moments and the knowledge of the overarching story that had been left behind made jokes like that not feel appropriate, but more importantly (2) the jokes just didn't quite land. I dunno, they just weren't super funny if you ask me.
That's how I felt after volume 9 episode 3 and took a days break before continuing. So I was quite worried when I started episode 4. Thankfully things improved and despite the whole volume still feeling like a bit of a detour, it managed to tie into the outside world via us getting more info on the godly brothers and Summer Rose. And it just got better and funnier after episode 3 I felt. Not to mention Blake and Yang. Obviously that was bound to happen but the release of that tension is great.
I also watched the animatic 12th episode and in addition to that episode, I can't help but feel that this volume was cut a lot for costs. Not so many fights, small cast, lots of clever camera tricks to avoid having to animate things. Feels a bit unfortunate.
Anyways at the start of volume 9 I was worried that the show had majorly jumped the shark, but at the end of the volume, I was relieved and I am quite excited and hopeful that we will get a volume 10 and more (crossing my fingers).
TL;DR: Volume 9 episode 1-3 were really weak if you ask me and left me kinda worried for the whole volume, but it managed to redeem itself.
Anyone else now just on the wait train for any news from the new owners? What did you think about volume 9?
I really like V9, I think it's one of the strongest volumes of the show.
I personally thought the smaller cast was to V9's strength, a problem RWBY's had is that it's tried to have a shonen style large cast but has never had the run time to balance all the characters. This is also why I really like V4.
You're right about the budget constraints, they preemptively cut this volume's budget so V8 could be longer (V8 and V9 were greenlight together), which I think was the right move. This volume didn't need all the fight scenes like V8 did, but the final episode of our main cast reuniting with everyone in Vacuo getting pushed to a potentially never-to-exist Volume 10 was a let down.
Ruby having the mental breakdown she's been putting off since V3 was very satisfying (ok, that sounds bad but you know what I mean).
I can kinda see what you mean but I've never thought it was a problem before you mentioned it. I mean there's definitely a few side characters we haven't explored very much and who haven't gotten a lot of character development, but do we need that for every single character? I feel like most important characters have gotten at least a bit of development.
One thing I've heard mentioned is that there's some combinations of characters we haven't seen - like Yang and Winter are both big sisters and there's some potential for bonding or learning from each other there, but I don't recall them ever speaking a word to each other.
Guess it makes me think how RWBY would have been if it had had a large budget from the start.
I felt Ruby's breakdown was a bit sudden. I don't recall any foreshadowing of that in volume 8 but I might be misremembering. There's definitely been points where she's been stressed out before but I never felt she was the type to break down, but maybe it was just a matter of time.
The cast size thing is definitely more of an early-RWBY issue, I think the Atlas arc overall did a decent job of managing all the characters.
It's been a hot minute since I've seen V8, but I remember her being on the verge of a breakdown throughout it e.g. that scene where she bursts out the meeting. In universe, it was only about 4 days between Salem arriving in Atlas and the Paper Pleasers fight, so the breakdown felt very natural to me.