Rooster Teeth, what can I say about this production company that hasn’t been said before? They’ve created the longest running episodic web series to date (Red Vs. Blue), they’re the minds behind Achievement Hunter and Funhaus among other branches of their Let’s Play division, Laser Team, Camp Camp, their many podcasts, On the Spot, they’ve given us so much over the years, but to me, nothing tops their 2012 animated masterpiece called RWBY.

Created by the late Monty Oum, this series is about Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang (Team RWBY), a team of four girls who are training with their friends Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, and Ren (Team JNPR) to become huntsmen and huntresses. Their goal is to keep the kingdom of Remnant safe from these disturbing creatures of darkness called Grimm. Along the way, they encounter a few villains ranging from a crime boss to a conspirator and her two accomplices. For a 3D animated series, it resembles an anime shockingly well. So well in fact, that Japan, the country anime originated from, even recognizes it as an anime despite how RWBY was created and is being produced in America. Regardless, this web series has sky-rocketed in popularity recently, spawning tons of merchandise, a video game (RWBY: Grimm Eclipse), and even a board game is in the works (RWBY: Combat Ready), currently being crowdfunded through Kickstarter.

Four exciting volumes and two seasons of the episodic comedy skit series (RWBY Chibi) later, and we arrive at the newest entry in the series. Over the span of the five years that this series has been out, not only has the animation received STUNNING improvements, but the voice acting cast has gotten increasingly wider, taking on some well-known names in the industry such as Vic Mignonia (the voice of Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist and Tamaki from Ouran High School Host Club), J. Michael Tatum (the voice of Sebastian from Black Butler and France from Hetalia), and even Chris Sabat (the voice of Vageta from Dragon Ball Z and Roronoa Zoro from One Piece) as well as others. They were even able to get Jen Taylor who many might recognize as the voice of Cortana from the Halo game series.

With that aside, Rooster Teeth decided to do something special for the fans, and at select locations on October 12^th, two weeks before the official release of the first episode of Volume 5, and two days earlier than when Rooster Teeth First members would be able to see it. So, what does this mean? Not only a chance to watch RWBY on the big screen, but to get to see the first episode before everyone else normally would. Fortunately, I was in luck since the Altoona 12 theater was showing the illustrious premiere, and oh man, what a premiere it was…

From this point on, I’m issuing a MASSIVE SPOILER WARNING. If you haven’t watched up to this point in the series, yet, do so unless you either already have, or really don’t care.

The first episode begins exactly where the finale of Volume 4 left off: Qrow, Ruby, Juane, Ren and Nora all finally made it to Mistral, Yang left home in search of Ruby, Weiss fled her home to find her friends, Blake and Sun are about lead a war to restore the White Fang to its previous ways, Oscar and Ozpin arrived in Haven and met up with Qrow, and Salem is doubling her efforts to retrieve the Spring Maiden.

Now that that’s out of the way, we get to what went down for the premiere. The night kicked off with a couple RWBY trivia questions that cycled through to keep everyone entertained until the show started. When it finally began, the last three episodes of Volume 4 (Kuroyuri, Taking Control, and No Safe Haven) were shown along with a short segment at the end of each where we get to see production interviews for the episodes with Gray Haddock (the head of animation), Miles Luna (the writer for the series), and Kerry Shawcross (the director). After that was over, we finally get to the first episode of Volume 5.

It starts with Team RNJR and Qrow arriving at Haven, the school in Mistral where students train to become Huntsmen and Huntresses as they meet up with the figure in charge of the establishment, Professor Lionheart. It’s then revealed that each of the four maidens are able to unlock one of four different relics which could very well lead to the destruction of Remnant. The four relics unlock the powers of creation, destruction, choice and knowledge. Unfortunately for them, the Spring Maiden had run away a while ago, and now resides with the group of bandits headed by Raven Branwen, Qrow’s sister and Yang’s presumed dead mother who has been appearing more often in the series. Just after they leave, surprise, surprise, one of the new villains, Dr. Watts, has the professor in the palm of his hand, telling him that he needs to “work on his improvisational skills”.

Meanwhile, Oscar/Ozpin finally arrives in Mistral where he is told to seek out Qrow. He finds the man where else, but at a bar. People who watched the end credits scene from Volume 4 will recognize this segment since it’s the exact same scene. Qrow takes Oscar back with him to Ruby, Nora, Juane and Ren in arguably the funniest moment of the episode where not only does Qrow come back with the person who could potentially deliver vital information, but he does so while INCREDIBLY intoxicated.

With all of this going on, we get a chance to see the other three members of the show’s namesake. Weiss is about to arrive in Mistral, but not before she has to unwillingly pass up the chance to save a crashed vessel full of people from a Grimm attack. Blake and Sun are still trying to regain control of the White Fang and Ilia warns Blake to leave Menagerie. Then, we get to arguably one of the best segments of the episode besides the scene that reinforces why fans of the series refer to Qrow as “Drunkle Qrow”: we get to Yang’s part. Her scene shows her at a gas station getting a quick drink and dealing with an undesirable patron. After that, she asks the man at the counter for knowledge of someone’s whereabouts. In a decision that left me with a rather bitter taste in my mouth, we find out that she’s searching for her mother instead of Ruby. Finishing her drink and leaving, the guy outside she had dealt with previously hints at how he may have some information for her on Raven’s location.

The new opening played after that, and I can already say that I’m just as excited for the soundtrack to be released as I am for the rest of the episodes. Jeff and his daughter Casey Lee Williams knocked it out of the park, so far, and right now, I have faith and high hopes that this season’s soundtrack is going to be even better. I’m particularly excited for it now, especially after last volume where we got some of the best highlights for the whole series’ soundtrack such as Armed and Ready, This Life is Mine, and my personal favorite, Bad Luck Charm.

I can’t begin to say how ready I am for the next episode, and if you haven’t already, go watch the rest of the series on YouTube, and while you’re at it, the second volume of RWBY Chibi just wrapped up, but that’s kind of littered with spoilers, so if you are interested, I’d recommend taking a look at the main series, first. I’m ecstatic, and once you watch past the rather slow first volume, you’ll see why and be hyped up, too.