Ruby vs Maka Review

Well, here we are, episode 200. A milestone that very few series reach, and Death Battle somehow crossed it despite having two parent companies die on it. It’s kind of beautiful if you ask me.

Death Battle have often celebrated such milestones with some of their wildest episodes. Whether it be Mario vs Sonic, Power Rangers vs Voltron or even something experimental and weird like Randy Savage vs Kool-Aid Man, Death Battle always go big with these kinds of landmark episodes.

So what do we have for the big 2 0 0? What epic showdown do we have to celebrate this momentous occasion? A fight between two anime chicks with scythes. I lack words to describe the disappointment I feel right now.

Alright, to be fair, there are reasons why they picked Ruby vs Maka as episode 200. One is, it wasn’t their first choice. The Kickstarter revealed that the original plan was to make Ash vs Yugi the 200^th episode, which is a big enough matchup for this kind of milestone. It was the perfect choice. Unfortunately, they couldn’t get it ready in time, and rather than rush the episode they decided to push it back.

Disappointing but completely understandable. Production issues happen and I’d rather have the episode be released when it’s ready than force it out for this and get a subpar episode. It sucks it wasn’t ready in time, but shit happens. Ruby vs Maka is a much simpler episode though and was near enough to completion that it was pushed into being episode 200.

Second, there is a lot of history with this MU. It’s been one of those fights they confirmed they were going to do for years now, and it was requested by RWBY creator Monty Oum. Who was not only friends with some of the Death Battle team but also inspired the show itself. Making episode 200 a tribute to him does make perfect sense.

However, when removed from that context, which let’s be honest most people don’t have in the first place, yeah, it’s kind of a lame choice for this. On its own it’s fine. A perfectly decent anime fight with good animation potential. As a milestone episode? It’s just not big enough.

I mean let’s be candid here, neither series is at its peak of popularity. Soul Eater hasn’t been relevant for years now, and RWBY has been on the decline since season 3, at least from what I’ve heard. I never liked RWBY and dropped it early on, but fans that did watch it have been largely critical of the story’s direction since the third season.

In short, it’s an anime fight between two very niche series in an already niche medium. It’s not exactly the biggest MU ever. I won’t harp on this because it wasn’t their first choice and it was just good timing, or bad timing depending on how you look at it, that made it episode 200. It wasn’t meant to be the milestone episode, so I won’t hold it against it.

What I will harp on is how lame I personally find the MU. It’s not a bad MU, at all, it’s got decent enough connections, and it could have a fun fight, but I don’t like anime, at all, and the fact there’s no debate makes it a boring match to discuss. This is one of the cleanest sweeps I’ve seen in a while.

I just like my vs debate show to have an actual, you know debate to it. That’s just me though. My reasons for not being too hot on it are mostly personal and I need to reiterate that I don’t think it’s a bad MU, I just don’t care for it. I’m indifferent to it than anything else which sucks when you want to celebrate a major achievement like the 200^th episode.

I’ve been a Death Battle fan since the beginning. Well not exactly at the beginning, but I was here in season 1. So to have this major milestone be an episode I don’t care about, well it stings a little bit you know.

Doesn’t help the episode got delayed a week. Meaning I had to wait a month to hopefully get a MU I actually want to see. I’m not going into this with the best mindset guys. I need you to know that going in.

But you deal the cards you’re dealt and not the ones you choose. So, let’s make the most of this and go in with an open mind. It’s not the 200^th episode I was hoping for, but it should at least be entertaining. So I’m going to be a fair critic and judge it for what it is.

Analysis

Guys this analysis sucks. I know, I know I just said I was going to be fair on this episode but I’m not doing this to be mean or funny, this analysis really isn’t good.

There are good things about it. the editing is good as per usual, and it does go through all of the relevant feats for the debate, but the whole analysis feels rushed. This has been an issue with modern Death Battle, but I really felt it here.

They seemed to speedball through most of it without giving anything a chance to breathe. This creates an issue when it comes to Maka’s side of the analysis. Because of how weird Soul Eater powers are works, by rushing through it as fast as they did it made it very difficult to follow what was going on. I got the gist of it, but it was done in such a rushed, matter of fact way, that even though I got it I didn’t understand it.

I’m only vaguely aware of Soul Eater, and this did little to teach me more about it. It tried to, but the way it did it made me less interested in it. But for as bad as Maka had it, Ruby had it worse.

Not in terms of explaining her powers, that’s much better, but in how incomplete it felt. Granted, that’s expected. RWBY still hasn’t had an ending, and lord knows if it will ever get an ending with Crunchy Roll behind it now, but even under that circumstance it still felt like they didn’t cover everything. Honestly Ruby’s analysis doesn’t really end, it more so stops.

This is another issue I’ve had with recent Death Battles. The ending for the analysis segments feel too abrupt. Almost like they come out of nowhere. I noticed it in Hulk vs Godzilla, but it was an easy problem to forgive because, well for one they had a lot to cover and hard to pace properly with the tight timeframe they have, and because the rest of the analysis was so good.

Here though the analysis is mid at best, so the minor flaws stick out all the more. But if I had to point out my biggest problem with the analysis it’s how it handled the story elements.

I’m not a fan of either series, so I don’t know how well the analysis did when it comes to specifics, but speaking as an outsider looking in, this did nothing for me. Maka’s was ok, it went through her and Soul’s arc well enough, but it didn’t do it in a way that made it all that interesting. It just made it look like a generic shonen anime.

The music theme was kind of cool looking, but that’s a stylistic thing. And let’s be honest most shonen is style over substance anyway. But in terms of narrative, it seemed basic. Power of friendship, big evil villains, power ups, having big flashy attacks with cool names, it all just seems so generic beyond its art style.

To be as clear as Crystal Pepsi, I am not saying that is what Soul Eater is. I haven’t seen much of it, and I can’t judge something I haven’t seen. What I am saying is that’s the impression I got from DEATH BATTLE’s analysis of it.

Because if there is anything interesting narratively in Soul Eater it doesn’t come across here. The teamwork aspect with her and Soul is the most interesting part, but it still comes across as typical anime stuff. Believe in yourself, power of friendship, you know that kind of thing.

They even bring up the whole Madness idea and how it would affect Maka and Souls teamwork but then just say she got over it. Ok I guess it wasn’t a big deal then. That’s how it came across anyway. If any plot points had weight in this show, then Death Battle removed all of it.

But for as bad as Maka had it, Ruby had it even worse. They tried to describe how Ruby is this symbol of hope to her friends and this saviour of the world, but don’t explain why? At least with Maka I understood her goals, but Ruby is just girl trying to save the world with her friends, because some evil witch is threatening it or something. I don’t know.

I think the problem in these analyses is they felt like they were written with the assumption that you are already a fan of both characters. Like they don’t need to go into details on the story or world. So when they bring up stuff like the lovers quarrel, they don’t need to explain it because you already know. Except I don’t’, so would you mind telling me what happened there?

They also completely brush past all the weight Ruby felt. They said she struggled with being a leader and a hunter because of her age and then just went, ah she got over it. what the fuck? Why even bring it up if it wasn’t important.

They actually brought this up earlier with her scythe feeling heavier because of the responsibility. Like they were building up to this big moment and then just went, look at her go. Why bring this up if you’re not going to do anything with it.

I know that Death Battle is not a story analysis show. I have said that multiple times in these reviews. They’re more interested in the feats and powers and stuff. The story is just to provide context. That’s fine, but if you are going to hint at deeper themes and character issues, do something with it. Don’t just brush it off as unimportant, because then you might as well have not brought it up at all.

The last thing I’ll mention is that Ruby’s analysis was comically short. Far shorter than Maka’s in a Goku Black vs Reverse Flash way. I get Ruby has less to work with but it ended up making her section feel like an afterthought. Other RWBY characters had decently lengthy analysis for this show, so why did the main character feel like she got screwed.

Really Ruby’s entire analysis felt first draft. It didn’t feel as polished as other analysis segments. Even Maka’s felt better. It made this whole episode feel like the Maka episode featuring Ruby, not a crossover match between the two. They didn’t even bring up the RWBY crossovers even for a little joke. Come on guys, you’ve done this before and confused everyone, but now you have standards.

This is the first time in a while where I can the analysis blows. It isn’t like it’s a completely irredeemable pile or anything, but even I ignore the flaws I can’t think of anything the analysis does particularly well. The jokes are standard, there’s not a lot of fun things on the side, the power scaling is standard. It doesn't do anything particularly good

At best it’s generic and at worst it’s bad. It certainly didn’t make me want to check these shows out, and that’s probably the worst thing to say about it. The one positive is with the editing and visual presentation. That remains as strong as ever, but that’s all I can say about it.

Fight Animation

Alright, this is much more like it. Ruby vs Maka going in was an episode that was going to be carried by its animation and in this case it didn’t disappoint. This is a very slick 3D battle that incorporates some 2D elements to give it a very distinct look that seems like a perfect blend of the two series.

To get my few criticisms out of the way, the set up is a little weak. It’s never explained why Maka is hunting Ruby and at the end she even calls her a good soul. It makes Maka look like an idiot that murdered an innocent girl. Oh yeah Maka wins by the way. That’s not a spoiler, you all knew it was happening.

But that’s my only complaint really. Everything else is stellar. To get the technical side of things out of the way, the voice acting is excellent. They got Ruby’s voice actress Lindsay Jones to reprise her role and that was nice to see. She does a good job, but she’s been voicing the character for a while so it makes sense, she would be great here.

Maka is voiced by Ginger Sue and Soul is voiced by John Van Doren who both do good impressions of their voices in the anime. They suit their characters well and the banter between all three characters is great. It felt like they captured Ruby’s happy go lucky demeanour and Maka and Souls teamwork well.

As far as the choreography goes, it’s one of the fastest moving, fluid as hell 3d fights we’ve seen in a long while. The Blender fights are great, but something about these kinds of 3D fights just hit different in the best ways.

The fight is oozing with style. You can see the RWBY influences for sure, as well as Soul Eater in the 2D elements, but there’s also a bit of influence from modern 3D movies like the Spiderverse movies or K-pop Demon Hunters. They’ll cut the frames at times to give it the illusion of 2D animation, and it looks great, for the most part.

There are times where that approach looks off. There are parts where you can tell they were trying to make it look like the two were clashing at high speeds, but because the characters move slower than the clash effect it winds up looking a bit awkward. A minor hiccup, but it could have used a smidge more polish.

It’s not really noticeable unless you pay super close attention though. which is going to be hard because they throw a lot at you in this. Not in terms of powers, but in terms of how fast the fight choreography is. It never lets up for a second and despite never going too crazy, which thank Christ after the last couple of episodes, it still had big feeling moments that were just cool.

I think what really helps is the camera work. There’s some truly dynamic shots and camera movement that makes the whole fight far more exciting to watch. Even something as silly as Maka slapping Ruby looks so cool thanks to the camera work.

Despite the fight being a tad short, they use the time effectively. Nothing feels like wasted air, and they make every moment count. It slows down when it needs to build something up, but it never holds on anything for too long. Nor does it cut away too quickly. The pacing is impeccable.

But for as good as the fight was, it wouldn’t be near as good if it wasn’t for the fight track. “Death in Bloom” might be the best integration of a fight track I have ever seen in this show. It’s not the best track per se, although it is an excellent song that captures the style of both series, but the way it’s integrated with the animation elevates a good animation to one of the best.

One issue I have with fight tracks in Death Battle is they can sometimes feel like background music stapled to the animation. You can tell the two were made separately which can sometimes lead to both not mixing as perfectly as they should. They do a lot of times, and when it does it’s often in the best fights, but it is possible to listen to the fight track separately and not have the animation play in your head. I don’t view them as 100% in sync if that makes sense.

This one is absolutely in sync with the animation. The music is even a part of the actual fight choreography. I cannot view this fight without this track; they are a perfect match for one another.

I have no notes. This fight animation is spectacular. It’s easily the best 3D fight of the indie era so far, at least objectively. I do still like Hulk vs Godzilla more but because I like the approach that episode took more. This is more of a straight up fight, and it still is really good, but I find I do like the fights that try to tell a story more as time goes on.

But it’s a preference thing. This is still a phenomenal fight and is by far the best thing about the episode.

Results

Not much to say on this really. Maka won because she was stronger and had better powers, which was exactly what everyone predicted. Pretty boring conclusion, but an accurate one. This episode had no debate, so pointless to go over it further.

Although can we admit skill is a worthless category. How many times has skill actually factored into the winner. I think more losers have won that category. It’s becoming a little ridiculous.

Conclusion

Maka vs Ruby is a strange episode for me. I can pretty much sum it up as one half is good, the animation, and one half is bad, the analysis. And it isn’t because the analysis is wrong or anything, it’s just because even when viewed in the best possible way, it’s dull.

The power scaling stuff is fine, but the story stuff felt rushed and even made elements of it feel unimportant at times. One thing I love about Death Battle is how much it sells the series it talks about. You can usually tell they like the series they talk about, mostly, and want to sell that to the viewer. I think they failed miserably with this episode.

I don’t know either series, but even I could tell they didn’t do justice to them. It felt like something was missing from them, something I can’t quite explain. You know when you watch something, and it feels just a little bit off and you just can’t explain why? That’s this episode for me.

Maybe fans of these can help me out. Because from my perspective it felt like they only skimmed both series. It didn’t feel like they put much work into it beyond explaining the powers, and even that wasn’t explained very well. Maka’s segment was longer, but it felt like they didn’t use the time effectively. I still don’t fully understand how she works.

But the fight animation is so good. There’s so much love put into it and it’s a great watch. I enjoyed the fight animation more than the entirety of some episodes it’s that good. So what do I do?

I guess I have to ask myself this, did this episode sell me on this MU? No, not really. It sold me on it being a good fight idea, the animation was great, but as a vs debate it’s just too straightforward and basic. There’s nothing to discuss. It’s a stomp but not in a fun or interesting way.

I’m not going to harp on this being the 200^th episode. It doesn’t feel like one, but it was never meant to be. It’s very obviously an episode that was awkwardly made the 200^th at the eleventh hour. It’s still a better milestone than Macho Man vs Kool Aid Man but that isn’t saying anything.

This isn’t a bad episode. The good stuff is really good, and I am glad I saw it. But as someone who doesn’t care for either IP, I felt nothing after watching it. The tribute at the end was sweet, but it’s not something that got to me personally.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, this episode feels like it was made for fans of these series, but only the fans of these series. If you aren’t a fan, there is nothing much here. There’s a good fight animation, but that’s about it.

You could argue all Death Battles are like this, but I have enjoyed previous episodes with series I don’t care for. Some of which I wound up loving. This though? I do not care for it. If you like it, if you love it, I’m happy for you. I would not dream of ruining it for you. But this is my review, and I owe it to you to be honest, and honestly, I thought this one was mid.

Oh well, at least next time will be fun. That’s a matchup I can get behind.

Score: 6/10