I usually have something fancy or witty to say here, I got nothing...
Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, the Shaman of Animation! Today, I'm here to give my thoughts on RoosterTeeth's newest animated series: X-Ray & Vav. The series is three (or four depending on when you read this) episodes in, so how is it? Let's find out!
X-Ray and Vav stars...X-Ray and Vav (I don't think their actual names have been stated yet...), two average joes who dream of being Superheroes and helping those who can't help themselves. The only downside is that they're total losers and every time they try helping people, they completely fail at it.
After a failed attempt at stopping a robbery, they run into this person:
Hi. I'm the tech person of this series
This lady is named Hilda, a genius inventor who, after an interesting first meaning, decides to make our heroes equipment to help them in their crusade and make them legit superheroes...which turns out to be a mistake as X-Ray and Vav end up destroying the city and cause Hilda to lose her job, and this was all in the first episode.
To be honest, the first episode of this show...felt lacking. There was nothing inherently wrong with it, it established who our main characters were, what the goal of our two title characters is, and it even gives us a glimpse at, who I'm guessing, is the main villain. My problem was that there wasn't a lot that made this episode stand out. When I'm watching a premiere episode of a series, while I appreciate a coherent and competent story, I'm also looking for something that'll hook me to show, for it to have something that has me coming back for more.
To bring up another RoosterTeeth series, the premiere episode of RWBY gave me a short but fun fight scene with a little girl wielding a stupidly awesome weapon that made me want to keep watching in hopes of seeing more stuff like that. The first episode of X-Ray and Vav just showed, for a lack of better term, incompetent idiots who want to be heroes and want all the glory that comes with it while having a brainy sidekick that helps them. I've seen shows with the same premise that did a better job at standing out. Shows like 'The Awesomes' Or 'Ultimate Spider-man'.
Granted, Ultimate Spider-man stands out as a show for all the WRONG reasons...
Now all this were my thoughts from the FIRST episode. The episodes that followed it, especially the Second Episode titled 'Operation: Rescue Friend', were much stronger than the first one. The episodes had more of the humor most would associate with a RoosterTeeth product (Or for me since I'm not a big follower of RoosterTeeth, Red vs Blue): A kind of meta humor that poked fun at tropes (like the fact that a pair of superhero trunks contain an infinite space to hold everything and the fact that the power of friendship solves everything), to dick jokes and sexual innuendos, to something silly like an old lady getting the crap beaten out of her. It also does a great job showing the chemistry between our heroes X-Ray and Vav and watching how they save the day (or not) can make for entertainment for some.
Now looking at things from a production standpoint, The show's art and animation is very basic. Now that's not a bad thing per say, it works for what the show's trying to be, just don't expect anything too fancy with it. The voice acting is...decent at best. My problems stem from the sound quality in each episode. I'm not an expert when it comes to mic and sound quality so I don't know if I'm phrasing this correctly, but I noticed it this problem the most in the first episode. There are numerous times (such as when X-Ray and Vav go on their heroic rants and shout their names) that the sound of these lines are a little, once again for a lack of better term, hushed and a little forced. Like during their takes they were directed to not be as loud as possible in fear of walking up the neighbors next door. I also noticed this problem the worst with Hilda's voice actress whose delivery fell very flat and at times, was like she was just reading off of a script and not trying to put in any effort.
Now I'm sure some fan out there is chastising me and throwing multiple insults at me using the excuse that 'The show is just starting, Not everything can be perfect, RVB didn't start off like that, NEH!!!!' To those fans using that excuse: Animation I can buy that. Story, I'll except. But this is a company that has been delving into voice over work for ELEVEN YEARS!!! This is their third original series that has involved voice acting and while I can except rough around the edges writing and animation for when they're starting a new series, they should have more than enough knowledge by now in Voice acting direction!
Take a look at people like TeamFourStar (Of DBZ Abridged fame) and LittleKuriboh (Yu-Gi-Oh Abridged), who post their parody series without the benefits of gaining ad revenue from Youtube. Their sound and voice quality had drastically improved over the years from their humble beginnings, something they carried over to whatever new project they do. If these guys can do it for free (For the most part), why can't a decade long company with more resources and money?
Tangent aside, X-Ray and Vav at the end of the day is a decently put together show that shows stride in improvement with each ep. so far without taking steps back, which is more than I can say for RoosterTeeth's other original animated series...
Oh, the amount of sh*t I'm gonna get for that statement...
The two title characters do have a nice chemistry together that does make for some entertaining jokes and the show clearly knows what it's going for. If I can offer some words of advice for the RT crew working on this show (If any of them are reading this), I think the show works best when it's parodying superhero shows and going for more self aware jokes much like in the second episode. If they stick to that, then I'm sure they'll have a winner. If you're interested in all, give X-Ray and Vav a watch, there might be something in the three (Or four, depending on when you read this) episodes that you'll like.
Till next time everyone, I'm the Shaman of Animation saying:
F**K ULTIMATE SPIDER-MAN!!!! Take care...
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