RWBY: After the Fall by E.C. Meyers is a novel based one an anime that was created by Roost Teeth. After the Fall takes place after the attack and fall of Beacon Academy. Before we really get into this review, I suppose I should go into a little back story for those who know nothing of the anime, but still are interested in reading the book, which is possible as it does touch base on previous events to explain the characters a bit.
In the world of RWBY, there are people who have special abilities called semblances. These semblances differ for each person and most people who have a semblance become a Huntsman or Huntress to help fight creatures called Grimm. Grimm are creatures that feed off negative emotions. They are actually attracted by the negative emotions and end up attacking areas with high negative emotions. Which has caused schools, like Beacon Academy to pop up. From the anime, RWBY, we were able to learn while in the academy, Huntsmen and Huntresses were assigned to teams of four, were the first initials of their names made their team name, to train and learn their skills to fight the Grimm. There is a lot more in the anime, however, what I have here is the information you need to be able to read the book, and following books. If this sounds interesting you can always check out the anime yourself as it is just called RWBY, but I will warn you now this book and the anime follow different characters at different points.
Where as the fore mentioned anime follows the team called RWBY and there close friends for a majority through the whole show of their beginning of their time at Beacon Academy, After the Fall follows Team CFVY (coffee) after the fall of Beacon Academy, as I had mention earlier. During the novel, there are flash backs from each team member of there times before Beacon Academy, while at Beacon Academy and with other students at Beacon Academy, that really help bring depth to each character. Team CFVY is made up of their leader Coco, Fox, Velvet, and Yatsuhashi, Each character has their own strength and weakness that they bring to the team, making them unlikely to be friends at first look, but they do have an unbreakable bond that took time to build.
Since the fall of their beloved school, they had to relocate to the desert of Vacuo, to attend Shade Academy, where they get stuck travel through the dangerous desert to respond to a distress signal they received. Upon reaching the location no one knows who sent in but they find themselves in a tribe that had to constantly move due to constant attack of Grimm. With new rising “mood bombs” causing Grimm to be attracted every time they move, the tribe causes trouble every where they go, making them absorb more tribes as the go. Taking two travelers from Vale with them and their bodyguards, a Huntsman and Huntress with them, as travelers don’t want to separate.
Team CFVY decides to stick with them to try and figure out what is causing the mood bombs and help the people and figure out who called in the distress signal. During the investigation they get hit with another “mood bomb” and even Team CVFY are affected by it. Which causes high tensions amongst the team members. The only question remains, what is causing it, can it be undone and will the team survive the Grimm and the desert?
RWBY: After the Fall was s hurt novel and a rather quick read at only 295 pages. Normally I wouldn’t even waste my time with such a small book, but i loved the anime. As an otaku, I couldn’t help but pick it up and be excited. I found it randomly at a Books-A-Million bookstore at my local mall and just had to get it and the 2 books that followed. Not to mention, it is a pretty book. It was an easy book to read, though i wouldn’t have thought it to be hard. I would definitely recommend it to my fellow otakus or anime lovers, as I would recommend the show. I would also recommend it as a gift for parents to get their teenagers who are in love with anime, even if it is just a phase. I know it can be hard to get them to want to read anything outside of mange, but this might be a way to curb that and show them a normal book is just as good. SO Go ahead and pick it up and give it a read, or pass it on as a gift to that person you know who just absolutely loves all things anime. And as always, happy reading.
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