Review for Red vs Blue: Season 12

Introduction

The January review discs from Animatsu and Manga turned up, and this month instead of the usual pressed check discs, we have single layer DVD-R screeners. Despite the fact that they are copies of the final retail discs, this review will be useless if you are looking to see what the AV quality is like. With the compression (in a couple of cases almost 4 hours of video on a single layer disc), these discs aren’t in any way representative of the retail copies. The review will be about the content only. If there is a bright side, I don’t have to write as damned much!

Seven months is a little long between volumes, so much so that I’ve practically forgotten what happened in the first. It’s also odd given that it seems that Animatsu’s English language releases such as the Halo movies, Red vs. Blue, and RWBY do a lot better for them than their anime releases. Alas there’s no recap at the start of this disc, but it doesn’t take too long to get back into the swing of things.

The spaceship crash-landed, for whatever reason, and the Reds and the Blues were awaiting rescue with their typical aplomb. Only it turned out the planet that they thought was uninhabited, and where they were stranded, actually had a thriving population, a population so thriving that they were in the middle of a war. The New Republic was leading a valiant rebellion against the Federal Army of Chorus, and everyone, for some indescribable reason thought that the Reds and Blues were the best soldiers in the universe. The New Republic tried to get them on side for their rebellion, when the Feds attacked, capturing Agent Washington, Sarge, Donut and Lopez. That left Grif, Simmons, Tucker and Caboose with the New Republic rebels, trying to figure out a way to rescue their comrades. And they’re not too hot with the planning, or the training, or the bravery, but for some daft reason they are good at inspiring the rebels. They don’t exactly inspire Felix, the bad-ass mercenary that the New Republic have helping them. But the Feds have an even badder-ass mercenary on their side, Locus.

News reaches them that the Feds will be moving their prisoners to a location so secure that they’ll never be rescued. Tucker and the others have just a week to come up with a plan, put together a team and rescue their friends. In the end, the best plan they can come up with is blundering in like a bunch of idiots, and hope that it all works out. But it turns out that there is something far more ominous going on, on the planet Chorus, something to do with Project Freelancer, and once again, the Reds and the Blues are caught up right in the middle.

The Disc

You get the image in 1.78:1 anamorphic NTSC, the audio in Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround form, and this time there are subtitles, with the occasional typo.

Extras

The disc autoplays a trailer for Rooster Teeth before loading up an animated menu. The extras on this disc comprise more trailers, outtakes, deleted scenes, PSAs and an audio commentary.

Conclusion

I’m still in awe of the fact that they make Red vs. Blue using a videogame! They move Halo characters around the game in a way that delivers acting performances, and play out their scripted story, they add the voices, capture and edit, and voila, movie! What’s probably even more awe-inspiring is that it’s a decent bit of entertainment. The characters are all distinct and unique (I think everyone probably loves Caboose), the story is well thought out, entertaining, and engrossing, while the script is witty, sharp, and fast paced. This is an action movie with a sharp eye for comedy, and it works.

Season 11 caught up with the Red and Blue soldiers as they were stranded on what they assumed was a desert planet, and spent much of the movie indulging in Red vs. Blue antics, re-establishing the characters, getting viewers reacquainted with the world (which makes Season 11 a decent jumping on point for viewers unfamiliar with the franchise), before revealing that the world, Chorus, isn’t uninhabited, and the Reds and Blues are in the middle of a local war. Season 12 continues on from that point, focusing on the members that wound up rescued by the New Republic, as they work to find a way to rescue their comrades that were captured by the Federal Army. It’s a great set-up, the heroic insurgents fighting the all-powerful government, and the usual comedy ensues as quartet of slackers, Tucker, Simmons, Caboose, and Grif try to inspire the local rebels to become better soldiers.

Of course once the actual rescue mission takes place, the truth about Chorus is unveiled, and it turns out that the civil war on the planet isn’t exactly what it seems, that there’s a third party involved manoeuvring events for purposes unknown, and it will be down to the reunited Reds and Blues to live up to their respective hosts’ wholly ill-conceived opinion of them. They’ll have to be heroes... competent ones at that.

The story in this season really does work well, it has unexpected twists and turns that grab the attention, while the comedy is always sharp and on point, and the action sequences speak to the quality of the computer game. Just like Season 11, this season ends on a cliff-hanger, promising more antics on Chorus for the next instalment. Unlike the previous release though, the story in this volume reaches a natural climax, so while the prospect is there for more, you aren’t left hanging for a conclusion here. Red vs. Blue is surprising fun, and Season 12 shows that the previous volume was no fluke.