Ah, summer. A time to work on fully embracing being the ultimate couch potato…
The Daily Crate has even featured a handy-dandy list of what shows you should be watching to kick off your summer. This time around, I’m bringing up three shows of the animated variety that are sure to satisfy your fandom- whether it’s your anime loving side, your gamer side, or just something to tickle your funny bone and question the nature of summer camps. That’s right- I’m talking about the Rooster Teeth “Summer of Animation!”
If you’re new to the world of Rooster Teeth, here’s what you need to know:
Rooster Teeth is a pioneering studio responsible for some of the biggest online series in history, such as the award-winning and longest-running web series, Red vs. Blue. They also produce the globally acclaimed animated series RWBY, the first western anime series to be distributed in Japan; the award-winning Rooster Teeth Podcast; and Immersion, a reality format that brings video game theory to the real world.
If you’ve been around the internet for a little while, you’re probably at least a little familiar with/have heard of their series Red vs. Blue. According to Rooster Teeth, the premise of Red vs. Blue is the following: “In the distant future, two groups of soldiers battle for control of the least desirable piece of real estate in the known universe: a box canyon in the middle of nowhere.”
When you have a studio that combines the visuals of the Halo series with custom animation (far from where they initially started), brilliantly scripted voice acting, comedy, and emotion, it’s no wonder Red. vs. Blue has been around for twelve years and is currently in the middle of the 15th season. 15th SEASON! Check out a little bit of the Red vs. Blue story below.
Besides the popularity of Red vs. Blue, Rooster Teeth is well-known for another animated series: RWBY.
The future-fantasy world of Remnant is filled with ravenous monsters, treacherous terrain, and more villains than you can shake a sniper-scythe at. Fortunately, Beacon Academy is training Huntsmen and Huntresses to battle the evils of the world, and Ruby, Weiss, Blake, and Yang are ready for their first day of class.
Now, not everyone might be the audience for RWBY. As a fan of the show since its start, the storyline has taken a turn to the more mature side. Everything can’t always be sunshine and happiness. Is that a bad thing? Not at all! That’s where the second featured show from the Summer of Animation kicks in- RWBY Chibi.
Rooster Teeth touts RWBY Chibi as a “series of cute, comedy shorts with infinite possibilities! It’s playing tag! It’s baking cookies! It’s posing as police officers! It’s… really quite absurd.” This description is entirely true. When you have the characters from RWBY in chibi form, anything can happen. For example, possessed pancakes.
The description of the show does not convey the sheer unexpected that comes from this show. The show is not afraid to push the boundaries of what is said and done, which probably is helped by the fact that the characters are completely animated. These campers say and do things that could make audiences’ jaws drop and think to themselves “did they really just do that??” The answer is yes, yes they really just did that. Camp Camp is exciting to watch because you never really know what is going to happen. From personal experience, every episode is a new slate, ready to shock in the right ways. This is definitely not the summer camp people know of or have been to, which makes it all the more compelling.
So whether you plan to hang out with the Reds and Blues of Red vs. Blue this summer, put on a fake mustache to be an undercover agent with the RWBY Chibi gang, or relax with some Camp Camp activities, your choice is in good hands with the Rooster Teeth Summer of Animation!
