Board Thread:Speculation House/@comment-27404492-20170511131216/@comment-25936766-20170523194816

Nah, the problem is definitely the length, because it just limits everything they can do. "Ambition" too, but the main problem is length.

The length, in both episode number and episode length. The average anime episode lasts about 21-23 minutes, while RWBY's V4 episodes last more inconsistently but generally around 18 minutes.

At the same time, like nearly all modern anime, they just seem incapable of using more than 12 eps.

Now, modern animes can find themselves having difficulty when it comes to adapting faithfully a story (if it's an adaptation) and giving everyone important or semi-important enough screentime (in a more general sense) while telling the story, because of the focus on 12-13eps-long seasons.

The idea is that this reduces the costs, and the loses if it's unsuccessful, but it also means it's harder to do things right in the storytelling department.

Now, that's with average-length episodes. When the episodes are also of lower-length than the average...well, the problems get bigger. And that's the problem with RWBY; even by modern anime standards, it has less time to do anything.

And, since it has less time for anything, that means it needs to take Monty's famous quote to heart. "Being fast is important".