On February 1st, 2022, a new Twitter account @TeamRWBYProject posted an announcement of a yet-unnamed project. This post was retweeted by multiple people behind RWBY, as well as the official RWBY account. An English sister account also posted the announcement in English, but has now deleted it.
An official website has also released, featuring distorted images of the first Volume of RWBY.
10 hours after the announcement, both Twitter accounts and the website wrote that more information will be shared in the AnimeJapan 2022 convention on March 26th in Tokyo, Japan, 9:30-10:30 local time. The voice actresses for team RWBY in the Japanese dub will also be present in the panel.
Additional information surfaced after a fan on Tumblr Jakey uncovered subdomains for the project website, which revealed some new information, including the fact that the project is likely an anime and its’ possible English name. Keep in mind that these facts are speculative and not yet confirmed. (Thank you to Myren on Twitter for the tip).
On March 9th, a countdown was added to the website. It is not, however, a countdown to the AnimeJapan panel, as although close, it is exactly one day and thirty minutes earlier than the panel’s start. It is likely we will see an initial batch of information before the panel, with detailed information to follow a day later, however it could also be a mistake, given the closeness of the two dates.
On March 15th, more information on the panel was revealed by the official project Twitter account. The panel will be co-hosted by Good Smile Company and Good Smile Film, the former being a producer of figurines and merchandise like the RWBY Good Smile series, and the latter being an anime production studio, involved in the production of projects like Goblin Slayer.
On March 16th, the English Project Twitter account announced that the presentation will be streamed on Youtube live with an English translation and on Twitter live in Japanese.
The stream will happen on Mar 26th, 2022 9:30AM JST. You can find what time is it in your timezone by following this link.
The links to the stream are as follow:
Youtube Live (Translated English audio)
Twitter Live (Original Japanese audio)
On March 24th, an image of a billboard was posted on the RWBY subreddit, showing a promotional image for the project. A translated name of the anime, RWBY: Ice Queendom, is also shared, but is still unofficial. According to the post’s author /u/Unknown132Known, the billboard reveals the following:
“Staff credits:
- Original Work Creator: Rooster Teeth Productions
- Director: Toshimasa Suzuki
- Animation Planner: Gen Urobuchi
- Series Composition & Writer: Tow Ubukata
- Animation Characters Original Creator: huke
- Animation Production: SHAFT”
Of note are the animation planner Gen Urobuchi, who worked on well-known series like Puella Magi Madoka Magica and Fate/Zero, the animation department responsible for character design Huke, which worked on character design in Steins;Gate, and the animation studio SHAFT, which is famous for high-profile releases like the Madoka Magica and the Monogatari series.
It was also uncovered that the project writer Tow Ubukata was arrested in 2015 for domestic abuse charges. These charges were later dropped. Many, including Rooster Teeth employees like Arryn Zech, who voices Blake in the show, expressed discomfort after this knowledge has surfaced. None of the studios associated with the project have commented on this.