RWBY Announces 2D Anime Series, Ice Queendom, With Stunning Poster Art

Rooster Teeth's anime-inspired animated series RWBY is getting a new spinoff in the form of a traditional anime series titled RWBY: Ice Queendom.

An official piece of key art was released via the RWBY: Ice Queendom Twitter account. According to Anime News Network, Ice Queendom (known as RWBY: Hyōsetsu Teikoku in Japan) is being produced by the anime studio Shaft (Monogatari, March Comes In like a Lion) and will debut later this year.

According to a now-deleted article published by Crunchyroll, RWBY stars Lindsay Jones, Kara Eberle, Arryn Zech and Barbara Dunkelman are expected to reprise their roles as as lead characters Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna and Yang Xiao Long, respectively, in Ice Queendom. Additionally, Saori Hayami, Yōko Hikasa, Yu Shimamura and Ami Koshimizu will reprise their roles as Ruby, Weiss, Blake and Yang, respectively, from RWBY's official Japanese dub.

Moreover, the Japanese version of Ice Queendom will star the voices of Hiro Shimono as Jaune Arc, Aya Suzaki as Nora Valkyrie, Megumi Toyoguchi as Pyrrha Nikos, Sōma Saitō as Lie Ren and Kazuhiko Inoue as Professor Ozpin. It is currently unknown if RWBY stars Miles Luna, Samantha Ireland, Jen Brown, Neath Oum and Shannon McCormick will be reprising their roles as the English voices of Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, Ren and Ozpin, respectively.

Crunchyroll also stated that it would begin streaming the anime in both English and Japanese on the same date. However, it is still unclear why the anime streamer's initial article was taken down.

At any rate, an official synopsis for Ice Queendom from the deleted Crunchyroll article reads as follows:

RWBY: Ice Queendom presents RWBY in beautiful 2D anime visuals. RWBY imagines a world filled with horrific monsters bent on death and destruction, and humanity's only hope is dependent upon powerful Huntsmen and Huntresses. Ruby Rose, Weiss Schnee, Blake Belladonna, and Yang Xiao Long are four such Huntresses in training whose journeys will take them far past the grounds of their school, Beacon Academy. Though each may be powerful on their own, these four girls must overcome dark forces and work as a team if they truly hope to become the next generation of Remnant's protectors.

In addition to the aforementioned key art, character design sheets have been released for Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang, Jaune, Nora, Pyrrha, Ren and Ozpin. The artwork reveals a brand-new outfit for each character (save for Ozpin), including some winter-themed designs. (As in, winter the season -- not Winter, Weiss' sister.)

Created by the late Monty Oum, Rooster Teeth's main RWBY series currently has eight seasons under its belt, with a ninth on the way. Ice Queendom is the show's latest major spinoff, following the humor-centric RWBY Chibi and the lore-centric RWBY: Fairy Tales. Over the course of its run, RWBY has spawned a number of other tie-ins, including video games, novels and DC comic books.

Source: Twitter, via Anime News Network

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