Plot-wise, the anime starts as a fast-paced reboot and after a few episodes turns into a slow-paced side story that can very easily be labeled filler. Everything takes place in a dreamland, meaning whatever happens in it has no importance and no effect on the world of the series. It matters for the character who dreams of the world and it helps in the fleshing out of her character, but that aside it has no impact on the events of the core plot. That effectively killed most of the interest in the show since the community didn’t feel like it was important to know what happens in a damn dream that will pop out of existence as easily as it was created.
Visually-wise, the most obvious change was the switch from motion capture which was making everyone to be constantly moving or shaking even when they weren’t talking or fighting, to typical android animation that has the characters being frozen when they speak. So basically, everyone moves a lot less and the explosions are a lot more impressive. Aesthetically-wise though, this anime has no value. The appeal of the original was an amateur creating a low budget show, inspired by everything he liked about anime, back when Rooster Teeth was a studio by fans for fans, and not the failure of a corporate cashgrab at the brink of collapse it ended up becoming. Basically, being cheap and cringy was part of the appeal of RWBY, since you were seeing the passion of the creator more than you were seeing the overall quality of the show. The new version on the other hand is clean, made by a corporate studio, with a mainstream appeal in mind. Even if you try it out without knowing anything about the original it will not feel special in any way, it’s another fighting chicks anime in a medium with hundreds of similar shows that will come and go before you know it. And sure, you can still enjoy it for the occasional sakuga moments even if they are nothing special when you compare them with something like Symphogear.
Speaking of sakuga, there’s not that much of it. The first episodes have most of it and then the animation quality gets halved as soon as the dream filler begins. Supposed the pandemic was the cause for the sudden drop in quality but the end result would be bad either way since this show can’t compete with its contemporaries no matter what it does. Plus it doesn’t reuse the same soundtrack. You could describe the original as having passable animation and plot but the music score was amazing. The anime version doesn’t have it, it replaced it with generic and forgettable songs that alienated the fans even further.
As a whole, anime RWBY was a dud. The fandom expected a better retelling of the western version and all they got was a stiff-looking filler arc. Without sticking out from other fighting chicks anime, and with the plot going nowhere, it became yet another throwaway series that everyone forgot almost immediately.
