Also, since a lot of people are talking about fighting styles, as someone who actually has experience with weapon fighting styles, let me just say that weapon tactics are not supposed to be tied to characters, and usually aren't - they're tied to the weapons, with a few exceptions. Fire Emblem provides the best example of this, actually. All of the characters use a wide array of weapons, across a wide range of classes and characters, many with their own personal weapons. However, with very few exceptions (mostly Aether, Ike you show-off), the fighting styles are very much the same. There's a limit to what you can do with certain weapons, and inevitably, your fighting style will probably look similar to someone else's. Yes, many of the character's fighting styles look similar to other characters in Anime and Video Games. There is a good reason for this, and its usually because they are using the same weapon. Especially with specialty weapons such as Quarterstaves and Scythes, there is quite a limit on what you can do (although putting shotguns in the quarterstaff is an interesting twist).
Basically, RWBY is undoubtedly going to suffer from the same problem that much of the video games industry suffers from. If you want to go in a new direction with something, people won't like it because it's something familiar being made vastly different. Super Mario Galaxy comes to mind here. But at the same time, if you tow the line, people decry you for being just another generic clone of something that already exists, and is probably much better because it has had a much longer time to develop. RWBY has the problem of having a project lead who is not the best project lead (Monty Oum is great at crafting worlds and characters, but the story elements really should be left more to RTs dedicated storywriters), and has a staff working on it that is mostly new. Not to mention that most of the best talent at the office is either uninterested in Anime or has been diverted to work on Lazer Team.
Basically, RWBY is going to need a few seasons to come into its own, primarily because everyone from the voice actors to the animators is stepping into their first official projects. There are no big names, no people experienced with the format. And that's unfortunate, because it does have a lot of potential, a view I've seen around here a lot. I'm thinking that this is going to go the same way RvB did - looking back at the first few seasons, they were quite frankly horrible compared to what they have now, their twelfth season. But Animes generally don't run twelve seasons, so the question is, can the RWBY production team improve enough to stand on its own by the third season, and will they still have fans by then? I think the answers to those questions will be no and yes. But that first no is going to be a problem, because I can't see RWBY running more than five or six seasons (one for the 2nd semester of the first year, and the other three for the other three years at Beacon, four if it is a 5-year institution). They can certainly push the number of seasons higher if they split every year into two semester-long seasons like they seem to have done with year one, but they risk pissing off anime fans for having a series that has outstayed its welcome. They've already pissed off the purists, and general anime fans are not too impressed. If they aren't careful, they'll fall to being an anime for people who haven't yet seen anime.
