The story and characters themselves put me off RWBY, tbh. I can deal with the weird style and the one great thing it has going for it is the fight scenes, but it's not really enough to slog through how horrifically 'anime' it all is to get to them. x_x
This reminds me, when series will hamfist in pop culture references that are so blatant and awkward. Just to be like "Haha look how hip and cool we are, we know what a meme is!" It's so weird too, because you know in a few years it'll be dead and people watching later will have no idea what the characters are talking about it. I dunno if that was also part of what you meant though.
I saw a ton of criticism hating on She-Ra's design for being too 'masculine'. I don't really see what they're seeing but I agree with this, overall cast designs are very bland and lacking some kind of dimension. Clips / trailers from the animation put me off watching it though. Ooooh boy, there's a lot of basic drawing fundamentals missing here in all the scenes. There's just a line where it's way too obvious to not keep noticing and it breaks immersion. @_@