Volume One contains four episodes: ?The Papers Have Landed,? ?Rise Up, Oh Dregs of Humanity,? ?Let?s Meet In Jinbo-Cho,? and ?The Seventh Grade Course.?
The basic premise of the show is that Nenene Sumiregawa, an author made famous by her first writing effort (but now suffering from a severe case of writer?s block), makes plans to travel to Hong Kong for a book signing. Meeting her at the airport are two guides, sisters named Michelle and Maggie. After a bomb takes out the top two floors of the hotel she was to stay in, Nenene tells the police that she won?t be deterred from her publicity tour by terrorist acts. Without a place to stay, she bunks for the night with the two guides and a third sister named Anita. What she discovers is that the three women are actually detectives who love books and who also have unique powers over paper. They can move it psychokinetically as well as mold it into various shapes, projectiles, and weapons.
In the first episode, ?The Papers Have Landed,? all of the main characters are introduced and begin to develop. The interaction between the sisters, and between them and Nenene, is crisp and agreeable. Each sister has a distinct personality and their interaction is what gives the series its distinctive flavor during periods of relative quiet. The action scenes where each sister employs her unique powers to accomplish a goal or to save Nenene are particularly impressive. Without giving anything away (aren?t spoilers just foul?), Anita is able to fling razor sharp pieces of paper that can cut through metal and other objects. This is especially helpful when Nenene is manacled to a particularly sensitive explosive device by an insane fan.
In ?Rise Up, Oh Dregs of Humanity,? the three sisters decide they can?t live in a rented apartment that is completely devoid of books, so they plead with Nenene to let them sleep over. The results are disastrous and Nenene kicks them out again. Later, after a change of heart, she scours the city to find them.
The third episode, ?Let?s Meet In Jinbo-Cho,? finds Nenene out for a day trip in, amazingly enough, Jinbo-Cho -- an area of the city renowned for its diverse selection of book stores. Michelle, Maggie, and Anita discover they?ve been left behind, so they high tail it over to Jinbo-Cho and get overwhelmed by the vast panoply of paper they find there. Maggie wanders around in a paper-induced fog, while Michelle starts buying every book she can find. Anita tracks down Nenene and learns of an interesting secret.
During the last episode, called ?The Seventh Grade Course,? Anita is enrolled in school. With new friend Hisami, she joins the after-school book club (though out of the three sisters, she?s the one who actually hates reading books). While there, an emissary from a British publisher is shot by a masked boy. After stumbling, he gives a book to Anita on the sly and asks her to look after it for him. Anita uses her powers to sweep the boy out of the library, but he escapes before he can be captured.
All aspects of R.O.D The TV are well above average including art, character and environment design, dialogue, and voiceovers. Where it shines most is in the music score developed by Taku Iwasaki. His music inspires audio visions of James Bond scores as well as the playful aspects of Mancini?s Pink Panther soundtrack. Unfortunately, because there isn?t a lot of musical diversity, the same pieces are used from episode to episode. Just think how painful this would be if the music wasn?t as special as it is!
Fans of the original Read or Die will notice distinct changes in the characters and the artwork. If they?re open minded enough to recognize that change isn?t always bad, they should get to like this new series, perhaps even a lot. Anyone who is picking up this anime for the first time is almost sure to enjoy the series? humorous hijinx, consistent artwork and animation, tight writing, good character development, and fantastic musical score.
