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ROD the TV review by Lynk Former
# A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
It's not just Read or Die and it's not quite Read or Dream. This is ROD the TV, a 26 episode TV series based on the characters from Hideyuki Kurata's
R.O.D novels and mangas. Furthermore, it is the sequel to the Read or Die OVA, whose production staff have returned to create ROD the TV. Director Koji Masunari returns to ensure that the transition from the OVA to the TV series is seamless, character design is again taken care of by Masashi Ishihama, and Taku Iwasaki has returned to give a familiar yet unique soundtrack to ROD the TV. Most importantly, Hideyuki Kurata has returned to continue a story with such potential by combining two different sets of characters into one action packed series.
Nenene Sumiregawa, author of the famous novel "Midnight Liberation Zone", is touring Hong Kong to promote the movie adaptation of her book. However, a threat has been made against Miss Sumiregawa's life and measures must be taken to protect her, a perfect job for Michelle Cheung, Anita King and Maggie Mui of The Three Sisters Detective Agency, a trio who have the strange ability to manipulate paper. Through a series of events, Nenene and the "Paper Sisters" find themselves caught in a secret war which involves members of the once powerful British Library. And the one person able to shine light upon the situation, Nenene's long lost friend Yomiko Readman, is missing.
The series starts with a bang, then makes sure you're comfortably relaxed as you get to know the characters and the world around them. If you've already seen the Read or Die OVA, then you'll notice some familiar faces involved in some strange activities. Of course this series is designed so you don't have to watch the preceding OVA to enjoy the TV series, but it is highly recommended that you do, trust me. And while ROD the TV does have its relaxing character development moments, as soon as you feel a little too relaxed you're thrown into a rollercoaster ride of events that will leave you scrambling to get the next disc into the DVD player.
One of the most important aspects explored in ROD the TV series are the relationships between the characters, and it is one of the things that makes this series brilliant. Every character has a well defined personality and the interactions and events that drive each character are extremely well done, particularly the family relationship between the three sisters, Anita, Maggie and Michelle. Another aspect I loved about ROD the TV is the way Hideyuki Kurata managed to combine two different sets of characters from two separate series, Read or Die (Yomiko Readman, Nenene Sumiregawa, Drake Anderson, Joker, Wendy, etc) and Read or Dream (Anita King, Maggie Mui and Michelle Cheung) so successfully.
As the story progresses, the characters are pushed to their limits and so are the people who voice them. Both the Japanese and English audio tracks are extremely well done, each with a very talented group, but I want to put more emphasis on the brilliant work done on the English track. My thanks go out to Taliesin Jaffe who wrote the script and was the ADR Director for ROD the TV, and to the wonderful cast of voice actors who gave us such fine performances. Sara Lahti gave a great performance for Maggie, seeing as she is such a unique character in any story, and J.B. Blanc was brilliant as Joker but the one who deserves the most praise has to be young Rachel Hirschfeld, who I believe was 12-13 years old at the time she played Anita King. Rachel stole the show and as the series progressed she was able to play the role that was given to her perfectly. Congratulations to the cast and crew on creating what has become my favourite English audio track for any anime. Oh and also, I love those audio commentaries that were on the DVDs, they're a whole adventure in themselves.
Yes, I do realise that throughout this review I have done nothing but praise ROD the TV, but it really does deserve all the praise it gets. This is a great anime that instantly became one of my very favourites after just the first episode. I recommend this to anyone who appreciates a good story with well established characters whom you will come to care about a lot by the series end.
~ Lynk Former
