R.O.D The TV Series Vol-2: The Undercover Student (2003)
Animation Production: Studio Orphee/Aniplex Inc.
Released by: Geneon Entertainment
Official Website: R.O.D The TV Series
Running Time: 100 Minutes
By Jeffrey Couto

Introduction

The first volume of R.O.D the TV Series was very well received by the JH anime labs. It’s story of three sisters with the ability to control paper and use it in many creative way ways captured our imagination and made this a stand out title.

As I loaded the second volume into my DVD player and settled in for a couple of hours of anime entertainment at its best I was anxious in anticipation. The previous disc had left off at an interesting point in the story as Anita is enrolled in school and begins making several new friends, all while helping to stop a mysterious attack that takes place in the school’s library. Where would they take it from there? and what other developments would come about? I wondered. It wasn’t too long before I had the answers to those questions, in fact it only took a 100 minutes, but by the end of it more questions would rise...

Story

"From bulletproof dragons to lock-picks, a paper master manipulates paper to their will. In Hong Kong, three young paper masters, Anita, Maggie and Michelle, use their formidable skills to protect Nenene, an author targeted by a mad bomber. As their bodyguard duties take them to Tokyo, they will be educated on the dangers of literacy!"-- R.O.D The TV Series Website

Review

Volume two of R.O.D The TV Series includes the following episodes:

Episode 5: They Shout
The Paper Sisters Detective agency is on a mission! They have been asked to recover a mysterious book for Dokusensha, Inc. of China from a strange island castle. However, once they make their way into the strange looking property something seems off, something the girls can’t quite put their fingers on…Will they be able to escape with their lives and the book they were asked to recover? What mysteries lie deep in the island castle?

Episode 6: The Right Stuff
Anita’s school is holding a Parent’s Day so her class has been asked to prepare book reports to be read on the date of the event. Unfortunately Anita doesn’t like reading books and really don’t wants anyone to show up at her classroom fearing that she’ll be embarrassed. Will Anita be able to get past her dislike of literature?

Episode 7: In a Grove
The sisters are out on a new mission to recover another mysterious book. This time though instead of operating out of a small island castle they find themselves in a very strange town where everyone seems to act strange and lie about eveything that happens. When the sisters are kidnapped and separated they might find themselves in their most challenging job yet!

Episode 8: Seduced by the Night
Is there a poltergeist in the school’s library!? No one is sure, but something is wreaking havoc inside of it almost every other night! To investigate the school’s students assemble together for a night of ghost hunting. Will they find the cause of the constant messes they find inside the building?

After watching the first volume of R.O.D the TV series I immediately became a huge fan of the show. Everything about it just clicked perfectly, the characters, the story, the premise, the art direction, etc., all of it was well executed and built upon. The pace of these early stories tended to be on the slower end of things, but this was more than acceptable since the creative team behind the show used them to develop the characters and introduce us to the way this world operates.

With the second DVD the story doesn’t waste any time and ramps up the action and stories right from the get go. Whereas the first four episodes were more about establishing the relationship between the three sisters and Nenene, their living situation and the author’s career as a popular novelist this set of episodes shifts its focus to the Paper Sisters Detective Agency, their real job.

From the moment episode five started I knew I was in for a completely different experience than with the last DVD as the story opens up with the girls being picked up by their contact from Dokusensha, Inc. of China. They want a book recovered and are hiring the three sisters to do the dangerous job for them. So instead of a domestic show with some action in it this episode shuffles things a bit and takes us into a story that is all about the paper sisters, their skills and the dangerous line of work they make a living at. In many ways it takes you back to those really imaginative action segments in the first episode where they used their abilities to control paper to come up with some neat offensive and defensive moves the likes of which have never been done before (to my knowledge).

Episode seven builds on what we see in the fifth one by putting the girls in a very strange town where they are to recover another mysterious book. Here the focus is moved away from the paper attacks and more into their abilities to work as a team and individually to figure out what is happening and who the people in this town are really supposed to be. By the end of the episode we can see why this team works together so well.

Episodes six and eight serve almost as buffers between the more mission-based episodes and an opportunity for us to spend more time learning about Anita, who at least based on this set of stories seems to be quickly becoming the main character of the show. The two stories do similar things in that they elaborate more on Anita’s school life and her new circle of friends. We see her quickly become an integral part of her class and develop new bonds, the likes of which her sisters have never seen before. They are so excited by Anita’s new friends, especially Hisami, who has become Anita’s best friend, that they even ask some of them to become their new sisters or brothers!

Overall these episodes could be said stand on their own, but were loosely connected by a series of events and characters that have been there since the second episode. You can see that something is definitely building up and somehow the sisters and Nenene are connected to it. One way or the other I can’t wait to see how things come together and work out as the plot threads through the remainder of the series.

On the production side I was very much blown away by the quality of the animation the first time around and I’m glad to report that the same level of care and technical brilliance is once more accounted for here. The animation simply put is amazing and very sharp looking. The colors are bright pastels for the most part and the frame rate is beautifully smooth. Not sure how much was spent on the actual production of the show, but it was worth it. This is one of the best looking series I’ve seen in a while.

The music like before was very fun to listen to, but there weren’t any stand out pieces. The opening and closing themes remain the best part of it. The voice acting was extremely well done here, especially in episode six during the tenser moments inside the island castle.

DVD-wise this was another nice product from the fine folks at Geneon. The artwork on the front cover feaures a very “interesting” angle of Michelle standing by a stack of book. The back covers displays various pictures feom each episode in the disc alongside a brief description of the show and featured extras. Speaking of which this disc includes the following extras: an art gallery with comments, US production commentary and promos for other Geneon releases.

Both the video and audio transfers are excellent with no real problems to speak of. The image quality was particularly sharp here and the audio is encoded in 2.0 Digital Dolby for the Japanese soundtrack and 5.1 Dolby Digital for the English dubbed track. Subtitles were easy to read and had a nice easy flow to them.

Final Thoughts

If you’re in the search for something new to try out in the world of anime make R.O.D. the TV series your next stop. This is what anime is all about! The first DVD was fun, but with the second one the overall entertainment value goes up a notch and expands on an already interesting series.

Hardly gets better than this in the world of anime TV series. This one is a must own show!

Jeffrey Couto