AnimeVision

2 - Rise Up, Oh Dregs of Humanity
Nenene's back in Japan, although after recent events her agent has decided to hire Maggie, Michelle and Anita as her bodyguards in a full-time capacity - although Nenene's far from happy with the arrangement, especially when the sisters take over her flat & create all sorts of chaos while she's trying to get her creative flow going...

3 - Let's Meet in Jinbo-cho
Nenene's finally managing to get the sisters house-trained, and has given them the use of her spare room - not that her temper with them is getting any better. She eventually manages to get out & away from them - and it takes a while before Maggie remembers that as bodyguards, they're meant to be looking after Nenene. Cue mad search for the part of town where they know Nenene has headed for - but along the way, Michelle finds Jinbo-cho, booklovers' paradise, and gets just a little sidetracked. The booksellers there haven't had such good business since a certain friend of Nenene's disappeared...

4 - The Seventh Grade Course
Nenene's worried about Anita hanging around the flat all day, so she's arranged for her to start in junior high - and Anita's not at all happy at the prospect, although she does manage to make one friend on her first day - classmate Hisa-chan. Michelle's still worried about how Anita will cope, though, and sneaks into the school - in full uniform, no less - to keep an eye on her. She needn't worry about her settling in - Anita's been making quite the impression on her classmates - but a visitor to the school library places her in danger, while Nenene, acting on some information about Yomiko, disappears...

With a full 26 episodes to work with, ROD the TV starts off slowly and takes the time to fully introduce its characters before finally starting to introduce its main plot in episode four. Fans of the OVA's action scenes are well catered for in episode one, with the sisters' rescue of Nenene from two dangerous situations, but after that the pace drops back and becomes much more leisurely. By the time episode four's battle takes place, it's also clear that the animation budget isn't quite what it was, either, but you can't really expect too much from a TV series in that regard. While clearly not up to the visual standards of the OVA or the first episode's battle scenes, I don't think the show is going to disappoint in this regard.

Connections with what's gone before take a while to appear, but by the end of the disc it's clear that both Yomiko and the Joker, at least, will play a major part in the unfolding story - although previous knowledge of who was good & who was bad may not help you here...

The slower pace does take a bit to get used to, as the OVA was very fast-paced, but given the personality of the sisters it soon begins to 'feel' right. Even the desire to find out what happened to Yomiko give the show a hook, but add in the Joker aspect of things that's beginning to unfold and the story becomes hard to put down (or it would be, if it was a book!).

Many shows lose something making the transition from OVA to TV series, but ROD the TV manages to keep the feel of its predecessor, while the new cast makes it very much its own show. Hopefully the quality of these episodes will be maintained for the rest of the series, but so far, I've got no reason for complaint...