April 08, 2004
Read or Die TV Episode 4
"Medium One Course"
There's a definite mood to this episode.
Sleepy.
Lots of lounging around, half-dozing. Oh, and most of the lines are delivered sloooowly.
I was reading in the most recent issue of NewType, that J.C. Staff was extremely proud of the fact they were able to keep the OAV's production values in a long television show. I'm not really sure if I agree with them about that. While the show does have very good values for a television show, it doesn't really come close to the polish of a three episode series. Also, I feel like (so far), J.C. Staff has completely missed the point on R.O.D. I've never read the manga or the novels, so maybe it was the OAV that was totally off the ball. The TV sort of covers similar ground, but without all the slick animation and visuals--the style--that really made the original show.
So, Nenene goes off in search of Yomiko (presumably she received some sort of hint as to where she went off to), which leaves the Paper sisters to get involved in some weird business with Joker (from the OAV) and the Royal British Library. Not much overall plot has been explained at this point, other than that Nenene is looking for Yomiko, who went missing. I'm getting bored of the day-to-day life stuff, so I hope that Joker's introduction means that this show can get under way.
Rating: C
Posted by Kei at April 8, 2004 11:03 PMIt's kind of a wash; ROD TV has interminably long slow periods, and the production values (as you've mentioned) aren't as slick as the OVA's. Considering the animation rate of the OVA's, I don't think that there's a studio out there today that could maintain that quality over 26 episodes. JC Staff had to cut a lot of corners during the initial broadcast; they're fixing a whole slew of animation mistakes (low-quality texturing, weird character art, etc) for the DVD releases. But at least they upped the frame count for the last few episodes of the series.
It's the plot that really does drive you forward quite strongly through the series (picking up somewhere in around episode 7 or 8 -- traditionally the "Plot Break" point for a series), and you get to see some kickass Pay-pah action later on (episode 13, for example -- hoo-hah!)
More importantly, the series does a damn good job of making you actually care deeply about the Paper Sisters, Ne^3 and, uh "others" (to be non-spoiler-ific).
Posted by: jay at April 8, 2004 11:57 PMWow. How many times can I say "series" in a comment? Must learn to lay off the caffeine after an all-you-can-eat sushi session.
Posted by: jay at April 8, 2004 11:58 PM