One of the problems with reviewing anime is that every once in a while the studio will send out a review copies of a DVD that differ significantly from the retail version of the disc.  R.O.D. The TV is one such disc.  The review copy only had the first episode with an English dub.  It's a little hard to get the feel for the series from just one half hour show, especially when you can't listen to it in the original language.  Even given this disability, this series seems promising.

Nenene Sumiregawa is a writer who has written a series of popular books (or possibly one book… she refers to her past writings in both the singular and plural forms) but has had a sever case of writer's block for the past four years.  She is traveling to Hong Kong for a book signing and to promote a movie that is being made out of one of her books.  When she arrives, Nenene is taken to her hotel, but as she arrives the top floor, where she was to be staying, blows up.  It seems that Nenene was the intended target, and the fact that  her plane was late was the only thing that saved her life.  Instead of checking into another hotel, Nenene's guide, Michele Chan, suggests that she stay with her and her two sisters, older Maggie, and kid sister Anita.  Nenene accepts and finds out that in addition to being guides the girls also form the "Three Sisters Detective Agency."

The next day at the signing, another attempt on Nenene's life is made.  This time the assasin, a disgruntled writer who has a grudge against her for being so famous, shows himself and handcuffs a bomb to Nenene's wrist.  But the three sisters don't sit idly by; they jump into action.  It turns out that they are 'Paper Masters' able to manipulate paper and use it for any purpose.  They easily save Nenene with some flourishing moves, and the grateful author thanks them before returning to her native Japan.  But everyone assumes that the attacker was working alone, and he wasn't.

From this brief introduction to the series, this seems like it will be a fun show.  The introductory episode had a lot of action, but also spent some time developing the characters just a bit.  There are hints at mysteries in some of the characters backgrounds that I hope they will eventually reveal.

On the down side, I get teh feeling that this series might have a lot of deus ex machina endings.  Situations where everyone is trapped and the one of the Paper Masters pulls a note out of her pocket and makes a Thompson submachine gun out of it.  You see, the sisters can do just about anything with paper.  I mean anything.  From forming a working bow and arrow, to flying as fast as a jet plane or cutting the wings off of an airliner, nothing seems impossible for them.  It hope that the focus of the series will be in tracking down the villain, rather than fighting him since these three Paper Masters seem capable of taking on a small country by themselves.  (And you thought manipulating paper was a stupid skill, didn't you?)

Another thing I wasn't able to get from this introductory show was who the show is going to focus on.  The first part of this episode has Nenene being the lead character, but the three sisters take center stage in the last quarter of the show.  I'm not sure it Nenene is a continuing character and part of a large story arc, or if the series will consist of single story episodes.  Either way, it will be fun to find out what happens next.

Audio:

The review disc only had an English dub soundtrack.  This was in Dolby 5.1, and sounded nice for the most part.  Anita, being a young girl, had a high-pitched voice that was whiney and irritating, but other voices sounded appropriate.  The rear channels were used to good effect, especially during the rainstorm.  The explosions were not terribly forceful, but they sounded adequate.

Video:

Being a recent program, the video quality was for this episode was very good.  The full frame video had bright colors and good detail.  There was some aliasing in the picture, but not a significant amount.

The Extras:

There were no extras on the promotional disc sent out for review, not even a menu.  According to the DVD case, the retail version should have a trailer, photo gallery and a commentary track.

Final Thoughts:

While the first episode was very intriguing, I've seen a lot of anime that had great first episodes, but slowly went downhill from there.  Based on the single episode included on the review DVD, I'd say that the show may have merit, but it is too soon to tell.  Best Rent it to be on the safe side.