History Anime / RODTheTV

-->--'''Nenene Sumiragawa'''

''R.O.D The TV'' is the sequel to the ''Anime/ReadOrDie'' {{OVA}}. Like its predecessor, it was created and written by Hideyuki Kurata. This 26-episode series focuses on the Paper Sisters – Michelle Cheung, Maggie Mui, and Anita King – three young women who have [[PaperMaster paper-manipulation abilities]]. Although older sisters Maggie and Michelle are fanatical bibliophiles, {{Shorttank}} Anita paradoxically hates books, which shouldn't be possible for a PaperMaster. The three work together as detectives and independent agents in Hong Kong until the day Nenene Sumiregawa, an author who Maggie and Michelle are fans of, comes to the island for a book signing. The three are hired as her chaperones and drivers, but become her bodyguards as well when her life is threatened. After Nenene returns to Japan she enlists their help in looking for her missing friend Yomiko.

The rather strange title of the show refers to its [[FusionFic fusion]] of the ''Read or Die'' {{OVA}} and the cast from ''[[http://manga.animea.net/read-or-dream.html Read or Dream]]'', a manga centered around three sisters with powers similar to Yomiko's. Adding to the confusion were both animated adaptations being [[AlternateContinuity somewhat different in tone from their respective manga]]. Regardless, it's proved to be an interesting blend of both series that worked out particularly well.

* AlternateContinuity: The ''Read Or Die'' novels, the ''Read Or Die'' manga, the ''Read Or Dream'' manga and the TV adaption (consisting of the ''Anime/ReadOrDie'' {{OVA}} and this series) are all separate continuities, but borrow key concepts and characters from each other.

* IntangibleMan: Nancy has the ability to phase her body through just about anything: walls, doors, machinery – even flesh and blood. Junior also possesses this power [[spoiler:until he phases through his own body to remove a homing device implanted in his chest cavity.]]

* KickTheDog: [[spoiler:Joker]] kicks many many dogs over the course of the series, but it culminates with burning the photograph of Yomiko and Nenene that Yomiko's been pining over for the past five episodes. He then tells her she will be happier when she is [=brainwashed=]. [[spoiler:Wendy]], who goes from clumsy cutie in the {{OVA}} to a cold individual in the TV series, is even worse. Notable examples being [[spoiler:burning books right in front of Yomiko, rubbing salt in Anita's emotional wounds after she thinks she lost her sisters, and telling Junior she never really cared about him outside of being a tool.]] Sunny Wong [[spoiler:killing Alice Alice Arquet after she and Drake surrender]] is quite a blunt indication of the fact that the Dokusensha are not nice people.

** "[[http://www.lovehkfilm.com/reviews/heroic_trio.htm The Heroic Trio]] – The Paper Sisters are named after the trio of {{Action Girl}}s from this movie. Anita's last name differs for a reason.

%%* TechnicalPacifist: In series – all of them, even the most of antagonists. Not quite so in OVA.

* TookALevelInBadass: In the time since the {{OVA}}, Wendy goes from a tea-serving klutz to gun-toting badass.

%%* {{Tsundere}}: Okahara (towards Hisami) – a rare male example. Arguably Nenene, especially in spiky grumpy mode.

%%* CloningBlues: [[spoiler:It is eventually revealed that Anita is an ArtificialHuman.]]

%%* ChristmasCake: Yomiko is 30 years old.

%%* ChristmasCake: Yomiko is 30 years old.

%%* {{Gainaxing}}: Enough to make [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Yoko-sama]] herself jealous.
%%** Episode 15 (Yomiko's reappearance) has so much of this it's basically PlayedForLaughs.

%%* DarkSkinnedBlond: Wendy

%%* {{Tsundere}}: Okahara (towards Hisami) – a rare male example. Arguably Nenene, especially in spiky GrumpyBear mode.

* ActionGirl: Yomiko and the Paper Sisters.
* AffablyEvil: [[spoiler:Joker]] is the personification of an Affably Evil foe.

* AntiVillain: Junior
* ApocalypseHow: [[spoiler:Class 0, Hong Kong sinking.]]
* ApologisesALot: Junior, Maggie
* ArtificialHuman: Nancy, [[spoiler:Anita King]] In fact it's heavily implied that [[spoiler:all the Paper Sisters and indeed most paper-masters are constructs of Dokusensha.]]

* BadassBookworm: Pretty much all the protagonists except for Drake. Even Anita has a weird sort of {{Tsundere}} relationship with books.

* BeautyBrainsAndBrawn: The Paper Sisters.

* {{Bifauxnen}}: Maggie
* BigBadFriend: [[spoiler:Joker. Well, he ''used'' to be Yomiko's friend.]]

* BloodFromTheMouth: Alice Alice Arquet. Sign that the series [[WhamEpisode is taking a real turn for the dark]].
* BlondeBrunetteRedhead: [[color:yellow: Michelle]], [[color:brown: Maggie]], and [[color:red: Anita]].
* BlushSticker: Maggie, [[{{bifauxnen}} oddly enough]], gets these a lot.

* BrownNote: Webber's giant pipe organ.

* ChekhovsGun: Nenene's novel she works on throughout the series.
* ChristmasCake: Yomiko is 30 years old.
* ChristmasEpisode: The three sisters share birthday cake with Nenene.
* CliffHanger: Frequently, the series pulls you along from one episodes to the next.
* CloningBlues: [[spoiler:It is eventually revealed that Anita is an ArtificialHuman.]]
* CloudCuckoolander: Michelle
* CoolBigSis: Michelle.
* CutenessProximity: Michelle is drawn to Anita's friends Hisami and Junior.
* CuteBruiser: Anita
* TheCutie: Anita and Junior.

* DarkSkinnedBlond: Wendy

* DisturbedDoves: Parodied with a pigeon ''named John Woo''.
** ''peck'' [[InsistentTerminology "...San."]]
* TheDitz: Michelle can be this at times.
* DramaticWind

* EvilBrit: Several, most notably [[spoiler:Joker, Wendy, and]] EliteMook Mirrorman.

* EyesAlwaysShut: Lee

* FaceHeelTurn: [[spoiler:Joker, Wendy and the entire British Library (sans Yomiko and Nancy)]] undergo one in-between the OVA and the TV series.
** Although [[WordOfGod Kurata]] stated that [[spoiler:Joker]] [[EvilAllAlong was always like that]]; we the viewers just didn't notice.

* FlashbackEcho: Anita's memories of burning books.
* FlippingTheBird: Nenene does this to a literary terrorist in the first episode, and Anita does it to ''her'' in the next one.
* FunbagAirbag: When Nenene is reunited with Yomiko in the National Diet Library.
* {{Gainaxing}}: Enough to make [[Anime/TengenToppaGurrenLagann Yoko-sama]] herself jealous.
** Episode 15 (Yomiko's reappearance) has so much of this it's basically PlayedForLaughs.
* GenkiGirl: Anita

* HannibalLecture: [[spoiler:Joker]] gives one to Yomiko when they meet for the first time in the series. Nenene [[ShutUpHannibal cuts him short]].
* HotLibrarian + BadassBookworm: Yomiko. Her extreme love of books can get to be a very expensive habit (at one point, she even asks her boss for a cash advance so that she can purchase more books), but the British Library still regards her as [[BunnyEarsLawyer one of the best in her field]].
* IllGirl: Hisami
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler:Alice Alice Arquet]]
* ImprobableWeaponUser:

* {{Invisibility}} / MasterOfIllusion: Mirrorman.
* IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: Okahara towards Hisami, after she tells him that she likes Anita.
* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Natsume and Okahara

* UsefulNotes/KoreansInJapan: "Mr. Kim" is a Korean name, but he looks and acts more stereotypically Chinese than Korean. It may well be a pseudonym [[spoiler:especially since he seems to be involved on the shifty side of two very shifty organizations.]]

* LoveMakesYouEvil: [[spoiler:Wendy's]] reason for her actions.

* MaleGaze: The show really likes to linger on shots of bare and socked feet throughout it's run.
* MamaBear: [[spoiler:Nancy, after she regains her memories.]]
* ManChild: Michelle and Yomiko. Nancy too, though this has less to do about her personality quirks and more to do with brain damage and amnesia.

* MechaMooks: Some of the defenses in the Dokusensha base.
* TheMenInBlack: culturally quirky variants.
* MilkmanConspiracy: [[spoiler:It is all the British Library's fault.]]
* TheMole: [[spoiler:Lee Linho]]

* NearVillainVictory: Seriously.
* NerdsAreSexy: And so is Yomiko. Michelle, Maggie, and Nenene surely qualify too. ROD loves its nerds.

* TheOtherDarrin: The TV series has an entirely different English dub cast than the OAV (save for Tricia Dickson[[labelnote:†]] {credited as Wendy Tomson in the TV series due to its non-union status}[[/labelnote]], who goes from playing Wendy in the OAV to Nenene in the TV series), which was not too jarring for the most part, except that Yomiko went from having a ''very'' American accent[[labelnote:§]] provided by Kimberly Yates[[/labelnote]] to having a ''very'' English accent[[labelnote:§]] provided by Hellena Taylor, an actual Brit[[/labelnote]]. According to the DVD commentary, this is because the Japanese creators specifically asked Creator/{{Geneon}} to give Yomiko an English accent since she is supposed to be half-British).

* OneLastSmoke: [[spoiler:Lee Linho]]

* PaperMaster: Along with the OVA, it's the TropeNamer.

* PosthumousCharacter: The Gentleman.
* ThePowerOfFriendship

* PreExplosionGlow: Several times. Chances are high it's happening during a WhamEpisode.

* PuppyDogEyes
* TheQuietOne: Maggie.

* {{Sentai}} (sort of)
* SeriousBusiness: Books, books, books.
* {{Shapeshifter}}: The Mirror Man.
* {{Shorttank}}: Anita

* ShutUpHannibal: "Don't be tricked, you idiot! He's the ''bad guy!''"

* StormingTheCastle: Twice.
* {{Superhero}} (sort of)

* TechnicalPacifist: In series – all of them, even the most of antagonists. Not quite so in OVA.
* ThirdPersonPerson: Mr. Kim, in the original Japanese. Not so much in the English dub.
* ThrowTheBookAtThem: Anita likes to do this.

* [[TrademarkFavoriteFood Trademark Favorite Drink]]: Anita really likes drinking milk.

* TookALevelInJerkass: Wendy again.
* TownWithADarkSecret: [[NightmareFuel "John Smith is in a grove...."]]
* {{Tsundere}}: Okahara (towards Hisami) – a rare male example. Arguably Nenene, especially in spiky GrumpyBear mode.

* UtopiaJustifiesTheMeans: [[spoiler:The British Library's plan.]]

* VisibleSigh: Anita and Michelle both do this.

* WellDoneSonGuy: Junior, in a rare female parental figure example.

* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Junior, which is pretty damn amazing, given the below trope:

* PantyShot: The MagicSkirt is notably averted, there's multiple times where realistic physics fully apply to a character if they happen to be wearing a skirt, Anita included.