I will never get tired of writing about ROD The TV – are you tired of hearing about it? Too bad! In fact, I may have to rewatch it in about 6 months, just to write about it again. lol

In a nutshell, ROD The TV is, by Volume 5, full on into the second “season” and neck deep in complicated plot. This is not an anime for people who like to do something else while watching TV. You really need to *pay attention.*

Amazing action, wonderful storytelling, the plot deepens without becoming mired in tediousness, even when it’s all backstory and confession. Wendy and Joker are consummate baddies, if only because they otherwise seem perfectly normal, and our gang of heroes turn out to be some of the coolest, most admirable and bitchin’est women in anime. All of them. While the backstory definitely fills in some blanks, it actually serves to make the plot more complicated – and the characters as well. Did I mention good storytelling? For once, I feel that the writers really did an excellent job in crafting a plot and carrying it through to the very end. Every episode ends on a damn decent cliffhanger – something that is not easy to do at all.

But what really stands out in this volume for me is the poignant and apparently unresolvable love triangle of Yomiko, Nancy and Nenene. And they make no bones about it – it’s shown for what it is, two women who want nothing more than to be the emotional prop for a third, who doesn’t have the fortitude to decide between them. And oh my *god* is it good! I’m not a big fan of unresolvable sexual tension, but…oh yeah baby, this volume rocks, for that one thing alone.

The art is pretty consistent, which was a nice change, but the translation was *terrible*. Very dubtitled. There were quite a few scenes I found myself correcting the subtitles mentally, which I think does a terrible disservice to the fans. “I didn’t want to get you involved” and “I didn’t want to get you in trouble” are NOT the same thing at all. They are the same syllable count for the dub – why didn’t you translate it the right way, Geneon? Lazy, lazy, lazy. Points off for that.

The packaging is, as always, good, with double-sided cover and mini-poster. The pencil board is, once again, highly distressing. Not criminal so much as awful, awful, awful art. What exactly is Nancy’s left breast doing? And why is Junior’s torso so horribly elongated? These are questions which will likely never be answered…

If you haven’t watched any of ROD The TV don’t start in the middle. You can do that with, say, Sailor Moon, but not this series. Wait for the final volume to come out and get the box set, then turn off the phone and computer, invite intelligent friends over and marathon as much as you can watch. (We’ve done all of the Sailor Moon S season in one day and all of Marmalade Boy in two, so a mere 26 episodes should be easy!)

Ratings? 10, 10, 10, 10, 10, 10.