Read or Die

MAGI rating scale: +7.8(-10/+10)

There is a little odd gem from our friends overseas. ROD is the story of an intelligence agency, based in of all places the British Library, and its agents as they protect the world from the Ijin. In this particular case, the Ijin(or Great person as they are refered to) called Stephan has discovered a symphony of Beethoven's (?) that if played will cause people to commit suicide. Seizing on this ultimate form of crowd control (maybe he could never get a parking spot), he sends out his genetically resurrected Ijin to collect the two books that hold the song.

Our hero that can stop this threat? A clumsy substitute teacher with the ability to manipulate paper, a grouchy explosives expert and a leather-wearing over-developed femme fatalie with the ability to make things pass through her...and look good doing it.

One of the more interesting things about anime is their themes in the storylines. If you look into the vast majority of Japanimation, even the strangest series or movies all work with it's own logic. In ROD, the logic is books. From the Macguffins (Beethoven's notebooks) to the heroine (Yomiko Readman) to the British Library, ROD creates its own logic and own rule...and yet still manages to give us some believeibly and humanity in its characters. The animation itself is clean and beautiful, with an eye for detail. The two female leads, while doing quite a bit of 'fan service' still manage to convey some parts of realism...especially Yomiko. If the world had people with powers like these, OF COURSE the Powers That Be would try to recuit them...even if that person is not someone you would usually want as an agent. Yomiko is clumsy, self-absorbed and a bit naive.....not to mention obsessive. But she's also cute, lovible, caring and surprizingly capaible (She even figures out who to defeat a lightning-powered samarai with a few dollar bills!)

I recommend this OVA series to any true fans of anime...give it a try and just sit back and relax....it's a fun trip.

I am constantly impressed with the level of animation that is coming from overseas. I think it is because they are going places that our native animators are afraid to go. We still see cartoons for children, where overseas they see it as a form of entertainment for both adults and children. Why can't they see that it is a form of cinema that will and can take us to places that live-action never will, and give us characters that no actor could ever conjure up? Who knows? I hope that one day we get there, but until then I can sit on my comfy couch and watch amazing cinema like that of Read or Die.

To begin, this was a fantastic story. I loved the literary references throughout the course of the film. I loved that there was so much to see or do in the story that you never really knew where it was going to go next. This was a very unpredictable story that left so much up to the imagination. It was futuristic, yet somewhat present day. There was a feeling that you were seeing on old novel opened for the first time and remastered for today's generation. It was breathtaking, uncontrollably mesmerizing, and spellbinding to say the least. I mentioned before about the imagination that this film held, well let me say that it flowed like water from this Read or Die. It is hard to explain, but if you watch so much live-action cinema, it is hard to comprehend, but there was more alive in this film than I have seen in any of Spielberg's epics. Keep in mind that I am also relatively new to the Anime genre, and probably am missing some of the better stuff, but for a newbie like myself, Read or Die was perfection in its purest form.

In live-action films I always mention the characters, and am normally nervous to mention them in animation (because it is actors voicing not really acting), but I need to applaud the animators in this film. The way that the characters in this film carried themselves, to their facial expressions, to the intensity that they brought to the screen is equal to that of most live-actors out there. There was enough back-story and future story for these characters that you knew them, you honestly knew them as if they were real. This was a character-based film. While some may argue with me on that topic, it was about friendship, love, and a desire to read and be successful. These are not emotions that you feel or see with just simple drawings. The animators went above and beyond their call of duty with this film, and it was demonstrated through cunning visionary and smart characters.

With a gripping story that took us all over the world (showed the vast horror that could be found, instead of just making it centralized) and characters that literally jumped out of the screen with heart-pounding animation and style, there is only one more thing to say about this film. The action. Growing up in a post-Matrix style film world, it is getting harder and harder to see fight sequences choreographed without the use that made The Matrix so popular. I continually see more and more films ripping off the "bullet-time" effect and making their money back on just that one effect alone. While I do realize that this was … yet again … a cartoon, the action in it seemed more real than in most action films. Sly and AH-NOLD have nothing on "The Paper" as she uses brains and strength to outwit her opponents. This continued to keep my attention throughout the entire film and nearly pushed me to watch it again. I know there was something that I probably missed the first time because my jaw was stapled to the floor. The action sequences were, for lack of a better word, beautiful. Like a ballet gone wrong, this film stepped into the screen with simplicity, violence, and this subtle delicacy that is unmatched in American cinema today.

Overall, this was an impressive film for me. I loved everything about it from the beginning to the end. Again, perhaps it has something to do with my amateurish nature around Anime (which is going to change soon), but this is one of the best that I have seen. It left me satisfied, yet with this strong desire to watch again and again. Not many films do that to me, so it was great to see something as powerful as this pull me into the Anime world. I cannot wait for my next adventure! Grade: ***** out of *****

Read Or Die is only an hour and half long but it packs in so much it feels like you've watched an entire anime series. Full of interesting characters with unique fighting powers (Yomiko, the main character, fights with paper) and a fresh concept, Read Or Die is sure to please the anime fan.

Not only is Read or Die full of new ideas, the animation is also a thrill as well. Every aspect of the show is perfect, and the story is well thought out and neatly performed. For the record, I'd say that Read or Die is the most underrated anime of 2001. I've shown it to all my friends and they have been impressed as well.

If you love anime, or used to love it, or have never even seen it before (and can use your imagine some), there's plenty of colorful entertainment to be had in Read or Die. 10/10

Like many of the best anime, Read or Dies plot looks absolutely ridiculous on papers. Superpowered librarians and resurrected minor historical figures fight ridiculous, lightning-paced battles for a lost Beethoven score of, at least initially, uncertain significance. The premise, and many of the superpowers hurled around with vicious abandon, are absolutely absurd, yet the show maintains its own bizarre internal logic which catches you up in the shows world without requiring you to ask too many questions, especially if watched in one sitting. Indeed, the show never tries to explain any of its more bizarre elements, and a good thing as well. Something like ROD could easily get bogged down in technobabble fan-service, but instead it rips along at a great pace. Whilst not a classic by any means, ROD is a great bit of fun, with colourful, eccentric characters, top-notch animation and good, crisp modern anime artwork thankfully free of blatant CGI abuse. When did anime ever have to make sense anyway?

Yokimo Readman just loves her books, and she has thousands. She coos over them, cuddles them, and absorbs herself so fully in in reading them she can literally let a five car pileup crash by her without noticing.

And she has a curious superpower. She's a "paper master" that can make paper do all sorts of incredible things, like form barriers or bind things or cut through steel. So it is fitting that her spy code name is "paper." So she is a secret agent. Unlike the usual anime super-heroine, Ms. Readman doesn't ever shed her long skirt, vest, and glasses when doing battle with the bad guys. She stays her same cute-but-dorky self throughout, saying things like "give me back my book, please" from the super-villain that stole it from her even while he is trying to kill her. She leaves it to her colleague to wear the form-fitting spandex costume (which is, after all, obligatory).

The storytellers in this movie have an excellent sense of subtlety, even while they indulge in the usual action-adventure excesses. There are a few worthwhile reflections on the nature of the historical figures that are cloned and brought back to life as part of the Evil Plot, but most of what is worth watching is Yokimo herself. Her first use of her power is so casually done that you would miss it if you blinked, but that fits with the character. Perhaps her most endearing moment is when she admits that as much as she treasures her books, she knows that real life is more important.

You have to see for yourself how believable it is when she takes on a homicidal samurai with a light saber on his side with nothing but a morphed dollar-bill for herself. For me, it worked.

I am amazed I can give this DVD 9 stars while still finding what should be a fatal flaw. The passion of the character is for books, but never once does the story depend on something that she read in all the thousands of books she is supposed to have read. Leaving this out reduces Yokimo's driving characteristic from a powerful plot device to a simply amusing fetish, which is a shame. And there is something to be said for being a role model for the kids that can and should watch this. However, the story is fun enough that this can be overlooked and 9 stars is appropriate.

The artwork is slick, smooth, and convincing. The voice acting in both English and Japanese is superior. Sometimes the background details get washed over, usually in the machines of battle hardware, which is actually not unwelcome.

A note about the series: I found this DVD because I rented the first volume of "R.O.D. the TV" from Netflix, and liked it so much that I found this story was the prequel. So I canceled the entire series at Netflix and bought this DVD and the whole series of "R.O.D. the TV" just from that one sample. They are that good.