I suppose it goes without saying that some Anime characters appeal to you because of their personality, not just their looks. Yomiko Readman is one of those characters. She’s so meek and seemingly whimpering, but she can hold her own in her fight with paper. Perhaps her ability to manipulate paper into strong structures and weapons is a metaphor for the strength within her fragile bookish mindset?
This series is short, but it is worth the watch. The first episode deals with Yomiko’s bibliomania, and her obsession over a rare book that every clone villain in the world wants to it off her. It is “My Immortal Beloved”, the last thing Beethoven wrote before he died, a “Suicide Symphony” that causes all to hear it to kill themselves. Maybe there’s something in the water, but Emo related Anime plots have been popping around lately in blog-land, but this modern classic of Anime proves that Emo in Anime is nothing new, and at least this is less Emo in presenting the effects of the Suicide Symphony and more horrifying. I mean, DAAAAAAAMN BOY! How can a few flashes of animation convey so much in so little time, and so chillingly as well? Read or Die proves that “Brevity is the Soul of Wit” to a T. Sometimes you don’t need an entirely drawn out series like Naruto to tell a good story, and the story only needed to go as long as it did in this OVA.
There are some really good fight scenes that don’t drag on too long, involving a German aviator, two clones of Mata Hari in a cat-fight with guns, and killer money wielded as a weapon by Yomiko Readman’s “The Paper” powers. The battles are much more creative and interesting than in Dragonball Z, because it’s not repetitive in its fight scene structure. There are new ways to die in every fight scene, and this freshness makes Read or Die one of the more innovative action Anime.
There are some heartstring jerkers in this too, so bring your tissues. Why does Yomiko Readman make one feel her pain? Is it because there’s a meek book-loving nerd in all of us Anime fans?
All in all it’s a must watch, and worth watching again.
Geek Philosophy, Nerd Profundities 