Give a Hoot! Read a Book!

More R.O.D. fandom here, but let’s examine what makes Yomiko different from many book readers I know:

1: Yomiko doesn’t just buy books, she reads them.

Ever spent your entire paycheck on books? Yomiko has, but she actually gets around to reading what she buys, making her more than just a compulsive shopper.

2: Yomiko doesn’t put books on the floor, however she will stack them on every surface she can find.

3: Yomiko reads more books than the average American, British, and Australian person combined.

4: Yomiko defies the stereotype of bookish women being unattractive, and she is seldom the object of fanservice in the OVA Anime. In the Manga on the other hand… let’s not get untidy shall we?

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R.O.D. Vols 1, 3, and 4 Manga Review

Needless to say, I love Read or Die. How can a Manga series be so heartbreaking at the end, and so weird at the beginning? Yomiko Readman will make you cry. She really will. She wears big framed glasses for a reason: her dead boyfriend used to wear them, and she MISSES him… I haven’t read Volume 2, because it wasn’t in stock, but the basic gist of the series is this:

Yomiko Readman is the secret agent known as “The Paper”. She can manipulate paper into anything she wants, and her true love of books gives her this ability. And I mean, REALLY loves books. As in, “she rubs books against skin in a manner that would be seedy if it weren’t so noble”. She’d do anything to save a book, and she would do anything to save a human life. But what would happen if she was caught in a situation where she has to choose whether to save a life or a book? This question is the entire premise of Yomiko’s morality, and it is this question she answers in the final volume.

Some people don’t like the Read or Die manga, but I do. Don’t make me go Chris Crocker on your arses and force me to post a “Leave Yomiko Alone!” video on Youtube. It’s an enjoyable series, yet you will cry at the end. Since I don’t have Vol. 2 I don’t know the whole story, but it was pretty understandable as a coherent plotline. Short and sweet Manga series like this is what more artists should be drawing up, not cash cows like Naruto and Bleach. The Read or Die manga series is only as long as it needed to be, and it’s a beautiful, brief work of manga Art that may not please everybody but those of you with a love of books will be touched by Yomiko’s story and tragic love life.

I give it Five manga tears ASCII emoticons out of five… T_T T_T T_T T_T T_T *sob*

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R.O.D.: Read or Die OVA Review

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.

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