R.O.D.
(Read or Die)
Manga Region 1 DVD
(1999)
review by Big McLargehuge

Read or Die is an Original Video Animation, or OVA leading viewers to an extensive and engrossing Manga of the same name. That is, it can be said that Read or Die, the DVD from Manga Entertainment, is sort of like an infomercial for the comic series.

But, just what does this have to do with anything? Well, I’ve just finished watching the three episode DVD and I am now scheming as to how I can get my hands on every single Manga issue.

So, I guess the OVA did its job.

So, what’s the story? Read or Die focuses on the activities of a super-secret organization charged with protecting and retrieving rare books. Doesn’t sound like much does it? Well, it is. In the first episode we meet Yomiko Readman, a substitute school teacher and absolute addict when it comes to book ownership. Her small apartment is absolutely crammed with books, and all of her money goes to increasing her collection. When we meet her she has just accepted a short-term position at a local school. To celebrate her newfound financial success she goes off to buy a some books. In her travels she stumbles upon a first edition of “Immortal Beloved” in a small Tokyo used bookshop. The book concerns Beethoven’s love letters to an unidentified woman, and coincidentally, is the keystone in a plot by an evil genetic scientist to overthrow the world by causing global suicide based on a piece of Beethoven’s classical music.

Readman is more than a substitute teacher though, she is a special secret agent of the British government library protection squad (or something like that) and has the unique ability to control paper with her mind, hence her secret agent name Agent Paper. Paired with Miss Deep (AKA Nancy), and Drake, the three must unravel the nefarious activities of the I-jinn while protecting “Immortal Beloved” from capture.

The I-jinn army consists of cloned version of old historical figures including: Otto Lilienthal the 1880s glider pioneer, Genjo Sanzo the 7th century explorer and documenter of the cultures along the silk road, and Mata Hari, the WW1 German spy.

But when a massive undersea base rises from the depths off Hawaii, it’s up Agent Paper and Drake to prevent the launch of a rocket containing the satellite that provides the key to the Suicide Symphony’s broadcast.

It sounds like alot, I know, and when there aren’t moments of plot the characters don’t do much. This inactivity and lack of believable depth is probably due to the nature of the anime. I mean, it’s meant to make you want the manga, and all that information is stuffed into the hundreds of hand-drawn pages, so why work it into the film?

Although I generally accept this approach, there are tantalizing little things that could have been given more than the cursory 2-second treatment like the apparent growth of physical love between Agent Paper and Miss Deep, some of Agent paper’s quirks (as if controlling paper wasn’t quirky enough), and some more depth to Drake rather than “I need to make money and buy my kid something nice.”

But, all that said, I liked the plot enough to let most of it slip.

This film offers quite a bit to the viewer, animation far exceeding in some feature films, a great score, good voice acting, and a plot quirky enough to keep everyone in the audience glued to the set.

Manga Entertainment offers this DVD with several extras including Q & A with the film-makers, historical bibliographies of the villain characters, the original trailer, and a photo essay containing exactly three photos (why? I have no idea...), all this and chapter stops, plus the regular set of nine-billion Manga Entertainment’s other titles.

The DVD offers both an English dub and Japanese language track with English subtitles in both 2.0 and 5.1 Dolby stereo.

Overall Read or Die is a weird little movie that offers a glimpse into a really interesting manga. The animation raises it above many other series and OVA titles, but the pace and shallowness of the story may limit the replay value.