Anime Review :: Read or Die [OVA]

Director - Koji Masunari
Language – English Dub
Run – 3 Episodes [2001]
Genre – Fantasy / Adventure. Boobs & ...Books?

Having fun with the usual genre boundaries of anime is a difficult task. A narrow line walked gracefully by Jing: King of the Bandits, or to a lesser degree even Gunsmith Cats, but Read or Die’s kitsch wears paper-thin (ha!) quickly and spends three thirty-minute-ish installments clumsily trying to decide how serious or whimsical it wants to be. All while still managing to occasionally stop along the way for the sake of pandering to daydreamers and horny teenagers alike.

Our heroine on this spin through a wontubulous world of books and evil clones is Yomiko Readman (yes, really,) a special agent codenamed "The Paper" working for the British Library's Special Operations Division (yes, really,) who’s special ability is a type of telekinesis involving paper or paper-related products. She’s a quiet, forgetful, polite Japanese girl with an affinity-going-on-obsession for books, who soon finds herself paired with the no-nonsense femme fatale “Miss Deep” Nancy Makuhari (what were the odds!)

Yomiko and Nancy battle a small army of clever literary references sent by the evil mastermind Ikkyū Soujun in progressive order of difficulty - once again begging the question of why the bad guys never send the competent henchmen out first. Eventually we arrive at the final battle at Ikkyū’s multi-gazillion dollar hideout / fortress where by-the-numbers adventure ensues.

I really have no problem with pulp. Give me any standard hero’s journey with a predictable outcome and I’ll be more than glad to snatch out the good parts and take it at face value, but Read or Die seems too haphazard in its attempts to come off unique that it’s difficult to distinguish if it’s coming or going at any given moment. What elements were meticulously planned out and which were simply drawn at random via a dartboard with words on it.

Being an escapist fantasy series with an implausibly one-dimensional character in Agent Drake, the tough-talkin' American who doesn't care one bit for guff, doesn’t help matters, nor do the really uncomfortable lipstick-lesbian undertones (I didn’t realize such a thing could even exist) and unnecessary chest-rubs in an otherwise wholesome story. Read or Die suffers from some severe identity issues.

Still, there are some high notes hit over 100-or-so minutes. Most notably, the score is one of the best I’ve heard in some time, going well out of its way to capture excitement and whimsy even when the story isn’t holding up its end of the bargain. Also, for my teasing earlier, the literary references are cute and not done with such frequency that they ever get irritating. Ultimately, though, neither are enough to let the well-meaning series shine.