R.O.D – Read Or Die Manga

Read or Die by Shutaro Yamada and Hideyuki Kurata 3.5 stars(amazon)

I always feel a little conflicted about manga adapted from anime. For whatever reason, I’m much more willing to watch anime adaptations of manga and I tend to be less enthusiastic about manga versions of anime. There are certain series where I’ll watch/read both versions (Kare Kano, Fruits Basket, Fullmetal Alchemist, etc) but I’ve never felt the need to seek out the manga versions of anime I’ve enjoyed like RahXephon, Cowboy Bebop, or Evangelion. Read or Die is an exception, as there was no way I wasn’t going to check out the further adventures of Yomiko Readman, special agent to the Library of England.

Read or Die isn’t a direct adaptation of the original three episode OAV or the TV show, it takes place in a time period between the two anime releases, when Yomiko Readman first meets the precocious high school student and best-selling author Nenene Sumiregawa. I’d be curious to read a review of the manga from someone who hasn’t already watched the anime, because I wonder how someone would react when encountering these characters without already knowing the backstory. Yomiko Readman is an ardent bibliophile, cherishing books the way other people love a fine wine, beautiful work of art, or Clive Owen. She also has the power to manipulate paper into whatever form she imagines – she can deflect bullets, make knives, or make a handy parachute with whatever books or random bits of paper happen to be on hand. The Library of England’s spy operation sends her on special assignments to recover rare books with unique properties.

When Yomiko takes a job substitute teaching at Nenene’s school, her biggest concern is tracking down her favorite author and getting her autograph. But Nenene is kidnapped by an insane fan of literature, and Yomiko must rescue her while fighting someone who has the power to destroy paper. I found some of the action scenes to be a bit muddled, it was difficult at times to figure out exactly what was going on. The art is fairly typical, and it follows some of the character designs seen in the anime – all the female characters are very curvy. Yomiko went up a cup size or two in the manga.

I think one of the things that was lost in the manga version was the jazzy James Bondish vibe of the first Read Or Die OAV. There weren’t quite as many historical or literary references in the manga, and the plotline didn’t seem as clever. I think if I didn’t already have a prior attachment to the characters in Read Or Die I’d probably be less enthusiastic about the manga. I still liked reading it, and I’m going to keep buying it, because how often do you get to read a manga that features super-powered secret agents of a secretive library organization? Almost never! I do think that the best introduction to the world of Read Or Die is the OAV, and if I had to recommend one product I’d say to go for the dvd (amazon) instead of the manga. If you’re already a fan of the anime and want to spend more time with the characters, you’ll probably like the manga too.