Read or Die - TV

The Pros: Compared to the OAV, R.O.D TV puts a bigger emphasis on a slice-of-life plot where the Paper Sisters stick around Nenene throughout the first half of the series. This allows for more time to be focused on character depth as the viewer can better understand the personalities of the Paper Sisters and Nenene, a problem which the OAV had as events progressed quickly and did not leave much time for character depth. The second half of the series brings about the return of characters from the OAV and an elaborate plot of achieving world domination from the main villain whose presence is hinted throughout some points of the first half of the series. In terms of animation, R.O.D TV manages to maintain the exciting, smooth battle scenes of the OAV, which are especially shown through fighting scenes involving Anita’s quickness. Much of the show’s soundtrack are remixes of music tracks from the OAV which still manage to flow well with the events taking place in the series.

The Cons: R.O.D TV’s pace tends to slow down a bit in some places, which is especially shown during the show’s first half. Action anime fans could tire from the slow pace of the first half. In addition, there were points towards the ending of the series where plot points do not flow well with what took place. The formidability of the villain’s organization in his scheme tends to be a few of the problems where areas of the plot do not mesh well.

Facts of the Series:

-The sequel to the Read or Die OAV which takes place five years after the events of the OAV.

-Ideas for the series are based on two separate manga series written by Hideyuki Kurata: Read or Die which focuses on Yomiko and Read or Dream which focuses on the Paper Sisters. Both manga series are licensed by Viz Media.

This series is damn cool. The premise is a little weird, but the animation is clean and fluid, and just...wow. It's full of surprises. I mean, things just keep happening that I never expect. I'm only on episode one, and that's my impression of it. Says a little something don't you think?

I'm at episode 10, and this series just keeps on surprising me. The humor's all there, not the stupid genki kind, though there is some of that, but things that just--surprise me, and make me laugh. heh. Just when you think this is just a light hearted series for the kids, the dark stuff starts to come in. You know there's something going on in the background, the mysterious organization has been established, and they're doing some not so nice things to people. The fighting is still as excellent as ever. I mean really, whoever thought paper was so deadly? Episode 10 gives us backstory on how the sisters met. it had me in tears. Still excellent so far.

Well, I've seen it all and I must say, what a weird series. Heh, the motivations behind the bad guys are completely warped. I thought it was about censorship, but..yea, i guess the message is generally about censorship...I think. We get more insight on our characters. Yomiko Readman annoys me but even her character picked up. It's a conclusive ending at least. Angsty, action, and all sorts of good stuff. A pretty good series.

When I watched Read or Die OAV, I thought that it was alright but at only three episodes, it couldn't tell much of a story. There were WAY to many things that were confusing about the story. Fortunately, despite having new leads, Read or Die TV answers those questions and more.

It didn't take me long to get into Ma-nee, Mi-nee, and Anita-chan, the three sisters that form the new heroines for the TV series. When they hook up with Nenene-sensei as bodyguards, the link to the OAV was established since Yumiko Readman was Nenene-sensei's inspiration to become an author. Roughly the first half of the TV series is devoted to establishing these four female characters while having the "Where'd Yumiko Readman disappear too?" The second half of the series is dedicated to learning the truth behind the British Library and their obsession with obtaining certain books. As such, we are taken on a giant roller-coaster ride of adventure, mystery, and fun.

The art is very good as is the animation. The music has the right feel too, more so than even the OAV had. All in all, this is a good product from Japan.

There is a downside on the U.S. side. While I give Geneon credit for leaving the "sensei" honorific and title untranslated, they still had to force-translate the remaining honorifics. So "Anita-chan" becomes "Anita, dear." While that seems to fit, as usual, there are moments in the anime were "Anita, dear" just doesn't work at all even though the character is still being addressed as "Anita-chan." So the subtitle writers were forced to just drop the "dear" part. Hello! It just goes to show that you can't force-translate an honorific on the Japanese side of things no matter how hard you try.

FURTHER, there was Anita's character. She calls her sister Michelle "Mi-nee" and her sister Maggie "Ma-nee". Geneon decided to make her use the full names in the translations. HUH? By doing that, they lose the "Nene-nee" part when Anita reluctantly agrees to address Nenene that way. Instead, Geneon made her just use Nenene rather than show that she'd accepted Nenene-sensei as a sister-figure by addressing her as "Nene-nee." Nice job, Geneon! Instead of trying to match the English dub and sub, why not give us a "keep it real" subtitle script and the dub can be modified as needed to meet whatever needs you have for that market.

Bottom line: Annoyance with Geneon aside, R.O.D. the TV is a very good anime title that will suck you in from the begining and never let you go. As such, I found it worthy of purchase.

Drama : Med / High
Comedy : Med / High
Action : High
SciFi : Med
Ecchi : Low (Except for Episode 12)

First for ROD Fans, this is NOT about Yomiko Readman, it's about the 3 Paper Sisters and Nenene. Yomiko does show up (Episode 15) but she isn't the super strong willed person from ROD. She's more umm...Wimpy. There is a reason why she is and it's explained in 19, sorta.
Other than that, it's a great watch. The OP is the best, it's got a nice Beat. I can't remember if the EP is as good.
Note : Something I noticed between the R1 DVD and the TV release. The DVD is cleaned up a lot from the original broadcast and is most notable during the OP sequences. Also for those of you who have the R1 DVD listen to the Commentary (Disk 5 for some Manga spoilers)

Final Edit : Just watched the last 3 episodes. Wow so much I didn't understand from the Chinese DVD is now explained. I understand it all.../sigh. So much info, I will have to watch the whole series OVER to take it all in. (BTW in episode 26 watch the quick Nenene Fanservice scene :) )