ire world of Read

. That’s because there’s an ent

ME America has read yet—Two

R
EADING IS AW ESO
e hard or Die nobody in
We admit that sounds a littl entire R.O.D. manga series
and 10 novels all by
’ve see n Rea d d
to believe…u nles s you Kurata, in fact. Curious? Hol
re sup er pow ere d bookworms creator Hideyuki aus e you ’re abo ut to
or Die, whe r library card, bec
ds and Britain on to you
wield paper with their min . find out the rest of the story!
ld supremacy con-
and China struggle for wor SPOI L ER ALERT! The following pages
’ve see n Ma nga Ent ertainment’s s, in com plet e chrono -
Those who R.O.D. plot
ve orig inal Rea d or Die OVA series or tain all the il som eon e license s the m,
exp losi order. Unt
ies, know reading logical le story.
Geneon’s R.O.D. the TV ser le story. this the only way you’ll get the who
but the y don’t kno w the who uh… you kno w.
is power— Start reading now, or…
54 a n i m e i n s i d e r # 2 0
 Universe. Lucky Paper
Read or Die Days features a day in the
manga vol. 1 & Novel 1 (2000) life of Yomiko and Nenene
Both the first novel and manga volume cover the same not long after their first
beginning: Yomiko Readman uses her amazing paper- adventure as Nenene has
manipulating abilities for a secret division of the British to adjust to Yomiko’s book-
library, answering to her handler Joe Carpenter, a.k.a. obsessed lifestyle and
Joker. The division, run by the ancient Mr. Gentleman, is in penthouse apartment. For
charge of collecting and monitoring rare books throughout the second story, the
the world. But to afford her book addiction, Yomiko also action switches to China,
moonlights as a substi- where four young paper
tute teacher. On her lat- masters, Hoi Mei, Hakuri
est teaching assignment Yuu, Rin Rii and Gai Kou
she meets 17-year-old are recruited by an enig- SHE’S NO GOKU A failure by a customer
literary prodigy Nenene matic young girl with amaz- to buy Nenene’s book leads Yomiko to
Sumiregawa just in time ing martial arts skills! attempt a (useless) Kamehameha.
to save her fro m
deranged fans Fire and Novel 10: School of Books (2004)
Ink, the latter of which is The only R.O.D. novel with a real title, it’s another flashback
determined to kidnap to a younger Yomiko, following her as she goes undercover
Nenene and keep her as as a student at San Geordi private school to find a book
his own personal author stolen from the British Library. But to complete her mis-
(he’s even tattooed her sion, she’ll have to defeat the champion in the school’s spe-
work on his body). cialty—competitive reading, a.k.a “Readfighting!”
Yomiko defeats the giant
match-wielding Fire and
THE ODD COUPLE Nenene (left) is a manages to Read or Die manga
save
high school student and author. Yomiko is
a British secret agent and a bibliophile!
Nenene as the vol. 2–4
building (2001–2002)
and Ink are destroyed by Yomiko receives an odd note from the previous “The Paper”
Fire’s explosive death. Yomiko is rewarded with her heart ’s Donny Nakajima, who trained her in the use of her powers
desire—an autographed copy of Nenene’s novel! before disappearing mysteriously. In her pursuit of Donny,
she winds up at a school in Manchuria and finds not Donny
Novel 2 (2000)
Read or Die manga © Ran Ayanaga © Studio Orphee /SME • Visual Works. Read or Die novels © Hideyuki Kurata. © Studio Orphee /SME • Visual Works.

but his former partner Ridley Wan. Ridley reveals that

The opening of the world’s
largest bookstore, the towering
40-story-tall “Babel Books” is
cause for celebration both for
Nenene, who’s a celebrity
guest, and Yomiko, who’s been
camped outside for days. But
when the terrorist organization
Red, Inc. crashes the party,it’s
Die Hard in a bookstore as the
two struggle to escape their
captors—right down to a Bruce-
W illis-style leap from the roof
using toilet paper (right)!
Donny died by paper cuts, apparently inflicted by Yomiko—
and now he wants revenge! Ridley and Yomiko battle over
the library
’s treasure, the “True Diary,” a book that changes
reality based on what’s written in it.
Then Joker arrives with the diary ’s second volume, plan-
ning to rewrite reality himself! Yomiko realizes she did kill
Donny—and blocked out the memory—in self-defense, when
Donny mysteriously attacked her in the Library—and Joker
reveals that he had used the diary to make Donny do it!
Back in the present, Joker tries to stab Yomiko, but
Ridley sacrifices himself and saves the day! In the end,
Yomiko uses her power to scatter the pages of both diaries
across the world and everything returns to normal.
NENENE & YOMIKO
Convenient, eh?

Novel 3 (2001)
R.O.D. the TV © Studio Orphee / Aniplex. Read or Die manga © Hideyuki Kurata.

This volume collects three novellas, each dealing with a dif-

ferent heroine. The first story depicts junior librarian Wendy
Earharts’ attempt to get assigned to the special Library
group with the help of her co-worker Karen and first intro-
duces Ziggy Stardust, the Library ’s resident paper expert.
In the second story, Nenene has to adjust to fame as she
is attacked by a knife-wielding stalker at her first autograph
session. Finally, Yomiko uses her knowledge of Robinson
Crusoe when a Library mission ends with her being trapped
on a desert island. When Joker arrives with a rescue party,
they find Yomiko has drawn a giant message in the sand:
“GIVE ME BOOK!”

Novel 7:
Supplemental Biography (2002) BLACK AND BLUE BOOK Ridley and
Donny train by punching words out on
This later novel features two stories set early in the R.O.D. each other’s lettered bodies.

A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 0 5 55

Novel 4 (2001)
Yomiko travels to Britain for a
special assignment to deliver
a single sheet of “Gutenberg
paper,” one of the pages
from the famous Gutenberg
Bible. But first, Yomiko meets
Faust, a thousand-year-old
paper master in a child’s
body and a prisoner of the
Library. Dokusensha, the
Chinese counterpart to the
British Library, sends two
paper masters to get the
Gutenberg paper; Yomiko
MR. GENTLEMAN & FAUST
and Nenene bear the brunt
of a vicious attack from Dokusensha’s agents, but Yomiko
escapes, paper in hand!
Novels 5 & 6 (2001-2002)
Determined to get that Gutenberg paper, Dokusensha kid- she
naps the Queen of England! Yomiko arrives at Picadilly Grandma is tens of
BY THE BOOKS
Forget rock and scissors. In Read or Die, paper beats everything!
Here are some of the coolest paper tricks we’ve seen so far…
PAPER FIRE Combining Yomiko’s
paper abilities with his own,
Ridley Won creates an enormous
paper dragon that shoots paper
flames out of its mouth! (R.O.D.
manga vol. 4)
LITTLE HELPERS When Dokusensha paper
master Rin spills a little iced tea at a
London Café, she turns some napkins
into tiny men who clean it for her!
(R.O.D. novel 4)
CRANE GAME To rescue Nenene,
Maggie creates a giant phoenix
to envelop Nenene’s plane to pre-
vent it from crashing into the Sea
of Japan. (R.O.D. the TV ep. 1)
PLANE CRAZY With the glider king
of Prussia, Otto Lillenthal, soaring
through the New York streets,
Yomiko takes to the air herself—
in a giant paper airplane. It near-
ly crashes at first, until Yomiko
remembers to give it a tail!
(R.O.D. OVA) ■ JG
56 a n i m e i n s i d e r # 2 0
Circus with a fake Gutenberg paper to make a trade, but
she finds only dead bystanders—murdered with paper!
Returning to the Library, she discovers Faust was in league
with Dokusensha and has escaped to China with the real
Paper. On his trail, Yomiko meets new Library agent Nancy
Makuhari, a.k.a. Miss Deep! Yomiko and Nancy travel to
Beijing to infiltrate Dokusensha’s headquarters; when both
of them are captured, Nancy uses her phasing ability to
escape with the paper. Yomiko, however, meets the leader
of Dokusensha: a child-like warrior named “Grandma” with
a penchant for Kentucky Fried Chicken!
Novels 8 & 9
(2003-2004)
The captured Yomiko is
taken to Dokusensha’s
“Paper Fortress,” a
massive library carved
out of a mountain cave
in rural China. There
learns that
thousands of years
old—as is Gentleman—
and they’ve been fight-
ing for almost as long.
While soldier Drake
Anderson and Nancy
assemble a strike
team in China,
Gentlemen uses the
alchemical power of
the Gutenberg paper OLD-TIMER Although she looks
to rejuvenate his body, young, Grandma here has been leading
Dokusensha for thousands of years.
becoming “Young
Gentleman!” The new Gentleman, along with Drake
Read or Die novels © Hideyuki Kurata. © Studio Orphee /SME • Visual Works. Read or Die O VA © Studio Orphee /SME • Visual Works.
Anderson’s strike team, destroys half of Dokusensha’s Beijing
headquarters. Grandma escapes with Yomiko and the
Gutenberg paper into the countryside, followed by Drake and
Nancy. [NOTE: This is the last published novel, but it certain-
ly seems there’s more to come!]
Read or Die OVA
(2003, Manga Entertainment)
This three-part OVA
sees Yomiko, Drake
and Nancy fight the I-
Jin, powerful clones of
historical figures like
Otto Lillenthal, the glid-
er king of Prussia and
Japanese electrical
pioneer Gennai Hiraga,
and led by non-con-
YOMIKO & MISS DEEP
formist Japanese
monk Ikkyu. They’re searching for two volumes of Mozart ’s
diary, which contain his unfinished symphony—a work so
sorrowful that it will cause suicides around the world.
The trio travels across the globe, from a battle on the
bottom of an Indian river to a paper airplane/glider duel
over the New York skyline. Just when the Library appears
to be winning, it turns out that Nancy’s an I-Jin clone of
the legendary spy Mata Hari and she disappears with the
volumes! The real Nancy battles her double as Drake and
Yomiko try to bring Ikkyu to his knees. In the end, Nancy
 sacrifices herself, leaving Yomiko to explain to her now
brain-damaged clone how her “older sister” once saved
the world. FOLD OR DIE
MAKING ‘R.O.D.’ ORIGAMI IS
Read or EASIER THAN IT LOOKS!
Dream
manga The Paper Users know how to
make some pretty cool paper-
vol. 1-3 crafts, and we figured you’d like to
(2003-2004) make some too. So here’s our
Moving from Japan to super easy lesson for making
Hong Kong, these vol- Maggie’s robot from R.O.D. the TV !
umes introduce the
Paper Sisters
Detective Agency, 1. Start with a square piece of paper.
which specializes in
cases involving (wait
for it…) books! The
three sisters, quiet
Maggie Mui, flighty
Michelle Chan and 2. Fold over one corner of the
bratty Anita King are square; it should be about one inch
all paper masters, from the opposite corner.
MATRIX-CIDE In one of the many wacky with Maggie manipu-
Dream stories, Michelle writes a book where lating giant puppets, 3. Fold into a robot. Add
Anita is assaulted by Matrix -esque Maggies. designs with a black felt tip
Michelle wielding
paper arrows and Anita using index cards as edged pen. ■ Robert Bricken
weapons. The manga is made up of short, funny vignettes,
Read or Dre a m © Hideyuki Kurata. © Ran Ayanaga. © Studio Orphee / Aniplex. R.O.D. the TV © Studio Orphee / Aniplex.

MY LIFE
mostly concerning book-hating Anita’s troubles with her IS PAIN.
obsessive sisters, who have an annoying tendency to spend
the family’s food money on new books. The third and final
volume ends with Michelle announcing that they’ll be
acting as bodyguards for an author
from Japan… Junior, who can walk through walls and
secretly works for Joker!
R.O.D. the TV After learning that Joker and
Dokusensha are working together,
Eps. 1-26 Nenene and the sisters track down
(2004, Geneon) the missing Yomiko, who’s taken
Nenene hasn’t been able refuge in the Japanese national
to write since Yomiko dis- library along with the clone of Nancy
appeared five years ago. In Makuhari. Years ago, Yomiko learned
Hong Kong for a book signing, that Joker had taken Nancy’s baby
Nenene hasn’t even reached her (Junior, fathered by Ikkyu the I-Jin).
hotel room beforeit’s blown up by a The shock caused Yomiko’s powers to
disgruntled Chinese author furi- go out of control, destroying the
ous that his novel can’t get British Library and Gentleman!
published. Her publisher hires Back in the present, the sisters
her three bodyguards—the learn that their pasts are a lie, as Maggie
Paper Sisters—who follow and Michelle were genetically created by
her to Japan and move in Dokusensha, while Anita was created by
with her, while occasionally the British Library! Joker moves forward
working for Dokusensha for with his plan, “Fahrenheit 451,” which
book money. Anita also involves giving the Library complete
meets a mysterious boy, control over world knowledge and
using the body of Junior to resurrect
JOKER & NENENE Gentleman. In a final desperate battle,
Yomiko, the sisters and Drake Anderson
invade the Library ’s London headquar-
ters. In the end, Junior’s saved, Joker’s
a vegetable and Anita finds herself
loving books!

SISTER ACT The Paper Sisters (clockwise W riter Jon Gutierrez has read
from lower left, Michelle, Anita and countless books, and only died
Maggie) protect Nenene (lower right). twice. Impressive, eh?

A P R I L / M A Y 2 0 0 5 57