Read or Die - TV Series Reviewer: Iryl Email: private Website: http://www.hugglebunny.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------- The Anime Episodes: 26 Seasons: 1 Movies: 0 OVA: 1 Price: $26.98 DVDs (amazon.com) Rated: R Catagories: Action Comedy Magical Girls Drama ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Review Synopsis: Starting some five or six years after the OVA, we quickly meet the four main characters: Michelle, Maggie, and Anita, who are the Paper Sisters; and Sumerigawa Nenene, a famous writer. The sisters are hired as her bodyguards, using their powers of paper-manipulation to fend off terrorists and wend their affectionate (and clumsy) way into Nenene's life. We deal with Nenene's writer's block, her neverending search for her old friend The Paper, who is missing, and the trials and tribulations of Anita's first experience in a Japanese school. All along the way, the sisters do random missions for a mysterious book-collecting society, and work to thwart a new young foe (who is, oddly, connected to some of The Paper's old comrades). The first fourteen episodes are light character development, cute and funny and poignant. The center episode is recapitulation. The last episodes merge with the overarching plot and are darker. Age Rating: I wanted to go with a PG13 -- all of the series but one episode deserves that rating. But there's one really random nudity scene that just isn't teenager material. Adult Content: In episode nine, a female character named Alice (whom we first meet in this episode), is a hot spring enthusiast and is nude for a few minutes while she retrieves an ancient item from the center of a hot spring. This episode involves prolonged upper female nudity. Magic: The powers of paper manipulation and the ability to move through solid objects that is shown are not explained as magic but as genetic differences. Those with powers are "Agents," or "I-jin," and are used as spies, weapons, and tools. Overall -- What You Really Want to Know: The main characters from the OVA, Yomiko and Nancy, don't even appear until later in the series. They are no longer the main characters, but the Paper Sisters and Nenene are. For myself, my favorite character keeps changing. I still love Yomiko and Nancy, but Michelle, Maggie, and Nenene are so cool! Nenene flips a guy off in the first episode and then sticks that same finger into his gun (that might bother some people, by the way, so WARNING! - One severe flipping off is in the first episode!). The relationship between the sisters is sweet and extremely wholesome. They pull Nenene in on their wholesomeness, even though Nenene can "get angry like a wicked storm sometimes" (Anita, ep 6). They annoy each other, fight, doubt, hurt each other, all the things that happen to real families -- but their sisterly bond is what keeps them from falling apart -- it's beautiful. There are gratuitous body shots of Michelle. Anita is too young to have anything worth worrying about and Maggie is tall and flat, but Michelle is built like a PlayBoy bunny. She's never nude or sexual in her actions, but the artists use her clothes to full effect to show off her curves. You should be slightly concerned with a vague creepiness surrounding many of their missions, plus some really cool violence (most of it is paper- manipulation) and then not-so-cool violence (guns, super-sound-machines, etc). Mostly the violence is paper-manipulation and is not necessarily deadly, just clever. The creepiness can be mild or intense: a really old couple in episode seven (or eight?) offers to watch a porno video with the little girl. They are, of course, evil, and swiftly run away from. All around, the OVA is easier to deal with. For understanding, I would recommend watching it first because it gives you more background on Yomiko, Nancy, Drake, Wendy, Joker, and Gentleman. There are also fewer moral issues and no naked people. All of the close and dependant female relationships sometimes have tintings of lesbianism. However, the only relationship you should actually worry about in that vein is -- possibly -- Anita and her friend Hisa (both seventh-graders). Hisa refuses a boyfriend because she cares for Anita, though nothing before this revelation has hinted at a more- than-friendship situation between the two girls. When Anita must leave the school, Hisa is crushed and they admit their love for one another. It is not absolute whether Anita's love is only friendly or not. The book that bonds them is Anne of Green Gables, with Anne and Diana's intense (but absolutely lesbian-free) friendship. This allusion is what keeps me from saying yes or no on Anita's side. Why put in such an extremely non-romantic female friendship allusion if the little girls are in love? Though it may just be that part of me doesn't want them to be. They'd be so much cuter with the boys that are available. Continuing, it is difinitive that there are no other lesbian relationships. Nenene openly denies any relationship with Yomiko, and Yomiko is only taking care of Nancy because of a promise, though they are friends. Also, both Yomiko and Nancy have been involved with men. (In the manga, Yomiko's boyfriend is still around. In the anime, he is not.) There is a theme that could be viewed as educational. Four of the characters are bibliomaniacs -- this means that they are obsessed with books and reading. (Yomiko, Michelle, Maggie, and Hisa, though Hisa really just likes books a lot.) One of the parts of plot is about how Anita has a phobia of books and won't read them. There's a mild theme of people telling her or others how wonderful books are, books books books books books. You'll probably be sick of books by the end, but it's a good message. At least, I like to read, so I think it's a good message. ^_^ I should also mention that the style of the art is very feminine and "cute," especially for the female character designs and the kids. However, this does not imply that the show will appeal only to girls. Though the main cast is mostly female, it has some hardcore fight scenes that boys will admire. For example, Wong (the large bald guy all in black) is "a beast" according to my husband's good friend, Tanner. I would have to agree. There ARE some religious references: the three sisters, not actually blood-related, first met in an abandoned old church. Michelle and Maggie were breaking in on a mission and Michelle expressed guilt for it because it was a church. Also, Anita was there, a run-away child, "praying. . . . God probably sent you to meet me" (Anita, ep 10). But that's about the extent of religious themes. For the extremely patriotic, it should be understood that there is an unflattering portrait of a generic American president (generic meaning that he in no way resembles physically or personality-wise any current or previous U.S. president). It should be understood that while he is presented as a power- hungry dictator, other countries are presented in no better light. Great Britain is taking over the world by controlling the world's media (bookstores especially), and China has a sinister division that is no better than Britain. I believe that Japan alone is innocent only because it plays no active part in the plot and is content to be taken over. <--- http://hugglebunny.com/animereviews/ --->