54

EADING IS AWESOME.

We admit that sounds a little hard

to believe…unless you’ve seen Read

or Die, where super powered bookworms

wield paper with their minds and Britain

and China struggle for world supremacy.

Those who’ve seen Manga Entertainment’s

explosive original Read or Die OVA series or

Geneon’s R.O.D. the TV series, know reading

is power—but they don’t know the whole story.

That’s because there’s an entire world of Read

or Die nobody in America has read yet—Two

entire R.O.D. manga series and 10 novels all by

creator Hideyuki Kurata, in fact. Curious? Hold

on to your library card, because you’re about to

find out the rest of the story!

SSPPOOIILLEERR AALLEERRTT!! The following pages con-

tain all the R.O.D. plots, in complete chrono-

logical order. Until someone licenses them,

this the only way you’ll get the whole story.

Start reading now, or…uh…you know.

aa nn ii mm ee ii nn ss ii dd ee rr # 22 00

R

5555AA PP RR II LL // MM AA YY 22 00 00 55

Read or Die manga vol. 1 & Novel 1 (2000)Both the first novel and manga volume cover the samebeginning: Yomiko Readman uses her amazing paper-manipulating abilities for a secret division of the Britishlibrary, answering to her handler Joe Carpenter, a.k.a.Joker. The division, run by the ancient Mr. Gentleman, is incharge of collecting and monitoring rare books throughoutthe world. But to afford her book addiction, Yomiko also

moonlights as a substi-tute teacher. On her lat-est teaching assignmentshe meets 17-year-oldliterary prodigy NeneneSumiregawa just in timeto save her fro mderanged fans Fire andInk, the latter of which isdetermined to kidnapNenene and keep her ashis own personal author(he’s even tattooed herwork on his body).Yomiko defeats the giantmatch-wielding Fire andmanages to saveNenene as the buildingand Ink are destroyed by

Fire’s explosive death. Yomiko is rewarded with her heart’sdesire—an autographed copy of Nenene’s novel!

Novel 2 (2000)The opening of the world’slargest bookstore, the towering40-story-tall “Babel Books” iscause for celebration both forNenene, who’s a celebrityguest, and Yomiko, who’s beencamped outside for days. Butwhen the terrorist organizationRed, Inc. crashes the party, it’sDie Hard in a bookstore as thetwo struggle to escape theircaptors—right down to a Bruce-W illis-style leap from the roofusing toilet paper (right)!

Novel 3 (2001)This volume collects three novellas, each dealing with a dif-ferent heroine. The first story depicts junior librarian WendyEarharts’ attempt to get assigned to the special Librarygroup 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 sheis attacked by a knife-wielding stalker at her first autographsession. Finally, Yomiko uses her knowledge of RobinsonCrusoe when a Library mission ends with her being trappedon 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)This later novel features two stories set early in the R.O.D.

Universe. Lucky PaperDays features a day in thelife of Yomiko and Nenenenot long after their firstadventure as Nenene hasto adjust to Yomiko’s book-obsessed lifestyle andpenthouse apartment. Forthe second story, theaction switches to China,where four young papermasters, Hoi Mei, HakuriYuu, Rin Rii and Gai Kouare recruited by an enig-matic young girl with amaz-ing martial arts skills!

Novel 10: School of Books (2004)The only R.O.D. novel with a real title, it’s another flashbackto a younger Yomiko, following her as she goes undercoveras a student at San Geordi private school to find a bookstolen from the British Library. But to complete her mis-sion, she’ll have to defeat the champion in the school’s spe-cialty—competitive reading, a.k.a “Readfighting!”

Read or Die manga vol. 2–4 (2001–2002)Yomiko receives an odd note from the previous “The Paper”Donny Nakajima, who trained her in the use of her powersbefore disappearing mysteriously. In her pursuit of Donny,she winds up at a school in Manchuria and finds not Donnybut his former partner Ridley Wan. Ridley reveals thatDonny died by paper cuts, apparently inflicted by Yomiko—and now he wants revenge! Ridley and Yomiko battle overthe library’s treasure, the “True Diary,” a book that changesreality 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 killDonny—and blocked out the memory—in self-defense, whenDonny mysteriously attacked her in the Library—and Jokerreveals that he had used the diary to make Donny do it!

Back in the present, Joker tries to stab Yomiko, butRidley sacrifices himself and saves the day! In the end,Yomiko uses her power to scatter the pages of both diariesacross the world and everything returns to normal.Convenient, eh?

R.O.D. the TV© Studio Orphee / Aniplex. Read or Diemanga © Hideyuki Kurata.

Read or Die manga © Ran Ayanaga © Studio Orphee /SME • Visual Works.

Read or Dienovels © Hideyuki Kurata. © Studio Orphee /SME • Visual Works.

THE ODD COUPLE Nenene (left) is ahigh school student and author. Yomiko isa British secret agent and a bibliophile!

SHE’S NO GOKU A failure by a customerto buy Nenene’s book leads Yomiko toattempt a (useless) Kamehameha.

NENENE & YOMIKO

BLACK AND BLUE BOOK Ridley andDonny train by punching words out oneach other’s lettered bodies.

aa nn ii mm ee ii nn ss ii dd ee rr # 22 0056

Novel 4 (2001)Yomiko travels to Britain for aspecial assignment to delivera single sheet of “Gutenbergpaper,” one of the pagesfrom the famous GutenbergBible. But first, Yomiko meetsFaust, a thousand-year-oldpaper master in a child’sbody and a prisoner of theLibrary. Dokusensha, theChinese counterpart to theBritish Library, sends twopaper masters to get theGutenberg paper; Yomikoand Nenene bear the brunt

of a vicious attack from Dokusensha’s agents, but Yomikoescapes, paper in hand!

Novels 5 & 6 (2001-2002)Determined to get that Gutenberg paper, Dokusensha kid-naps the Queen of England! Yomiko arrives at Picadilly

Circus with a fake Gutenberg paper to make a trade, butshe finds only dead bystanders—murdered with paper!Returning to the Library, she discovers Faust was in leaguewith Dokusensha and has escaped to China with the realPaper. On his trail, Yomiko meets new Library agent NancyMakuhari, a.k.a. Miss Deep! Yomiko and Nancy travel toBeijing to infiltrate Dokusensha’s headquarters; when bothof them are captured, Nancy uses her phasing ability toescape with the paper. Yomiko, however, meets the leaderof Dokusensha: a child-like warrior named “Grandma” witha penchant for Kentucky Fried Chicken!

Novels 8 & 9 (2003-2004)The captured Yomiko istaken to Dokusensha’s“Paper Fortress,” amassive library carvedout of a mountain cavein rural China. Thereshe learns thatGrandma is tens ofthousands of yearsold—as is Gentleman—and they’ve been fight-ing for almost as long.While soldier DrakeAnderson and Nancyassemble a striketeam in China,Gentlemen uses thealchemical power ofthe Gutenberg paperto rejuvenate his body,becoming “YoungGentleman!” The new Gentleman, along with DrakeAnderson’s strike team, destroys half of Dokusensha’s Beijingheadquarters. Grandma escapes with Yomiko and theGutenberg paper into the countryside, followed by Drake andNancy. [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 OVAsees Yomiko, Drakeand Nancy fight the I-Jin, powerful clones ofhistorical figures likeOtto Lillenthal, the glid-er king of Prussia andJapanese electricalpioneer Gennai Hiraga,and led by non-con-formist Japanese

monk Ikkyu. They’re searching for two volumes of Mozart’sdiary, which contain his unfinished symphony—a work sosorrowful that it will cause suicides around the world.

The trio travels across the globe, from a battle on thebottom of an Indian river to a paper airplane/glider duelover the New York skyline. Just when the Library appearsto be winning, it turns out that Nancy’s an I-Jin clone ofthe legendary spy Mata Hari and she disappears with thevolumes! The real Nancy battles her double as Drake andYomiko try to bring Ikkyu to his knees. In the end, Nancy

BY THE BOOKSForget 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’spaper abilities with his own,Ridley Won creates an enormouspaper dragon that shoots paperflames out of its mouth! (R.O.D.manga vol. 4)

LITTLE HELPERS When Dokusensha papermaster Rin spills a little iced tea at aLondon Café, she turns some napkinsinto tiny men who clean it for her!(R.O.D. novel 4)

CRANE GAME To rescue Nenene,Maggie creates a giant phoenixto envelop Nenene’s plane to pre-vent it from crashing into the Seaof Japan. (R.O.D. the TV ep. 1)

PLANE CRAZY With the glider kingof Prussia, Otto Lillenthal, soaringthrough the New York streets,Yomiko takes to the air herself—in a giant paper airplane. It near-ly crashes at first, until Yomikoremembers to give it a tail!(R.O.D. OVA) n JG

Read or Dienovels © Hideyuki Kurata. © Studio Orphee /SME • Visual Works. Read or Die

OVA © Studio Orphee /SME • Visual Works.

MR. GENTLEMAN & FAUST

OLD-TIMER Although she looksyoung, Grandma here has been leadingDokusensha for thousands of years.

YOMIKO & MISS DEEP

AA PP RR II LL // MM AA YY 22 00 00 55 57

sacrifices herself, leaving Yomiko to explain to her nowbrain-damaged clone how her “older sister” once savedthe world.

Read orDreammanga vol. 1-3(2003-2004)Moving from Japan toHong Kong, these vol-umes introduce thePaper SistersDetective Agency,which specializes incases involving (waitfor it…) books! Thethree sisters, quietMaggie Mui, flightyMichelle Chan andbratty Anita King areall paper masters,with Maggie manipu-lating giant puppets,Michelle wielding

paper arrows and Anita using index cards as edgedweapons. The manga is made up of short, funny vignettes,mostly concerning book-hating Anita’s troubles with herobsessive sisters, who have an annoying tendency to spendthe family’s food money on new books. The third and finalvolume ends with Michelle announcing that they’ll beacting as bodyguards for an authorfrom Japan…

R.O.D. the TVEps. 1-26 (2004, Geneon)Nenene hasn’t been ableto write since Yomiko dis-appeared five years ago. InHong Kong for a book signing,Nenene hasn’t even reached herhotel room before it’s blown up by adisgruntled Chinese author furi-ous that his novel can’t getpublished. Her publisher hiresher three bodyguards—thePaper Sisters—who followher to Japan and move inwith her, while occasionallyworking for Dokusensha forbook money. Anita alsomeets a mysterious boy,

Junior, who can walk through walls andsecretly works for Joker!

After learning that Joker andDokusensha are working together,Nenene and the sisters track downthe missing Yomiko, who’s takenrefuge in the Japanese national

library along with the clone of NancyMakuhari. Years ago, Yomiko learnedthat Joker had taken Nancy’s baby(Junior, fathered by Ikkyu the I-Jin).The shock caused Yomiko’s powers togo out of control, destroying theBritish Library and Gentleman!

Back in the present, the sisterslearn that their pasts are a lie, as Maggieand Michelle were genetically created byDokusensha, while Anita was created bythe British Library! Joker moves forwardwith his plan, “Fahrenheit 451,” which

involves giving the Library completecontrol over world knowledge and

using the body of Junior to resurrectGentleman. 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’sa vegetable and Anita finds herselfloving books!

W riter Jon Gutierrez has readcountless books, and only diedtwice. Impressive, eh?

FOLD OR DIEMAKING ‘R.O.D.’ ORIGAMI IS EASIER THAN IT LOOKS!

The Paper Users know how tomake some pretty cool paper-crafts, and we figured you’d like tomake some too. So here’s oursuper easy lesson for makingMaggie’s robot from R.O.D. the TV !

1. Start with a square piece of paper.

2. Fold over one corner of thesquare; it should be about one inchfrom the opposite corner.

3. Fold into a robot. Adddesigns with a black felt tippen. n Robert Bricken

SISTER ACT The Paper Sisters (clockwisefrom lower left, Michelle, Anita and Maggie) protect Nenene (lower right).

Read or Dream© Hideyuki Kurata. © Ran Ayanaga. © Studio Orphee / Aniplex. R.O.D. the TV© Studio Orphee / Aniplex.

MATRIX-CIDE In one of the many wackyDream stories, Michelle writes a book whereAnita is assaulted by Matrix -esque Maggies.

MY LIFEIS PAIN.

JOKER & NENENE