Read or Die is one of those anime which i could say, any action anime fanatic shouldn't dare miss. Just by watching the anime's cool opening theme and listening to its soundtrack's "secret agent" kind of vibe really gives you the feeling you're in for some real good action.


The story revolves around Yomiko Readman, an agent of the British Library - a seemingly perfect front - in which Britain's top secret Special Operations Division, yep, you guessed it right, a spy/secret agent network that works on classified cases of terrorism and the unnatural (e.g. books that yield the power to world domination. what?!?) lies hidden. Yomiko is not your regular "James Bond" kind of secret agent though. She is practically the opposite. A childish, rather clumsy, stroller-toting, four-eyes bibliomaniac who works as a substitute teacher by day. But just like a secret agent, they all have that everyday "regular person" facade.  Yomiko is a half-English, half- Japanese paper master and is one of the Empire's best agents. Being a paper master she has the power to control and influence paper and use it as weapons and tools of sorts. With that power she was given the codename "The Paper". 


In this particular OVA (Original Video Animation) Yomiko and other British Library agents were tasked to protect a certain book and destroy a bunch of insurgents who call themselves, I-Jin and are after the book which apparently holds the power to mankind's destruction. The I-jin are technically clones of certain historical figures who have acquired super powers and technology based on their occupations in history.



Although story-wise the OVA might leave you hanging on some details especially if you haven't read its manga yet. Its because the stories on each media (OVA, manga and TV series) the Read or Die series is published upon are loosely based on each other. That is, the characters and their connections on each other and the original plot of the British Library as a world superpower hiring super-spies against book-related terrorism are mostly the constant stuff in the entire series. But all-in-all, this is one really action-packed, three-episode OVA you wouldn't want to miss.