Cartoonopia

Genre: Action|Drama|Mystery
Year: 2003
Format: TV Series
Runtime: 25 minutes x 26 episodes

In the previous articles i made back then on the historic Cartoonopia site, i had the opportunity to review an anime called "Read or Die". It's an OVA (Original Video Animation) with 3 episodes fortelling the adventures of Yomiko Readman, a young lady with an ability to manipulate paper. With her sparring partners Nancy Makuhari or simply codenamed "Ms. Deep" and Mr. Drake Anderson, they tried to save the world from the evil plans of the I-jins.

In relation to that OVA, a TV series was spawned from this concept and was named "Read or Dream", also known as R.O.D. the TV. The story revolves around 3 sisters namely Michelle, the eldest sister, a blonde girl that seems like a very happy-go-lucky type of person... always smiling and always jolly. Maggie, a shy type person, strong and freakishly tall... second eldest among the three who likes to spend time on very small spaces. And Anita, the youngest sister who unlike her two sisters, hates books... but there's a reason why she despise books a lot.

In connection to the OVA series, the sisters gets involved to an author named Nenene Sumiregawa (talk about weird names) which is a very close friend and mentor to Yomiko Readman, whom at that time, Yomiko is missing and Nenene is in deep search for this person. The series' storyline timeframe exists 6 years after the OVA, so there's a lot of thing to know about on what happens after the events in the OVA. That would somehow tell that in order to appreciate the essence of the TV series, you have to see the OVA first... but the TV series can be independent by itself, it's just the character relationship would be much obvious and clear if you've seen the 3 part OVA. This is a more dramatic approach rather than action packed series, but you'll have both pleasures like in the 3-part series, so it's likely you'll enjoy it.

Created under the production of Aniplex, J.C. Staff, and Studio Orfe, with the astonishing music of Taku Iwasaki that ressembles of a 007's type of orchestration with the modern beat, delivered a 26 part masterpiece to the small screen in 2003.

Posted by Bibingkimiming on Wednesday, September 06, 2006 at Wednesday, September 06, 2006 | Permalink