Read or Die!

So I finally finished watching the anime "R.O.D: The tv", which I borrowed off lizbyrd ages ago. When I started I was going though it quite quickly at a few episodes at a time while it was all low-key domestic silliness, but around halfway through it suddenly started having a cliffhanger at the end of every episode and I decided to wait until I had 3 or so hours free in a row to watch the rest in one go.

I have rather mixed feelings, all up. On the on hand, it's about a bunch of strong female characters saving the world with their love of books and power over paper, which, just.....awesome. The women do tend to all have the traditional revealing outfits and giant boobs (although one actually has a stocky boyish figure. I think that has to be a first) but other than that their gender has little to nothing to do with their place in the story(*). The characters are well drawn and engaging, and the plot is exciting and dramatic.

But...it is completely ridiculous. I can suspend my disbelief to telekinetic power over paper, and the world secretly being run by libraries and publishing houses who vie for power via special books. But some of the later developments in this series, and pretty much all of the OAV, stretched it to breaking point with the overwhelming silliness (played straight, with lots of Drama). The abrupt endings to both further give me the impression that the plots and worldbuilding existed mainly to create tension and cool scenes rather than being anything you were supposed to engage with or care about.

Still, the booknerd in me is happy with a story that finally gives books and booknerds their proper respect, and at least the characters weren't messed about with too much. I can see that being even more effective in the story's original form as actual books.

(*)If you can't see why this is a huge plus you haven't watched enough anime.