So I’ve just watched through the first major exposition episode (it’s sorta flashbacky but not to the degree you want to skip it). I think that’s number 14 or so, so I’m a bit more than half way through the series. (Thanks to the friend that’s loaning it to me).
The original Read or Die was a crazy three part miniseries starring "The Paper" a female bibliophile with telekinetic powers of all things paper, or to you this series parlance a papermaster. The miniseries was full of fun superpowers creatively used, oddball characters, and terrific set pieces. It was also fairly nonsensical.
The T.V. series focuses on three new papermaster sisters and an author. While the whole series has a strong male fan-service vibe it passes the simple feminist test about having female characters that talk to each other about topics other than men. Book lovers should enjoy this series, although as with mini series it’s more one for historical references than League of Extraordinary Gentleman style literary refs.
My favorite characters were two of the sisters, Anita and Maggie. Anita is the kid, a brat that doesn’t really like reading, but one that typically is a pretty likable kid. I normally prefer series to be fairly adult focused, but this one handled the use of a kid character and school plot lines fairly well. They make a nice change of pace. My favorite is Maggie, the who is the strong, shy, silent, and perhaps a bit dim type. I do tend to like the female version of this type. I was also fond of Milly Thompson in Trigun, although happily Maggie rather different from her as well.
As to the larger plot. The episodic stories tend to vary between more domestic adventures and infiltrations/robberies. These all tend to make a fair amount of sense. The larger plot is still fairly silly but hangs together much better than the miniseries while also providing an explanation for what the heck was going on.
Their take on international relations isn’t plausible, even accepting the existence of magic. Well, aside from the fact that all the major players tend to be bastards. However, the battling forces in the TV show have more interesting agendas than just being crazy and threatening the world (a real problem in the miniseries). I will note some annoyance that the extremely high body count at one key moment is seeming to be a bit under played.
Recent Comments