Anime Babble: Read or Die

So I was sick this past week (no I'm not making excuses, damnit. I'm using this as means of introduction). I don't know about you, but when I feel sick and miserable and brain dead, I like to sit and watch something that doesn't really require much in the line of thought. A friend of mine recently directed me to the anime series 'Read or Die' and this ended up being the brain-dead story I chose to watch.

Big mistake.

As it turns out, the series actually sparked my mind and sent it flying in all kinds of directions. Granted this is me and I'm an over-thinker but I finished it yesterday and 24 hours later, my mind is still working overtime. So clearly it gave a lot more than I was expecting.

I usually like structure with posts and I can't really do that here. Also this more a "I seriously need to share this and get it out of my system" post than a review. So I'm just going to babble and we'll see where it goes. FYI I'm going to be referring to the original video animation (OVA) and the series as the same thing since that's how I watched it. Oh, and another reason for the lack of structure is the whole being sick thing... I don't whether I sleep longer than I'm awake, but if not, I'm always half asleep and drugged out of my mind. (So this is probably the best place to apologize for any language issues in this post. If anything is unclear, point it out and I'll fix it, but I can't say I'm really thinking clearly in any language at the moment and a warning should probably be made about it.)

So what's it about?

It an alternate history where knowledge is absolutely everything, the world is run by large Libraries (think more government agencies than book-nerds with paper cuts) - each moving powerfully to achieve their agendas for a better future at the expense of the common man. Caught in the maelstrom are six women, each extremely capable in skills sought after. It'll be up to them to face conflict from all sides in hopes of saving those they love, righting their own wrongs, and bringing to heel those who seek to destroy everyone for the gain of few.

Sounds pretty epic, doesn't it?

The OVA basically lays down the groundwork by introducing you to Yomiko Readman, a constantly distracted bibliomaniac with a powerful ability to shape paper into whatever she wants to. It exposes you to the British Library and the background of some of the characters who continue on in the series. The series takes place several years after the OVA's events and brings in three sisters, each specialising in their own form of paper mastery. Together are assigned the task of looking after a extraordinary author who everybody (assassins, agents, crazy fans) seems to want a piece of.

I can't talk much about what I didn't like. Because honestly, my biggest disappointment was running out of episodes. I'm still sulking.

I don't believe the series is for everyone. For one thing, it is extremely female-dominated with hints of same-sex interests - none of which are ever confirmed; the orientation of virtually all the characters are (purposefully?) left obscure. The story revolves around strong relationships (friendship and familial) more so than the events surrounding them. It is definitely character-driven and the moments where the circumstances are emphasised more than the relationships, the story actually begins to drag.

The things that made me go hmm...

Characters

By now, you should know that I'm a sucker for good characters. So obviously that's the thing that struck me the most of this story. I'm not going to go into each and every character. They are all pretty interesting and the bonds between them are fun to explore. I'm specifically going to focus only on three of them as they are the ones who made the biggest impression on me.

And they are called The Paper Sisters.

Michelle Cheung, Maggie Mui, Anita King are three non-biological sisters who have their own detective agency and are hired as body guards of Nenene Sumiragawa - the author who everyone loves and hates and wants to use.

Michelle (25), the eldest and often the leader of the three, is cheerful, ditzy and (like Maggie) an extreme bibliophile. In moments of conflict she is often able to keep a calm, almost detached, attitude and as a paper user primarily fights from a distance.

Maggie (20) is tall, reserved and easily embarrassed. As middle child, she looks up to Michelle while always keeping an eye on Anita. She is extremely protective of her sisters and doesn't hesitate to step into danger if it keeps them safe. She is considered the strongest Paper sister and uses her ability primarily to defend others.

Anita (13) is small, fierce and outspoken. Extremely agile, she uses paper in close combat along with martial arts. She dislikes books (which is uncommon for a paper user) and seems to enjoy being contrary and difficult.

Personality reflected in action
I found it fascinating to see the personality of the character reflected in the actions taking in their daily lives as well how they manifest when using paper abilities. You have the spitfire who is amazing at close-quarters combat, the collected leader firing at her targets with precision, the strong guardienne who always manages to shield the others. It really made me re-examine this dynamic of personality vs behaviour; looking at characters in other stories as well as people in real life.

Weakness/Strength/Unity

Reading the descriptions, you'll note how these three complement each other perfectly. Each weakness is balanced out by a strength be it in terms of personality, behaviour or ability. And, obviously such diversity brings conflict, it is still noteworthy how that very same diversity brings balance and unity. Most of us would say "Sure, nifty, but in real life it's not going to work that way." and probably it won't. However, a strong case is made and I can't say that what was presented was particularly one-sided. Nothing was perfect, left unquestioned or uncontested. It was really insightful to watch that play out.

Relationship/Family

What struck me the most was that the three really embodied the idea of family - which is particularly powerful considering they're a self-made unit. It's always said that blood is thicker than water, but in this story the bonds of the three are really tested and it's quite extraodinary to see how they deal with these challenges. They are broken and separated quite a few times and the ache produced by these moments of isolation is actually something I would easily compare to a 'natural' family unit disintegrating. And being able to provoke such an emotional response is quite noteworthy.

Maggie

I cannot begin to express how stuck I am on this character. She's going to haunt me for ages to come, I just know it. I could write paragraphs as to why. Instead, I'll note how awesome it is when you watch something and a character just sticks. When multiple aspects of a character just fuses into your mind so powerfully that you'll always carry them with you. For me it's Honor Harrington, Elphaba in Wicked, Tara in Buffy, Fred in Angel, Book in Firefly, Shepard and Tali in Mass Effect, Adam in Being Erica, Brienne in Game of Thrones, and Maggie in Read or Die.

So how do I end this off?

I watched this series in four days hoping for brainless entertainment and walking away with a lot more. It's worth noting not because it's an amazing series that everyone will love and adore. I think it's worth documenting simply because it struck at the heart of this blogger and I think everyone recognizes how rarely we are truly moved by what we see/hear/read and pushed towards asking any type of question regardless of what it is.

Such moments are always worth the time to note.

Babble: Marvel's The Avengers

Wow, where to begin?

If you’ve been watching the Marvel movies, you’ll know that Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) has been busy behind the scenes (mostly behind the credits) to assemble heroes for a special team. The time has come that these heroes band together to take on something none of them can fight alone: Loki and hordes of creatures that I’m not comic book geeky enough to know.

As I said above, I am not a comic book geek. I think that mostly was due to the fact that I was never really exposed to them and then I moved to this geek wasteland… and yeah. But I followed the mainstream stuff. I knew who Iron Man was and the Incredible Hulk. I had no clue who Thor was until the recent movie (I knew there was a comic about Thor, but nothing beyond that). And of course, who could not know about Captain America? I still remember a platform game with him throwing his shield all around the place. As for the Avengers… I knew the name, knew it was kinda like the Justice League Marvel style but nothing beyond that.

I was excited about this movie though (Ooh! I have another thing to add to my 100 things list!). And the reason I was excited was that Joss Whedon was going to run the show. That instantly made Marvel’s The Avengers a must-see movie for me.

At the same time I was sceptical. There would be so many obstacles to climb over in a movie like this. I didn’t really know whether one could actually make a hit from it. Let’s just have a look:

• You have six Avengers, four of which are power houses with their own fan base. I don’t know how popular Hawk Eye and Black Widow are… I didn’t know about them at all, but anyway. So for each of the Avengers, you’ll need to give a particular amount of time depending on how the story is shaped. Seeing as this movie was about assembling the Avengers for the first time, and not about only one particular Avenger, one would think that all of them would get close to the same time.

• The story would need to touch on the movies made before. With Iron Man you have to have Pepper there; with Thor there has to be some reference of his separation from Jane; with Captain America you have to make sure everyone knows he wasn’t smart enough to turn his plane around.

• You have a cast of established actors – some of which aren’t even part of the Avengers – whom each need their face time
  

• Being a Marvel movie, the story needs to be action packed and entertaining while also taking all of the points above into account.

That’s one massive challenge.

I’d like to think Joss and his crew kicked ass and did it in style. He made the Avengers three dimensional, each with personal issues, their own way of thinking and talking which are unique to each them. They’re all flawed, as they should be, but without melodrama. No one was left behind in terms of character progression and that in itself is one helluva feat.

The story was engaging. I did feel that it they started it off slow – which was actually necessary given the amount of exposition they had to do – but the end was also really fast. There were some things that just ‘worked’ too quickly but then the movie was already over two hours long and taking ten minutes to establish one particular moment would have been a waste of time that they didn’t have.

The movie had a great deal of visual effects – some breath taking, others hardly noticeable and then a LOT of flying monsters.

In the end, all I really cared about was the characters and Joss knows how to take care of his characters. Well, those he doesn’t kill off. He is Joss after all. I loved what they did with the Thor-Loki arc. While not my ‘favourite’ hero (although, sjoe! He’s yummy! Ahem…) Joss really did something special with the two brothers. I also absolutely loved the Hulk’s “puny god” moment with Loki – a Joss special if ever there was one. It was very cartoony, but I was laughing so hard I couldn’t care.

Funny, action-packed, engaging and incredibly entertaining – Joss managed to make something unique and exciting. He has definitely set a really good stage for future sequels. I just hope the next writer/director doesn’t mess it up.

I’m definitely buying this one when it comes out on dvd.

A shout out for Lisa Lassack who was involved with editing the movie. I was so happy to see her in the credits. She’s the fifth geek of the Geekson crew and she’s awesome.