read or die (oav)

another anime review. this piece is a strait-forward action movie without any depth to it. if you have another anime you want to watch, go for it and forget about rod, but it’s great fun if you want to relax a bit after watching some heavy stuff – if you don’t have ‘ninja scroll’ or some hentai around (yes szilard, i know you always have home hentai around :p). i watched it after ‘now and then, here and there’ and ‘kakurenbo’ and i found it very pleasant.

it’s basically an old-school spy movie, where a small taskforce of ‘special’ agents takes on some supervillain with outrageous powers and a plan to take over the world, while the entire army proves useless. it slightly reminds me of the avengers movie (the one with sean connery; i haven’t seen the old series); even the boss is an english gentleman who, while saving the world, still has time to enjoy his 5 o’clock tea. the music also bears resemblance to the soundtrack of old spy movies.

my favorite character is miss deep, not because of her large boobs, but because her face, hairstyle and attitude remind me of faye valentine, while her movements and clothing resemble those of makoto kusanagi. at some point she is even sent to a hospital suffering from amnesia (like faye valentine!) and she is shown sitting on a bench trying, but not succeeding, to fold paper animals (like kusanagi in the sac2 flashbacks!). of course she also reminds me of kitty pride, and while she is far from being my favorite x-men, she still has a special place in my heart as the first ever x-men story i’ve read was the one with kitty traveling to japan to find her father – it was featured in some spiderman issues (prof charles taught all the x-men telepathically to speak fluent japanese, why can’t this happen to me? ;p )

i love the part when the american president freaks out, wets himself and has to be restrained by his bodyguards not to launch the nuclear attack.

the anime is bloodless and there is very little violence, so it might be suited for younger viewers. it also has a lot of comic relief moments. if you like your action anime more gory and serious, but still enjoy the supernatural, then you should stick to ‘ninja scroll’ or ‘blood the last vampire’ (jubei: “all right, it hurts! we’re even now. stop! if we keep this up one of us will get killed!” tesai: “yes, one of us…” :)) )