After years of writers block, Nenene finally begins to write again… perhaps the Paper Sisters are more then just an annoyance, after all. Meanwhile, Anita makes great friends at school including the enigmatic Junior, as the Paper Sisters continue to track down rare books on behalf of Dokusensha.

The second DVD contains four Episodes:

Episode Five: They shout – The Paper Sisters have invaded a seemingly impenetrable fortress of a man that can control sounds waves to recover a stolen book. However, there is turmoil among the Paper Sisters, will they be able to pull together as a team, or will they be ripped apart?

Episode Six: The Right Stuff – Anita has to struggle with the idea of bringing her sisters to the schools parent’s day. Junior continues to look for a rare book on the behalf of Mr. Carpenter what are his plans for the book and for Junior? Dark memories from Anita’s past and her annoyance of books are discovered, are the events some how related?

Episode Seven: In A Grove – Mr. Kim has sent the paper sisters to recover another rare title. While attempting to find a Mr. John Smith the paper sisters have been separated in a strange town, which appears to be under the manipulation of Mr. Smith, what horrors lie in wait for the three sisters?

Episode Eight: Seduced by the Night – Anita and her classmates are spending the night at the school library to investigate a mysterious ransacking of the books in the library on a nightly basis. What of the Joker and the Dokusensha working together, what are their motives for attempting to “install” intelligence into people? What are their fiendish plans?

The Read or Die series continues to grow on me, from the moment I first watched the OVA series up until the point I was introduced to The TV Series. My only regret is I’ve yet to read the manga. As for the second installment of the Red or Die – The TV series, the second disc continues introduces us to other mysterious paper users, the Paper Sisters. A group of young women that have the same powers as Yamiko Readman (a character from the OVA series). Their powers allow them to manipulate paper products to use as everything from clothing to weapons. The paper sisters are called upon to protect Nenene Sumiregawa, they are also, on occasion called upon to recover rare books for the Dokusensha. The second disc is yet another chapter in the ongoing story of the Read or Die TV series.

The in similar fashion as the first “Read or Die – The TV” DVD, the second disc features 2.0 Dolby Japanese Audio and 5.1 Dolby Digital English and Japanese Audio with two English subtitle streams (Dialog translation and signs only). The Audio for this Disc, the word amazing isn't good enough to describe it. From the opening theme song, to the effects, right down to the characters dialog it was perfect, crisp, clear. The aforementioned description can be used for the video quality of this disc, to put it simply, perfect.

The special features for this DVD are nothing short of amazing, and I am glad to see they’re offering the same features found in the first disc and not cheating the viewer out of some pleasant bonuses. Read Or Die has everything to do with paper and books, the menu screens follow this setup, from the main menu where you choose to play the disc, to selecting the special features, takes the look of a table of contents in a book. When browsing into the submenus, more of the book theme continues, for example being in the special features section, an appearance of books being laid out on a shelf.

As for the special features, the first DVD contains a varied selection of fan pleasing features, the first such feature being the Japanese trailers for the first four episodes in the series, follow by, by far my favorite feature and is not seen enough in anime DVD releases, is an audio commentary by the English voice actors for the Read or Die series. The remaining features include a conceptual art display of the characters; with some of the art work is an included director commentary on why the particular choices were made for the characters. Lastly, trailers for upcoming releases from Geneon.

Read Or Die - The TV is a promising series that offers a great story, with development between the characters and their environments, with a high pace action story thrown in for good measures. After watching the audio commentary, I notice additional things about the series that can be overlooked, examples being the level of detail given to the environments, whether it’s Nenene’s apartment, or the streets of Japan or Hong Kong. A nice touch, in which the crew that brought this series to light deserves credit for is the characters themselves, in other series, the characters pretty much wear the same clothes, however, in R.O.D TV, the character clothing changes with the times, from normal day wear, to combat clothing, etc. For those who are fans of the original Read Or Die OVA and the Manga, then this would be a good series to jump into, it’s a great story with great characters this series is a must have for you collection. For those looking for something new, then definitely get out there and rent this one.

Animation: 9 / 10
Story: 9 / 10
Audio: 9 / 10
Video: 9 / 10
Extras: 10 / 10
Impact Rating: 8 / 10

Overall Rating 54 / 60

by Matt Capranos