An after school special on steroids

// Synopsis: Someone has been procuring rare books with mysterious properties in a plan for global domination. The Royal British Library dispatches agent Yomiko Readmon to intercept attempts at collecting further books and thwarting this nefarious scheme.

// Review: Read or Die? Extreme! The Royal British Library is the most powerful government agency in the world and gives orders to the US president? Are you kidding me? I thought the premise was completely ridiculous, but then I realized that I completely accept other anime with a loser teenager who has never had a date suddenly find about 50 hot girls jocking him. I stumbled across this 3 OVA series condensed into a movie at 4am on the Cartoon Network. Maybe partly because I was that bored to be watching tv that late, but this worked for me. If anything it was a nice change of pace from a lot of the anime I was watching.

/ Just as all male protagonists in anime suffer from being passive emasculate males, all female leads are invariably so sugary sweet and naive. Yomiko is no exception, but you’d think that the world’s last line of defense wouldn’t be so optimistic and trusting.

/ I give this title points for branching out from your run of the mill anime with mechs or harems. When I felt like it was teetering towards becoming campy, I was reeled back in with a betrayal or violent fight scene. The version I watched was dubbed and the voice acting was excellent.

// Wrap up: Excellent animation with very creative battle sequences. The fact that characters die help balance Yomiko being a naivete.

Entertainment rating: 3