S. Worthen | Weblog

Last night, I confirmed my suspicion that I had seen part of the show that cliosfolly raved about a few months ago. Utarpa showed the first episode during the unannounced pre-show period, perhaps a year ago. Last night, however, they showed the entirety of Read or Die, all three episodes.

It really is a fun show, James Bond for book lovers, featuring a book-obsessed main character who, absorbed in her reading, can be entirely oblivious of the destruction taking place around her. She lives dysfunctionally, surrounded by more books than wallspace, and with notes everywhere to remind to her do tasks she will never remember to do, such as clean up. The main plot revolves around an evil mastermind's effective recreation of geniuses from throughout history, via DNA samples, which means the show can also play upon the viewer's knowledge of actual historical people without bothering to explain main of them.