Read or Die/Characters
Characters from the Read or Die anime/manga metaseries.
Major Characters
Yomiko Readman
A half-Japanese, half-British bookworm and Paper Master, able to telekinetically manipulate paper objects into many useful products.
Appears in: OVA, Read or Die manga, TV series
Voiced by: Rieko Miura (JP), Kimberly Yates (EN) in Read or Die, Helena Taylor (EN) in R.O.D the TV
Tropes associated with Yomiko:
- Adorkable
- Adult Child
- Badass Adorable: "Please give me my book back"
- Badass Bookworm: Again, "Please give me my book back"
- Badass Longcoat: She might not seem like this at first glance, as she fills the coat with paperbacks, magazines, and other forms of reading material. Then you remember that as a Paper Master, this is the equivalent of Neo's trenchcoat full of guns.
- Beware the Nice Ones: Off work, a homely yet nice teacher with a love of books. On the job, one of the more deadly agents around.
- And God help you and all your kin should you manage to genuinely enrage her.
- Bunny Ears Lawyer: She's extremely eccentric but her quirks are tolerated because of her undeniable talent.
- Christmas Cake: She's 25 in the OVA, 30 by the time of R.O.D the TV
- Cute Clumsy Girl: Not as bad as Wendy though she can be distracted easily.
- Dork Knight
- Hot Librarian
- I'm Taking Her Home with Me: The reaction she usually provokes in fans of both sexes.
- Kawaiiko
- Meganekko: Considered in some corners to be Queen of the Meganekko.
- The Messiah
- Moe
- Nerds Are Sexy
- Nice Girl
- Paper Master: The Trope Namer.
- Sobriquet: The Paper. Gee, British Library didn't put much thought into this one, did they?
- Of course not. She's the nineteenth person to be assigned that code name.
- Wide-Eyed Idealist
Nancy Makuhari
An agent for the British Library who works alongside Yomiko. She possesses the ability to phase through solid objects at will. She is also an I-Jin, a clone of historical superspy Mata Hari.
Appears in: OVA, TV series.
Voiced by: Michiko Neya (JP), Amanda Winn-Lee (EN) in Read or Die, Carrie Savage (EN) in R.O.D the TV
Tropes associated with Nancy:
- Action Mom: Mother to Junior in the TV series. However, the British Library took him away from her.
- Cloning Blues
- Intangible Woman: Her superpower.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: The second clone of her develops this and ironically forms an attachment to Yomiko.
- Mirror Match: Fights the "evil" clone of her in the OVA.
- The Mole
- Sobriquet: Miss Deep (which she doesn't care for).
- Woolseyism: In the original Japanese, she complains she doesn't like her codename because it isn't cute. In the dub, she complains she doesn't like her codename because it makes her sound like a porn star.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Ikkyu clones another Nancy and tries to kill the original when he realizes she developed an attachment to Yomiko.
Drake Anderson
An American soldier assigned to work with Yomiko and Nancy.
Appears in: OVA, TV series
- Badass Normal: He's fought Paper Masters and lived to tell the tale.
- Born Unlucky: According to himself.
- Combat Pragmatist: A big part of his Badass Normal-itude.
- Consummate Professional
- Eagle Land: Flavour 1 - He's gruff and unapproachable, but he's loyal to a fault, and a thoroughly decent human being underneath it all.
- Good Is Not Nice: He's a very scary man if you don't know him. If you do you know he's really just a big grouchy teddy-bear.
- Papa Wolf: A family man, loves his daughter She his reason for helping Yomiko against Joker in the TV series
- Phenotype Stereotype: Blonde, blue-eyed, built like a slab of pure muscle.
- Unfazed Everyman: The only operative who doesn't have any powers and bemoans the fact he has to work with and against those that do.
Joseph Carpenter (Joker)
Acting head of the British Library.
Appears in: OVA, TV series
- Affably Evil: Though you won't realize it in the OVA.
- Big Bad
- Blond Guys Are Evil
- Evil Brit
- Smug Snake
- A Spot of Tea
- The Starscream: In the manga, scheming to usurp The Gentleman's position.
- Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Between the OVA, where he's on the side of the good guys, and the TV series, the death of Gentleman shifts Joker into Well-Intentioned Extremist territory, working toward what he sees as Gentleman's dream by means ranging from ethically dubious to outright evil.
Wendy Earhart
Joe Carpenter's right-hand woman.
Appears in: OVA, TV series
- Cute Clumsy Girl: In spades in the OVA.
- Dark-Skinned Blond
- The Dragon: To Joker.
- Face Heel Turn: Joins Joker's plan in the TV Series.
- Love Makes You Evil
- Took a Level in Badass: Definitely not as nice as she was in the OVA.
The Paper Sisters (Michelle Cheung/Chan, Maggie Mui, and Anita King)
A trio of siblings from Hong Kong who, like Yomiko, are Paper Masters. Anita, the youngest one, does not possess the same love of books that Michelle and Maggie do. In fact, she hates them.
Appear in: Read or Dream manga, TV series
- Badass Bookworm: Michelle and Maggie.
- Bratty Half-Pint: Anita.
- The Ditz: Michelle.
- Paper Master
- Personality Powers: Despite all three sisters using paper, each uses a perffered combat for it. Anita mostly fashions her papers into handheld weapons for close range combat. Michelle is mostly a longer range fighter fashioning her papers into a bow and arrow. And Maggie turns her paper into animal familiars, a mixture of both long and short range combat.
- Pretty Freeloaders
- The Quiet One: Maggie.
- Secret Project Refugee Family: In the TV series they're experimental by products part of Dokusensha to create their own paper masters.
- Shorttank: Anita. She's not very sensitive about her height, but she does have a shorter fuse than Michelle and Maggie.
- Shout-Out Theme Naming: Maggie Cheung, Michelle Yeoh and Anita Mui starred in the Hong Kong action film Heroic Trio
- Trademark Favorite Food: Anita loves her milk.
- Wise Beyond Their Years: Anita despite being the youngest is probably the most mature of the three. Having to keep the other two from blowing their budget on books.
Nenene Sumiregawa
A young, world-renowned author under the protection of the Paper Masters (Yomiko in the manga series, and then Michelle, Maggie and Anita in the TV series).
Appears in: Read or Die manga, TV series
- Badass Normal: Her older version in the TV series is hardly afraid of anything and she won't let anyone talk down to her.
- Les Yay: With Yomiko and Maggie.
- Meganekko
- Most Writers Are Writers
- Older and Wiser: TV series.
- Sacred First Kiss: Averted. In the manga she gives her first kiss (rather forcefully) to a surprised Yomiko (who she didn't even know at that point) because she needed some inspiration for a love scene she was writing. Compared to finishing the book, her first kiss wasn't that important to her.
- Teen Genius: Manga
Junior
A kid agent of the British Library And child of Nancy and Ikkyu from the OVA.
Appears in: TV series
- Contagious Powers: Gained from his mother
- Dude Looks Like a Lady: Michelle mistakes him to be a girl
- Heel Face Turn: After learning his past and being treated with kindness by Anita and Michelle, he turns against the British Library.
- Intangible Man
- Tyke Bomb: Was taken from Nancy to be "experimented" on and groomed to be the new host of The Gentleman.
- The Stoic
- White-Haired Pretty Boy
Supporting Cast
Lee Linho
First appeared as Nenene's fan and public promoter, he turns out to be a Dokushensha agent who want to make use of Nenene's writings. Though he didn't lied when he said he liked her work.
Appears in: TV series
- Eyes Always Shut
- Redemption Equals Death: He chose to distract the Dokushensha in their Collapsing Lair to let Nenene and others escape.
- The Mole
- Smoking Is Cool - One Last Smoke
Hisami Hisaishi
One of Anita's classmates and closest friends.
Appears in: Read or Dream manga, TV series
Natsume Nishizono
Another Anita's classmate. She has an elder sister, Haruhi who she likes to brags about and likes to offer her sister's books for free in her class.
Appears in: TV series
- Alpha Bitch: though everyone seems to like her
- Deadpan Snarker: Sometimes
- Genre Savvy
- Large Ham: She really goes OTT when talking about her big sister's novels
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sure sounds like an annoying class bully at first, but she just want to become friends with Anita, and she really didn't mind when Anita accidentally knocked her out over the head with a ball during a volleyball game.
Tohru Okahara
A boy from Anita's class, he often argues with her and appears to have some feelings for Hisami.
Appears in: Read or Dream manga, TV series
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold
- She's All Grown Up: Hisami said that she used to be taller than him
Mr. Kim
A Dokushensha agent who often seen followed by Sonny. He gives the paper sisters missions from the Dokushensha.
Appears in: TV series
- Badass: all three paper sisters working together can't beat him.
- Minion with an F In Evil
- The Mole: obviously
- Heel Face Revolving Door: he is seen working with The British Library later
Sonny Wong
A Dokushensha agent usually escorting Mr Kim and handing the payment to the paper sisters. Quoted to be the most powerful paper master seen by Nenene.
Appears in: TV series
- Artificial Human: Implied, given that Dokushensa were working to make their own Paper Masters...
- Complete Monster: He killed Alice after she and Drake had surrendered, for no reason at all other than he could
- Giant Mook
- Kick the Dog: when he killed Alice
- Made of Iron
- Rasputinian Death
The Gentleman
Founder of the British Library, a reality warper of enormous power.
Appears in: all incarnations
- The Man Behind the Man: Throughout history.
- Pieces of God: His body was divided into 5 books.
- Reality Warper
- Back to Read or Die