Yomiko Readman is our main character and I fell in love with her. Her personality is mostly ditsy and sheltered but her good heart shows through everything she does. They drew her to a point where I could feel her love of the books she fights to protect as well as the hope to protect the people who are around her. The only thing I kind of had a problem with was that for most of the book series, she really didn’t seem to grow as a character or have any sort of change. We did see a little of her background and why she works so hard to do what she does but other then that, most of her growth is much later on. Still, I am very very glad that I kept reading as it was worth going through that slow curve.
The only other character they really dove into much was a famous author named Nenene Sumiregawa… Yes, that really was her name. It makes me understand why her pen name was just Paul S. Anyway, she is a interesting supporting character though doesn’t feel like she had any reason being there after the first book. I hear she had a lot more in the spin off sequel Read or Dream but I feel like she was lacking here.
So I come to a little bit of a problem here, the question on if the OVA was better then the Manga seeing as the stories are so different. I liked what I saw of the OVA so that was why I bought the Manga series and yet, I felt let down when I read the first book and found how so different it was. I feel like I like them both for different reasons but consider it two different universes. There are the OVA, and then there is the Manga. It’s so hard to explain without spoiling either one sadly to explain just how much it’s different.
The artwork is very good with a lot of detail. There are times that things are created with thousands of sheets of paper so I am amazed with the creativity that they set up to actually look textured. Most of the characters were very recognizable and stood out well against the other characters except for Nenene who I kept getting confused with another girl in the second part of the series. They just looked so similar that it kept getting me confused especially since they seemed to have the same tone of hair.
Overall, I think R.O.D. is a pretty decent manga series. It holds up on its own without the OVA or TV series. In fact, I would say you should probably read this before the OVA and TV series or just forget about them for a moment as you read this. It will only confuse you more if you don’t.
