Yomiko Readman
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| Yomiko Readman | |
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| Read or Die character | |
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| Voiced by | Rieko Miura (Japanese) Kimberly Yates (OAV, English) Helena Taylor (TV, English) |
| Profile | |
| Aliases | The Paper |
| Age | 25 (OVA) 30 (ROD the TV) |
| Occupation | Manga & OVA: Papermaster for the British Library Special Forces Division; Substitute Teacher ROD the TV: "Retired" |
Yomiko Readman (読子・リードマン Yomiko Rīdoman?), also known as "The Paper," is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the Japanese novel series Read or Die and the manga and anime spin-offs of the books. She is also a major player (but not the main protagonist) in the sequel, R.O.D the TV. Yomiko is half-Japanese, half-English.
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[edit] Etymology
Yomi in her first name means reading in Japanese, while -ko (literally 'child') is a common suffix in Japanese female names; so her first name means Reading-woman, which has the same meaning as her surname Readman if neglecting gender differences.
[edit] Background
Yomiko is a bespectacled substitute teacher and an introvert. A bibliomaniac, she prefers to bury herself in her books. She spends almost all of her income on books, and she lives in an apartment that is entirely stacked floor to ceiling with books. She resides somewhere in Jinbōchō, a neighborhood of Chiyoda, Tokyo known for its large amount of used bookstores.
She is also a secret field agent for the British Library. She is a Papermaster, a person with the ability to bend paper material to her will. She can make paper bulletproof or sharper than the sharpest sword. If she has enough paper, then she can construct a giant paper airplane that flies. The only limit to the effects she can create is her own imagination. It seems that she must have in her grasp of at least hands, teeth, or perhaps some other body part at least one piece of paper in order to use her powers, though eventually by the time of R.O.D the TV she appears to be able to manipulate paper by pure mental control.
Yomiko's code name for the British Library is "The Paper" (sometimes in English dubs, "Agent Paper" or "Miss Paper"), and she is the 19th person to serve the Library in this capacity. Yomiko often embarks on dangerous missions assigned by her director, codenamed "Mr. Joker." Because of her social awkwardness and occasional clumsiness, she would not seem to make a very good secret agent, and many times she allows her emotions to get in the way of defeating an enemy. However, if receiving the proper support (she is often paired with focused, effective agents like American mercenary Drake Anderson), she can actually be quite useful, with ninja-like reflexes and sharp wits in combat. She is considered one of the Library's top agents.
[edit] Donnie Nakajima
Though Yomiko appears to be a cheerful, book-loving, happy young woman many times, she has dark elements of her past. According to the Read or Die manga, her paper talents were refined by her teacher Donnie Nakajima, a Japanese librarian who secretly worked for the British Library as the 18th "Agent Paper" in their special "D-Line" forces. As their meetings for Yomiko's training to become a papermaster went on, their relationship gradually increased. After a while or so the two book-lovers became lovers, and more than often expressed their affections for each other by talking about books and themselves, for they were both obsessive bibliophiles. They were considered by many around them to be a true, loving couple.
Yomiko apparently was forced to kill her mentor to become the true "Paper" on the night of a great fire in the British Library. After his death, Yomiko took Donnie's thick-rimmed glasses in tears and replaced her own with them, stating that so whenever she reads, "he can read too."
Years later, while at a local bookfair in London (possibly the famous London Bookfair), Yomiko received a mysterious letter from Donnie, whom she thought was dead, from an unknown source. Immediately she rushed to find him, believing such things to be too good to be true. But when traveling to a rather bizarre school known as the Manshu Academy, Yomiko cried with happiness as she discovered her long-lost lover and mentor, Donnie, to be alive. Though their meeting was brief, Donnie told Yomiko about his 'death' and that it was not her fault, for it was planned.
Volume Three of the manga reveals that this Donnie was really Ridley Wan, an old friend of Donnie's in disguise, wanting revenge on Yomiko for killing his dear friend. Ridley Wan was also a paper master who had been trained by the British Library with Donnie since they were in their teens, and had been posing as Donnie in order to use Yomiko to summon the "Underground Library" hidden in the Academy, which contained the "Book of Truth." This book was also sought after by Joker, who had sent Yomiko to retrieve the book for him.
The "real" Donnie had actually died by Yomiko's hand after attacking her, where Yomiko was forced to defend herself. The previous scenes of his death, since seen through Ridley's eyes, were therefore invalid. The night of the fire Donnie had actually arranged for members of the Chinese counterpart to the British Library, Dokusensha (translated as "Hermit Reader's Guild" in the English manga) to take in himself, Yomiko and Ridley after learning of Joker's sinister plans for the Book of Truth. Unfortunately only Ridley was rescued from the flames while Yomiko stayed with the library.
The manga ends notably differently than the anime series, so it's unclear how much of this should be considered canon for the anime. However, a few references are made to Donnie in R.O.D the TV: Yomiko has a shrine for the dead in his memory, and he is mentioned very briefly by Joker to provoke Yomiko. According to Joker, Donnie did in fact survive Yomiko's attack, but when he showed Donnie's current self to Yomiko (Donnie is not seen on screen, only Yomiko's reaction), she snapped and her paper powers ran amok, causing the fire that destroyed the entire library. Donnie's exact fate at the end of the TV series is unknown.
[edit] Read or Die OVA
In the OVA, Yomiko goes into debt to buy a rare copy of a book called "die Unsterbliche Liebe" or "Immortal Beloved". The book is dusty and dirty, but has sheet music handwritten in its pages, in the margins and on the blank pages in the back and front. Almost immediately she is attacked by a super-human-like clone of Jean Henri Fabre. He tries to steal her book, but using her paper techniques she fights back and wins. Various superpowered clones or I-Jin of famous historical figures try to steal her book throughout the OVA. They are trying to use the sheet music in the book to reconstruct Ludwig van Beethoven's supposedly lost "Suicide Symphony," which causes anyone who hears it to commit suicide. Eventually, Yomiko, with the assistance of her friends Nancy Makuhari and Drake Anderson, helps in destroying the leader of the plot, a clone of Zen poet Ikkyu Soujun. Yomiko loses her friend Nancy in the conflict and, heartbroken, vows to take care of Nancy's "younger sister," her clone, who has suffered brain damage during the events of the I-Jin incident.
[edit] R.O.D the TV
At the beginning of R.O.D the TV, Yomiko is missing in action, though she is referred to frequently from the first episode on. Novelist Nenene Sumiregawa, a close friend of Yomiko's (we see Nenene's notes to Yomiko in the OVA), has been looking for Yomiko for five years, and she is so distraught by her disappearance she has suffered a livelihood-crippling case of writer's block. Through Nenene's search, she meets the "Paper Sisters": Michelle Cheung, Maggie Mui, and Anita King and is surprised at their Paper Mastery, though is disappointed to discover none of them have heard of Yomiko. Nenene's adventures with the Paper Sisters eventually leads them to find Yomiko hiding in a secret apartment in the National Diet Library along with Nancy the Younger, and Yomiko and Nancy join the group in unearthing the sinister plots being hatched by the British Library and Dokusensha. Yomiko has been in hiding due to some rather drastic actions she took in order to protect Nancy from the British Library--in turn, the outing of these events inadvertently provide several revelations related to the past of young Papermaster Anita King. Yomiko struggles through the series to rebuild her friendship with Nenene, continue to protect Nancy, and set things right with Anita (in between trying to save the world, of course).
[edit] External links
- Official English R.O.D the TV site
- R.O.D -THE TV- Official site (Japanese)
- Read or Die Wiki: an English language wiki designed to cover all aspects of the Read or Die universe
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