R.O.D: Read or Die EP1 - Volume 1

Yomiko Readman, known as "The Paper", is a superhuman agent of the Library's Special Operations. The OVA based on the Read or Die manga series created by Hideyuki Kurata was created by Studio Deen in early 2001 and distributed outside Japan by Manga Entertainment in 2003. The series, directed by Koji Masunari, features the main characters of the original manga such as Yomiko Readman and Joker. It is a continuation of the 'Read or Die' storyline, taking place a few years after the events of the manga. 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 Death 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 Soujon. 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.