Interest

New Read or Die Manga's Darker Side Story Outlined

The Mainichi Shimbun newspaper's Mantan Web site gives more details about the R.O.D. Rehabilitation manga that will launch in the third issue of Shueisha's new Super Dash & Go! magazine on Saturday. As the magazine's editors had previously revealed, the manga features an eyeglasses-wearing Yomiko, but "she is not the Yomiko" from the previous Read or Die light novel series, manga, and various anime projects.

The new manga is a side story that is much darker than the Read or Die stories that came before it. It is set in a world where the death of books has been declared after the last printing press shuts down. However, there are bibliophiles who have rejected this era and have established a city state of their own called "Bibliopolis." The heroine is named Yomiko, but with different kanji (読魅子) in her name and a darker side.

The magazine will publish an interview with Hideyuki Kurata, the author of the original light novel series and the story creator of the new manga. In the interview, he explains that the previous Yomiko was a character made with the positive face of bibliophiles. However, the new Yomiko is the polar opposite and the dark side of the former.