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Okay, okay. I watched it all last night. Happy?
Heh. Finally wore you down. ^_^
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The British national Library has its own freakin' super-powered secret agents? (Hm. If Helen didn't already have her own copies of the series, I'd throw that into Warriors' World when I resume the game in a few weeks.)
It's just one of those weird things. I think it falls under the "don't examine this too closely" rule, for the most part.
On the other hand - it could indicate that superpowers are far more common in this world than otherwise would appear to be the case. It may be that there are as many metahumans in this world as there are in Warrior's World or the IST universe, but for some reason, the practice of donning outlandish costumes like a standard comic book world has just never taken root. Metahumans, no matter how powerful, just don't do that. (I know, I know, a couple of the villains in Read or Die have some pretty wild costumes, but they aren't of the "tights and cape" variety.)
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And is Drake some kind of really inobvious super, or is he just a damn good special ops type?
I don't know for sure. There may be details about him in the manga that were glossed over in the anime. Maybe we'll find out more about him in the next Read or Die series.
As a guess, I'd say he shows - indirectly - some pretty significant physical powers.
Episode 1 - He picks up and throws both The Paper and Miss Deep on that paper airplane off the top of the World Trade Center (yes, for those of you paying attention - THAT World Trade Center. The first episode was released a few months before 9-11...), and does it pretty casually, all things considered, giving them quite a boost. He's obviously got at least some kind of augmented strength, even if it's only low level. I bet he could pick up a VW beetle, at least.
Episode 3 - He survives a fall of what looks like several hundred meters. We don't see him land. And we don't know what he did to survive the fall. Somehow I doubt there was a big air mattress waiting for him down there. Maybe he caught a few pipes on his way down ALA Jackie Chan? If not, then he's just hellaciously tough. Either way, I think it points to him being some kind of physical adept. The bug kid derisively called him "techno-boy" at one point. That could be reference to all the gear he was carrying, but maybe he's a cyborg?
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And I lost track of leatherclad women at the end. Which one did what?
You'll probably catch this better on a second viewing, but I'll lay it out right here.
WARNING FOR ANYONE ELSE READING WHO HASN"T SEEN THE SERIES!!!
BIG, HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD!!!!
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Throughout episode 1 and almost all of episode 2, the Nancy Murakami, or "Miss Deep", that we see is the "original". She's the one who forms the friendship with Yomiko and such.
Note that during Episode 2, Joker is going over the satellite footage of the meeting between Genjo and the electricity wielding I-jin and notices during one of the satellite passes that there is a woman off to the side, partially hooded, who looks amazingly like Nancy. But Nancy is there with them at headquarters. It makes him curious, and he starts the process of digging into Nancy Murakami's past. Then hand that duty off to Wendy as events demand his attentions elsewhere. Wendy's research shows that "Nancy" is really an I-Jin who has taken over the original Nancy's identity (the information unfortunately comes a little too late). She's Mata Hari.
(For clarity sake, I'll continue to call her Nancy, even though her real name is Mata Hari, because that's what Yomiko continues to call her.)
At the end of Episode 2, it's not the original Nancy who is on the plane, but Nancy #2 (the "evil" twin).
Nancy #2 is also the one we first see at the beginning of Episode #3 standing on that stanchion outside the citadel before the plane gets shot down.
The next time we see Nancy, it's the original one. And Nancy #2 is the one who seemingly wounds her.
Nancy#2 is the one who initially fights and almost kills Yomiko before Nancy#1 steps back in to the fray. (And wasn't that scene of the two of them trying to shoot each other one of the damn coolest throwaway bits ever?^_^)
At that point, it gets confusing for a bit. We lose track of who is fighting who and I'm sure it's on purpose. But just to be clear in case it wasn't made obvious by the ending, it was Nancy#1 on the rocket, and Nancy#2 who was left floating in the water and later wound up at the hospital at the end.
Clear as mud? ^_^
Anyway, hope you enjoyed the series all the way through.
-Logan