Manga Review: .Hack//Legend of the Twilight Vol. 3 Art by Rei Izumi, Story by Tatsuya Hamazaki
Note: The following review contains SPOILERS for both earlier volumes of this manga and other works in the .Hack franchise.
In the near future of 2014, “The World”, an immersive VR experience, is the most popular Massively Multiplayer Online Roleplaying Game (MMORPG). This despite a series of glitches four years ago sending players into comas. That’s been fixed now…we’re told. Our story focuses on Shugo and Rena, 14 year old twins. They’ve been separated by their parents’ divorce, and when Rena wins customized character skins based on famous players Kite and Black Rose, she talks Shugo into joining her in The World so that they can spend time together virtually.
Early on, Shugo is given the Twilight Bracelet by a mysterious woman. This device, once owned by Kite, can perform the dangerous Data Drain attack. Soon, Shugo and Rena are joined by other players: the “rare hunter” Mirielle, who loves to collect items; werewolf girl Ouka; and the American animal lover Hotaru. Shugo’s self-proclaimed rival Komiyan III often bugs them, and the group adopts a rogue AI named Zefie, who takes the appearance of a bratty little girl.
The players have had a lot of fun with quests and special events, but now things have taken a turn for the serious. Kamui, leader of the rule-enforcing Cobalt Knights, has learned of the Twilight Bracelet, which she considers an illegal item, and Zefie. She and the Knights have captured Rena, Shugo, and Zefie and are planning on deleting them.
Sure, the twins could just log out permanently, but they’ve got a lot of emotional investment in this game, and that won’t help Zefie reunite with her mother Aura. Jail break time!
Our heroes must now race to find Aura’s location before the Cobalt Knights can catch up and destroy them, aided both by their friends, and by some sympathetic people who were previously behind the scenes.
The art is okay, but the paucity of backgrounds often hurts; there’s no sense of place, which is unfortunate for an alternate world setting.
This manga is much lighter in approach than the previous entries in the series–while there are still problems, it’s not the heavy personal issues or life-threatening system glitches of the past. Much more emphasis in the first two volumes is placed on playing the game.
The ending…well, it’s really all about the journey, isn’t it?
There’s a fair amount of bonus material, including a short piece in which Mirielle meets a player who can copy items (wonder why the Cobalt Knights didn’t spot him?) and teaches him a lesson about earning your victories.
.Hack// was a multi-media franchise, and quite a bit of information only appeared in one segment that then left questions unanswered in the others. You may need to consult one of the fan guides. But hey, it was one of the earliest “trapped in a video game world” anime stories, so there’s that for it.
This manga is mostly standalone though, despite some callbacks, so can be enjoyed if you can find the old Tokyopop volumes.
Content note: Not so much in this volume, but the first two volumes were pretty heavy on the male-oriented fanservice.
Recommended to fans of stories set in fantasy video games.
Oh, and there was an animated adaptation that went in a different direction about halfway through:
