Forum - View topicRIGHT TURN ONLY!! - Read Or Don't
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britannicamoore
 Posts: 2618 Location: Out. |
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i stopped reading Bleach around volume 8. When I saw these fights I said i'd buy the manga to see how they were drawn because they were awesome to me. Looks like it's time to buy another manga.
KH CoM...the game was almost like that. I haven't read this manga yet- but in the game Mickey and Donald only appear when needed because they're cards. They do show up in the cut scenes from time to time if I remember correctly. riku didn't show up till the end in this game- and then you got to play from his pov. When I heard there was going to be a manga I couldn't quite understand how they'd tranfer it. So much happens in the game that I couldn't see how it'd fit into 200 or so pages. YAKITATE!! JAPAN...whoops I forgot about this. I'll need to grab vol 3 & 4. Thanks for the reminder. MANABI STRAIGHT...I kind of want to read this now. What do low birthrates have to do with...this girl going to school? hopefully it gets picked up. Don't worry. The .Hack manga put me to sleep too. I never did finish it and I was just glad I never bought it. My friend who did however enjoyed it (God only knows how) and went on to get the other 3? volumes. Good column! I enjoyed. |
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GATSU
Posts: 15606 |
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Canada and New Zealand are the new Hollywood, unfortunately...Anyway, since you saw it, how about throwing your two cents into the review thread?
I take it you're not a fan of a certain Spiderman arc, either, huh? 
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Taiyz
 Posts: 202 Location: Canada |
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Legend of the Twilight is the only title in the .hack series that was really different in terms of material...It wasn't important to the story, it didn't reveal anything or connect any characters: it was just something that people who know the series already can enjoy.
I know a few people who like it without knowing the other parts of .hack, but I don't understand how they can. It throws you in there...I'm a big .hack fan so I enjoyed the manga, but nevertheless it wasn't anywhere near flawless. |
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dormcat
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 9902 Location: New Taipei City, Taiwan, ROC |
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I wonder why does the cover of Manabi Straight! has a CMYK mark at it upper right corner.
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Tortoiseshell Tabby Girl
 Posts: 153 |
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Ooohhh, now I know how to describe the jokes that LordByronius makes about .hack//Roots in The Click column. He's been laying the dot-smack on dot-hack. Why so many people be talkin' dot-smack 'bout .hack?   (Mixture of emotions)
I've seen a lot of people who don't like the .hack stories say something like that. Whenever I see those types of comments, I always wonder why I find it fascinating to watch these avatars of people in real life who are playing in a world that may have its own sense of reality. Sometimes I wonder if it's because I'm not a gamer (the last game I played was Okami, and that's only because my brother let me borrow his PS2. I don't have a game console. The last game I played before Okami must of been Mario GoKart on one of those very rare occasions when my dad brings out the ol' Super Nintendo just to play that specific game. Before that...I'm not sure. But it was a Super NES game.  Anyways, y'all get the picture now...). So, maybe this is why I'm able to find the game aspect fascinating, instead of boring, and why I can focus on the characters and sci-fi aspects of .hack (and the occasional philosophical elements). Also, being a non-gamer, I'm usually very interested in learning why the .hack characters have chosen to play a game that seems to usually become an important and/or big part of their lives.
Actually, I've always liked that simple and to the point name since I watched .hack//SIGN. I think it works really well because of the beauty of its simplicity and because it kind of works as a clue or a foreshadowing tool that hints to the fact that The World spoiler[may be an autonoumous world with its own beings (AIs) and its own reality and has the power to affect our own "real world."]
I wouldn't tell someone that they need to have watched all the other .hack stories, but I would suggest that they do in order to deepen their enjoyment and appreciation of each story and make the stories more understandable. I mean, as some people can probably tell from reading what I wrote above, I still haven't been able to play the first round of .hack//games and that has made me feel like I'm missing a piece of the puzzle. Luckily, I've been able to read the .hack//Another Birth novels, so I kind of know what went on in 3/4 of the game from Black Rose's point of view (I'm waiting for you, volume 4!  ). After reading those novels, I felt like I understood some things in the .hack//Legend of the Twilight manga and the .hack//Roots anime that I wouldn't have understood otherwise.
My point of view, I suppose, is that the different .hack stories are not meant to be standalone stories--they're parts of a larger puzzle or story. They fit together in certain places. In that respect, they're closer to the different parts of a book series or movie series than to something like a spin-off, which is usually fairly standalone. I guess it is also true that I'm a bit more forgiving of first volumes because sometimes it's like when a bird circles around in the air for a bit and gets its bearings before it sets off on course (heh, heh...I hope someone gets that). The order in which I have watched and read the .hack stories is as follows: .hack//Sign (anime), .hack//Legend of the Twilight (anime--not considered canon), .hack//Another Birth 1 and 2 (novels), .hack//AI Buster 1 and 2 (novels), .hack//Legend of the Twilight (manga), .hack//Another Birth 3 (novel). I've also been watching the .hack//Roots anime on Cartoon Network, but I can't quite remember where that fits in  ). I'm happy that I was able to read some of the .hack//Another Birth novels and the .hack//AI Buster novels before reading the .hack manga because there were a lot of tie-ins with characters there, some very poignant. Some of these included spoiler[Wiseman, Fumikazu, and Albireo (Watarai)]. And I've always thought of .hack as being a very character-driven set of stories.
In the end, I think that the .hack stories have been created with the purpose of appealing to the fans of .hack. I doubt they expect someone to just jump on board in the middle of the interconnecting stories. That would be a little bit like jumping into the middle of a novel trilogy without reading the first book, or watching vol. 1 of the second season of the Ah! My Goddess anime without having watched the first season. As for the .hack manga itself, I thought it was way better than the non-canon anime version of Legend of the Twilight (although I did like the spoiler[appearance of Silver Knight from .hack//Sign in the LotT anime]  ). Vol. 1 of the manga shares many similarities with the anime adaptation, but vol. 2 and vol. 3 diverge greatly. I think people who stick with it will be rewarded, mainly those who are fascinated by spoiler[the concept of AIs in The World. Zefie was a pretty interesting AI, after all, and the continuation of Albireo's confusion of the presence of AIs continuing on in Kamui was a really interesting struggle to read about.] The only thing about .hack that really tends to frustrate me is that they don't explore the spoiler[existence of AIs and whether or not they are sentient beings enough], but I guess that's because the focus has always been the player characters. So, I think vol. 1 of .hack//Legend of the Twilight is fair to good, as it does tend to be a little fluffy and goofy, and maybe drags a little bit, but by vol. 2, things start to get really interesting, especially in the sci-fi department and I find vol. 2 and vol. 3 to be very good entries in the .hack universe.
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whoisfriend
Posts: 369 |
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Aww... I really liked LotT. I knew basic things about the series, like the first half of Sign, but it was still enjoyable. I felt the manga really hit its groove in volume two.
It was better than the anime counterpart anyway. |
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teh*darkness
 Posts: 901 |
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Hmm... While I will agree that LotTB (both manga and anime) was probably the worst entry in the .hack media franchise, I will say that you should have at least seen .hack//SIGN before reading or watching anything else... to reference another book you reviewed, it would be like reading volume 2 of KH: Chain of Memories without having played any of the KH games, or reading ANY of the KH manga, or volume 1 of CoM... so, in all truth, it isn't fair to review LotTB volume 1 by itself, because it's a continuation of a larger storyline, just like Saiyuki Reload volume 1 continues from the end of Saiyuki volume 9... Aside from that, great column as usual... thanks to your review, I think I'll stick to finishing Read or Die, and just ignore Read or Dream... |
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zetsuie
 Posts: 193 |
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hey i liked dot hack LotT i thought its lighthearted mood was a lot better than the melodrama of dot hack sign the only problem is i can never remember how volume 3 or the last episode ends which is kinda of wierd
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Super Ska Master
 Posts: 191 |
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I need Yakitate 4!
 I like the manga better, because I heard it's longer than the anime. I heard its the Yakitate 20 arc instead of the Yakitate 7. Also, I am glad the rice sidestory was early on in the manga. It was a lot later in the anime.
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Mylene
 Posts: 2792 Location: Indiana |
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It wasn't hard to be better than its anime counterpart, that's for sure. I think that's why I was able to enjoy the manga series--it took the decent idea that the anime of LotT had, and made it work a lot better. Volume 1 was decent, volume 2 was worse, and volume 3 was a fans dream with the return of a few characters from the game, as well as images of their 'real life' selves. I still prefer the Another Birth novels, although those aren't particularly well written. And in the end, I prefer SIGN and the original games over everything else. I'm not sure I'm really going to like Roots either or GU, but I'll probably buy them anyway if I can find them on sale. |
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GoodLuckSaturday
 Posts: 567 Location: Indiana |
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I was thinking that as I read the cons. Yakitate!! Japan is a great series, and I'm glad to see it's getting all sorts of RTO love. I hope critical praise can help in Viz working on getting the equally brilliant anime to American shores.
And I didn't mind the .hack//Legend of the Twilight manga. I remember liking the first two volumes, but then having to read the third volume a year later, it being 750 pages long, and being extremely boring and nonsensical, my opinion was switched around immediately. I don't know that it's one of the worst manga I've ever read, but it certainly doesn't hold any favor points with me. |
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Eos
 Posts: 168 Location: Jersey |
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That's the reason why I picked up the manga, I didn't have the patience for playing all those video games. Unfortunately it assumes you did play them. Good news is the angst level in the manga is far below the .hack/sign or /roots anime. |
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Ari-chan
Posts: 215 Location: Florida |
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I personaly enjoyed the LotT manga. I was already of fan of .hack//sign, and had already seen the LotT anime and played the first series of games. While it wasn't really the best addition to the series, I wouldn't go as far as to call it the worst manga ever. I thought vol. 1 was fun, being just some light fluff, then vol.2 got the ball roling and made things more interesting. Then volume 3 was a fun little ride. If anything I consider LotT to be a wind down of that part of the .hack series time period, before the time of Roots and GU started up. I kind of took it as a look at how the world was after the events of the games through the eyes of new characters. While I don't think you need to be familier with every thing about the .hack series before going into it, I sure do think it help a lot.
Anyway, aside from that good column as usual. |
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molloaggie
 Posts: 578 Location: Texas |
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I bought Kingdom Hearts but I didn't read it. It was for my son. This title was obviously written for juveniles but you bash it back and forth as if it was no good at all. Maybe you should reanalyze it and give people a solid opinion based on the title's targeted market. And then you can say something like, "It's a great title to buy for your nutty relative's son whom you want to corrupt with manga but who's parents hate comics. The Disney aspect in this is sure to throw the parents off balance because, of course, they believe that their child can only be exposed to the gentle life espoused in Disney's films."
PS I asked the library to get Yakitate!! Japan.
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NinjaUmbreon
 Posts: 43 |
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I though .hack//sign: Legend of the Twilight was alright, not great but not bad ether. I mind you I had played the first .hack game, and didn't even finish it. So I had some what of an idea what had happened.
Also I think I'll give GAKUEN UTOPIA MANABI STRAIGHT! a trt it sound interesting. |
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