Hack//Legend of the Twilight

Publisher
Bandai
Director
Koichi MashimoKoichi Mashimo, Kouji Sawai
Production
Bandai, Bee Train, Yomiuri Advertising
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
12 episodes
Year
2003

.Hack//Legend of the Twilight - Volume 2

By Joseph (Joe) Wood
27th Sep 06

Since writing the review for the first volume of .(dot)Hack//Legend of the Twilight, I’ve had bit more experience with other elements of the franchise. I’ve seen .(dot)Hack//Sign, read A.I. Buster books one and two and read the first two volumes of the “Legend of Twilight” manga.

As episode five (the first of four episodes on this volume) begins it seems like more of the same light-hearted comedy of the previous volume. Shugo, Rena and friends travel to a hunted house dungeon, where a mysterious group of players plan on getting rid of Shugo and his legendary bracelet. Unfortunately the plan goes wrong and the players end up getting rid of Rena by mistake, Rena’s character disappears from “The World”, and the real Rena falls into a deadly coma. Shugo discovers Rena’s terminal is still logged in, and unable to log out, he believes Rena’s mind is still trapped in the game. He and his friends start searching “The World” for Rena, but the mysterious group of players make another attempt at Shugo. Not only this, but a group called the “Cerulean Knights” accuses Shugo of cheating and also start hunting him in order to delete his character data.

Despite the plot developments the series still keeps it’s light humorous tone even after Rena disappears, this doesn’t work so well as it’s hard to sympathise when the characters are acting all goofy and messing about. The comedy aspects still work well, even though the comedy is fairly basic stuff most of the time (Like Shugo’s tooth constantly falling out), and some viewers just may not find this humour funny at all.

“Legend of the Twilight” differs greatly from “Sign” which is a lot more sombre and slower. Although it is the differences between the original manga and the anime version of “Legend of the Twilight” that are the most surprising. The first volumes of the manga and the anime are almost identical in both their incarnations, but the second volumes have a lot of differences.

The plot of the anime takes a completely different direction to that of the manga, meaning that if you have read the manga the anime offers something new for fans of the series (theirs even a cameo by a character form an other incarnation of .(dot)Hack). Yet the anime’s light-hearted nature may put off readers of the manga which becomes a lot more serious at this point.

The second volume of “Legend of the Twilight” continues in the same ilk as the first, and it seems unlikely that things will change in the third and final volume either. The series is still likely to appeal to the younger viewer, but more mature viewers may prefer looking for something a bit more taxing.

R2 DVD Notes

Features: Japanese/English/French Audio, English/French/Dutch Subtitles, Character Files, Trailers, Clean Opening and Closing animation. Alternative Cover

Release information: Publisher: Beez Released: September 11th 2006 Classification: PG Running Time: 100mins

Notes: The character files and clean opening and closing animtions are pretty standard fare these days.

-- Joseph (Joe) Wood 27th Sep 06

Hack//Legend of the Twilight Images