By Tatsuya Hamazaki & Yuzuka Morita (TokyoPop)
ISBN: 978-1-4278-0635-2
This is a very confusing sequel to a sequel based on a computer game about a computer game. The originals were based on a Japanese anime series called .hack//Roots… and I’m going to stop there with the background stuff because my eyes are starting to bleed. There are three (maybe four by now) game editions and a couple of TV series but that has little relevance to the book I’m holding in my hand.
By the year 2017 a huge multiplayer online game called The World has gripped humanity to such an extent that most of the planet are now continuously lost in a fantasy realm of fighting Avatars – the online personas of players. Most are trapped there with no way out. PKs – Player Killers – hunt and destroy Avatars and more adaptable PKKs have evolved. Player Killer Killers hunt down and slay the predators but not for any moral purpose, they’re just a better test of prowess.
But even if the population is lost in The World (R: 2 to be exact) the real world still impinges. PKK Haseo – AKA “The Terror of Death†– roams the cyber-realm hunting for the PK “Tri-Edge†whose attack on his friend Shino left her in a real coma – an increasingly common event in The World. And covert forces are manipulating the game and the billions of players for some as yet unspecified purpose. What is really going on?
No, I’m serious asking here because I truly am terribly confused. I feel completely unable to comment on the narrative because so much back-story is unavailable to new readers. It seems competent and may be excellent but I just can’t tell. The art however, by Yuzuka Morita is good; fast, slick and strong on action but with a sensitive touch in regard to character interaction.
Impressive looking, this is not a book for the uninitiated.
© 2006 .hack Conglomerate, NBGI. All Rights Reserved. English text © 2008 Tokyopop Inc. All Rights Reserved.