.hack//AI buster
For those of you who have long memories, you knwo I watch .hack//SIGN and played some of the first game (actually, all fo the first game's main story and a little of the extra stuff, but nothign from subsequent games). This series intrigues me because it is specifically designed to occur across multiple media. It was designed, from the start, to be an anime series (two anime series, actually), a game series, a manga series, and a novel, each part telling a different portion of a larger story.
I researched into this at the time and realized there was little chance of the novel getting a decent translation, and I also hit the wall for a lot of other things at the time and never got a chance to finish the game. I did, eventually, finish .hack//SIGN (which is a prequel to the games), and I watched a little of .hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet (which is an anime series set after the games, based on the manga I think and also often known as .hack//dusk). Full sequence, as near as I can remember and piece together, was novel -> first anime -> games+OAVs -> second anime.
Anyways, flash forward to about two weeks ago. I had read the books I had (The Seventh Sun, by Orson Scott Card, thanks to nalroth and "Good Omens" by Neil Gaimann and Terry Pratchett, thanks to zhai) and decided if I had more time off I'd probably want another. Walked into Borders on my way home from work, since it literally is on my way. Head towards the sci-fi ragion and spot a cute girl in the manga section adjacent and figure it can't hurt to see what's on the shelf (no, I'm not kidding about my motivations - I wasn't going to look at manga originally since it's usually too short for the price and I can't afford to have 20 volumes, money or space-wise, just to get a real story right now). And I spy .hack//AI buster on the shelf by TokyoPop (who I think does decent manga books. I'm like (in my head, because talking to yourself in front of cute chicks isn't cool), "whoa, I didn't know this got made into manga..." so I pick it up... and it's the novel. It's in the middle of manga, but it's a regular novel. "Awesome. Text is big, it'll be short, but I must see..." Forget about cute manga chick and head to buy book...
...get home, put bag with book down and promptly forget about it in the face of a myriad of other issues. I finally got back to it today (technically yesterday, but I haven't slept yet, because I'm like that, so today). I was right: big text made it a very quick read. But it was also very cool. I don't think this is a book you could appreciate on it's own. In fact, I'm pretty sure the quality is down-right poor in terms of plot, character, sentence construction, and so on. At least part of that is probably translation issues. But it really makes me want to play the games again, and possibly watch the anime series. And checking TokyoPop's website I see that this is actually just Volume 1. Which explains why it's so short, and why, although it felt like it completed it's own little story bit, it didn't really say as much as I would've expected as a major component of the overall story.
So... those of you who have seen the anime, at least, and liked that, will probably like the book. If you've played the game (any amount, really, though I'd imagine more is better but I wouldn't know since I'm only up to 1/4 at most), probably more so. It definitely adds its own little bits and pieces to the story, and they fill in gaps (the Mack Truck Sized ones) in the anime, which are further patched by the games. I think, with everything experienced, there's probably a very cool overall story that meshes well. If there isn't, I"m surprised Bandai hasn't been destroyed by angry fans yet. ;)
I suspect once my PS2 arrives and I wrangle a TV to play it on, I'll be buying all 4 parts of the game and playing through. Also getting Volume 2 of the novel, and probably going to look into picking up all 3 volumes of the manga. Might, just might, even go for the anime series bits to finish the thing off.
I researched into this at the time and realized there was little chance of the novel getting a decent translation, and I also hit the wall for a lot of other things at the time and never got a chance to finish the game. I did, eventually, finish .hack//SIGN (which is a prequel to the games), and I watched a little of .hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet (which is an anime series set after the games, based on the manga I think and also often known as .hack//dusk). Full sequence, as near as I can remember and piece together, was novel -> first anime -> games+OAVs -> second anime.
Anyways, flash forward to about two weeks ago. I had read the books I had (The Seventh Sun, by Orson Scott Card, thanks to nalroth and "Good Omens" by Neil Gaimann and Terry Pratchett, thanks to zhai) and decided if I had more time off I'd probably want another. Walked into Borders on my way home from work, since it literally is on my way. Head towards the sci-fi ragion and spot a cute girl in the manga section adjacent and figure it can't hurt to see what's on the shelf (no, I'm not kidding about my motivations - I wasn't going to look at manga originally since it's usually too short for the price and I can't afford to have 20 volumes, money or space-wise, just to get a real story right now). And I spy .hack//AI buster on the shelf by TokyoPop (who I think does decent manga books. I'm like (in my head, because talking to yourself in front of cute chicks isn't cool), "whoa, I didn't know this got made into manga..." so I pick it up... and it's the novel. It's in the middle of manga, but it's a regular novel. "Awesome. Text is big, it'll be short, but I must see..." Forget about cute manga chick and head to buy book...
...get home, put bag with book down and promptly forget about it in the face of a myriad of other issues. I finally got back to it today (technically yesterday, but I haven't slept yet, because I'm like that, so today). I was right: big text made it a very quick read. But it was also very cool. I don't think this is a book you could appreciate on it's own. In fact, I'm pretty sure the quality is down-right poor in terms of plot, character, sentence construction, and so on. At least part of that is probably translation issues. But it really makes me want to play the games again, and possibly watch the anime series. And checking TokyoPop's website I see that this is actually just Volume 1. Which explains why it's so short, and why, although it felt like it completed it's own little story bit, it didn't really say as much as I would've expected as a major component of the overall story.
So... those of you who have seen the anime, at least, and liked that, will probably like the book. If you've played the game (any amount, really, though I'd imagine more is better but I wouldn't know since I'm only up to 1/4 at most), probably more so. It definitely adds its own little bits and pieces to the story, and they fill in gaps (the Mack Truck Sized ones) in the anime, which are further patched by the games. I think, with everything experienced, there's probably a very cool overall story that meshes well. If there isn't, I"m surprised Bandai hasn't been destroyed by angry fans yet. ;)
I suspect once my PS2 arrives and I wrangle a TV to play it on, I'll be buying all 4 parts of the game and playing through. Also getting Volume 2 of the novel, and probably going to look into picking up all 3 volumes of the manga. Might, just might, even go for the anime series bits to finish the thing off.