Title: .hack//黄昏の腕輪伝説 (.hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet) Vol. 3
Artist/Author:　依澄れい (Rei Izumi)
Original Creator: 浜崎達也 (Tetsuya Hamazaki)
Book Size/Pages: B-6, 276pp., w/o furigana
Volume: 3/3
First Printing: 4/3/2004
Rating: 3/4

This book is enormous. It's about as big as the two previous books combined. Ugh.

.hack strikes me as a series that was created to milk money off making tie-ins to games, manga, and anime. I haven't finished the anime (first season) and have only played only 3 of the games (haven't watched the OVAs since the second game), I don't know how much the manga ties in.

When I first started this series, I didn't know what was going on. The artwork is good, especially when Shugo is dumbfounded. The story is interesting, although I haven't been able to tie it in as I haven't finished the other media for .hack. This last volume continues that. It's sums up the story well, but I would have benefited from knowing more about the anime and game.

Besides the main story, which ends around page 236, there are two full length bonus comics as well as more mini-comics. The book starts off with 4 color pages. The inside cover has drawings of the real-life characters that play the game.

13. 終われるか (Is It Possible to Finish?): Shugo, Rena, and Zefi are in a prison. Rena is about to quit the game, but starts thinking and also gets some sense knocked into her by Zefi. When she gets her motivation back, Zefi breaks them out. Meanwhile, Balmung has decided to step down and re-join the game.

14. 別れて、　逢って (To Part and To Meet): The three of them bump into Komiyama as they're escaping. They chat a bit and Zefi fixes his face. Meanwhile, Balmung is meeting with Wiseman discussing the Net Slums, Aura, and the .hackers. Komiyama, with his pretty face, is now on good terms with them. Shugo receives a letter from Mirelle.

15. 隠されし　禁断の　望域 (Hidden Forbidden Castle): They go meet Mirelle at the castle, where they also bump into Ooka, the cat-woman character. Shugo and Rena's real-life sibling, Kazu, who once played alongside Mistral, Mirelle's mother and who she inherited her character from, arrives and gives them the keys to the Net Slums. No sooner does the system administrators come and try to claim the key. Komiyama tries to stop the female admin, but gets himself deleted.

16. 心に、　槍を (In the Heart, a Spear...): Kazu and Ooka try to keep the admins busy while the others make a getaway, however, they are stopped short. As they're being confronted, Hotaru steps in with a plea. Zefi repels the admin's attack and creates a Gruntie to help transport them away. Shugo, however, decides to have a heart to heart with the defeated admin.

17. あのとき「前編」 (That Time, First Part): Because of relationship issues in the real world, the admin has taken this job in "The World." After some talk, she beings to have more faith in herself.

18. あのとき「後編」 (That Time, Last Part): The group leaves on the Gruntie. After they leave, Balmung shows up and talks to the admin. The gang uses the key to get to the Net Slums.

19. ネットスラム (Net Slum): In the Net Slums, they meet the lost game characters. Their search comes to a stop when Balmung shows up and tells Shugo that if he wants to meet Aura, he has to defeat him.

20. 勇者の条件 (What It Takes to Be a Hero): Shugo obviously doesn't have enough experience to defeat Balmung. However, in typical adventure story fashion, he gathers strength from all the memories he's had with his friends and is able to inflict some damage, which was all he needed. They finally get to see Aura, Zefi's mother.

21. Little flashback to when Shugo was a kid, played the game and wanted to be a "hero." Happy ending. Game over.

Title: 少年マガジン (Shonen Magazine) Vol. 24
Issue Date: 5/26/2004
Publisher: Kodansha
Pages: 474

No Negima this week as the "Kyoto" arc just ended. No flesh either this week. There is a new series, Stay Gold, that's starting. Tennis manga, not that interesting to me. Meanwhile, Tsubasa has another cameo by the two mini-Persocoms, Sumomo and Kotoko.

Changing Now: ３伝心！！　髭男！！ (Telepathy! Mustache-Man): Takeko wants to learn English as she believes she'll never be in Hollywood if she doesn't. The father doesn't believe that English is important until he meets an enemy that only speaks English. Rather than having a battle, they try unsuccessfully to inform each other to prepare for the fight. Afterwards, he has a change of heart about learning.

Suzuka: ＃１２告白 (Confession): On the day they're supposed to go to the amusement park, it starts raining. With nothing else to do outside, they head indoors and enjoy the attractions like games and a virtual rollercoaster. They come out later to find that the sky has cleared and enjoy the night parade. Suzuka takes Yamato's hand and enjoys the show. Yamato thinks this is his chance and confesses his love for her. She thinks it's a joke at first, but he reconfirms it.

Tsubasa: ４４最強の鬼児 (The Strongest Monster): Shaoran and Kuro run into some obstacles at the tower, but fight their way through. At Fye's cafe, Seishirou shows up, has a little discussion with Fye about his power to travel through dimensions (he got his right eye from Yuuko, which gives him the ability). They then start fighting. Scene changes to the tower right as Fye looks about to be killed. At the tower, Shaoran and Kuro are met by Sumomo and Kotoko (from Chobits). They tell them that Seishirou is not a monster, but travels with them and that the Cat's Eye cafe is being attacked.

Hamanaka Ai: ０３５少女的奏法 (Playing an Instrument Like a Girl): Rin is practicing the recorder for her music test tomorrow. She gets some instruction from the tutors on how to play so that it sounds better, but during the test, she reverts back to her old poor style of playing (implied embouchure joke).

Futatsuki: １４口目／柏手ラーメン見参 (Seeing the Ramen of Prayer): Bad translation, sorry. The three competitors are trying to win the hearts of the 3 female idol judges with their non-fattening ramen. The first competitor unveils his tofu noodles, which the girls love. Futatsuki shows them what looks like meat, but is actually made of soybean. The girls are impressed, but then are told that it has more calories than the tofu noodles. The last competitor has curry ramen. Despite not being spicy, it gets the girls sweating non-stop. It will help them lose weight, but they'll sweat non-stop for 30 minutes. Futatsuki brings in some pork and tells them that he'll make them stop sweating.

Title: ヤングマガ (Young Magazine) Vol. 24
Issue Date: 5/24/2004
Publisher: Kodansha
Pages: 519

It's Waka again, back of the book girl is Monami Oguchi. XXXholic will start again on the 26th, and Minamike should be showing up next week.

Love Lucky: 2: At work, Fuuta is preoccupied with what will happen during his first night with Kirari that he doesn't focus on his work. Meanwhile, Kirari gets in a conversation with her fellow idols about marriage and they all say that being a wife is tough (they don't know she's married). Fuuta goes to one of Kirari's events and overhears many fans wanting to be with her. He accidentally bumps into Kirari's manager and keeps his mouth shut. That night, things will start in the bedroom (or so the ending leads us to believe...).

Redlight: 6: It's been a month since Satoshi met Chiko. They go out on their first date which includes eating and shopping. One of the things Satoshi was supposed to buy was a handkerchief, but he forgot. Chiko lets him borrow hers. Having wanted to hold her hand since the beginning of the date, he thinks this is the right time and tries to grab, but ends up grabbing her butt. She punches him and leaves. Later, she finds him again and as he's returning the handkerchief, a gust of wind blows it away and the both of them fall off the bridge into the river chasing after it.