This manga series deals with two 14 year olds as they travel The World, which is an online gaming system that takes the player on crazy adventures. Shugo and Rena are your typical teenagers. They love video games and hate school. One day Rena gets a message that she's won the sought after .hackers limited edition avatars. Rena gets Shugo to join in and then they begin the game.
However, Shugo and Rena replaying the legendary .hackers Black Rose and Kite, who were in the 1st edition. But this game is not all fun and games. The World once malfunctioned, and the company is not looking forward to it happening again. When a woman reappears named Aura, the administrators start to get nervous. Aura "is the head of the dot hackers' adventure" and she also has a mysterious Twilight Bracelet. Aura was once an important player in the original .hackers game - but disappeared. Every time she appears, trouble follows.
As Shugo and Rena continue to play the game, they meet some friends along the way. When they catch the eye of Balmung (who was once a legendary player turned administrator for "the world") their game play begins to become more adventurous, especially since Balmung seems to have his eye for Rena.
I must say, this is my first manga book ever. I found it very hard to read at first (after the first 20 pages I found the directions on how to read them :/ ) but then I got into the hang of it. I was very shocked to find that the main character is a 14 year old wearing a skimpy outfit! And when I looked to see what age group this book is geared for it is for 13+! NO WAY! Especially in one picture there is a grown woman is clothes fit for a stripper. I'm shocked!
Is it just me though? Am I the only one offended and shocked? I find that young girls are already having a hard time not hating their body if they're not stick thing. Do we really need to subjugate young boys to pictures of scantly clad YOUNG girls (and some inserts of women) and change the way they see women too? I don't know, maybe it was just me - but I still can't believe that they would dress a 14 year old girl in such a way. I already feel like the kids are dressed FAR to old for their age. And then when I was looking through the book again, they had a .hackers pinup with Rena naked with water falling off her body while her brother and Balmung look from behind a tree (at least her brother looks shocked and horrified.)
Other than that it wasn't bad. I loved their adventure and I couldn't help but laugh at every little picture (if I could figure it out - some pictures I couldn't.) It will be very interesting to see what adventures Rena and Shugo will be on.
Volumes:
Vol. 1
Vol. 2
Vol. 3
.hack//Legend of the Twilight by Tatsuya Hamazaki. Japan (c) 2002 - English (c) 2003
6 comments:
I haven't heard of this series, but I'm glad you liked it. Most of the manga I've read are not the skimpily-clad kind, but I do know that my library's moved some of the series from YA to adult because of nudity and things like that. Apparently in Japan there is a different cultural viewpoint, and we have that puritan background that makes us gasp in horror at certain things. I do agree about the body image issue. And kids are bombarded by that stuff everywhere, sigh.
What is their view point on young girls and skimp outfits? Are they ok with it? Hahaha, yeah I do see how are background does affect us - but my god - those outfits!! :o!
I have no idea! Maybe their audience is teen boys and they're hoping to draw them in (sorry about the pun). I'd love to hear what you think of Yotsuba&!, one of my favorites - I think it will make you laugh. And no skimpy outfits, I promise! :-)
Hahahaha I'll check it out! (that is if my library has it :/)
I just got into reading manga a little while ago and I have to admit I'm kind of addicted. LOL
Plus, I had no idea that there were so many different types (and trust me, there are A LOT).
It took me a while to get used to the different rating system because they do view nudity and what we westerners would consider "mature subject matter" a bit more openly. For instance, when I first started reading DearS (which is hilarious) and saw on the back that it was listed for "Teens 13+" (rather than "Older Teen 16+"), I nearly had a heart attack. (Hint, just look at the first issue's cover and you'll understand what I mean.)
But for the most part, I get it and it's interesting to take a peek into how different cultures view the subjects we generally consider taboo.
On another note, I haven't read .hack yet, but I've seen a couple episodes of the anime--never really got into it, though. Maybe I'll check out the manga.
I really loved Tarot Cafe (up to issue 4 as I haven't read the others yet), so you may want to give it a shot. It's more gothic and there's a bit more concealment of body parts. LOL
I just looked up DearS and I see what you mean :)
.hack is actually funny - the brother and sisters are twins - and there is this hunk in there and the brother is trying to compete against it. I want to do more research on the Japan culture - more specific the culture surrounding manga :)
Post a Comment