.hack//XXXX, Band 1

.hack//XXXX #1

by Megane Kikuya, Hiroshi Matsuyama

In .hack//Legend of the Twilight, Shugo and Rena were given the avatars of the famous dot hackers, Kite and BlackRose... Now learn how their legend was born! While playing in The World--the most successful online game in history--a young boy suddenly loses consciousness and falls into a coma after taking a blow to protect his friend Kite from the deadly beams of a strange monster. To save his fallen friend, Kite must log back into this most dangerous game and begin to unravel the mysteries behind his friend's affliction. But understanding the true power of The World may prove as dangerous as it is crucial!

Genres: Manga, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Shonen, Comics Manga, Action, Comics

200 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2006

Reviews

[Charmaine (CharmySketches) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great summation of the first .hack series of video games. The art was well done even if it was obviously not traditionally drawn, which is what I prefer. Since I've played the games I can't tell if the story moves to fast or would confuse someone that hasn't played them or is new to .hack. I plan to add the next vol. to my collection.
I plan to write more about this manga on my blog: http://polyphonicvox.wordpress.com

[Mo · Rating 5 out of 5]

wow its great!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Francine · Rating 3 out of 5]

A couple years ago I was dating this guy from Tinder, and he lent me all his .hack mangas, and I still have them. 🫠 (I swear I tried to return them!! he didn't want them back 😅) Anyway today's the day I'm finally starting on these books. I saw the .hack//G.U. anime a hundred years ago and never played any of the games, so I have some~ knowledge but not a lot. This first volume is a lil confusing, but the info buried deep inside my brain is helping me make sense of the story.
So far I like Cubia the most. He's gonna betray them all, I just know it. Kite is a standard shonen protagonist, so a lil bland for my tastes, but fine. Everyone else is 5/10.

[Gary Sadosky · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost an exact retelling of the story from the IMOQ game series (albeit more condensed), with one smallish difference that you realize right away if you've ever played the games. I'm interested to see if this goes the way I think, or if the new character is just a red herring. Either way, this was an easy weeknight binge and I am looking forward to reading volume 2.

[アレツクス コツト · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome story. I really like black rose. I do wish that they stretched out this manga a bit as it seems like so much to cram into 2 manga. A bit fast paced but not so much as to really fly by annoyingly.

[Lör K. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rating for this one is a two and a half out of five... Just feels very rushed compared to Tasogare no Udewa Densetsu... feels like much too quick a read for an entire legendary story background.

[Jesus · Rating 5 out of 5]

Awesome reiteration of the game in manga form. Loved that they gave the characters a bit of change and enhanced their stories. Making Cubia an AI character instead of just the main boss was a magnificent idea! Would have loved that in the game.Cannot wait to continue on with the next volume!

[Kidusyohanes · Rating 4 out of 5]

XXxX

Xanax

[Gunnarmooney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This gave me real blast from the past feels from playing the games as a child I'm so happy I tracked this down, nostalgia city here I go.

[Nerdish Mum · Rating 3 out of 5]

The last of my library books from last week was .hack//XXXX, Volume 1 by Megane Kikuya and Hiroshi Matsuyama and I have to say I was really looking forward to reading this after reading the synopsis on the back (front) of the book.

At the start of the story, there are a couple of pages dedicated to introducing the characters with a little picture of them so that you know who everyone is before it starts and you know a little bit about them. I really liked this touch as I've found in manga a lot of characters can be brought in very quickly and it can become overwhelming figuring out who everyone is and what their role is in the story.

The action certainly gets started with a bang and right from page one you are in the thick of a battle. It was certainly an exciting way to begin a story and it also made me extra glad of the introductions at the beginning.

The more I read of the story, the more I started to wonder which came first, this or Sword Art Online as the story lines are incredibly similar. They're in a video game that has affected people in their real lives due to some hidden code in the programming. There's a young male protagonist who teams up with girl(s). The main protagonist has extra "skills" that other people don't. This isn't a bad thing as I really enjoyed the first season of Sword Art Online (I haven't got around to watching the second season yet) I just wonder who had the idea first.

The story progresses rapidly as it seems to in some mangas and by the end of this volume, they had already defeated half of the bosses necessary to help their friends, I'm guessing that means that this story has only two volumes as I can't see why it would need to be any longer. I did have a quick search on Goodreads and I do only seem to be able to find one more volume. I actually feel that this story would have benefited from being more drawn out and spread across more volumes so that you could become more attached to the characters and care about what happens to them, as it is, it's a nice story but I'm not invested in any of their lives.

Overall this is an nice book with good art (and I like that they used logs instead of chapters as it is computer related) and if I see the second volume, I will definitely pick it up to see how the story is concluded but I will not go out of my way to find it.

I started reading this book on the 15th of January 2015 and finished it on the same day

For this and other reviews, check out my blog http://lifeofanerdishmum.blogspot.co.uk/

[Andre · Rating 1 out of 5]

The writing style in and of itself is fine, but in many ways this manga is not very creative. I mean "the World" as the sole name for your virtual world comes along as pretty damn bland. Plus, I don't think using your all or nothing McGuffin (the "bracelet") this early in the manga is a good idea. I mean at that time the characters were barely introduced and one was already in a coma, so time should have been used better. Furthermore, the bracelet can destroy giant monsters and causes more bugs in the game, resulting in more monsters, the two girls are basically useless and I can only remember Mistral's name, the company doesn't care about the gamers falling into a coma, and neither does the public, there is a Cat lady, and some forced crush of some boy on her and one character after the other and oh boy that was when I realized it was one of those mangas.
In the end they needed to defeat 8 monsters, for some reason (the big monsters before were of their kind), and the female characters were barely in it anymore, no one goes to the cops, and they have to go somewhere and now there is the "2nd Pluto Kiss" (a Net crash) and I had no idea wtf was going on and why I should care. In fact this was so much at once you can barely care about the characters.

[Coco · Rating 5 out of 5]

I can't say enough great things about the .hack series. I love The World and always find it intriguing how the stories entwine--elements reappear story to story but are changed and made into new things each time.

I'm happy to be able to read the story of Kite and Black Rose without playing through (read: failing at) a video game. What a crazy World this is!

[Heath · Rating 3 out of 5]

New different telling of the .hack story.

[Tiger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Definitely different from the original storyline from the games.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have the other .hack books which I haven't read in a long time. I was so glad I came across this book at the used bookstore. I can't wait to read the others!

[Poji Mugambi]

Need more volumes. I love this story.

[Yuiko · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought it was alright the twilight braclet was way better thu!!!! If you love dot hack take a look at this one :)