.hack//Tasogare no Udewa Densetsu
.hack//Legend of the Bracelet of Dusk

By: Jasconius
Date: Friday, October 24, 2003

Whee, it's .hack in SD! I think the atmosphere, OP, and story of this one all combine to make the new .hack series cuter and therefore more enjoyable!



The story starts out with some weird monsters attacking a player after he arrives to find an entire lake that he was looking for missing. He's killed by some monsters that shouldn't have been in that area, and his real life player is shown slumped over on his desk. Shift to the main story, which is that a pair of brother-sister twins have won the chance to play as the legendary characters Kite and Black Rose. The brother, Shugo, "graduated" from playing video games in middle school, but the winning of the prize and the chance to play with his sister, who is back at home and he doesn't see much, entices him into playing again. He marvels at the world of "The World", this fantasy MMORPG he is now playing, and meets up with his sister, Rena. They head off for the basics, killing monsters! Level 1 monsters, since they are starting from the beginning. Shugo sucks at it, because as Rena says, it's more like he "dropped out" of playing video games than "graduated", since he never reads the instruction manuals and just loses a lot. However, instead of just looking like a fool, some crazy level 48 monster appears in the beginners' area and kills Shugo! He's resurrected with his first kiss from a cute girl, and given a bracelet that can perform "Data Drain", killing the impossibly hard monster. The girl following them shows herself and declares her interest in her bracelet, only to be left behind.



Overall, I found the first episode of this new .hack series to be a lot more enjoyable than season one. The cuteness factor helps, but the entire atmosphere of this series seems less out there, more balanced than in .hack//SIGN. The music is good again, although thankfully the volume levels don't interfere with the speaking like last time. I especially enjoyed the OP theme and video, with song by ROUND TABLE feat Nino, the people who did the Chobits OP. Emerald Green, the ED, was pretty disappointing for a See-Saw song on first listen, though.