Written by Tatsuya Hamazaki, Art by Rei Idumi
Tokyopop, 656 pp.
Rating: T (13 +)

Despite the epic title, this series is surprisingly non-epic. There’s very little action and the majority of the book is spent on light adventures. The story starts off with a pair of siblings, Shugo and Rena, having won a contest that grants them limited edition avatars based upon two legendary players known as Kite and Black Rose. Four years ago, the duo was said to have solved the final mystery of The World and now with the appearance of the limited edition avatars come new questions and mysteries. Who is Aura? What exactly was the final mystery of The World? Why has The Twilight Bracelet reappeared now and what does it all mean for The World?

Sadly, these questions are pushed to the background for a good chunk of the series, which instead focuses on the duo’s tame and nonviolent adventures within The World and the various friends they make through it. In fairness, they’re not totally abandoned. The mysteries lurk about with mentions of what they might mean doled out through conversations involving other players, administrators, and even executives within the company that created The World. Still, for the most part they feel divorced from what the main characters do, which is basically wander about with no real objective until the final volume when the mysteries are brought to the forefront once more. Shugo and Rena themselves are also a bit bland for my tastes. Admittedly they’re supposed to be twelve, but they’re so innocent, naive, and pure that they feel a bit cliché at times. The big exception to this is the odd relationship the two have. They’re siblings, so it’s natural they’d look out for each other, but they each get incredibly defensive and jealous any time the other looks at a member of the opposite sex. I’m an only child so perhaps this is a natural relationship between siblings, but it sure feels a bit odd.

The artwork is a bit cutesy and while it isn’t really to my taste, I have no major problems with it. It gets the job done even though it is a bit average and bland. Despite the lack of backgrounds, the use of tight shots on the faces, image bleeds, and a heavy reliance on toning gives it a weirdly cramped and generic feel. The character designs are fairly standard Japanese fantasy fare. Think Final Fantasy or any other Japanese fantasy RPG game that’s come out in ten years and you’ll have an idea of what to expect. Also, if you like comedic overreaction, digression into chibi-ism, and the like, you’re in luck as these occurrences are quite common throughout. The few action scenes are a bit hard to follow and lack any real visual flow or excitement. All in all, the art works with the story but feels generic and lacks any real eye-catching visuals.

Ultimately, Legend of the Twilight is a simple, inoffensive read that feels heavily slanted towards the younger crowd. The connections and hints to the previous installments of the franchise tickled my interest in the series and had me wishing the games were available for a reasonable price, but the actual story meanders a bit and had a climax that left me saying, “That’s it?”

.hack//Legend of the Twilight: The Complete Collection is available now.

Review copy provided by the publisher.