Title: Volume 2: Infection
Author: Miu Kawasaki
Series: .hack//Another Birth
Publish Date: October 10, 2006
Publisher: TokyoPop
Format: Paperback
Goodreads Summary:
Akira – also known as Black Rose – keeps fighting to save her younger brother’s consciousness from The World. But as she becomes immersed in the online game, Black Rose is beset by even further problems in the real world.
Review: For the second book in the series, this one always felt a little… slow. I remember reading it the first time on an Amtrak from Orlando, Florida to Newark, New Jersey, and just not really enjoying it nearly as much as the first book, Infection.
Akira continues to live this double life, both active in her school sport of tennis and taking more responsibility with her family, while also continuing her journey through The World with Kite and their slowly growing friend group. The trials and tribulations they go through mostly follow the games (the source material), but having certain actions through Akira’s eyes makes some of the prose feel lost or chunky.
One thing I will give this volume credit over the previous is that the author seemed to have a better grasp on the characters and source material. Things are somewhat more explained, and the main character’s personalities seem to be closer aligned to the games. Some of Kite and Black Rose’s dialogue remains flipped, but it is much less jarring in this volume compared to the original.
As a nostalgia read, coming back nearly fifteen years later still makes me wish I had played through the entire series on PS2. (I only owned the first game due to being a late adopter of the Playstation, and by that time the series was basically over and the newer games were being released, and re-released, and remade, and I’m not bitter that the originals are ignored. No. Not at all.)
Rating: 3.5/5 (Rounded up for Goodreads)
Goodreads Goal 12/52
[Edit note:] This book was originally reread in June 2020. The review of this one (as well as the final two in the series, were delayed due to some personal life things. I’m playing catchup right now! This review had been started (in a slightly different format) when I had to step away, so please forgive the shortness. My notes just weren’t that good for this one (or the sequels, lol).
