Sigir and Tsukasa

[Saiden]

First of all I would like to point out that I have seen only the first two episodes of .hack//Sign, therefore if I use as an argument a fact that is explained in later episodes, please correct me.

After the first two episodes of .hack//Sign it struck me as rather odd, how much Tsukasa resembles Sigir from "Last Soul's Dream". Here are the resemblances I noticed so far:

- They are both stuck in what can be considered an alternate reality or a parallel universe (Tsukasa in "The World" and Sigir in the Overnet) and cannot return to our world (Tsukasa is not in front of a computer and [presumably] his body is dead. Sigir cannot return to our world because his body is dead, and his Ka isn't strong enough yet to manifest itself in our world.)

- They both found ways to cope with their situation ("If I think that I don't need to log out, and not that I can't log out, it's not that big of a deal" - Tsukasa. Sigir also doesn't really mind being stuck in the Overnet, he only minds the lack of normal humans [or humans overall] to talk to.)

- They both posses powers superior to most other characters (Tsukasa's guardian, server switch ability, and probably a lot more... Sigir's development of water and time aspects to such a degree that creating a tsunami is a rather mundane task for him.)

- They both have strange attitudes toward the other characters (Tsukasa first wanted Mimiru to ignore him, and after a while wanted to meet her [all right, he did it after receiving a "nudge" from his "supervisor", but you get the point.]. Sigir first met Kage only to make him find out who he is [and thus cause Weissblum some trouble], and kept a rather distanced manner toward him, but after Kage found out, what Sigir wanted him to find out, Sigir continued to meet him "for the fun of it".)

- They both prove hazardous to those that want to help / understand them (Tsukasa's guardian attacking Mimiru and Bear, Sigir directing a Tsunami at the Raiders after realizing that Kage doesn't remember him.)

- They are both viewed as a potential threat / unwanted piece of the puzzle by some higher power (Tsukasa's being hunted by the Scarlet Knights, probably due to the orders from Oraka and Barmunk, or maybe even someone more important, and clearly someone who has a strong position in the government / politics. Weissblum would also be happier if Sigir would stay dead instead of turning out alive, and would probably get the Raiders to kill him if he wouldn't be so powerfull.)

- They are both gray-haired teenagers (K', I know some of you might point out that Sigir always looks different when he appears, but remember that his original body had gray hair.)

Those are all the resemblances I have found so far. Any comments greatly appreciated.

[Fatal Outlaw]

a couple of thigs:

-Tsukasa's body in the real world isnt presumed dead. you'll know more in episodes 10-12

-Orca and Balmung (the real names, those fansubebrs are weird...) did not order anyone to hunt down Tsukasa. actually...well, its spoilers, you'll know in episode 5.

anyhow, id like to see Last Soul's Dream...can you tell me what exactly it is?

[KASHANKA]

I was lucky enough to get my hands on a large portion of "Last's Soul's Dream"

It's a manga made in Europe (probably Germany) by some student one Wilhelm Klave, but it is said that its just a nickname.

Here is the story short (and without much spoilers):
In 2048 the world is divided between two major militar-economical blocks: The "Allies" consisting of USA, Russia and some satelite states, and the second one the "UNITY" consisting of the former Europeean union, some eas europeean countries and Japan. Both sides are hostile to each other and are on the bink of war.

In Europe an organisation called NSR (Netsafe research) found the gates to a strange dimension they called the OVERNET. The leader of NSR director Weissblum (one of my favorite characters) belives that the OVERNET holds in itself great powers and among them the power to "Save humanity from death" thus making humans immortal.
NSR forms a small unit of "Raiders" - specialy trained people (mostly children in their teens) with certain mental abilities. Their goal is to take control of the OVERNET. Among them are the main characters of the manga like Tenshi Kage, Firebird and Nemesis.

Quickally the US also gets acces to the OVERNET and the battle for the control of the dimension starts.
But soon it turns out that NSR has more secrets inside and that there are more than just humans in the OVERNET, strange non human entities await to get their hands on the great power ofthe OVERNET.

The overall plot is quite complex, and new mysteries are revealed as the story commences. When the reader thinks he finally knows what is exactly going on, more questions appear... its quite mysterious.

What I like most about this manga though are the characters.
They are very well developped, and what I like - they aren't a group of your typical heroes. Not at all. Some of them are a bit psychotic, some of them hate the other Raiders, some of them freak experiments of NSR...
It all gives "Last's Soul's Dream" an overall dark and chilly feeling.

In my opinion its the best European manga, and one of the best I ever read. Up to this day its my personal favorite.

The publishing of this manga also has a story of its own, and not a very nice one too:
"LSD" was supposed to be published in Germany, USA and Japan, and everything was going well... The first part was published in Germany (sadly written in in German).
Than the entire wave of problems appeared.
The US censorship turned down this manga as beeing anti-american (This is totaly not true, the author shows that all sides making war, including Europe, Japan and the US are wrong). And thus I belive that the US edition never came to life.
Soon (afther the 3rd part was published) the German censorship also banned this manga. I don't know the exact reason, rumor goes that it was a bit too bloody.
Than the author wrote that because of his works beeing banned in Germany and USA, he has not enough money to publish it in Japan. I haven't got any more data on the Japanese version.
There are more parts beyond part 3 (I've seen some up to part 18) but they are not officially for sale, and the only places to get them are some convents where one can get the "Underground" version. "Underground versions are usually xerocopies of his manga or sometimes just the screenplay.
But the sad :( truth is that "Last's Soul's Dream" is extremaly difficoult to find, and if it wasn't for one of my friends who visits otaku convents regularly I would never have seen this fine piece of manga.