All There in the Manual: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:zelda_2_backstory_5390.jpg|link=Zelda II the Adventure of Link (Video Game)|
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* The ''[[Sakura Taisen]]'' [[OAV|OAVs]] and movie are based on (and mostly continuations of) the games. Somehow America got the former without the latter.
* Random splash pages in ''[[Fairy Tail (Manga)|Fairy Tail]]'' will be entirely dedicated to a character. When it's a main character (or a minor one with a decent amount of attention) like Erza or Elfman, it will tell you random things like how Erza terrorizes fashion designers into making her armor of Elfman once lost a bird and never realized the one he found was not the same. If it's a background character who get's roughly one line per arc (at best) It will give detail into their past and personality.
* Overall, the original [[Light Novel]] series of ''[[Slayers]]'' goes into detail of how the magic system and the like works better than the anime does, but not in clarity, as both forms of media tend to contradict themselves. The only true "manual" for the series is a long series of interviews by creator [[Word of God|Hajime Kanzaka]], and he [[Flip
** Also, there are two radio dramas that act as extensions of the ''Slayers Premium'' [[Non
* Some information in ''[[Naruto]]'' can only be found in databooks. The different Bijuu were revealed in the databooks weeks before they were in the actual manga, and the names of the other Jinchuuriki and Kage's can only be found in the supplementary materials.
* At the end of every ''[[Mirai Nikki]]'' volume, there is an [[Omake]] that may explain certain things that were not very obvious, such as how and why the 3rd, 4th and 9th were targeting each other, and how they began to focus on Yukki. It also gives a little background info on some of the other future diary holders.
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* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' has a whole bunch of stuff contained in non-show stuff. Hell, the universe is continued in the comics.
* The miniseries ''[[Rose Red]]'' has a tie-in novel that fills in some of the background. Not required, but nice. Unfortunately, it refers to a website with lost excerpts from the novel (including one that implies [[Ho Yay]] between Ellen and Sukeena), but that site is gone.
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Reimagined
** More overtly, there were two serialised webisodes (totaling 30 minutes each) preceding Seasons 3 and 4.5 which expand on many important elements. The Season 3 webisodes show life on Cylon-occupied New Caprica, how Duck and Jammer ended up where they were in the opening episodes of S3, how Tigh and Tyrol's morality was gradually eroded until they were willing to consider the use of suicide bombers and more. The Season 4.5 ones are even more important as they show exactly how Felix Gaeta lost faith in the battlestar's command crew, setting up later events in the series, and explain why he stabbed Baltar and lied on the stand in late Season 3. The existence of these webisodes is not well-known outside of the USA, as they tend not to be included on the Region 2 DVD releases.
*** The 4.5 webisodes haven't been included on ''any'' DVD releases.
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** The ''24'' video game shows how Max, the mastermind behind the events of Day 2, is cornered and killed. It also focuses on Kim Bauer's first day on the job as a CTU intern.
** The season four prequel shows Jack being fired from CTU, and with his new girlfriend, Audrey. The fifth-season prequel shows how Jack was discovered after faking his death for a year. While the Day 6 prequel is irrelevant, there is extra material included on the Season 6 DVD set that takes place after the day's events finish. Jack is debriefed by two fellow CTU officers, and gives background information on himself.
* The show ''[[
** In fairness, most of them were. The ''Legions of Fire'' trilogy explained how we got from Londo becoming Emperor to Centauri Prime being ablaze 17 years later (as seen in various flash-forwards), whilst the Passing of the Techno-mages trilogy explained how Morden survived the nuclear explosion on Z'ha'dum and why the Shadows apparently didn't have any AA batteries protecting their capital city. Interestingly, whilst allowing the novels to expand and even resolve important plotlines from the show, JMS drew a line at explaining how the virus afflicting Earth in ''Crusade'' was eliminated in case he was able to revisit the series later on: a character in the Centauri books starts explaining it but gets interrupted.
** In the first series of novels, both "The Shadow Within" and "To Dream in the City of Sorrows" are also considered canon. The first deals with what actually happened to the Icarus, Anna Sheridan, and Morden on Z'Ha'Dum. The other describes in more detail Sinclair's early days as the ambassador to Minbar, as well as the conclusion of Catherine Sakai's storyline, the first reactivation of the Rangers, and why Sinclair's hair is white in the whole [[Negative Space Wedgie|Babylon 4 storyline]]. The second is especially tasty because it has a buttload of info, due to the fact that it's written by JMS's ''wife'', Kathryn Drennan.
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*** The first four issues of the comic also revealed all of what happened to Sinclair, and how he ended up as the Earth ambassador to Minbar. A miniseries called "In Valen's Name" described the final fate of Babylon 4 and showed some of Sinclair's tenure as Valen.
* To understand some plot points in ''[[Heroes (TV)|Heroes]]'', you have to check out the online graphic novels.
* Regarding the ''[[
** A much worse ''[[
* Many of the new-gen ''[[Kamen Rider]]'' series are prone to this.
** Although, this is usually minutiae such as weapon or attack names or height and weight. You don't need to know that [[Kamen Rider Kiva]]'s Rider Kick is called the Darkness Moon Break and that it has the strength of 30 tons of TNT to enjoy the show.
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*** At one point, the manual actually talks back!
* The English release of the ''[[Galaxy Angel (Video Game)|Galaxy Angel]]'' manga includes an ''actual'' manual detailing things that the writer left out from the game.
* A companion volume to the ''[[Wild Arms]]'' series reveals that, appearances to the contrary, they actually ''are'' directly related to each other -- large time gaps and Filgaia's remarkable disaster-proneness obfuscates this, making most of the games appear to be [[Non
* Really common in early (before the mid-80s, approximately) video games. With low resolution and limited storage space, most games would give you no on-screen clues about what to do or why you were doing it. Even worse, many of them had manuals "translated" from Japanese by simply playing the game and making up a new story, leading to some fun confusion when sequels (on later systems with on-screen story) follow the Japanese plot, not the US plot.
** Many plot-heavy early games (I.E.: [[Role Playing Game|RPGs]]) had literal all there in the manual plots. Partially as an anti-piracy measure, partially to save space on the cassette/floppy, the game would instruct you to read specific [[Wall of Text|lengthy snippets]] from its manual upon having reached certain points in the game.
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** You also need [[Chain of Memories|the spinoff on the GBA]] to understand some of the plot points of ''[[Kingdom Hearts II (Video Game)|Kingdom Hearts II]]'' -- which is a [[PS 2]] game like the first.
*** In an odd surprise from [[Square Enix]], ''Re: Chain of Memories'' was released in North America in December 2008 (but not in Europe, because [[Memetic Mutation|Square-Enix really hates Europe]]). For the unaware, this is a remake of said GBA game, but on the PS2, and in Japan it came bundled with the [[Updated Rerelease]] of KHII.
*** ''[[Kingdom Hearts: 358 Days Over 2 (Video Game)|358/2 Days]]'' is pretty bad in this regard. While it's clearly intended for existing KH fans longing for backstory elaboration, anyone who just picked this up not knowing any better is going to be absolutely lost, as you need to at least understand what is going on in ''3 separate games'' to make sense of the plot: the original ''[[Kingdom Hearts]]'', ''Chain of Memories'' and ''KHII''. It doesn't stop there, though: {{spoiler|the Chambers of Repose and Waking, plot points introduced only in ''Final Mix+'', are mentioned several times}}, and {{spoiler|Ventus from ''Birth By Sleep'' makes an [[Early
* [[Square Enix]]'s "Ultimania" series. These monstrous manuals easily contain a hundred pages for a ''short'' book. Most of them are suitably [[Doorstopper|doorstoppers]] and are packed with all of the information anyone could ever want about the game and its storyline. Unfortunately, it's all in Japanese so it is up to the kindness of fan translators for this information to be shared for a broader audience.
** On a similar note, the ''Reunion Files'' book is essentially ''Ultimania'' for ''FFVII: Advent Children''. It further explains several plot elements, such as who the Remnants are and {{spoiler|the fact that they're actually inadvertently undertaking Sephiroth's will}}, amongst other things. Mercifully, it's in both Japanese and English, and a lot more is covered in the more readily-available ''Advent Children Complete'', but it's still annoying that it's only conventionally available in Japan.
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** Oddly enough, the intro in the English version almost implied that it was the same Zelda from the first game, whereas the Japanese version clearly specifies ([[Blind Idiot Translation|in badly translated English]]) that it's "Another Princess Zelda". The ''[[Nintendo Power]]'' preview of the game also implied that it was the same Zelda.
** The full name of the [[Big Bad]] of half of the franchise, Ganon, is Ganondorf Dragmire, aka Mandrag Ganon, at least in the English version. This is mentioned only in ''[[The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda a Link To T He Past]]'''s manual and when you talk to an out-of-the-way white Octorok in the Dark World (though he only mentions the Ganondorf Dragmire name).
** A mild example, but the blond Kokiri in ''[[The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Video Game)|The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time]]'' was named "Fado" on an old version of the official site. She's one of the few named Kokiri in the games, a leftover from her important status in the beta.
** There is now ''Hyrule Historia'', an encylopedia of sorts for the Zelda mythos in honor of it's twenty-fifth anniversary, which confirms or expounds on a lot of story details that were either ambiguous or outright overlooked in the series. Most notably (and to much controversy), it finally gives an official timeline of all the games to date.
* ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' does this occasionally, but subverts it with Original Generation Gaiden, which takes most of the "Manual" from the Drama CD and OAV and puts it right in the game.
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== Web Comics ==
* ''[[Misfile]]'' If you really want to understand how the [[Celestial Bureaucracy|Celestial Depository]] works and the effects of reversing the [[Ret
* ''[[Supernormal Step]]'' has all the main characters' full names, heights, weights, etc. revealed in the author's reference sheets.
* ''[[The Cyantian Chronicles]]'': There is the [http://shivae.org/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page Shivaewiki] that has information about the characters and races of [[The Cyantian Chronicles]], [[Alien Dice]], and Shivae. Although, Alien Dice and Shivae aren't parts of The Cyantian Chronicles, they are still written and drawn by the same author.
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* The ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe|Global Guardians Encyclopedia]]'' had tens of thousands of entries, detailing all kinds of fun facts, most of which never made it into any story at all. Examples include how the Las Vegas casinos dealt with superhumans who use their powers to cheat a casino (harshly), when the first flying car was released to for public purchase (1974), to how much it costs to buy a John Deere Iron Man II brand power-assist exoskeleton ($75,000), and pretty much everything in between.
* After he finished ''[[Fine Structure (Literature)|Fine Structure]]'', the author released supplementary material that didn't fit in (some canonical, some not) and started [[Word of God|taking questions]].
* ''[[Survival of the Fittest]]'' (and by extension other [[Play
* The [[Whateley Universe]] has a wiki that's maybe four or five hundred pages, most of which came from the secret [[Word of God|Canon Bible]] the authors work from, even though it's maintained by fans. It has tons of detail, even on characters we haven't seen yet and secret threats we haven't even had ''mentioned'' yet in [[Canon]].
* ''[[Trinton Chronicles]]'' also has a wiki page which is mostly kept by the author's, there is no known [[Word of God|Canon Bible]] par-say but there is a web page, a wiki page, and secret documents maintained by the creator.
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[[Category:Canon Universe]]
[[Category:All There In The Manual]]
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