(cache) All There In The Manual - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): Its All There In The Manual

In the manual of Zelda II, we learned only we could break the curse on the princess, and that she was a hottie. And there was some stuff about a third triforce as well.

If you need instructions on how to get through the hotels, check out the enclosed instruction book.

-Mario, Hotel Mario

Information not actually mentioned within the show, but only found in other material related to the franchise. The difference between this and normal merchandising is that this information may actually be relevant to understanding the plot, making the audience wonder why the writers didn't put it in the show to begin with.

For example, many anime OVAs based on a manga begin with a One We Prepared Earlier situation and rarely explain themselves under the assumption an OVA (being an occasional test run for a series) will typically be watched by someone who has read the original manga.

Other information can be found in text novels, video games, radio dramas, and image songs, as the entire franchise is treated as a package. Though if you don't have the money for all that, your best bet is The Other Wiki.

Fairly common in anime, this is mostly unknown in American shows. However, it's very common in American comic books, possibly because of the assurance the sterotypical fan is obsessive enough to collect supplemental material. (See Ultimate Universe.)

If this material is necessary to progress in a video game, it becomes a Guide Dang It. All There In The Script is a subtrope of this, referring specifically to names.

Examples

Anime

The incidents between the Martian Successor Nadesico TV series and movie were explained in various Japanese-only video games, novels, and radio shows, leaving American fans puzzled at the movie's very different tone.
The difference between Gatekeepers and Gatekeepers 21 is staggering, due to novels and a video game.
A large amount of key information useful in understanding the story can only be found in the supplemental materials for Neon Genesis Evangelion.
- Of course, it doesn't necessarily help too much anyway...
The Koko Wa Greenwood OVA literally directs the viewer to a specific chapter of the manga to explain a reference.
- This is because the second OVA happens after the next 4 (it even refers obliquely to the plot of 5 and 6). AND it's a sequel to a story they didn't animate.
For an example of a series where all the materials are becoming officially translated for the West, see .hack//SIGN and its sequels - to get the full story, you need to watch a 26 episode anime series, play four games, watch the four OVA anime episodes bundle one with each game, read four novels, and read a three volume manga (and/or watch the 12 episode anime adapted from it, but that isn't canon so it won't really help you). That's not counting the non-canon spinoffs or the sequel project, which consists of much the same combination again.
- The 3 .Hack//GU games, in fact, took place after the 26 episode series .Hack//Roots, directly continuing the story of the protagonist Haseo. However, the first GU game was released several months before the first DVD of Roots was translated and released. Therefore, gamers who had not been watching fansubs of Roots were completely in the dark about who Shino was, what had happened to her, and why Haseo was going so mental over her; especially since the game in purposefully vague on details.
  - There's going to be a third project that takes place in the real world too.
  - On the other hand, watching the anime first will completely spoil most of the plot, especially one particularly dramatic twist that occurs at the end of the second game. So it's not really clear what order these were meant to be seen in.
Pokemon - The first movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back, could not be fully understood without the CD drama "Birth of Mewtwo" to accompany it. Fortunately, it was included for American fans in the Mewtwo Returns DVD.
- Also, you could make a fair go at understanding if you had played the games, and read the diary in Cinnabar Mansion.
The Macross universe includes significant amounts of supplementary canon from books, comics, and video games in addition to the series and OVAs that were actually filmed.
Masaki Kajishima, main writer for the Tenchi Muyo OVA-verse, has regularly released supplemental material, such as novels and self-published doujinshi, with information about that continuity. One of the reasons for releasing the spinoff series Tenchi Muyo GXP before the Tenchi OVA Revival series was to introduce some of the new characters and other elements from the novels to the audience that hadn't read (or wasn't able to read) them.
Ryo Akiyama from Digimon Tamers is literally from the Digimon Adventure Alternate Universe, and thus he and his Digimon don't follow the same rules as the rest of the cast. This is all explained via the multiple video games he stars in.
- Similarly, Ken's backstory in Digimon Adventure 02 has him disappearing into the Digital World as a kid and reappearing a short time after; later, we see a scene of him adventuring with another kid and getting infected by a Dark Seed. These are both references to the game where he teamed up with Ryo.
Did someone say Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha? Wondering how Nanoha learned the Bind spell during her battle with Fate? Or who that Linith woman was in the Lotus Eater Machine? Or what the heck happened to Arf in the third season? Or what's that gift from Reinforce that Vita was talking about? The answers to these questions and more (such as scads and scads of Ship Tease) can only be found in the various Sound Stages and supplementary manga of the series.
Higurashi No Naku Koro Ni - The anime leaves out a ton of information from the arcs it covers from the game that explains the premise of the show, and leaves out the final arcs that are covered in the second season, which begins with a Time Skip episode taking place years after the last episode of the first season followed by an original arc made solely to throw in important plot points from the first six arcs that the first season left out.
- Also notable is the scene with Takano and Satoko where Takano has the group at point-blank range with her gun. She asks Satoko which is green of the two: Cauliflower, or Broccoli? Satoko answers in the anime with "Cauli-Broccoli." Takano promptly says "Correct" and shoots Satoko. Unless you had checked with online sources or had access to the original material, you'd never know Satoko was colorblind.
AIR, due to time constraints, left out certain aspects of the story; the only one that really matters is the origin of Yukito.
Well into the anime version of One Piece, the crew searches intently for a shipwright, despite passing up no fewer than four without explanation, including three that technically joined the crew (and were fired almost immediately, along with several hundred comrades). The manga delves deeper into the reasoning behind the rejections.
The Tsukihime anime leaves out a great deal of information from the game it is based on, from character backgrounds to explanations about various powers to Shiki being badass. And that's not including all the other games associated with it...
To follow on the Tsukihime entry above, the Fate Stay Night anime also leaves out quite a bit of detail concerning the plot and concepts of The Verse. Then again, a great deal of it consists of placeholder tidbits for which there is no manual, aside from vague hints in supplemental information books. Like True Magic, especially the mentioned-but-not-detailed Time Travel. And whatever Aozaki Aoko's Magic actually is.
The OVA's of Gravitation take place after nearly the entire manga, only obliquely hinting at its events in flashbacks; Yuki's troubled past isn't even mentioned.
The Melancholy Of Haruhi Suzumiya: at the end of the last (broadcast) episode Kyon intends to reveal to Haruhi all the weird things that go on around her. Once you realize that it's only episode six chronologically, it becomes a plot hole you have to read the novels to resolve.
- Not to mention the first (broadcast) episode. The talking cat, Yuki suddenly leaping on Mikuru, the extended "commercial" segments... it all makes sense when you've read The Sighs of Haruhi Suzumiya, but only then.
xxxHolic and Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle have ended up so interconnected that it is nigh impossible to understand one without reading the other. And even then you wish you had the option to phone Ohkawa and demand an explanation.
The Kiddy Grade Artbook contains a timeline for the main characters and the changes in attire as well.
Code Geass actually has quite a few forms of All There In The Manual, including Sound Episodes (released on separate CDs) as well as Picture Dramas and short story inserts with the DVDs. However, so far only one plot thread from any of these has had any relevance to the series proper. When the show was licensed in America, Bandai (the licensor) won major brownie points with the fans by announcing that all this material would be coming as well, with the Sound Episodes being part of the Limited Special Collectors Ultimate Edition package.
For Gundam SEED there is, in addition to 10 Drama CD's (six of which are set before the series starts, three set during the series, and one post-series), 10 novels that go into more detail about the characters and events, several Manga series (Gundam SEED Astray), and a few OVA's and TV specials, an official website that has a lot of extra information about the Cosmic Era...including a highly detailed Timeline that goes back about 100 years before the start of the series.
The original Mobile Suit Gundam Universal Century series is the king of the trope. Novels, sourcebooks, even supplementary material printed in model kit instruction manuals.
See also Zoids, whose main continuity (Battle Story) is almost entirely told in the model kits.
Jojo's Bizarre Adventure. The original anime series not only started in the third story arc of the manga, it starts HALF-WAY THROUGH IT. The entire thing presumed you knew exactly what was going on, which, unless you read the manga, you didn't.
- Eventually the Japanese relieved this problem by creating more OAVs that cover the first half of that story arc (with skips, of course) specifically so it would be more salable overseas. The US release of this anime shows these OAVs first, as well as including as an extra a narrated summary of the first two story arcs.
The Five Star Stories by Mamoru Nagano conatains some of the most ambitious worldbuilding in anime & manga history, a lot of which gets little exposure in the series proper. Fortunately, the English editions come with sections from the sourcebooks printed in the back of each issue, including full-colour illustrations.
Devil May Cry The Animated Series doesn't bother to fully explain Dante's connection to Trish or Lady, their respective histories being found in the first and third game. Amongst others.
Cromartie High School just flat out tells you that if you want to know certain things about the show, read the manga. Of course, it is that kind of show, after all.
The hosts for Papillon's homunculli in Busou Renkin were all humans that pissed him off for one reason or another, as detailed in their character bios in the tankobons. Good luck understanding Papillon's halucination without reading the bios first.
The entire Gungrave anime isn't just a prequel, it's The Old Testament Bible of the video game's history. Unfortunately, many game fans were be bewildered by the complete change of narrative from the action-based medium, and many who would appreciate it for its own merits were put off by an over-the-top zombie shoot-em-up the show began with.
- The artbooks provide a lot background info as well.
Any character in Axis Powers Hetalia that might come across as a Flat Character probably has most of his/her personality only displayed in the profiles. Some characters can only be seen in the author's blog.
Baccano!. Generally, the anime is relatively self-contained and understandable without turning to the Light Novels (sans one scene in episode one that is Left Hanging), but there's obviously a lot of background that doesn't find it's way in, and there's also quite a bit that goes on after the events in the anime. Good luck finding translations, though.
The canon of Weiss Kreuz is distributed across two anime series and an OAV, a good many drama CDs, and several manga and short stories. Fortunately the first anime series is pretty well self-contained, but the sequel series, Weiss Kreuz: Gluhen, relies heavily on the material from the drama CDs to make sense. Naturally, only the two anime series have been officially released to western audiences.

Comic Books

The DCU's super-hero espionage comic Checkmate has a supplemental website whose address, www.gideonii.com, was hinted at within the story. Username CARL DRAPER, password wilhelmina; subject to change. It's ostensibly the diary of a minor character within the story, written in the first person, with entries detailing various elements of the series in greater depth and hinting at future plot events.
Legion Of Super Heroes v.4 had a role-playing sourcebook that included various pieces of info and backstory not in the comic itself.
Very few of the characters in Fables get their origins explained in much detail (or at all). This is fine for say Bigby Wolf or Snow White but some of them are very obscure and Frau Totenkinder's name can't be found in an actual fable because Word Of God says she's every unnamed witch in fairytales. So the background before they come to earth is all their in the manuals, the dozens and dozens of not internally consistent manuals.

Fan Fic

Oddly enough, this troper can think of a fanfic that this applies too. In the Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha fanfic Academy Blues (As recommended here.) If you want to fully understand how some characters' powers work, and the personality of many of the Loads And Loads Of Characters, you need to read the review replies the author gives, as well as read the side stories for the series.
The same can be said of The Open Door, at least in so far as knowing more things, though to Academia Nut's credit the main story is fully comprehensible without needing the Word Of God.

Film

None of the film adaptation of The X Files is comprehensible without the help of a bonus track at the end of one of the soundtrack CDs. And even then it's still pretty bewildering.
A portion of the plot of The Matrix: Revolutions, as well as certain sections of The Matrix: Reloaded, are explained only in the video game, Enter the Matrix. Also, there's a "bridge" episode between the The Matrix and The Matrix: Reloaded in The Animatrix.
In the collector's edition DVD for 2 Fast 2 Furious, there is a special opening that details Brian's travel from California to Miami.
The movie Cloverfield has an entire backstory played out through a prequel online manga and a series of fake websites including My Space profiles, corporate sites and even a "love letter" collection of videos.
Good luck trying to figure out what was going on in Donnie Darko without going to the website. And even then...
- The Director's Cut explains things a bit more.
A classic example: If you're mystified by movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, try the Arthur C Clarke novel of the same name. It even has a nifty Stargate.
- This troper always felt that the book and movie complemented each other. The book explains the confusing parts of the movie including the starchild (the space fetus) and that the movie conveyed the writing through spectacular imagery. It might be because Arthur C. Clarke wrote the book while the movie was being produced.
- True. Also true that the book 2001 suffered Adaptation Displacement in favour of Kubrick's screenplay, and subsequent books followed the movie canon.
A lot of the protagonist Leonard's unexplained, highly material history in Memento is found on the Memento website.
The character of Nightcrawler was a popular part of the second X Men movie, but was mysteriously absent from the third. Apparently his disappearance is explained in a computer game released between the two.
- Aparrently, according to Game Informer, since after their review, I could not bring myself to play the game, in a single-image cutscene, Nightcrawler is shown being sent to hell.The single-image cutscene thing is one thing the game is notorious for. Really well-graphiced characters for play, crappy controls, and shoddy paintings with dialogue for cutscenes.
Star Wars took this a bit too far in the Prequels. Nothing in the films really tells us what the Sith are, aside from the fact that they use the dark side of the force. So "Revenge of the Sith" loses something in that we never really learn what the revenge is for, without knowing the details from the Expanded Universe. But considering that's kind of an important part for the motivation for every other thing Palpatine does, that's not something to just assume the audience doesn't need to know.
- The explanation for why General Grievous has robot asthma in Revenge of the Sith is found in the Clone Wars cartoons that were on Cartoon Network between the fifth and sixth movies.
  - Hell, General Grievous himself was only introduced in those cartoons. For people that watched the fifth and sixth movies without watching the cartoons, he quite literally came out of nowhere. He's the second character in the Expanded Universe to actually make it into a canon movie, following Aayla Secura going from Expanded Universe comics to a role in the fifth and sixth movies.
  - Let's not forget that most of the central event of the prequels — the Clone Wars and Anakin's involvement therein — happened only in the random kid's cartoon. Meanwhile, Lucas thought it was really important to spend a whole movie on annoying baby Anakin.
- Know what the tribal hominids living in the forests of Endor were called? Sure you do! It was in the picture books, and the comics, and the sticker books, and on the toy packaging, and in all the publicity. Which is just as well, because it wasn't mentioned even once in the film Return of the Jedi... Only in the credits.
The Riddick universe certainly applies to this. Not only are there tons of special features for the two main movies that are everything from trivia to mass info on the backstory of The Necromongers (who you would know almost nothing about just from watching), and other character's pursuit logs for the main character, there's also a 30 minute anime film that shows what happened right after the end of the first movie and introduces a major character, a video game (soon to be two) showing how Riddick got his eyeshine and escaped from prison, leading up to the first film, and on the website, there's a point and click adventure game, an animated comic book, and collection of background info on all the characters in the first film and who they are. There's also a novelization of the 2nd film that has an exclusive epilogue, an exclusive mock-documentary only available on the region 2 DVD of the first film, and it just goes on and on.
Much of the background of Rose Red (the titular house featured in the miniseries) is covered in detail in The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer. Without it, its just a bunch of people going to a haunted house that hates them.
Southland Tales (by the director of Donnie Darko) apparently makes more sense when you read the comic books connected to it

Literature

It may surprise some to learn that some of the most famous parts of the Iliad—the invocation of the Achilles heel and the Trojan Horse, for instance—are not actually in the Iliad. Instead, they're in the Odyssey. Similarly, the cause of the war and the recruiting of many of the warriors are told in outside sources.
The Merchandise Driven Bionicle storyline is like this: the main story has to focus on current toy sets, so information on other characters and general world-building can be the domain of supplemental guidebooks and web-published side stories (and occasionally Word Of God). Of course, the toys themselves come with no story material whatsoever - that's in stuff like the book series or movies - so when they say it's All There In The Manual, they mean it's All There In The Manual.
There's a huge deal of background material about Middle-earth written by JRR Tolkien, if only you have enough time. First published were the appendices to The Lord of the Rings. For about twenty-five years before the publication of The Silmarillion, it was the best source of information about Middle-earth's backstory and went a long way towards giving it a historical feel. Then there are the Unfinished Tales and the 12-volume(!) History of Middle-earth. All those books have tons of information about the history, culture and languages of the peoples of Middle-earth, as well as differing or earlier drafts of the stories.
Greg Egan stuffs his stories with heady physics that is almost impossible to fully convey without diagrams and calculus. He has interactive animated simulations on his website for the confused yet still interested.
George RR Martin's A Song Of Ice And Fire series has ancillary material forming part of the role-playing games that is considered semi-canon (canon unless GRRM decides to change it) and throws some light on elements such as the history of the Targaryens and the Doom of Valyria. More important are the two 'Dunk & Egg' short stories set about 90 years before the books which cast significant light on background elements in the novels. A surprisingly large number of fans of the series remain unaware these stories even exist. The forthcoming World of Ice and Fire Book is also promised to feature extensive new canon information on the world and setting.
Similarly, Robert Jordan's The Wheel Of Time series has extensive auxilliary material available for it. Both The World of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time and Wizards Of The Coast's short-lived Wheel of Time Roleplaying Game feature extensive background information and maps that are considered canon.
- Not to mention the huge glossaries at the end of each book.
However, canon arguments are raging over the Dune universe, with the recent revelation that Frank Herbert's notes used by other authors to complete the Dune novels and write prequels were nowhere near as extensive as first claimed. As a result, some fans are now refusing to consider any of the prequel or sequel novels by Kevin J. Anderson and Brian Herbert as canon, due to the extensive level of personal invention they brought to the setting.
Amelia Atwater-Rhodes hosts her own website with a great deal of supplementary information about her vampires, shapeshifters, and their world. Even more information can be found on her forum.
A lot of the incidental information regarding characters both major and minor (including blood status, full names, birthdates, and so on) in Harry Potter has been revealed either on J. K. Rowling's website or in her many interviews. Some fans don't like Rowling's pronouncements regarding some of this information, to the point of actually claiming that Rowling doesn't have the right to decide such things, since Harry Potter is bigger than any mere writer.
Some of the canon background notes and secret information regarding Larry Niven's Known Space universe has only ever been published in the long-out-of-print and now nearly-unacquirable Ringworld roleplaying game.
The Aubrey-Maturin canon has A Sea of Words, a 500+ page lexicon and handbook for readers who can't parse the series' prolific nautical jargon, drop-in historical references, and other arcane miscellany.
Plot-wise, Ulysses is a sequel to Portrait of the Artist Of A Young Man. this isn't mentioned much

Live Action TV

Battlestar Galactica series finale infamously divided the fandom with its vague non-answers over the nature of 'God' and its refusal to explain either the 'Head-People' or what was going on with Starbuck. The Sci-Fi Channel had already approved a comic series called The Final Five which will address some of these questions: a preview of the first issue, for example, reveals that Pythia appears to have been an earlier incarnation of Starbuck and was given her visions of the future by Head-Six, whilst an earlier (and confusingly, apparently fully human) incarnation of Saul Tigh created the original Cylon skinjobs of Kobol). The comic is written by one of the TV scriptwriters with the approval of the producers: however, a caveat was added to the first issue stating that it was "An original interpretation of the story,", making its canonical status dubious. This may actually have been a wise move: having been denied their answers on TV, the dissatisfied section of the fanbase may have actually exploded to learn the real answers were being given in a comic book mere months later.
- More overtly, there were two serialised webisodes (totalling 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 true purpose of the DHARMA Initiative from Lost was only revealed in the Internet ARG The Lost Experience.
- However, the writers have specifically stated this knowledge is not crucial to understanding the show; it's meant as a bonus for viewers who want more.
  - In addition, some of the material from the game has been given in the series in a different context, making tracking down information on the game not essential to understanding the story in the series.
The extra material involved with 24 is staggering. There are book series, one-shot comics, the prequels that are only included on the DVD release (and are actually important to understanding the context of the season), and information on the various forms of the 24 website at FOX.com (which gave background information on the characters never mentioned in the show) that are crucial to understanding some characters and their subplots:
- Operation Nightfall, referenced by Jack Bauer and others during the first and third seasons, is only shown in the comic series Nightfall.
- During Day 2, a feature on the official website references a report making the rounds that has sensitive information regarding Jack's experiences on Day 1. That report is the basis of the "24: The Special Subcommittee's Findings" book.
- 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 Babylon 5 left out the conclusions of some subplots, because they were going to be covered by the (canon) novels.
- 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.
  - Also, the comics were considered canon. In a possibly ground-breaking moment, Garibaldi's out-of-the-blue announcement in the TV episode Messages from Earth that he saw a Shadow ship being excavated on Mars seven years earlier is actually a reference to a comic storyline produced a year earlier depicting his first meeting with Sinclair. Fascinatingly, this storyline also set up the departure of Talia Winters by revealing that the Psi Corps had been experimenting on her with Shadow tech at the same time.
To understand some plot points in Heroes, you have to check out the online graphic novels.
Regarding the Doctor Who episode Journey's End: The Doctor Who Adventures magazine reveals that the Doctor left Rose and his human counterpart with a chunk of the TARDIS (presumably so they can go off and have their own adventures), a detail which has a huge impact on the ending shown in the episode. The scene was shot and was boxed with the DVD set. Russell T. Davies has stated that whether we acknowledge it is our own choice.
Many of the new-gen Kamen Rider series are prone to this.
Farscape: Crichton's notes provide some musings and further information about various technology from the show. The Journey Logs, written from various characters' viewpoints, are also good sources of character insight, wit, and lampshade hanging ("Apparently Scorpy had been able to trace my DNA from the sample he took when he had me in that frelling Aurora Chair, and that enabled him to find my head. Don't ask me how that makes sense. I just work here.") in addition to being episode recaps.
- Also, you have to play the video game to find out how Crichton came to have a favorite gun that he names Winona.
Twin Peaks had several print and audio media (The Secret Diary of Laura Palmer, Diane:The Tapes of Agent Cooper, e.g.) which offered teasing insight into the developing plot.
Firefly. While Joss Whedon probably would've explained it all had the show not been screwed over so badly, if you want to know Shepherd Book's past you need to read a comic book that reveals that he was an Operative.
- Although this history is hinted at pretty broadly in the movie Serenity.
Degrassi: Whether the original or Next Generation, you always learn more about the characters from the website, DVD extras, and tie-in novels than you EVER would just watching the show. Melanie wanting to be a professional writer, or Liberty being a year younger than anyone else, for example...

Music

Parts of the backstory for the Rock Opera Space Crackers can only be found on the band's website.
Something similar exists for Gorillaz.
All of Coheed and Cambria's albums are about The Amory Wars, a sci-fi story by frontman Claudio Sanchez. The only way to truly understand the music is to read the comics, which so far have only covered about 2/5 of the saga. The rest is pretty much guesswork.
Without the stories that accompany The Residents' album Eskimo, all you'll be hearing are wind noises, tearing, and grunts.
- Though you can understand the songs on their album Animal Lover, the manual does help a bit.
Avantasia suffers from this. Sure, the music may make some coherent sense listened to by itself, but to get the entire story, you need to read the linear notes.
- Also, Blue Oyster Cult's Imaginos suffers from this. Doesn't help that they were in a botched track order by the record label...

Tabletop Games

Warhammer 40000 has a small library of rulebooks, rules supplements, codex sourcebooks, codex supplements, alternate army lists, Imperial Armour collections, Chapter Approved collections, etc, etc. And that's just the latest edition.
The metaplot in the old World of Darkness. You can play the roleplaying game without the metaplot, but the game writers scattered the metaplot and canon character background stories across various rule supplements, novels set within specific gamelines, crossover novels between the different gamelines, and computer games. Vampire: The Masquerade especially had the whole series of "clan novels" towards the End of the World metaplot. The final supplements that detailed the final fate of the various races and factions (or at least gave lazy Write Your Own Ending options to chose from) still sucked. Other people found it completely awesome, though.
Collectible Card Games do this to an extent. Sure, there are starter sets with rulebooks but if you are simply buying packs of cards you will have to go online to read up on how to play. Even if you buy the starter set you will still have to read up on the 'advanced rules' on the official site.
- This also applies to such games that try to incorporate an actual storyline spanning one or more sets due to the inherent 'snapshot' nature of card art and flavor text. Magic is one fairly prominent example — it's not hard to get a general idea of what's going on in a given setting from just the cards, but those still leave plenty of blanks to be filled in via the novels or articles on WotC's website.
- Before the Magic novels, players pretty much put the storyline together based on the snippets of flavor text on the cards (eg. Ice Age and Antiquities).

Theater

If you want to completely understand the underlying themes, vague plots, and significance of all - well, most of - the peculiar characters and acts in a given Cirque Du Soleil show, you will probably have to buy the souvenir program and/or explore the official website. According to the 20th anniversary book 20 Years Under the Sun, the creators prefer that people watch the more abstract shows (such as those of director Franco Dragone) and create their own interpretations of them rather than have the creators' ideas in mind all along.

Video Games

Explanations about the true nature of the Maverick virus in the Mega Man X and Mega Man Zero games, as well as the fate of the Guardians at the end of Mega Man Zero 3, can only be found in the Rock Man Zero Complete Works sourcebook. The events of the ELF War and the backstory for the Eight Judges from Mega Man Zero 3 are similarly only explained in Japanese drama tracks on an OST remastered CD.
- The Mega Man Battle Network and Mega Man Star Force series are full of alphanumeric codes that do various things (Number Trader codes for free stuff, compression codes to make NaviCust parts smaller, etc.) You can find some "legitimately", i.e. in-game, but not all. Where are the rest? Japan, of course. They appear in magazines, during anime episodes, and so on. Japanese fans then post them on the net so the rest of us can get them.
Pick a fighting game. Any fighting game. The apparent obligation of having optimal storylines for each character makes it so that plot essentially dissapears within the game, but it's all there, just not immediately obvious.
- Street Fighter series is particularly notorious for this, with the most of the characters' backstories being published in Japanese only publications such as game-specific special editions of Gamest Magazine or similar strategy guides/sourcebooks such as All About (insert game title here). It doesn't help matters that the English localizations of the early Street Fighter II and Alpha games had inaccurate translations (i.e: changing Cammy's past with Bison from subordinate to lover, Akuma being a demon or mass murderer, or the whole "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance" thing, which launched much Fanon). Incidentally this plot doesn't resemble the one in the action movie at all.
- Mortal Kombat has an amazingly complex (not to mention amazingly ridiculous) storyline, for example, but you wouldn't know it from playing the game. Not to mention the players don't find out which characters' endings are canon until the next game in the series is released. Mostly the main plot involves someone betraying someone else and trying to conquer the multiverse, only to be betrayed, only for the betrayer to be betrayed, only for the original betrayer taking back his throne, rinsing and repeating. Everything else involves the heroes trying to defeat/free themselves from the current overlord, and being blindsided by the next usurper. This one doesn't resemble the movies at all, either.
- Super Smash Bros Brawl is an example of a fighting game that tries to explain everything in-game, but due to lack of dialogue, multiple plot threads, and a cut sequence, it still requires the explanation page on the game's official website for a reasonable understanding of the plot. Most notably, because a scene featuring Meta Knight and King Dedede was cut from the game, you'd never know how the Subspace Army obtained the battleship Halberd, or how Dedede knew about Tabuu.
- The Rival Schools series averts this; not only do the fighting portions of each game have introductions, cutscenes and endings that (for the most part) explain what's going on and the motivations behind most of the characters' actions, but the Japan-only character creation modes in each game actually reveals even more background info about each character, as well as little known facets of their personalities. If you only play the games in English, you'd never guess Gentle Giant Boman is a fan of sunbathing, or Musical Assassin Yurika can identify a person by the sound of their footsteps.
- This is the only way you find out anything about the plot in the Virtua Fighter series, because there isn't even so much as an ending in the games.
Video game example: Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc contained several secrets that were only explained in the manual provided, making it a literal example of this trope.
- Additionally, the game uses its manual in-game to break the fourth wall during the opening level by having the character Murphy instruct Rayman by reading to him from the game's manual, occasionally commenting on the manual's various illogicalities.
The English release of the 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 largely unrelated stand-alone titles.
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.: 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 lengthy snippets from its manual upon having reached certain points in the game.
- Western text-only computer games used passages from the manual for anti-piracy, but the Infocom games often included toy-like extras to the game. Most were for amusement or to flesh out an idea in the game, but occasionally something, such as a map, would contain very important information.
  - On the other hand, nearly all of the second-generation (SCI) and third-generation (SCIV) Sierra games that don't have actual copy protection claim, right at the start, that you need "information from the manual" to complete the game, whereas in fact that isn't true. In some cases you do need information from the hint line, though.
Important new plot points are set up in the Japanese only special editions of Kingdom Hearts. Not Japanese? No story expansion for you.
- You also need the spinoff on the GBA to understand some of the plot points of the second game. Which like the first is a PS 2 game.
  - In an odd surprise from Squenix, Re: Chain of Memories is coming out in the other regions (December 2008 for US players - not sure about EU). For those not in the know, this is a remake of the GBA game - for the PS 2. Still...
  - In a complete lack of surprise, the above mentioned game won't be released in Europe. Because, Square-Enix really hates Europe.
Speaking of Square-Enix games, the word "Utlimania" must be mentioned. These monstrous manuals easily contain a hundred pages for a short book. Most of them are suitably Bible-sized 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.
An almost direct subversion in The Elder Scrolls games. None of it is in the manual. You have to dig around through in game supplemental material to make sense of the setting and the plot. Some fans have assembled an online archive of the game supplemental material.
Pretty much all of Touhou's plot and characters exist outside the games themselves.
Most of the Warcraft lore is found in the novels, also Lord of the Clans is about Thrall's rise from a slave to the Warchief of the Horde, and is important to know why the Orcs went from being Always Chaotic Evil to Proud Warrior Race.
- Although Warcraft Adventures would have had that info apparently - they just canceled the game so it was all put in books.
  - That said, the more basic information about it really is All There In The Manual.
  - Or, more simply, here.
The Halo series has several examples, but halo.wikia.com has the details.
- Halo 2 ends at the start of an epic battle. Halo 3 starts at the end of the same epic battle. The battle itself is covered in a comic book.
- Even more so, the original Halo begins with the characters having just discovered the installation. What happened before that is covered in Halo: The Fall of Reach. Another novel, First Strike, explains what happned between the first and second games (like Johnson's survival).
- One has to read the comics, novels, and web blogs (maybe) to find out why the Grunts and Hunters joined the Brutes.
- Only the extended fiction explains why the powerful and numerous Brutes are not seen in the first game.
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance and its sequel Radiant Dawn had its backstory explained at the official Japanese website for the series, namely that ~~Sephiran~~ Lehran and Altina founded Begnion together and they were the first couple to bear a Branded child.
Backstory for Portal can be found at the Aperture Science website (LOGIN, CJOHNSON, TIER3 or http://www.gamespot.com/pc/action/portal/show_msgs.php?topic_id=m-1-38815824&).
Trying to make at least some sense of Metal Gear Solid 2's immense Gainax Ending? See The Document of Metal Gear Solid 2 which explains some things such as the existence of both real and AI Rosemarys. All this and more were eventually compiled into the free-for-PS 3-owners Metal Gear Solid Database.
- Although it is heavily implied in Metal Gear Solid 3, the Metal Gear Solid 4 Database is also the only place you'll find a direct confirmation that Ocelot is the son of The Boss and The Sorrow.
Included and averted in the Myst games
- There is a very detailed backstory available in the books that is never more than hinted at in the games.
- While the first game had very little in-game story until the end, later games have character interaction movies and clips as you go through it.
- It didn't help that Myst wasn't supposed to stand alone, and until Riven came out, we couldn't guess why Atrus was falling into space and dropping books.
A horrifyingly bad example is the (also horrifyingly bad) video game Microcosm. Apparently, it takes place on another world in the distant future, involves a multi-generation war between megacorporations, an assassination attempt, and Cyberpunkish corporate espionage. You wouldn't know this from playing the game…it's a rail shooter with controls that makes Baby Jesus cry himself to sleep at night, and an opening FMV that is almost as long as The Godfather II but explains NOTHING about the labyrinthine story. The manual's story lasts for, if i recall, more than twenty pages, including a three or four chapter story, an atlas of the fictional future star system it takes place in and an long essay on why the megacorporations are fighting and how crappy their planet is. All this for a rail shooter that would have to be as bad as Superman 64 to be run-of-the-mill.
Mass Effect seems to be heading this way. The available in-game Codex offers incredibly detailed information on everything from Asari biology to element Zero. In addition, the two novels offer and expand upon the Back Story and provide additional information.
- Not quite so bad, the novels flesh out in greater detail aspects of the story which are easily followed in game. While the codex is more detailed, many of the topics are usually mentioned at some point in the game dialogues.
- And most of the information in these areas isn't necessary to understand the game's main story, only some of the backstory behind the world (which you can also dig out through conversations).
Xenogears had most of its entire second disk removed from the plot due to rushed development, and much of its plot only becomes clear in the Japanese-only Perfect Works.
As it is, killer7 is undoubtedly one of the most bizarre video games ever created, so naturally the developers put out a companion book, Hand In killer7, that provides some backstory and explaination to the game's characters and events. Though this information is hardly any less confusing than that provided by the game itself, and often outright contradicts the game altogether.
- Also, to understand who the characters are (especially some of the characters not in cut scenes, like Coyote and Con) you have to read the manual with the game. It's also nigh IMPOSSIBLE to solve some of the puzzles without this information.
Homeworld has a large manual which describes the history and technology of your faction leading into the campaign, and goes into quite a bit of detail. However, the intro cutscene usefully summarizes the parts which are directly important.
- The sequel, Homeworld: Cataclysm, also provides a long, detailed backstory in the manual, along with descriptions of all of your ships and a lot of enemy ships. Again, though, the really important backstory is summarized in game.
- Homeworld 2 plays this straight, though. To really understand the backstory and what's going on, you need to either have shelled out $20 for the strategy guide or waited until the developers released their internal history documents onto the web.
The original version of Lucas Arts' Loom included a 30-minute introduction on an audio cassette. However, if you've got a pirated version lacking the cassette, you can play the game without missing much.
Suikoden IV's final boss is actually quite an appropriate end to the game, seeing as it's the ultimate source of all Rune Cannon ammunition, and its presence at Fort El-Eal was what allowed the Kooluk to make their giant Rune Cannon superweapon. Its destruction also means that no more Rune Cannons may be made, which is undeniably a Good Thing given how much trouble they've caused. Of course, since this is never addressed in the actual game, if you never read the backstory for the game, which is published separately, it just looks like a Giant Space Flea From Nowhere.
- Suikoden is actually notorious for throwing in what seem to be random plot elements and eliminating others that would have had the plot make more sense. (Wanna know who Nash is or why Luca Blight really hates his Dad? Hope you can read Japanese because all of that info is in the untranslated Suikoden text and tactic games...)
  - Or there's always reading between the lines. Chris's chapters give some clues as to Nash's character, but don't retread what should have been revealed in the preceeding game had Konami bothered to translate it. As for the latter, Jillia herself stops just shy of outright saying what's eating her brother, which is understandable since she's the product of the rape. She meant it literally when she said "My brother won't listen to me. To him, I'm no different from 'the enemy'".
Bust A Groove, a little-known rhythm game for the PSX, was a game entirely about having dance battles with people ranging from twelve year olds and disco playboys to a thirty-foot tall robot and twin aliens. The game itself offers absolutely no explanation for these battles, or the characters themselves for that matter. The manual reveals that the characters are battling one another in order to receive their heart's desire using Dance Power. These wishes are vaguely alluded to in each character's ending cinematic, but never stated outright due to ever character being a Silent Protagonist.
- The sequel has the same problem, though it's compounded by the fact that not even the booklet describes the game's plot, just each character's backstory.
The real name of the protagonist of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is never given in the video game; he is for the most part referred to by his Code Name, "Starkiller", which many fans erroneously assumed to be his real name. The novelization based on the game, however, gives his real name as Galen Marek.
Semi-inverted in Half Life 2. Most of the information revealing what happened between HL 1 and 2 is accessible in the game, but tends to be hidden away in newspaper cuttings on noticeboards or if you are prepared to sit through all of Dr. Breen's mind-numbingly boring video speeches or spend over ten minutes going triggering every last possible line of dialogue from the 'Wise Vortigaunt'. The strategy guide and the Raising the Bar companion book are only needed to point out where this information is located within the game itself (obviously the Internet also now achieves this purpose).
American McGee's Alice, in the deluxe addition, comes coupled with an illustrated "casebook" of Alice from the insane asylum she's staying in. It gives many details about the causes of particular events in the corrupted Wonderland, as well as giving hints about proper ways to defeat certain enemies and bosses.
You'd be surprised what you can find in Japanese game manuals. For example, in The World Ends With You, only the Japanese manual has reference to the fact that the abilities of every Player is tied to at least one pin. Yes, this means that Mr. Mew is controlled (partially) via pin (it's called Groove Pawn, by the way).
Bad or hasty localization can also cause this. The Game Cube version of Ikaruga only had the basic story outlined in the manual. Everything else was supposedly in game... but it was removed and not even the Japanese remains. Granted, you'd be lucky to even read half of it before it disappeared, but at least it was there in the other versions.
First Encounter Assault Recon comic has extra information regarding Fettel's cannibalism: to gain victims' memories.
Alpha Centauri has this in spades. Additional information on the faction leaders' personalities, the backstory of the game before arriving on Planet, trivia on the planet and the solar system of Alpha Centauri...you name it.
Psychonauts only recently got a complementary, developer-made Wiki, which you can find here. It also quenches some of the fan speculation, such as revealing the name of Razputin's father (Augustus, for you fanfic writers) and confirming the long fan speculation that Raz' last name is Aquato.
Starcraft's manual contained much of the game backstory, much of which play a hand in the expansion pack's story (which barely contained any information in its manual, if it existed).
Parodying this trope, the manual of puzzle game Sub Terra contains a backstory that is not found in the actual game, but is also completely unrelated and irrelevant.
Illwinter strategy game Dominions 3 has a massive 300 some-odd page manual including a complete list of the hundreds of spells and a description and sample strategy for all of the myriad nations, alongside the admittedly limited backstory to the game.
- And that still doesn't include stats for most of the national units, details on many unit attributes and spell effects, province stats, etc.
A certain code in the game 'Star Tropics' was revealed only by following an in-game character's cryptic suggestion to dip a certain document in water... the aforementioned document being an actual real document packaged with the game. Without the code, you can't progress.
Dreamweb originally came with the "Diary of a (Mad?) Man", which greatly fleshed out the main character, his mental problems, and the world he lives in. In fact, the story of the diary is far more detailed than the game itself.
Although Sword of the Stars gives you a fairly comprehensive info-dump on the in-game universe inside the game, reading the supplementary novel and following the game's forum provides a wealth of supplementary material: The game's story writer is a sci-fi novelist, and likes to frequent the game's forum to answer fluff questions from the fans.
The original DOOM explains the backstory in a text file that comes with the game.
Think you've found a plot hole in one of Kinoko Nasu's visual novels? Well... you may be right. But it's just as likely that Nasu has addressed that very point somewhere, though maybe not in the same route or even the same game. There are so many rules to Nasu's universe that even hardcore fans have trouble keeping them straight.
Super Metroid gave Samus two undocumented moves: the wall jump and the shinespark. These moves aren't in the manual; instead, they're in the demos, and there are also a bunch of animals who demonstrate them for you (of course, this doesn't tell you what buttons to press). Since then, all the 2D games have included these moves — and maintained the tradition of not documenting them.
- Super Metroid actually had a third secret move seen only in the demo: the Crystal Flash, a last-ditch recovery technique. The conditions and method for performing this one are so specific that only Nintendo Power readers had a chance of learning it.
Flashback came with a short comic book explaining the story. The key details are given in the second level, with a few minor characters and events missing.
Infamous aversion: The manual for Action52 was quite inaccurate.

Web Original

In Erika's New Perfume, though you pick up on three of them most of the perfume's possible effects are only revealed in a diagram sketch.
League Of Intergalactic Cosmic Champions falls into this with several characters introductions being deleted off the web, information revealed in other cybersoap boards & author fics giving backstory.

Webcomics

Misfile If you really want to understand how the Celestial Depository works and the effects of reversing the misfile, and find out just how Tempest has such a cool mountain racetrack you need to have read the "about" section on the website, read the Ask Ash column, and ordered the print books so you could read the liner notes.
The Cyantian Chronicles: There is the 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.
Order Of The Stick has a couple of prequel books that explain a few of the more obscure points in the story. The first book, On the Origin of P Cs, details what the various characters were doing before they all met, and other details, such as where the name "Order of the Stick" comes from ( because there's a stick on the ground). The second prequel book, Start Of Darkness (which is the Trope Namer, incidentally), gives a lot of exposition on the villains of the story, such as why Redcloak despises the paladins so very much, or how they met the Monster in the Darkness.
Girl Genius has a whole Wiki of its own, as well as the Secret Blueprints (which may or may not be canon but are accepted as 'close enough' by most fans with access to them), several trade paperbacks (the latest issue of which contains a few extra pages that were never published), and The Works - a strategic card game that contains several cards depicting people who haven't been seen yet, and some information about people we have seen that hasn't been confirmed in-comic yet (for example: Klaus's card was one of the first confirming pieces of evidence that he's a construct, although the FAQ and his Wiki article explicitly state it. Then there's the whole business about the Other, whose true identity - while canonically confirmed as Lucrezia Mongfish in the comics - is still widely unknown by the majority of the cast and is still a subject of speculation among fans (possibly because the speculators don't quite want to believe that Lucrezia would actually do something that would kill her own son.) Not to mention that it might be a bit difficult to keep track of just what happened when without that nifty time-line...
Sluggy Freelance has some background information that's available only to "Defenders of the Nifty" (the strip's membership program), including the secret history of Agent Rammer and what exactly Aylee groping Zoe's breasts looked like.
DMFA has the Demonology 101 pages, which give details about Furrae and its races (some of which aren't even mentioned in the actual comic). In the Hybrid Genetics 101 pages, the creator's assistant, Fluffy, expresses disdain for giving so much information about stuff who will probably never make to the comic.

Western Animation

In Avatar The Last Airbender, a large amount of supplementary information such as the history and details of locations or the names and background info of minor characters and animals comes from Nickelodeon website and DVD Commentary. The creators have since expanded on this and additional info can also be found within the four Lost Scrolls books, based on screenplays of the show.
- The second All-Avatar Nick Mag, in itself a collaboration of writers of the show and acclaimed comic artists, which contains comics that serve as a bridge for the time jump that occurs between the second Season Finale and the season three premiere.
Lampshaded (a bit more literally) in Toy Story 2, when Rex discovers the player's guide to a video game he's been trying to beat. He cries indignantly, "They make it so you can't beat the game unless you buy this book! It's extortion, is what it is." Later in the film, the tip on how to beat the game (enter the villain's lair through a secret side entrance) is used in the real world when the toys sneak into their own villain's apartment.
The Total Drama Island Interactive flash site at the Cartoon Network and Teletoon sites has bios for all the 22 campers for the show. This has very useful information for campers that got voted of early like Eva and Noah, who got very little character development.
The Art of Kung Fu Panda has all kinds of intriguing easter eggs: scrapped character designs and whole characters, like Po's mother and all the Mooks who originally worked for Tai Lung before he was deemed more frightening all by himself as a one-man army; the latter included the Wu Sisters (three snow leopard assassins), wolves and crocodiles and goats (who appear in Po's Dream Sequence), and a four-armed yak god demon on fire. Also, explanations as to how Oogway came to the Valley of Peace, why all the villagers are pigs and sheep, lost locations (like an alkali flat, a bandit inn, and two immense statues of a snow leopard and panda kung fu masters on which Po and Tai Lung were to fight), and much more.
- The Wu Sisters made it into the Kung Fu Panda video game, as did the wolves and crocodiles, though they're not so much subservient to Tai Lung as they are trying to win his favour. The game also features Tai Lung's training arena, though this may or may not be a Dream Sequence.
Each episode of The Clone Wars is accompanied by a comic, episode guide, and creator commentary on the official site. While these normally just contain trivial info, they were all but necessary to watch the "Dooku captured" episodes. The comics explained Anakin's voluntary capture and showed how Anakin and Obi-wan got drugged, the episode guide explained how Dooku lost his sabers (the monkey-lizard pickpocketed him!) and the commentary video was Filoni explaining that he believed even Dooku can be captured by pirates if he's sufficiently outnumbered.
When Lilo And Stitch The Series was still in production, Jess Winfield kept in touch with the fanbase at TV.com and helped confirm numbers, names, and functions of each expiriment featured on the show. With Leroy and Stitch, all we need to find out are the remaining functions. Oh, and among other things, he confirmed that the 628 pod seen at the end of Experiment 627's episode was just a throwaway joke.