#This dialogue was pretty (there were some typos and some weird translations that felt a bit fanon translated though?) and I doubt

[otakween]

.Hack//G.U.+ (Volumes 1-5) - Final Thoughts 

Okay, my brain is going to be so scattered by the time I get through all these different versions of G.U. I feel like I’m going to forget what’s canon and what’s not. The movie, manga, and novels are alternate re-tellings but the changes they make are so random that I don’t really understand why they bothered. You would think it would be due to time restrictions but the manga was 5 volumes!! I don’t think they needed to change anything in this case. 

Thoughts:

-I would say this was better than XXXX but the storytelling was still very rough. If somebody picked up this manga without prior knowledge they would be 100% lost for sure. (Heck I was kind of lost and I know everything there is to know!) The fact that it was 5 volumes compared to XXXX’s two volumes allowed it to be less rushed at least.

-The art isn’t hideous but the anatomy is wonky and the action scenes are VERY hard to follow. Many times a character would react in shock and I would have no idea what they were reacting to.Also, Pi’s boobs are just beach balls in this.

-The translation work was pretty dang sloppy. Lots of typos and weird localized names of things. 

-Just like Cubia in XXXX, I was not a fan of Kazumi’s character. He felt very shoe-horned in at the last second and had the generic “power-hungry” villain motive. Also, his design looks like a vocaloid reject lol

-Shino was weird in this. When she woke up she was basically like “lol not interested” to Haseo and then was obsessing over Ovan. Also, she apparently was willingly attacked by Ovan...okaaay.

-The manga dialogue simultaneously cranks the gay up to 11 while being all “no homo” by pairing Haseo and Ovan off with Shino and Atoli. That’s some vintage, queer baiting bullshit.

-I feel like the only thing that made this manga worthwhile was the attention to the characters’ real life selves. It’s a shame that we only learn these details in the manga which isn’t even 100% canon?? Does that mean their IRL appearances aren’t canon? People act like they are...It was weird that they kept using Haseo’s real name in-game repeatedly. Like...why suddenly call him Ryou Misaki? 

-It was pretty depressing when it showed Ryou and Chigusa IRL and Ryou was a total asshole to her? Chigusa even said “you’re not like Haseo” which just makes it feel like their game relationship was a lie. It would have been better if there was a IRL follow-up at the end. I need closure that Ryou has a nice side like Haseo!

-It cracked me up when Shino just showed up at the end like “Wat I miss?” Lol thanks for nothing. -Insert “Shows up late with Starbucks” meme-

-I didn’t realize the Kuhn was Sieg!! (Or maybe I just forgot lol). I enjoyed the little Liminality reference. It’s kind of annoying how they are super vague about all the connections to the original series though. “Seven years ago there was a CERTAIN boy who loved a CERTAIN girl.” Just say the names! 

-It was nice to get some extra character interaction: Pi and Kuhn, Zelkova and Aina, Atoli and Haseo having some realistic banter about the network crisis... 

-I suppose they called it “GU +” because it elaborated on the ending of the first 3 games but now that there’s a 4th game the name doesn’t really work haha

All in all this was a pretty rocky read. A lot of the dialogue was just bland exposition from the games, the art was hard to follow at times, and they rearranged plot elements in confusing ways. I’m still glad I read it, however, because it brought in some real life snippets that I thought the games and Roots were really lacking.

I give .Hack//G.U.+ Vol. 1-5 a 5 out of 10