.hack//G.U.+, vol. 1

Story by Tatsuya Hamazaki with Art by Yuzuka Morita (corrected)
Released in the US by TokyoPop


Slugline: Griefers can cause real grief over the fuzzy line of reality and the computer in the .hack world.

I may be one of the five people on the planet that doesn't know or apparently care that much about the .hack franchise. I do like the fact they are talking aboutgriefers AKA Player-Killers. Those are the folks whose game is to deny others the game. But many of the other elements of the story come from any one a half dozen cyberpunk, the computer is alive style games that date all the way back to TRON. Oh look, player's injuries affecting their real life status, the idea of rogue systems, missing mentors wandering back into people's life and so on. Add into it a heavy amount of the traditional fighting story elements, such as revenge and the desire for one to be stronger, as if you can suddenly add muscle mass just by yelling really loudly. Yet I am still giving this an average rating, despite those issues. Maybe I have been reading too muchshoujo and the like recently, but I do find most of the characters well done and they take full advantage of the possibility of the non-logical appearance in the computer world and run with it. If I had just read a bunch ofshonen I would have been less forgiving, but I find this okay, even if it does not make much of an impression.



.hack//G.U.+, vol. 1 is also available from Right Stuf, Intl., an online retailer specializing in anime and manga.

-Ferdinand