BIBIR CANDU MRS.DEALOVA : Candu bagi Seorang Presdir

I was reading this and lost where I was 😔

<p>After a long wait for this manga to be translated, it certainly didn't disappoint. The artwork was stunning, breathing fresh life into the beloved .hack characters. It's truly a masterpiece, with incredible character designs (the new ones are especially impressive!). While it can get a bit tricky to follow at times and feels somewhat like revisiting the games, it offers an awesome refresher with a sharper, newer vibe. Definitely worth the read!</p>

It's a really cheerful adaptation of the .hack games. It's cute and humorous, and having Cubia as a human character makes this manga quite enjoyable. Although it's based on the games, there are many differences that I found amusing. Of course, Kite looks absolutely adorable in the manga. (I wish his personality was more like his game version and not so much like Shugo's though :/)  

You actually get to see Helba with her mask/helmet/hat thing off, which is pretty cool. At the end of volume two, you even get to see the real-life versions of Kite, Orca, and Balmung (though their eyes aren't shown, it's still intriguing...)  

Despite being a light-hearted take on the game, there are moments that made me emotional—Cubia's storyline had me tearing up like crazy. So it's not all fun and games... well, technically it *is* a game, but you know what I mean.  

If you're a .hack enthusiast, definitely check it out. If it's your first dive into .hack media, I'd recommend starting with .hack//Sign and reading the novel .hack//A.I. buster to understand the autonomy of The World better.

Alright, I'd LOVE to say this was a good series, but personally I'm glad it's only two volumes, because I got sick of some of the alterations. I know it's "based" off the games, but I see very little similarities left after one character was altered. I've been a part of the .hack fandom since it began in the States with //SIGN and the first four games.

Moving along, there will be some spoilers, but it's a two-book series and probably anyone who is reading this has already played the games anyways. The manga began with one major change that sort of ticked me off, Cubia's not a monster you fight, he's your party member! LOLWUT? So he can Data drain too, and Kite and him go off to destroy the phases to save the Lost Ones. Because of this change, portions of the plot were screwed with royally, including the Mia/Macha fight, Corbenik, amongst various other moments. Not only was the four-game and insanely-long series squished into two books, but it was altered to fit into said two books.

I honestly don't get why they even made Cubia a PC in X-Fourth. It didn't even make sense. His character was a pain and to any .hack fan it's obvious that Cubia working with Kite is just going to end badly for the party. Cubia ends up kidnapping Kite and wants to suck him up and use his power to make sure he never dies. Hey, at least BlackRose still destroyed the bracelet. Roll in the final battle, which isn't against Corbenik, it's against Morganna! Excuse me? She's never made an appearance save for voice, why would she suddenly appear to fight them, skipping Phase 8? Oh and Azure Flame God? Trying to turn it GU on us? But then again, at that point that was probably the only way to end it properly.

With this series, it's obvious that CC2 and Square-Enix are having some competition to see who can milk their golden series for more money. They know the old .hack fans will still buy it because it is what it is, and because it's .hack they'll say they like it no matter how screwy they make the plot. Though I have to hand it to CC2, they've made the most alternative realities for their cash cow.

It troubles and disheartens me that there aren't many .hack manga that truly stand out in quality. I'm not saying they're utterly terrible, but they're not something I'd usually be inclined to pick up. And this is coming from a fan of the series.

That being said, let's delve into one of these well-liked manga, .hack//XXXX.

With G.U.+ we were presented with a delightful (note the sarcasm) adaptation of the G.U. games, all squeezed into five volumes. Now with XXXX, we have an adaptation of the original .hack games, but instead of five volumes, we get two mercifully brief ones. Why is it merciful, you ask? Because even though it's horribly fast-paced, at least it wraps up swiftly.

As previously mentioned, .hack//XXXX is based on the original .hack games for the PS2. The story revolves around Kite, a player in the immensely popular MMORPG "The World". Upon starting the game, his friend and renowned player Orca takes him out to teach him the ropes. However, shortly after meeting a mysterious girl named Aura, Orca is destroyed by a mysterious monster, putting him in a mysterious coma in the real world. (Notice all the mysteries building up already?) Kite, after narrowly escaping, is then given the mysterious bracelet originally intended for Orca. Kite then vows to save Orca, no matter what. Along the way, he gathers both companions and enemies, as it becomes clear that the bracelet's power is far more dangerous than Kite realized.

Sounds pretty epic, doesn't it? Well, prepare for disappointment. The allure of mysteries lies in their gradual unraveling. Bits and pieces of information are slowly revealed. It's the journey to the conclusion that's genuinely enjoyable (and guessing the true nature of the mystery correctly). However, what .hack//XXXX does is essentially throw that out the window. There are some genuinely intriguing mysteries introduced, but do they take the time to explore them well? No, of course not. Instead, they mention them as if assuming you probably already know about it. As in, "Oh, you've probably already played the games, so we don't really need to explain this." Or, it could be a tactic to get people to buy and play said games for proper answers.

Another thing that truly bothers me is how Kite and some of the other familiar characters are depicted. Kite is just... annoying. He's whiny, indecisive, and... stupid. Keep in mind, he's 14 years old, so he's allowed to not be perfect. But it never feels like he takes good initiative. It's bothersome. On top of that, you have all these other characters, like BlackRose and Balmung, who receive very poor treatment. Everything turns into a cliché. The good guys' personalities are clichéd, the bad guys are clichéd, etc. No one really stands out. It makes me not care about these people's problems or motivations at all.

I mentioned earlier that this manga isn't actually terrible, and since I've already spent so much precious time detailing its flaws, I shall now explain its merits. First off, the art; to be honest, I'm not head over heels for the art, but it's not bad. Orca, for one, looks effin' badass, seriously. All the other characters are rather nice too; the art isn't so different that they aren't recognizable to those familiar with the series, which I'll count as a positive. Of course, they've been kind enough to enhance any fanservice possible, most notably in the breasts department, but oh well. I didn't personally mind it that much.

Since I've already pointed out that this manga is, thank heavens, only two volumes, there's really only one other positive point to explore: Cubia's character. Early on in the manga, Kite and friends defeat the monster that killed his friend, Orca. Afterwards, a mysterious boy appears before them and essentially tells them, "Hurr, you have to beat seven more of these to save your friend. Too bad, so sad." As Kite and friends go "lolwut" at this revelation, Cubia notices Kite's bracelet and goes berserk on them. The next time they meet, however, Cubia saves them from another one of those mysterious monsters. So he's a good guy... right?

See, this is the most interesting aspect of this adaptation. Let me spoil something for you all now (it's not a big spoiler, I promise): Cubia in the original games was a monster that Kite and friends battled periodically. Its role was secondary to the main plot, although it did serve the main plot significantly towards the end. Anyway, the point here is that the Cubia in the games didn't get character development. However, what they did in XXXX is to make Cubia into a PC that actually interacts with and even aids Kite. More than that, they even give him a little backstory that is – gasp! – gradually revealed as the manga progresses.

Could… could this be? Could this be the essence of .hack?! A mysterious character having their mysterious background gradually revealed like a proper mystery should be?

And that, boys and girls, is why .hack//XXXX does not completely suck. It introduced an interesting new element to the tale. If not for that, this manga would have been little else but an extremely rushed version of the events from the games. However, I will be nitpicky here and say that this new storyline with Cubia can feel like fanfiction at times. Good fanfiction, but fanfiction nonetheless.

There you have it. Yet another mediocre .hack manga that is nothing more than an adaptation of a much better video game. However, as with G.U.+, at least XXXX manages to not be entirely awful. It has some genuinely interesting elements, it's just unfortunate that they either don't get fully explored or feel somewhat out of place. Some .hack fans will enjoy this manga, some non-.hack fans might enjoy it as well. As for me, I must lament, yet again, that there isn't more genuinely good .hack manga. Such is life.

It’s not like I ever expected a video game to manga adaptation to be good, but this is genuinely pretty bad. I honestly think that if this had been an art book, it would have been so much better. The art in these two volumes is outstanding. As I’ve mentioned before, the R1 games' graphics are extremely dated, and there are certain aspects of the character design that come off as clunky and hard to look at. However, manga artist Megane Kikuya has significantly improved on the designs in her style, and her art is what made reading this spin-off worthwhile.

The writing? Not so much…

Notes:

- Honestly, the writing in .Hack//XXXX is practically gibberish, especially if you’re not familiar with the games. The story from the games is rushed through at a breakneck pace, and random new elements appear out of nowhere. We get no time to care about the characters, and it is strictly written for people already familiar with the games.

- I just finished reading volume 2, and the final fight feels so "make it up as you go along." Orca is brought back by Cubia out of nowhere (it’s not explained how), Balmung's wings are ripped off randomly, and Kite turns into Azure Kite all of a sudden (which was kind of cool, to be honest) and then instantly reverts to normal Kite when the battle is over. It just feels like zero thought was put into writing a logical story for this manga.

- So much is out of context. Helba suddenly says, "The world has been saved by the strength of the hero, Saya" after the final battle, who was not once mentioned before in the manga or in... anything! I had to google who the heck Saya was (she’s in the Epitaph of Twilight), and I shouldn’t have to do that.

- Some visuals that made the manga worth it: we get to see Helba’s face, we get to see Morganna (kind of), Orca gets more screen time and looks great, the bosses look great, and there’s bonus art from other artists in the final pages.

- Cubia’s entire character reads like a very bad fanfic OC. His design is cute, but he’s so poorly shoehorned into a story that’s already been hyper-condensed. He takes away a lot of Black Rose and Mistral’s roles and is kind of just Kite’s weird yandere boyfriend. I don’t really care about getting an accurate adaptation of IMOQ, but if I did, I’d be pissed.

It’s sad; I checked Megane Kikuya’s MyAnimeList entry, and apparently, she’s only worked on this and the .Hack//Link manga. She’s a great artist; she just needs to collaborate with a good writer, and she’d be fine.

I give volumes 1 and 2 of .Hack//XXXX a 4 out of 10.

First thing I need to say is that I haven't played all of the original games; in fact, I've only played the first one. However, I do understand the overall story from the games. With that said, here's my review.

STORY: .Hack//XXXX - let's start with the title. Honestly, when I first read it, I thought it might be a hentai. But each X represents one of the games, with four in total, and I've heard it's pronounced .Hack//4X. Regardless...

.Hack//XXXX condenses the story of the four PS2 games into... 10 chapters? Wow, the result ends up skipping and speeding through the story, keeping only important events highlighted or redoing parts of it. This story attempts to carve out its own place by including a manga-only character (not really), Cubia.

While Cubia is an important character in the manga, many who played the games first may feel his presence is unnecessary (as a NC character). Truly, this manga is for those who have played the games and serves as another way to revisit the story and characters.

However, it is still somewhat enjoyable for those who haven't played the games. The characters feel a bit more lively than they were in the game, and the relationship between Kite (the main protagonist) and Cubia is very intriguing.

ARTWORK: The artwork is actually pretty good and has a lot of style. The battles are drawn well, some characters (like Black Rose) look better than they did in the game, and the color art looks very nice. That said, there are a lot of simple drawings that sometimes resemble doodles.

OVERALL: It's a quick read, and many fans will likely be disappointed. But the art looks nice, and the story isn't just a straight-up copy from the games. Fans of the games are the ones who will enjoy it the most.

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Not exactly the .hack I loved at first, but okay, xxxx was pretty good.  
Megane made my beloved hero Kite funnier than ever in this great manga.  
I also have to add that Megane-sans' artworks were far superior to some of the other mangas I've read.  
The point is: Megane's version of .Hack is a brilliant masterpiece!  
(I feel so professional when I write like this...)  

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