A big thanks to Chris who wrote up his .hack//G.U. Trilogy movie experience in Japan. You can view the original post here, along with spoilers for the movie.

"I am an American [student] currently studying abroad in Nagasaki Japan. I pre-ordered Trilogy at my local anime store way back when it was first announced. I've beaten the first 4 .hack games and also beat all 3 G.U. games. Like everybody else I was frustrated when the release date was changed plus the concept of going to Tokyo during the times the movie was showing was impossible for me. However, when I learned it would be in Osaka I thought I might have a chance. My roommate had gone to Osaka earlier so I knew about this bus I could take from Nagasaki straight to Osaka overnight. I decided to wait until a week after the movie had come out so I wouldn't have to worry about the movie selling out before I got there.

Shortly after arriving I found the theater and was surprised to see a large group of people already lined up to buy tickets. This was about 9 in the morning, an hour before the theater opened and way before when the movie would start at 8:20 PM. There was a large variety of people in line, from very young and very old. I spoke with the woman in front of me and she said she was waiting in line to buy a ticket for her daughter who was currently in school at the time (kids have school on Saturday in Japan as well). I was the only foreigner there.

*Note pictures were taken on January 19th, 2008, NOT in November.

For whatever silly reason, I couldn't check into my hotel until 3 PM so I looked around Osaka until then. When it was finally time for the movie I strolled down to the theater. As I figured, most of the adults I saw that morning weren't there so they were probably just buying tickets for their kids. While waiting I noticed some guy I could have sworn I recognized then I realized it was the president of CC Corp Hiroshi Matsuyama! I knew he had been at the premier of the movie when I first hit Tokyo but I had know idea he would be coming to Osaka as well let alone a week after the movie had been released here.

He spoke with the fans after everyone gathered in the theater, asking which of them had played the games and watched Roots. Basically everyone had. He asked how old we were too. The vast majority of us were teens to early 20's but there were a couple of 30 year olds and one 40 year old woman who were also fans. We were allowed to take photos of him (everybody pulled out their cells phones). I managed to get a couple photos of the man myself but the lighting in the theater was bad and I thought it would be rude to use a flash so these pictures are absolute shit. I was still the only foreigner who was there.

At last the movie started. I've studied Japanese for 4 years and understood about 90% of the dialog in the film. Personally I thought it was friggin amazing. The video quality was nuts and the action sequences were amazing (Haseo vs Ovan was my favorite scene). The movie was very fast paced but I think they [CC2 and Bandai Visual] did a great job condensing the trilogy into one film. If you're a fan of the whole Haseo and Atoli pairing, you'll love this movie. I had to chuckle at one girl who got emotional and cried after the movie ended (that's not all that uncommon here in Japan with anime movies). Afterwards everybody slowly shuffled out of the theater and lined up to buy copies of the .hack//gu+ manga they were selling at the front desk.

You could only order one book because you could get in another line and have Matsuyama sign it for you! Needless to say this took forever (about an hour and a half) but I finally got to meet Matsuyama himself. He was very surprised to see me and asked me if I could understand the movie. I told him I understood it perfectly and that I thought the movie was spectacular. He thanked me and then asked where I was from. I told him America but that I came from Nagasaki since I'm currently studying there. He was pretty surprised by that as well (there was also a Japanese fan who came all the way from the Island of Shikoku!). He signed my book and I thanked him again one last time before leaving the theater. Below is a picture of a flyer I picked up at the movie theater, my ticket stub and my signed copy of .hack//gu+ volume 1. It reads: "To Chris, Cyber Connect, Matsuyama Hiroshi, 2008. 1. 19.".