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.hack//SIGN
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Animation - 8.5 |
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Sound - 9.2 |
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Story - 6.8 |
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Character - 7.0 |
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Value - 6.6 |
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Enjoyment - 6.7 |
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Average - 7.4 |
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| Average |
6.5 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
7 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
4 |
| Value |
5 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| Animation was pretty usual stuff, very similar style as Neon Genesis Evangelion possess, so it was like meeting old friend.
Sounds were pretty dull, but bearable, I even liked couple voices in this series, most of them were nice, some annoying. Musics, well pretty usual stuff too.
Story is .hack//SIGNs strongest part of all, it carryes hole series, fortunately story begins quite fast.
Characters are biggest weakness and one of the strong points of this. Main character is one of the most annoying ever, somehow his nature made me so pissed off. He was so similar to NGEs main character, always crying "why?" and that measure of angst...
Sidekick characters were much more interesting and maybe even deeper.
I enjoyed watching this only then when main character was away.
Story is excellent, sidekick characters are good and other things are about average. It's not bad, but it isn't brilliant either.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
5.0 |
| Animation |
4 |
| Sound |
6 |
| Story |
6 |
| Character |
5 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
| Though DOT HACK//SIGN is at times quite intriguing, the slow pacing and almost zero action make for a somewhat boring viewing experience. The show deals centrally with online worlds, specifically how people interact within them, however this results in a lot of dialogue and sadly not a lot of the immersion required to appreciate the scenarios that the show puts forward. In my opinion, this would make a better game, since this would solve that major issue.
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4 of 5 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
3.4 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
0 |
| Story |
2 |
| Character |
4 |
| Value |
2 |
| Enjoyment |
2 |
| This is a series that tries to be philosophical, intriguing, and complex. It fails. At least for those of us that actually think a little for ourselves. It doesn't really ask any questions, provides no answers, has no interesting philosophy, is actually very straight-forward (you can really let your thoughts fly to what to make for dinner during this one), and is too slow, simple-minded and, although not soapy, pretty run-of-the-mill in the final presentation of people and their choices. It has a promising beginning, with a plot that could go somewhere. The characters aren't all that bad, although you later understand you've really learned nothing about them at all (although this is probably part of the concept). It is extremely slow-paced, perhaps on the top ten list. The storyline never develops. They really should have halved the episodes. I know that action isn't all, and I can appreciate a slow-paced drama, but in the end, the plot should develop and take you somewhere. Instead it seems the plot just dies. This isn't the worst series, and a good basic idea, and some development in the start, but it neither made me interested, or made me think.
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1 of 2 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
4.8 |
| Animation |
6 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
3 |
| Value |
1 |
| Enjoyment |
2 |
| Honestly, it way below my expectation.
I finally finished this 28 episode anime after a gruesome 1 month.
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0 of 1 people found this review helpful.
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Lavos |
(2007-11-18 18:35:13) 2007-08-30 22:06:34 |
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| Average |
8.5 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| Take note that I'm writing this review in retrospect after having watched all the other .Hack animes(except roots), which I won't bother to write about. I am yet to play any of the games, but I already have them all and will play as soon as I get the time. With the knowledge I have now, all I can tell you is this: .hack//Sign is the genuine .hack experience, it is the real deal. All the others are just regurgitating the same stuff over and over again to the point it becomes bothersome(i.e. they're not "must")
I will be using some usual MMORPG slang in this review, so google any terms you don't understand.
You will most certainly enjoy this anime if you are a melancholic person. If the image you try to project to the outside world, and other people, is not really what you are deep inside... I'm sure you will like this anime.
Click below ^^
(EDIT: I've been forced to lower the score after watching SEL)
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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Check |
2007-07-16 18:17:23 |
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| Average |
7.5 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| Intriguing concept, different than most anything out there. Each character in the anime really plays the role of two, that of the real life player and one of their in game avatar. A somewhat slow storyline arises because of this duality, but to truly enjoy the series the interactions between characters is very important.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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Summoner |
(2008-08-28 13:22:26) 2007-06-03 05:41:26 |
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| Average |
8.0 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
7 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| I believe many of you are familiar with the recent mmorpg fad. World of Warcraft, Ragnarok Online, Lineage, I bet if you haven't played them you've at least heard about them. Games which let thousands of people connect together and go to terrifying adventures, which are, of course, impossible to do in the real world. Games which can become a second life itself. .Hack//Sign is about such a game in the most evolved state. Rather than staring at their monitors players can see themselves in a full 3d world, without any sense of unrealism. Yet when the game becomes as realistic as the real world, wont it become hard to distinguish what's real and what's not? Can you really tell that what's "unreal" doesn't really exist and can't have an impact on the real world? Maybe it's possible for the manufactured world to take over the real one and become the most important place? (Serial Experiments Lain?)
It has been more than 3 years since I've started watching anime. And it's been more than 2 since I've learned not to trust popular opinion and ratings. Yet despite all of that I was avoiding .hack//sign for the longest time. Even though I've known that it has a tremendously great premise, I was still too scared to be disappointed. So now, I hereby declare, that it's the last time in my life that the popular opinion had any, even the most little, influence on me. Not only .hack//sign proved to be a good show, it is one of the best I have seen in my years of anime watching.
Strongly recommended to everybody who have any interest in original premises and great stories. If you are looking for action, you are at the wrong place, heck, if you are looking for action go look for Bruce Lee's movies. Oh, and if you play/played a lot of mmorpgs in your life and you actually like to role-play, then this show is a must watch.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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Solitaire |
(2007-01-30 07:09:47) 2007-01-27 17:48:19 |
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| Average |
3.2 |
| Animation |
5 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
1 |
| Character |
1 |
| Value |
1 |
| Enjoyment |
1 |
| Usually I finish a series, before reviewing it. Unfortunately, Hack Sign was just so unimaginably boring and pointless that I had to stop after episode 21. They might as well of made Hack Sign a radio show, because the only good aspect of the series was the music.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
8.5 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
7 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| .hack//SIGN is an anime you will probably either love or hate. This is an anime with a very slow pace, lots of dialogue, and not much "action". Even though characters carry around swords and know spells, it is not often that they are used, and when they are used, it is not for long. This anime is primarily a mystery/character development-driven anime, and thus has a slow pace throughout the 26 episodes. Sure, the story could be condensed to less episodes, but you would lose much of the mystery and character development that made this story so interesting.
I truly enjoyed the dialogue and character development in this anime; I love tragic characters like Tsukasa, and even characters that I ended up disliking (Sora, the annoying brat with the sing-song way of speaking, and the Silver Knight, with his holier-than-thou attitude) were developed well. Heck, the fact that I disliked them because of their personality flaws just shows how well the characters were made. I loved the relationship developments between characters, especially the friendship between Mimiru, the friendly and outgoing young girl, and Tsukasa; the love between the quiet and noble Subaru and Tsukasa; and the paternal relationship of the philosophical Bear with Subaru, Mimiru, and Tsukasa.
However, as I stated, characters like Sora, Crim, BT, and the Silver Knight are a bit annoying (BT is so smug and thinks she is so clever, Crim and the Silver Knight are holier-than-thou, and Sora is just annoying) but if you can put up with them it is worth it in the end, as each develops beyond their initial flaws and becomes a better person.
Also, many times during the anime they seem to forget that they are only playing a game; much of the time events in the game seem to be taken way too seriously by the players(especially the Crimson Knights), including "death". I guess this is the way it is in real life also, so I suppose it can be forgiven.
The story itself focuses on how Tsukasa, the main character, is stuck in "The World" and the efforts of people, especially Bear and Mimiru, to help him and interact with him. The story also focuses on the search for the "Key of the Twilight", especially by BT, Sora, and Crim. The story evolves pretty slowly, and I don't want to say any more because it might give away some of the plot and mystery which is at the heart of this anime.
The story isn't really too complex, and many things are left unexplained, but I liked the ending even so.
As for the animation: the animation is spectacular. This anime creates a vivid, detailed, and diverse world with a variety of costumes, characters, settings (towns, cities, forests, fields, tundras, and many other settings). There arn't too many special effects in this anime, but the ones that do occur are done very well.
The soundtrack for this anime is truly special; this ranks right up there with Noir and Hellsing for the best anime soundtrack of all time. I would reccomend purchasing or listening to the OST; it will truly blow you away. As to the voice actors: each one performed very well and were able to draw me into the world and convince me that these events were really occuring.
I would reccomend this anime for those who don't mind an anime with slow pace and can enjoy an anime with heavy dialogue.
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denisuki~ |
(2006-08-31 15:20:07) 2006-08-31 15:12:43 |
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| Average |
7.2 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
9 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
5 |
| .hack//SIGN seemed like a very interesting anime. I love MMORPGs and the fact that it takes place in one made me really interested in it. Too bad it is one of the anime that for me will always be in the "had potential, but failed" category.
It fails because its 26 episodes are too many for the story it tells. That way it becomes VERY slow and therefore VERY boring at times. It's one hell of an anime if you wanna get some sleep.
But what's more, this is not the only bad thing about .hack//SIGN. In my opinion its worst part is (some of) the characters. Don't get me wrong, the design is very good for its year and for today too, so are the visuals.
The problem is that the main character, a wavemaster (the "mage" class in the game) called Tsukasa is just _THE_ most boring guy ever. He doesn't make sense in the anime from start to finish and he's a complete whimp.
One more problem is that .hack//SIGN has almost _NO_ action. And that's really bad for an MMORPG wannabe anime. MMORPG are of course games where you speak a lot, hence RPG, but they also have lots of action. .hack//SIGN fails here, since the action it includes doesn't surpass the action of anime like 'Ah! My Goddess'. I'm not a DBZ fanboy or anything, but no action at all in such an anime is really bad, aren't they leveling or anything, or are they playing MMORPG for social reasons? Jesus.
After all these bad parts, here come the good ones. The music is good. It's not close to "great", but it's good enough. Also the animation and visuals are great.
And the biggest plus is that this anime isn't the real deal about .hack// project. It's just a promotional for the 4 PS2 games (.hack//Infection, .hack//Mutation, .hack//Outbreak, .hack//Quarantine), so you can expect some better tries on the .hack anime in the future (one very good anime based on it is .hack//Roots, that is almost complete).
I doubt anyone will understand the story's depth without watching more .hack// anime and/or playing some games.
>>Give it a try, maybe the click it didn't make for me will happen for you.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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Nick |
(2006-06-30 14:55:55) 2006-06-30 14:54:09 |
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| Average |
7.0 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
4 |
| Character |
6 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
7 |
| (messages regarding this review are welcome)
I thought it was mostly pretty good, the music was great in places, the animation was nice and mostly the characters were pretty good.
The main character however was incredibly dull, I've never cared so little about a lead character in all my life, he had absolutely /no/ personality, which is always going to really sway my opinion of something, a decent main character can make a huge difference, unforuntately this one sucked.
And don't even get me started on the bloody ending, what on earth was all that about? It must of been the lamest and cheesiest ending I've /ever/ seen!
Regarding, the OST, everyone seems to love it, and yes, for the first few episodes I genuinely believed it to be the best music I've ever seen in an anime, but it didn't take too long to realise that most of the songs being played were just recycled versions of a song in a previous episode, there only seems to be a few different tunes throughout the entire anime, just played in a slightly different way.
But on the whole I still enjoyed this a lot, and there were a lot of cool characters in this series, it's just a huge shame that the main one was such a letdown, really spoilt it for me.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
5.2 |
| Animation |
7 |
| Sound |
9 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
3 |
| Value |
3 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| Wow, the creators who made this really try your patience in this drama. Really now, I found myself interested in the first few episodes because of the potentially interesting plot line, but episode after episode I found myself disappointed on how there was no development in anything.
The series introduced a ton of characters that were fun and enjoyable to watch, yet all you watched them do was talking. Seriously, in a mmorp you would think there would be better things to do, but in .hack//sign you will see the characters doing that 85% of the time. Technically there is complexity in the plot itself, but that is due to the amount of words that are thrown around in the anime. Out of those words, 20% are of any importance.
The animation way pretty, but lack of battle kinda put their shiny armor and weapons to waste.
One thing I found myself hooked to is the sound. .hack//sign has a good soundtrack to offer, I myself, couldn't pass up the chance to buy it for myself.
Overall, the anime itself was a mmorp chatroom. There are some good parts in it which I found to as why it got so popular, but some of it is overrated. If you like slow drama animes with good story yet 13 episodes of word filler, by golly you will enjoy this one. Unless you played the game (or plan to), or plan on watching any of the other .hack// series, I wouldn't bother.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
9.5 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
9 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| If you like sci-fi, role playing games on the computer, medieval genre, and some good drama, you may like or love .hack sign. I loved it and have rewatched it.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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Starlyte |
(2006-03-25 13:13:51) 2006-03-21 00:47:49 |
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| Average |
8.3 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
8 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| I appreciated the complexity that was weaved into the series. Although at times it wasn't seamless. This could have been done a little better with more epidsodes or fewer characters with a bit more depth. I found that I was anticipating a lot so it played to me as a bit of a mystery genre. Very nicely animated as well, the sound was great but repetitive at times.
The series itself presented an interesting thought provoking atmosphere. Questions like 'where does the body end and the mind begin' and the seperation from the game world from the outside was perfect, nice aura of mystery. Overall a must see - I was hanging on every word.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
10.0 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
10 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| Simply a masterpiece. All aspects from musical to scenery to the message at the end of it all. It was masterful and original to me. This is one if not the most successful video game made to anime that was very good in my opinion.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
9.7 |
| Animation |
10 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
10 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
10 |
| This anime is aimed, more than anything else at fans of MMPORPGs and such. You don't have to play them to understand, but, it helps if you're the sort who does. If you've at least played online multiplayer games enough to see a little of human nature across the internet you can get it. I'm not sure you will otherwise. I'll give more specifics about the nature of why this is so and why I honestly believed the numbers I chose are correct in the individual reviews.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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zitch |
(2006-01-20 20:07:54) 2005-08-14 11:52:08 |
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| Average |
6.0 |
| Animation |
0 |
| Sound |
0 |
| Story |
0 |
| Character |
0 |
| Value |
6 |
| Enjoyment |
6 |
| I consider myself a patient viewer. I will watch anime that doesn't grab my attention initially. I will make a full attempt to watch it from begining to end, because most of the good animes don't grab your attention early on, but build up to a climax. I really don't need action to keep me interested, and I love "thinking" animes. I don't mind uninteresting characters, as long as they're realistic.
But this series never does grab my attention past the initial curiosity stage. Which makes this series so damned frustrating in that, in addition to its awesome soundtrack and nice animation, .Hack//SIGN contains an initially very interesting setting (an MMORPG), and very interesting concepts in the complex plotline revolving mainly around a character that cannot log out of the game. It also contains hints of a deeper corporate conspiracy.
But this series never caught my interest; never delivered. My verdict: Skip the anime, buy the excellent soundtrack.
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0 of 0 people found this review helpful.
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| Average |
5.8 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
5 |
| Character |
3 |
| Value |
4 |
| Enjoyment |
4 |
| The animation and the OST are the best parts of this anime. I'd advise skipping the anime and getting the OST. Here are a few reasons why.
1.) The story is VERY LONG and bland. It never really encaptured me, even though I'm a heavy MMORPG player.
2.) It's not like a real MMORPG. People don't run around screaming for free items and trying to scam you.
3.) The characters are limited. Basically Tsukasa just goes around being a whiny p*ssy and dismisses his "friends" He is the typical loner-type.
Although the animation and sound are great, I can't really recommend this anime to anyone. It's just... too long. Maybe you will enjoy it if you have more patience than me, but I really like a good love story. There wasn't one here. Perhaps I may have been a little bias, but I don't believe this anime deserves to be this high on the charts.
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Rainy |
2005-06-26 22:16:48 |
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| Average |
8.5 |
| Animation |
8 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
8 |
| Character |
9 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
8 |
| Even though the series can be easily compressed into a 13 episodes series, for some reason, I feel that I can endure the snail like pace thanks to the most beautiful OST ever came to being and a decent storyline.
Animation-wise, .Hack//Sign doesn’t have much to boast, yet considering this is a series where characters spend most of their time conversing and brooding over their relationships, then high budget animation isn’t really mandatory. The up side is the background is absolutely gorgeous. The setting of the show leaves plenty of space for the artists to incorporate their imagination into backgrounds, which are breathtaking. We have the huge marshroom fields where the gigantic marshroom are more like mountains than marshrooms; and the colossal Gothic cathedral had me staring at the picture for a long time, just to slowly soak in the grandeur of the building (Nice compensation since I am unable to personally visit Europe at this time)
Aside from the arts and animation, the story is very intriguing to say the least. It’s much like hide-and-seek, I guess. The elusive protagonist Tsukasa could go into hiding for days, while others search for him fruitlessly. Thus The series relied on an air of mystique to retain audience. In addition, the series serves as an interesting character study, where each characters’ motivation for finding the Key of Twilight is carefully examed and is fortunately high enjoyable.
Yes, story development is slow, but the search for the mysterious item Key of the Twilight and the reason to why Tsubasa is the only one detained in the game The World is enough for me to watch the show till the end.
Talking about the ending, here is when I no longer shower .Hack.//Sign with praise, oh man, what a big dissapointment it had been. I had waited patiently through 26 episodes of seemingly meaningful investigation, though it had been a fun ride, it’s still a bit toooo long, (or some may dismiss the character interations as sheer boredom), the lack of closure in the end made me feel as though I was suddenly slapped right on the face while I was doing all the analyzing and waiting for the results expectantly. How infuriating. Since the end hastily resolved the matter in a stingy 10 minutes, so naturally completely failed to explain the motivation of the villain to prison Tsubasa in the World, I had to lower the grade significantly. It is as though the creators thought up a random riddle without an answerfor the sake of creating something to make up the show. I can’t stress enough how bitterly dissapointed I was at this discovery.
After I calmed down a bit from the shocking finding, I tried to comfort myself by thinking….. at least the process of being duped and manipulated into believing there is an answer is fun and rewarding, right?
In fact, it’s the characters that shine and save the show. Most of them are multifaceted characters with their own motivations for seeking the legendary Key of the Twilight, I swear to God, if the characters are simple minded fools, I simply can’t take any more dissapointment. It’s my greatest enjoyment to observe Tsukasa’s gradual development into what I consider to be a better person. Although at the very beginning, Tsubasa is a very unlikable person who is only concerned with his own affairs and constantly lamenting over his unlucky lot in life. There is no denying that he is selfish person from the start. Yet his potential for being kind and considerate toward others slowly came into being thanks to help of the kind hearted and outgoing Mimiru (who is my favorite character) and the more introverted and idealistic Subaru and many others.
Even after the mystery has lost it’s enigmatic aura, I still feel the urge to rewatch certain parts of the show occasionally. To me, certain philosphies embedded in the show is insipirational and I loved every minute of the series with a few minor expections.
I believe that .Hack//Sign should not fail to please those with a bountiful supply of patience and curiosity, oh add a few points if you don’t mind a messed up ending.
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|
| Average |
9.0 |
| Animation |
9 |
| Sound |
10 |
| Story |
10 |
| Character |
8 |
| Value |
8 |
| Enjoyment |
9 |
| One of my favorite anime's to date. What a cool concept, an anime in a MMORPG. The animation is great, the soundtrack is superb, the characters are interesting (sometimes a little annoying), and the story is so deep and intricate. But, this is for sure a mature anime. I sometimes just sat there perplexed wondering wtf was going on. But, you can figure things out. I definetly recommend this anime. Action isn't really that important even though you would think it would be since it's in a game. It's just about the relationships in the game. I wish there was a MMORPG like this instead of crappy WoW and stuff. :D
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