The
game being played in ".hack//sign" (The World)
is an MMORPG or "Massively Multiplayer Online Role
Playing Game". Being a player of such games to a large
extent this anime has a massive appeal.
Tsukasa,
seemingly a mage in the game, is stuck in "The World"
and unable to logout. Not even a reboot of the PC terminal
can get him out. He comes across as an anti-social loner
that doesn't readily accept help from others. Tuskasa doesn't
even know details of who he is in real life.
Over
the course of the series he meets several people willing
to help and eventually forms a "party." Mimiru,
a powerful female melee fighter, is the first of the other
players to run into Tsukasa and eventually is so enthralled
by his predicament she feels inclined to help. Her personality
suits her choice of character being strong and often hardheaded.
Lady Subaru heads a group known as the "Crimson Knights",
who have been delegated with limited power as kind of sentinels
by the administrators of the game. At first she suspects
Tsukasa of hacking, but time changes that opinion.
Other
characters including BT a priest, Sora an active player
killer, Crim a former member of the Crimson Knights, Bear
a warrior, and a few other side characters. Few of which
are truly developed well or even have a strong personality.
No
doubt the premise of ".hack//sign" is original.
No anime has ever mixed controversy between an in-game world
and the real one. Being stuck in a game and being completely
unaware of your real-life surroundings is unmistakably intriguing
yet terrifying. But instead of developing the characters
both inside and outside of "The World" and working
on the fear element we get a concussive load of theological
dialogue that leads the viewer nowhere. Even the two most
mysterious and important figures, a ghostly girl floating
over a bed and a cat that only Tuskasa can hear, lose their
appeal until the series starts to come to a close.
The
story gets enigmatic to the point of dilution. In the first
two volumes it sets the stage and draws your interest in.
The "body" of the series gets old, repetitive,
theologian, and downright boring. There is little development
of characters with the exception of Tuskasa and Subaru.
Even Mimiru who comes off as the 2nd main character early
on becomes minimalized in her existence. Although there
are some scenes that are visually appealing and even some
good points made, the majority of the body of ".hack//sign"
feel like filler episodes.
In
the real world we get to know very little. Characters needed
to get out of "The World" in order to develop
and set a more personalized emotional tone and show the
seriousness of the problem at hand. Not only did that not
happen, but the writers completely minimalized the real
world. All "real world" footage was in black &
white and it never showed their faces. The intention of
this would be to focus the audiences attention to the "game"
rather than the players themselves, but they are one and
the same and to ignore one over the other was detrimental
to the series.
As
the series comes to an end the question is asked, "How
did we get here?" Its like having a daydream while
your driving. Sure you stayed on the road but that last
stoplight you went though draws a total blank. The closing
of the series and the final episode do at least hold up.
Ends are tied and an emotional end to Tsukasa's "log-out"
problem is solved. However; the bonus episodes were better.
Sad considering the sole purpose of the bonus episodes include
a happy little celebration, and a lead-in to the story of
the ".hack" series of video games.
Overall
this "gamer" was a bit disappointed. It was cool
to find out there was an anime based on a genera of game
this reviewer actively plays but was overall disappointed
in its execution. It was worth watching the series to its
conclusion even though many episodes just felt like a grind.
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