.hack//SIGN

[LeaT]

Do you want people to comment the anime itself or the review? Since I am pretty sure enough people will comment on the anime already, I will rather help you with something which I think seems to be needed.

First of all, your synopsis overuses the name "Tsukasa". I will rewrite it roughly to make it look better and more fluent:

Have you ever felt totally absorbed by an online game? Would you be able to stop before it's too late? This happens in .hack//SIGN when Tsukasa, the story's main lead, suddenly can't log out and is stuck in the online world simply called "The World". Somehow Tsukasa obtains a certain powers while being stuck in The World which is normally not allowed to other players, such as traveling between realms. However, in the real world, the player who is Tsukasa, falls into a coma and now he can't log out just like all the other users. In addition, Tsukasa can feel the world in a way no other users can. For him the world is alive and he can smell, touch and taste as if the world to him was real.
These powers were however gained through the expense of his real memories as Tsukasa can no longer remember the life he had in the real world. This eventually leads others to believe Tsukasa is related to hackers and they try to capture him. As the story progresses, Tsukasa mysteriously gains a powerful spell which allows him to summon a monster that protects him even when he is not aware he summoned the monster itself. This leads to Tsukasa not only to disbelieve himself but also undermines the trust he had to others. His only hope seems to lie within a mysterious girl floating over a bed hidden in a realm which only Tsukasa can enter. He strongly wishes her to wake up but there seems to be other forces that are trying to stop him doing so. All seems to lead back to a strange woman that tells Tsukasa to forget about his past. Tsukasa doesn't know what to do, will he be forced to stay in the game forever or will be able to eventually go home?

I assume you aren't a native speaker of English and that is fine, however, for the readability for for others my version of your synposis is just a suggestion of how it could look like to add more fluency to it.

As for your description of the plot, you should flesh it out a lot more. Now we just have a plain opinion of what you thought about it. You should also consider to merge the synopsis with the plot part. A synopsis is seldom needed as such and if one is needed it should be very brief. Yours is quite lengthy and explains the plot in deep detail. Try to break it up somewhere you explain Tsukasa can't log out and remove everything in the middle and just let it lead back to the final question, will Tsukasa ever be able to log out or will he be stuck in the game forever?

Also, flesh out the characters. Explain them, how are they, how do they look, what are their strengths and weaknesses? Try to make things throughly when you write a review. Everything doesn't need to be told in detail but give the reader a rough view of how the show is like. I think you did it fairly well for the animation but all others areas fail. Why is the music the best music ever? What type of genre is it? How well does the music function to the anime it's composed to? etc.

[LeaT]

As to not confuse my actual opinion about the anime and the review, I found the anime quite mediocre. The backgrounds are plain boring and not very thoughtout for being an online game. Monsters have boring designs and look too plain. The Knights also looked incredibly boring, falling somewhere between realistic and cartoonish. The only real energy was spent on the main characters. Considering the sort of love relationship Tsukasa also developed to Subaru it quite turned me off at the end. Not because I didn't find it realistic as such but whether it seemed to claim their feelings for each other never changed which just felt so completely illogical. Not that it isn't in that sense but when you believe Tsukasa is a male, it doesn't make much sense (or at least didn't to me). Then I would have loved to get to know more about his background but we never do, we just see those incredibly dark and hard-to-watch scenes that flashes by at times and that's all to it. The plot itself is also rather slow. Mind you, I don't dislike animes that are character or dialogue driven but I do mind it when characters don't change and nothing seem to really happen than when they sit down to chat each other once in a while.

I had no expections for it and I took it like it was but I was still midly disappointed in how it dealt online gaming. While it did arise a few questions (think between B.T. and Crim) how relationships work in online gaming I just think it didn't explain it well enough. Then of course as previously mentioned, the animation was also a huge drawback. I am a gamer at heart and have been playing ever since I was old enough to hold onto a hand control of sorts but to see such boring backgrounds and monsters for a so called anime trying to depict an online game, no, it doesn't bulge it. In the end, I ended up watching it almost solely for the sake of Yuki Kajiura's magificient background music. She has definitely written one of her best pieces to that anime, especially the incredibly wonderful and beautiful Rain and Storm that manages to touch me how many times I listen to it.

[LeaT]

Originally Posted by qwerty

I am surprised how many people dislike .hack//SIGN... Personally, I think this anime is great. It has nice soundtracks, good visual, and deep story. Too deep that some people get confused and bored when they see it. Okay, it doesn't have that much actions, but the whole thing is just amazing, I think. How they can make those kind of mysteries and we are forced to think about it. I watched it, and couldn't wait to see what would happen next. And you'll never find out what's really going on until the last episode.
I, however, still a bit confused about its story, but that is exactly what I like about .hack//SIGN . Here's a suggestion, watch all of the episodes, from the first to the last, and you'll undestand the story. Then, maybe, you will fall in love with it

Why do people keep telling the only reason you wouldn't like the story is because it's too deep and we are too stupid to understand? Look at my favorite anime list, come again and tell me I don't like deep or character driven anime. My original profile can be found by the samer username I have here on the forums. Stop generalize and stereotype, I never expected action from this one but I DID expect it to copy the online gaming well which means a diversity of monsters, a lot of flashy magic, whatever. Advent Children is better in that aspect. Plus, the backgrounds were just often plain boring and empty, especially those where there were fighting scenes... I am not sure what you were looking for, but the backgrounds were not by far that deep and detailed compared to many other anime I have seen, even earlier or later.

Also, I have to say, you liked the plot because it was cofusing and you didn't understand much? You sound like those EVA nerds that didn't understand it (EVA is by far more advanced than .hack//SIGN is as well) and they still claim they love it just because they didn't understand. What logic is that? I can understand one can like a plot because it seemed so smart when all those illogical pieces fell together into a complete whole at the end but understanding barely nothing? Please explain.

[sothis]

(as a note, most of the original posts in this thread are from 3-5 years ago ^_^; they probably won't be back to respond)

[LeaT]

Oh, it was on top so I assumed it was an active thread, nevermind then :) I was in zombie mode when I scanned through the forums, didn't see the initial post...

[NnyOdango]

This is by far one of my favorite anime serieses!! I cannot tell you how much I love this anime, the characters, the animations, the design, the story, and the soundtrack!

I own the soundtrack and in fact my daughter loves it, it is beautiful, uplifting, and heart rending. This becomes a character in and of itself while watching the series, along with the backgrounds which really breath life into the adventure.

The characters have untouchable depth, they truly feel alive and one can easily become attached and invested in the future of each. The story, through which each is travellign through has many twists and turns, as wellas as many levels. As a Role Playing veteran I related with a lot of the issues and feeligns of the players but I have known fans who were not RPG players who still got into the story. That is what makes a good story, it can hook people- not jsut those who may seem to be the intended audience but peopel in general.

I can find nothing wrong with this series in anyway shape or form!

Sum Up:
Anime: 10/10
Music: 10/10

[Ginko]

I didnt like HACK//Root and the other ones but i absolutely loved HACK//Sign, must be in my top 5.