.hack//SIGN - Reviews

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anonymousone's avatar
Nov 21, 2015

Story: The plot primarily focuses around Tsukasa who is trapped in a game known as The World for about six months with no recollection of the past initially. We start out in a dungeon where Tsukasa wakes up and we're immediately introduced to Mimiru but then abruptly leaves because of his anti-social attitude trying to remember what happened before the start. Our protagonist then encounters Silver Knight of the Crimson Knights who inquires about the relationship with a strange character, Macha. After finding out been unable to log out we stumble upon Bear and BT which are other important characters. Subaru who's the leader of the Crimson Knights shows up a couple of times who is another important recurring character. Tsukasa then meets up with Macha and is then given his guardian which protects against Silver Knight's ambush. At the end of the first debut what we get is a glimpse of Tsukasa's real body in a coma. The first half of the show is trying to figure out why Tsukasa can't log out or who exactly what Aura is. Our main characters are interested why that is along with the other anomalies that happen in the game while trying to build a relationship with Tsukasa. Crim is introduced later on to embark on that mystery too. They first investigate about what they think is a legendary in game item known as the Key of the Twilight which leads them into a strange dungeon where they meet up with a bizarre character uttering words about a sleeping girl that only Tsukasa knows about at first. The later half of the show is about figuring out the intentions of a powerful entity who transcends the game's system like Tsukasa does. This is where Subaru and Sora who is also introduced earlier in the story gets more involved when Subaru expresses her intention to meet up with Tsukasa which conflicts with Silver Knight's view so that leads her to disbanding the Crimson Knights. Later on Sora hooks up Bear with a hacker known as Helba and is important for revealing a lot of the revelations near the end. As Subaru gets closer to Tsukasa, it is then decided that they go to where Aura once was. Tsukasa then breaks down when Morganna takes the Aura away. Bear and the group goes on meeting that bizarre man that apparently looks like Herald Hoerwick once again to better understand Morganna's intentions. A chain of Helba's statement reveals everything about Tsukasa and Aura. It's revealed that Tsukasa was trapped by Morganna to be used as a tool to stop Aura from awakening. Sora then decides to side with Morganna but when Mimiru, Subaru, and Tsukasa comes to thwart her plans he turns against Morganna which results Sora going into a coma. The whole entire gang is then confronted by Skeith who was created by Morganna only to suddenly have every one of them to forced to log out when Helba deletes the Net Slum for an anticlimactic ending which shows Tsukasa and Subaru meeting in the real world. Despite the enthralling character driven story it has some of the worst pacing issues with the character's extended dialogues. It starts out very slow and doesn't reveal the background behind The World until the near end. Another big issue is that .hack//SIGN fails to contain itself in the end so you have to rely on the tetrology of the original games to explain plot holes like how Tsukasa got trapped or the The World's entire background. Subplots like Sora's fate or what happens when it comes to Morganna are disappointingly terminated unless you explore the said games. The story does a good job on focusing Tsukasa but fails to go further about the game's background and the immediate future. 

Animation: I would describe it as very low quality when there's hardly any camera or character movement to be had. The art quality is low too. 

Sound: I would say this is the best part about .hack//SIGN. It got me hooked into Yuki Kajiura's work and it's specifically beacuse of this soundtrack that I am exclusively her fan as far as music in anime goes. It's my favourite soundtrack when it comes to anime and I think it represents Yuki Kajiura's best work. 

Characters: Let's start with Tsukasa. She starts off as some mopey, anti-social person with a bad attitude for the first half. She does not develop likeable qualities of a usual heroic protagonist until the the near end of the later half. Her background consists of been raised by an abusive father while her other memories have likely been erased by Morganna. Mimiru doesn't really get any significant development through out the entire story or an extensive past like the flashbacks that shows Tsukasa's issues with her father. Bear, BT, Crim, and Sora also remains the same for the most part too. Subaru takes a step down from been in power to a more humble position to interact with Tsukasa when The World is the most free place for her considering that she's a parapalegic. The Silver Knight also gets notable character development too as he makes it obvious that he wants to protect Subaru even if it goes against his interests. As for the antagonist because of the over reliance .hack//SIGN makes to other media within it's franchise we're left wondering what her motivation was behind keeping Aura from awakening. The interactions between each character are very meaningful to each other so the dialogue is very well thought out for every characters. 

7/10 story
4/10 animation
10/10 sound
7/10 characters
7/10 overall
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CaptainSlow's avatar
Jul 24, 2013

What I Liked: The art and the character designs. The plot and premise were interesting, especially in relation to the game world and Tsubasa's identity. Great character development, Sora was a stand-out character. The juxtaposition of the colourful The World scenes VS. the bleak reality scenes.

What I Didn't: Some of the red herrings felt unnecessary. Execution of Episode 19 could've been better.

Final Verdict: A good mesh of swords-and-sorcery with psychological themes. Warrants more than one watch in order to catch anything you might have missed the first time around.

?/10 story
?/10 animation
?/10 sound
?/10 characters
7/10 overall
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Oblithian's avatar
Jul 15, 2021

It had potential but it had very poor execution. One might say, a Hack job.

Its alright I will wait until you stop laughing.

The series plot is quite intriguing. However, it is very slow, and the setup is poor, as are the individual episode arcs which often leave the major plot points to occur off screen. Thereby, creating a plot that jumps a few steps at a time, then hangs out, needlessly drawing out empty pauses. ...So also poor pacing.

It is very flat. The world ('the world') has little background depth, and typically appears rather barren for an mmo. I can relate being the last person on the Bastion Server during the TOR server merge. It just feels wrong.

Then there is the writing... The characters aren't inconsistent at least, but the dialogue (what little there is) is really bad. Still at the end of the series you still don't feel that attached or connected to the characters, they aren't very dynamic. Not to mention the interactions are mostly narration.

Video quality is jumpy, it feels like they were playing it off a warn out VHS. The animation is a bit chunky, but the art is really lackluster. The characters have eyes that might as well be in their temples.

The sound quality is also hollow, but otherwis par for the course for the time.

Ultimately my conclusion is, take it or leave it. You neither miss out on nor gain a lot.

7/10 story
4/10 animation
4/10 sound
5/10 characters
5/10 overall
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Epimondas's avatar
Sep 28, 2015

First impressions of this series after several episodes leave me wondering when does it come alive?  The lead character, Tsukasa, has more in common with a zombie or a empty shell lifeless robot than a human character with any sort of story, appeal, character, or emotions.  He is about the most boring, lifeless, dead weight character I have ever seen in any media so far.  I keep waiting for something to wake him up and make me, the viewer, take any sort of interest in him, but so far I am constantly disappointed.  It should not take this many episodes for a character to feel or project some sort of life and interest.  The story itself is pretty bland, lifeless, and boring.  No character seems to do much more than stand or sit around and chat about their problems with each other, the game, or the lifeless interloper, Tsukasa.  Treatises on this show talk about it having a mystery appeal but, if there is never a life line to pull you into the story, how can there be a mystery let alone a interest in it?  They drag on the whole, what is going on with Tsukasa, episode after episode with no character taking a serious effort to resolve it beyond whining and idle banter, and usually with each other and not Tsukasa.  Tsukasa himself seems to have no interest in life, the game, or anyone anywhere, so where is his appeal?  I get the whole "I wanna be alone thing", but this is dragging on too long and too slow to appeal to anyone who wants to stay awake.  However, it presents a problem, if he never takes an interest nor effort in anything then how can he ever hope to help himself or solve his problems?  I am not seeing anything yet to draw a viewer in nor to identify with him or understand him.  When he is alone, even, he never says or does much of anything so there is really little more but seeing his body walking around to even suggest he is really alive or a character at all.

Usually when people, even loners, have issues, you might hear their thoughts or them talking to themselves or seeking answers, not wandering around aimlessly like a hopelessly lost puppy with no personality or ability to speak more than a half a minute to any other life form.  They made his character so far, a bit too aloof and disinterested in anything or life itself.  Not only that, but the way he behaves and treats everyone else, especially those who try to help or befriend him comes off as rude, arrogant, bad behavior, negative appeal, and general jerk qualities.  So if anything, so far there is more to turn viewers away from him or taking an interest or identifying with him.  Now, I can be pretty aloof and isolated myself, but to be such a rude jackhole on top of that is pretty bad.  You are more likely to drive people to anger or hostile behavior and stand out more and in negative light with such a bad personality.  And this so called lead character has one of the worst, rudest, and dullest personalities I have ever seen in media.  I am having real trouble even rooting for him at this point let alone understanding, liking, or identifying with him in anyway.  Usually aloof loners do not like to make waves, it makes them stand out more and worse, in a negative light which in fact can draw more attention.  He plays the loner very poorly and makes loners in general look bad.  

So far also, all I hear in the show are the questions that he is disrupting the game, but no one, not even Tsukasa himself, seems to have any thoughts or concerns about what is keeping his so called real body alive after a month or more of being stuck mentally in a game world.  I do not consider this a spoiler statement since it is revealed what happened to him within like the first 5 minutes of the first episode.  We never really get an idea much about the game world itself, skills, quests, what drives people to play really, nor their real life selves, which kind of counters the whole concept given the main character is stuck.  Instead of aid, he gets accused of hacking the game or disrupting others.  He seems to have the arrogant belief that nothing he does matters.  Perhaps he gave up way to easily and early for any hope and takes it out on everyone else like the pathetic looser he is.  Not only is he not helping himself, solving his own issues, or actually putting effort into being alone, but he actually draws attention to himself by his negative bad behavior and actions.  In fact, it is more like, HE is the opposite and is really an attention seeking jerkwad bent on getting in everyone's face and ruining everyone else's existance as much as possible.  It is clear he is also very selfish and self centered.  It is a miracle anyone tries to help him or gives a crap about him at all.  So for a guy trying to be left alone, he sure sucks at it by doing everything he can to ensure he is never left alone and is even hated by all but the most guilable simpleton characters who still think he is a nice guy that needs help.

The fact also that the so called question if his own real life existance is dragged on so long without any hint of what is happening other than he is stuck in a game is also a big negative.  For a show that pretends, it is about drama and mystery, it is doing a pretty poor job.  Drama and mysteries rarely are so boring nor take so long to get things rolling.

PS.  If things change as I try my hardest to watch the show despite the intence boredom at least for a few more episodes, I will adjust the review, however, the issue remains that so far it is taking too many episodes to get things rolling.

4/10 story
7.5/10 animation
6.5/10 sound
3.5/10 characters
4/10 overall
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GodzillaGus's avatar
Dec 22, 2014

Secret Santa Review:

spoiler free.

Story: the stongpoint of this anime is certainlly the plot. i don't know if this is the 1st of it's kind. i say this because at the time of this writing, there seems to be quite a few of anime about people trapped in a video game. either way, this was the 1st of that type of anime i have seen therefore, it had the impact of a new idea. hopefully, i'm not too bias. the story starts off slow but get better with time by leaps and bounds. apparently, there are many psychological themes in the story that deal with why people who escape reality because of it's harshness, in favor of a world where they are perhaps more important, more capable, and independent. 

animation: the animation looked as if it was from the 1990's. i can't tell if this was done on purpose to give it a "throwback" feel or if it just was simply...poor quality. i don't recall any recycled scenes so, that's a plus. i will say this though, i suspect a good reason as to why the studio protrayed the scenes from the video game vs the way they protrayed the scenes from the real world, in that manner. my best guess is one is meant to represent life and excitement, as opposed to a place of misery, dull and painful.

sound: this was my least favoirite aspect of the anime. opening and ending songs were apporpiate to the setting, i suppose. however, Subaru's theme (Fake Wings) was the bane of my ears, especially in the 1st few episodes. every time she was on screne that theme would play. sometimes depending on the scene, one of these themes would play and the tempo might be altered to match the pacing of the scene. needless to say, don't go and youtube the song "fake wings" because there will be enough for that should u choose to watch this anime. it made me hate Subaru's face, not her actions, just her face.

characters: which leads us to character design. this is another saving grace of the anime: the character developement. early on, the support characters really carry the anime far. we have a good foundation in them while some main characters are still developing to more likeable ways. they each serve their purpose: silly ass comic reliefs, mentors, leaders, the numb skull followers, anti socials, friends, and whatnot. the point is though, they become different people as the plot moves.

overall: watch it. i feel the anime is good but the franchise is strong. it's a bit dialog heavy but how else do you lay the foundation to a good story. as a result, there are many complimentary OVA's and animes that follow it, making this anime worth the time. a lot of times we see an anime based off of some different media (video game, live action movie, you name it) soley for the purpose as a money maker or the milking of a francise. i don't see that here. i see a base for a good journey.

8/10 story
4/10 animation
3/10 sound
7/10 characters
7/10 overall
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