Animania

Going back in time a little, this week I decided to finally watch .hack//SIGN, an anime series that was first released in the US back in 2003. It was produced by well known animation company Bee Train with Bandai Visual, and first aired in Japan back in April 2002. Now .hack isn't a standalone title, but part of a very large franchise that includes several other anime series, some manga series, and video games. Unlike Blood+, however, .hack's various related media are not adaptations or retellings, but sequels and prequels. So I've also hesitated in watching in due to the total confusion about where to jump in to be at the start of the story (a minor thing I tend to be anal about). I finally just decided to go with .hack//SIGN's anime, because it was the first title released here, so I rented all six volumes from Hastings.

.hack//SIGN is unusual in that it is set almost entirely within an online massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORG) virtual reality game called "The World." The World doesn't seem to have a ton of rules, though some things appear to be frowned on (like running around and killing other players for fun). Within this game, a character named Tsukasa awakens to find he doesn't remember how he got where he was. Through reluctant interactions with another character, Mimiru, we discover that Tsukasa is different from other players. He is unable to log out from the game and he is not sitting in front of a terminal so he can't escape by resetting. He has been inside the game for weeks, and can actually feel pain that others can't when hurt. Tsukasa tends to be a loner, and when he first meets Mimiru he rudely transports away without saying a word. Tsukasa was lead to a hidden area of the game by a cat character named Macha. There, a sleeping girl floats above a bed and a female voice constantly tries to keep Tsukasa from forming relationships with other players. However, Tsukasa eventually realizes that he doesn't want to be alone anymore and defies the voice, resulting in serious retribution. Mimiru aims to help Tsukasa figure out why he is locked there and how he can log out. Along the way, Tsukasa finds himself hunted by the Crimson Knights, a group of players that strives to keep people playing within the rules. During the series, they are aided, and sometimes betrayed, by several other players: Bear, an older man who regularly offers advice to the younger players, and sometimes lectures; BT, a female character who plays both sides of the fence; Sora, a "player killer" who betrays anyone friend or foe; Subaru, the female leader of the Crimson Knights; Crim, the former founder of the Crimson Knights and close friend of Subaru; and Silver Knight, the second in command of the Crimson Knights. As the story progresses, this group learns more about both Tsukasa, secrets about the game, and must confront their own inner demons.

Its hard to say I like .hack//SIGN or that I didn't like it. In several major elements, it both excelled and failed. Spanning twenty-six episodes, .hack//SIGN is a very slow placed series, often too slow. Quite a few times I felt two episodes could have become one just by hacking out the long pauses that may have been intended to be dramatic pauses, but eventually just got annoying. The story premise itself is very intriguing, however a lot of questions seemed to be left unanswered at the end, pretty much requiring you to continue with the series to learn more (or go read Wikipedia LOL). There are also several parts introduced in the story that seemed to just disappear. For example, early on Macha tells Tsukasa to mark Mimiru with his colors, but that is never explained and after two episodes, never mentioned again. I did love how snippets of each characters real-life personas are reveals through both interactions with other characters and gray toned scenes that appeared to be television screens. Tsukasa gets the most of those scenes as he is the most developed character, despite him having the fewest lines. The rest only get one or two, with Crim getting none at all that I can remember. The series does a mixed job on character development as well. Tsukasa, as mentioned, gets the most and Subaru also gets decent character development, though she felt a bit shallow to me. Bear gets fairly decent development, particularly in his dealings with Tsukasa. Mimiru, BT, Sora, and Crim feel shafted, despite Mimiru being the first to meet Tsukasa and the closest to him (and potential love interest) until he meets Subaru. With the slow pacing, you'd think we'd have good development on them all.

I will say, .hack//SIGN, does feature quite a bit of nice music. The opening theme's lyrics make little sense, but the song is catchy. At times the background overwhelms the voices, but that's okay because most of it is beautiful stuff and fits the moods so so well. As a whole, it certainly wasn't a waste of my time to watch .hack//SIGN. Despite the slow pace, it has some good character moments and covers some interesting themes, particularly those involving Tsukasa and his interactions with Bear and Subaru. Just be ready to pay attention, and maybe have to do some outside reading and/or rewatching to get some of the subtleties and be ready to be missing quite a bit of the story, unless you are willing to follow through with the rest of the series. I would recommend as a rental, though for buying, I'd say only after renting first. The Anime Legends version is down to $45, and you can get that cheaper in a sale, but I probably won't be buying it as I don't see it having a lot of rewatch value. Being the RPG lover that I am, I will probably pick up the four .hack video games as they have been highly recommended to me before, so I will get to some follow through. .hack//Zero, however, is the novel that actually follows up with Tsukasa and other characters and it is currently unlicensed.

Series Grade: B