.hack//SIGN

Title: .hack//SIGN Category: TV Total Episodes: 26 Genres: Action, Science Fiction Year Published: 2002 Studio: Bandai Visual US Distribution: Bandai Entertainment Animation: 6 Sound: 6 Story: 3 Character: 5 Value: 4 Enjoyment: 3 Average: 4.5 Description: In the year 2005, a computer virus called 'Pluto Kiss' completely shuts down and restricts the global internet network of the world. In 2007, after extensive rescinding of the network, they create and release an online Network Game (MMORPG) called 'The World'. The anime focuses mainly around Tsukasa who obtains the power that damages the player in the real world. He suddenly awakens to find himself in 'The World', being able to feel, smell, touch, see and hear everything as if he was really there. He attempts to logout but fails to do so. Being unable to remember what has happened before he awoke, he wanders around aimlessly to find answers. While doing so, system moderators, the Scarlet Knights, suspect that he has been working with hackers, because of the tweaked character he was with. Tsukasa finds a magical item, that grants him the power to use this fearful 'Guardian' that will protect him from harm. One Liner: .hack//SIGN is the worst anime I’ve ever seen. Animation: At first glance, the animation of the series is absolutely wonderful – breath-taking backgrounds really set the moods for the scenes and the simple strokes of the characters indeed make them pleasing to the eye. Yet, the high standards of the early episodes proved to be a double-edged sword – the animators started to recycle the backgrounds so much that the scenes became plain. Character design also eventually becomes insufficient when the complex personalities of the characters are revealed. The animation of .hack//SIGN proved to be especially disappointing in moments where smooth animation was required. During such sequences, the animators slacked out of providing active details of the characters and depict them either as blurred figures with choppy movement, or avoid the character entirely by shifting attention to another camera angle. Thus, as the viewer, one cannot help but feel cheated by the animation. Sound: While there are people on animeNfo that swear on their life .hack//SIGN has the best soundtrack, .hack//SIGN’s soundtrack is simply mediocre at best, if one has even the slightest interest in New Age renditions of fantasy or medieval melodies. Much like the animation in .hack//SIGN, the sound is very appealing at first but falls victim to the over exposure and constant repetition. Sound is also annoying since neither the OP or the ED is particularly well made; even more so since they were written in English which made it confusing as heck and ineffective as it would have been if the songs remained in Japanese. Aside from the soundtrack, there is no other justification why the sound in .hack//SIGN is so great, since most of the sound is dialogue anyway. If points are given for voice acting, then so be it: even the emotionless droning of the actors was mediocre at best. Story: .hack//SIGN is slow. No, maybe you don’t get it. It’s SSSSLLLLOOOOWWWW. From all 26 episodes, the story only begins to get marginally interesting around episode 12, and picks up at episode 22 when the viewer is apathetic to the plot and the characters. Yes, .hack//SIGN is SLOW. While credit is given to the creators of the anime for thinking up of such an unusual concept, there is a reason why a story line even remotely similar to .hack//SIGN has not been attempted – the concept gives little room for plot. This is evident through the constant cycling of the story – often times characters find themselves back at square one after 4 or 5 episodes. With the redundancy of such episodes, to one who has watched the entire series in succession, the story line gets tedious (especially when one considers the plot development in the end of the last episode as compared to the beginning). Most of the script is dedicated to useless dialogue (which is 95% of the anime) that does not further the plot nor provide background to the characters. The plot is stupid, weak, illogical, random, and insufficient. Basically, the creators of .hack//SIGN took a plot that could be more than adequately explained in 4 episodes and stretched it into 26 episodes – so much that the story is incredibly watered-down and insufficient to justify the length of the series. Character: If there is a weak story, then often times there are weak characters. This is the case in .hack//SIGN. The characters are not only unmemorable, but quite a few became unbearable, worse than Shinji in Evangelion (to those who have seen Evangelion). The characters are too complex for their own good. Character attention is often misrouted and betrays the emotions of that the viewers place on the characters since they back stab each other so much. Actions are illogical, senseless, and at times, down right stupid. There are no memorable characters at all and no lasting sentimental attachment to the “players” of "The World". Value: Not something I’d want to watch more than once. Enjoyment: Mediocre sound, animation, horrible plot and pathetic characters make .hack//SIGN very unpleasant. A huge waste of time that one should not bother to watch unless he is suffering from momentary insomnia and needs something more boring than reading through a dictionary. (I watched it entirely so I can justify trashing my dislikes I’ve formed in episode 4) Not funny, not clever, just plain boring. Bottom Line: .hack//SIGN sucks. DO NOT waste your time with this anime. Aside from the lack-luster animation, tedious cycling soundtrack, senseless story and weak characters, there is absolutely nothing good about this series at all. This anime has to be a joke, and a very bad one at that. Back to Anime