Oct 9, 2011
If you like a slow paced story, focussing on the characters with thoroughly immersive music, you will greatly enjoy this anime. If you like fast paced stories with action scenes led forward by the storyline, this anime is not for you. For those whom the rest of this review is not yet redundant, feel free to read on.
The story is well crafted; while it appears the story is light-hearted, underneath it all it is quite dark. The theme of escapism runs throughout the series, and this is synced well with the aesthetics. The World is colourful and diverse, with canal based cities, green cliff-tops above
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the clouds, deserts and snowy mountains to name a few, as well as the powerful music. You never forget it's just a game though, with the chaos gates and memories sounding like they were being retold through a headset being 2 very MMO effects used. The real world on the other hand, is black and white, crackly and silent, with lines told in text. It emphasises how enticing The World is compared to real life.
The characters' stories are told fairly uniquely, in that there are two stories, for the in-game character and their real-life counterpart. These personalities are often different, and it underlines the theme of escapism. Interpersonal relationships do well from this as well, as characters can interact with not only other in-game characters, but also their real-life character. This complexity makes the character's feel realistic, and having characters from various walks of life reinforces another virtue of MMos: that people, no matter their age or gender or social status, can interact as equals.
The music is by Yuki Kajiura. Her music is always outstanding, but it is either forced upon you, interfering with the story and making the music and the story very disjointed, or is used to immerse the viewer in the story, enhancing the experience. I can happily say this is definitely the latter, which is impressive considering how many of the soundtracks are sung in English; in fact, the songs are both the best of the soundtrack, and the most immersive.
I came looking to burn through the anime and add the soundtrack to my music player; instead .Hack//Sign sat me down and showed me a masterpiece; this is definitely a must-watch for any who can watch a slowly unfolding story. It plays out like a spiral; you think it is unchanging, moving forward, but without realising the story is getting deeper and darker with each episode you go through. It does have some flaws; the ending was so fast I thought I missed an episode, and the camera does sometimes stay on characters for a long time, with little animation going on, but these are nit-pickings that don't have any real effect on my enjoyment of the anime.
Reviewer’s Rating: 10
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