A solid dialogue-driven drama which won't be for everyone!

Written by ggultra2764 on February 10, 2012 at 11:01 PM

If you want a good action anime or anything with a quick-moving story, then .hack//Sign will not be your cup of tea. This is a show that takes its time with development so you become acquainted with the plot and characters, especially as more details concerning the mystery of Tsukasa's incapability of logging out of the World are revealed. The MMORPG known as the World has an immersive world to take in and players with diverse personalities whose attitudes of the game clash on occasion. From the stickler for the rules Ginkan to player killer Sora, you get a good sense of just what kind of people the players are as they interact with each other. Even as more about Tsukasa's problems are revealed and eventually resolved, there are mysteries left unresolved about those who kept Tsukasa trapped in the game which are revealed later on in the first set of hack video games and .hack//Liminality.

In terms of visuals, hack has vivid scenery and great looking character designs with a great amount of detail and bright colors. While dialogue was the major emphasis of much of Sign, the scenes where there were abnormalities in the World were the highlights in the animation department for the series. One effective use of the artwork was discerning the differences between reality and the World with the differences in color. The World was saturated in plenty of color meant to convey the escapism and freedoms that it gave its users while reality is coated in black and white with static accompanying its borders to convey the boredom and pressures that it gave people day by day.

hack's best feature for me was its music. Filled with powerful vocals and an energetic techno soundtrack, the soundtrack for the series stands as one of the best I've heard in an anime to date.

With a focus on character interactions and the mysteries surrounding Tsukasa, .hack//Sign makes for a great title if you like anime that take their time with developing their elements.