30-sai no Hoken Taiiku
Alternate Titles:
Sanju-sai no houken taiiku
Sanjuu-sai no hoken taiiku
A Thirty-Year Old’s Health and Physical Education
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.hack//Quantum
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+ Anima
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.hack//Roots
Alternate Titles: None
Original Japanese Release Date: April 5th, 2006
Episode Length/Run-time: 26
Summary:
.hack//Roots is the prequel to the .hack//G.U. videogames. It follows the story of Haseo, a Multi-Weapon and member of the Twilight Brigade guild. In the year 2015, CC Corp. Building burnt down, and with it, most of its data for The World. By splicing data from what would have potentially been another game, CC Corp. created The World R:2 and released it in 2016.
Review:
Set six months before .hack//G.U., Haseo logs into The World R:2 for the first time and falls victim to the PKs that reside within The World R:2. Pking has apparently become a big problem. He is saved by Ovan and Shino, which prompts him to join the Twilight Brigade. The Twilight Brigade members are on a mission to find the Key of the Twilight, however, the TAN guild opposes this because they want Ovan’s character data due to the device in his left arm and will stop at nothing to keep the Twilight Brigade from their goal. The twist is when Tri-Edge shows up. Things briefly pick up in the series when he turns up, making for a short run of episodes that were actually fun to watch. Makes for some good drama and some action scenes.
If you plan to watch the series, without playing the game, don’t. You need to play the games to finish the story and let me tell you, the game suck. Badly. You may go insane playing them. But without playing the games:
- Many unexplainable events
- Characters aren’t fleshed out enough you miss out on a LOT of character background. things just happen without any reason for this being given
- The ending leaves SO many questions unanswered
This anime has extremely large periods of nothing happening. What the hell is the director thinking? Everything happens very slowly. Long periods of characters just starring off into space at the sky or at something in particular. Really weird. It’s a bit how you’ll notice in an anime how sometimes they will just be like a really long still image. Also it takes characters a long time to decide to do something and then an even longer time to execute. It makes things ever so boring.
The anime totally abandons the “MMO inside an anime” theme. .hack//Sign had scenes that would show the person using the computer or would have very video game like character traits for the in-game avatars. .hack//Roots totally dumps this trait. You never see the out of game players and the characters in the series are just way too emotion filled and “real” to be ingame avatars. As a result, it doesn’t really feel like you’re watching an MMO. Many of the characters are pretty unlikeable in the end as well. They don’t get background and they really don’t feel that vibrant. Even the main character Haseo is just a shitty emo character.
The visuals and music are very nice the animation and the overall art is very nice. The character designs for .hack are always very interesting, and the artwork in general is of an excellent standard. This is a good thing, because you are forced to stare at pretty visuals in which very little happens for a long, long time. The music is fantastic as well. The theme song and was played at the start of tonights podcast, “Silly Go Round” Is quite awesome and even the BGM features famous melodies such as the “Queen of the Knight” Aria from Mozart’s “Magic Flute”.
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.hack//Sign
Alternate Titles: None
Original Japanese Release Date: 2002
Episode Length/Run-time: 26
Summary:
A popular MMORPG game in which players literally plug their minds in to play has taken the country by storm. Known as “The World” it possess all the familiarities of any modern MMO as we know it. However, something strange has begun to occur, people in the real world are falling into mysterious comas as their avatars remain logged into the game. What are the mysteries of “The World?” And what really happens if you die in game while your body is in a coma?
Review:
.hack//sign is the first contributor to the .hack series, yep this is where everything started from. It was released in 2002 from the studio Bee Train. It’s 26 episodes long, however that is by no means the full extent of the story. It ran on Cartoon Network for a while and this was my first exposure to the world of .hack//sign.
I have to say this anime was one I really enjoyed. At the time of watching this anime this was such a fresh concept to me. Not as mentally jacked as something like Lain which also tackles the virtual world but an enjoyable romp through a fantasy MMORPG. I think to understand the charm of this game you have to understand when it came out. World of Warcraft was announced in 2001, just before this game, Final Fantasy XI was released the same year just a month before. The early 2000s were practically the birth of MMOs as we’ve known them for the next decade and this game just capitalized on this budding fascination and love for these fantasy realms.
Almost 100% of .hack//sign takes place in the game world where people live and interact through their avatars. The World is like part D&D and part Man in the Machine. And, I literally mean “The World” that’s what this MMO is called and in a way it holds an eerie symbolism. Characters in the anime log into the game by hooking up themselves into a machine like setup where they are logged in so that they control the characters with their minds. The story is told from the perspective of Tsukasa, who is endlessly confused and seems to be at the center of things without actually having much going on. There’s a lot of dialogue in the series which ends up slowing down the show, especially because Tsukasa doesn’t seem to know much of anything. What ends being the crux of the show is when players begin to go into mysterious comas in the real world while remaining logged into “The World.” Which is shrouded in mystery and suspicions, specifically with the unknown of what happens in the real world if you die in the game. As the story continues the characters learn the secrets of the world through heavy dialogue, something you may not expect in the series and it ends up generally slowing things down and get boring.
However, the animation is good, especially for its time, and the music is fantastic. The key problem with this series is it was built to have the viewer watch the anime, read the manga AND play the FOUR video games. So unless you’re really in love with it you’re not going to get the full ending, just enough to give a conclusion to the series.
It’s definitely above average for its originality, story line, atmosphere, music and animation. But the execution by dialogue driven (be it to save money or uncertainty in direction on the producer’s part) ends up slowing down to the point of dull what could be a great anime. Plus, it seems too much to ask the viewer to invest their time in the anime, four games (which really aren’t that good), and the manga. Chiaki’s recommendation: If you like the anime, check out the game, but if you really get drawn into the story expect it to demand a lot from you.
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11eyes
Alternate Titles: イレブンアイズ (Japanese)
Original Japanese Release Date: 2009-10-06
Episode Length/Run-time: 12 Episodes
Summary:
One day, shortly after losing his sister to suicide, Satsuki Kakera finds himself transported into a terrifying and unnatural world later called the “Red Night.” Together with his friend Minase Yuka, they find others from their high school and vow to discover the secret of the Red Night and why they were forced into it. Magical powers, dark secrets and reluctant heroes are revealed in their desperate journey for escape.
Review:
This anime left quite a bit to be desired, the plot development starting off slowly only to grow slightly before slamming to a sudden and, like I said, underdeveloped end. Back stories found little opportunity to be revealed, and when they were, it felt forced or rushed, all attempts at characterization belittled in the effort. The characters themselves, outside of that, are average at best, from the squeaky voiced, first sort-of and then completely annoying moe love interest, the boy who tries too hard to be the hero and is completely oblivious to the love interest’s plight, and the girl with all the power but the inability to love… until HE comes along, to the badass rule breaking hot guy and the girl who switches personalities every time she takes off her glasses. Verbatum. And that was just the protagonists.
The animation style is decent, standard for its genre, and the fight scenes, as few as there turned out to be, weren’t poorly done, but in the overall scheme of things, it did little to help its score. While on the other hand, the music was apparently mediocre enough that it was forgettable. Nothing much can be said about 11 Eyes outside of the fact that it held some interest. I didn’t find myself waiting for it every week, but when it came down to it, I wasn’t bored or dying to claw my eyes out, just wishing for a little more of this or a whole lot more than that. As for the ending, like the rest of the anime, it left more to be desired than I’d hoped. But it WAS an ending, unlike some anime are cursed with, so for that at least, I applaud it, letting it slip into the 2.5/5 range.
.hack//Legend of the Twilight
Alternate Titles: .hack//DUSK
Original Japanese Release Date: January 8th, 2003
Episode Length/Run-time: 13 Episodes
Summary:
Shugo and Rena are siblings who get separated when their parents divorce. Shugo and Rena decide to spend time together playing the online MMO “The World”. They end up winning a contest which allows them to use the limited edition character designs of the legendary heros, Blackrose and Kite. Their adventure in The World kicks off when they, much like their predecessors, meet Aura.
Review:
This .hack series is much like the prior ones except this one is much more lighthearted. It has more of a carefree, fun feel compared to the prior series. Of course, underneath there are always the dark undertones that are associated with the .hack series. It starts out with the characters just performing simple RPGesque dungeon crawling activities but before long the characters are going up again the CC corporation and dealing with friends falling into comas, etc… It’s basically what we expect from the series at this point.
The pacing is the show is good. It doesn’t take long for Shugo and Rena to encounter damage regenerating monsters which tend to peak the viewers interest about what exactly is happening in the world. This deteriorate as the show progresses, gradually increasing the intensity level of the show.
The characters are your typical RPG classes that you’ll find in the other .hack shows. There is the twin-blade, the heavy blade, the caster, etc… Even Balmung of the Asure Sky makes an appearance in this show and is a main character throughout. This time though he works for the company as in game employee. Other characters such as Sanjuro appear in the show as well and there are of course still grunties which give the show a familiar nostalgic feel.
The bad things about this series are that first of all, there are a lot of wasteful episodes in the series. Episodes where not much of importance happens and makes you wonder if this show really needed to be 13 episodes. It could have just as easily have been a 6 episode OVA. Also, compared to the other .hack shows, the music in this one is very poor. It is bland and unmemorable, especially the background music.
All in all the show isn’t terrible. None of the .hack shows are especially good so I guess it’s to be expected by this time. Still, if you like the .hack series I’d of course recommend that you check this one out. Otherwise, I don’t think I’d really encourage you to watch this over many other shows.
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