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Review:
I must admit that I did feel a little flashback to TRON while watching .Hack//sign. Well, the "sucked into a computer game and cannot get out till a quest is performed" part anyway.
I am a bit of a Massive Multiplayer Online Game junkie, and have played pretty much all of the current ones that are out here (even some that are not). .Hack encapsulates all the things that people (well, me at least) want out of a MMOG, but are never able to find: Everyone wants to be the hero, or to change the online world. The only thing that is really missing from .Hack is the abundance of L337 D33\/\/Dz who seem to only be online to seek out the K3\/\/L Ph4t L3\/\/7, irritate and annoy.
.Hack is set in the near future. "The World" is an online game, with millions of subscribers. All is going well, until people start to fall unconscious while playing. The plot is sadly a little like the MMOG's that it is modeled on, and is a little shallow. It is there, it is in your face, but the characters are much more intent on solving the problem rather than playing the game as such. Which let's face it, is a really good idea, because otherwise we would be watching them hack monsters for 20ish episodes.
The anime is set almost entirely within the game. You only ever see brief glimpses of the outside world in the series, and almost all of those are just slightly moving heads, with headsets on, so you never really get to see what anyone actually looks like. That's okay, as the real world doesn't really matter to the show, except to set up the character interaction within the game world (aka "The World").
The characters are a fairly standard "Fantasy" group. We have a couple of fighter types, a priest type, and a mage type. Though because this is based on a Japanese RPG, the characters can all do many things, Final Fantasy style.
The animation quality is good, the scenery in places is incredibly beautiful. The slight digital morphing when some of the monsters come in (the pixilisation and ripple effect) is a little odd the first time, but fits in really well. This is really once more in keeping with the MMOG theme, as they are mostly quite visually stunning, but really lack any kind of depth of story. That is not to say that ..Hack doesn't have a story, it does, and not a bad one, it just seems that we have seen this before (TRON, Tad William's Otherland books etc).
All in all, I enjoyed watching .Hack though it seems that the more I look back on it, the more clouded it gets in my MMOG'ed up view of things. 7 Online Game Junkies out of 10 by Ian Arentz
Ian lives in Canberra and has been told that he watches too much anime. He says simply that there is no such thing as too much anime. He does do other things that aren't directly related to anime, such as work for the government, but this invariably forces him to watch anime to escape, and spend all his salary doing so. He was a little annoyed at what it cost him to get the .Hack Infection anime episode, but at least they give you a free PS2 game when you purchase it. His local comic store really likes it when he comes in. As do the anime stores in Melbourne. He would really like some anime ties to wear to work but has not been able to locate any at this time. back to the top
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DVD Releases
| Distributed by Madman Entertainment: |
| .Hack//sign - Volume 1 | available now |
| Textless Opening
Textless Closing
.hack//sign Dictionary
Character Gallery
Widescreen Presentation
Promo Clip
The extras on the disc are once more fairly standard. The Trailer for .Hack is pretty cool, showing some of the scenes from the show to music. I cannot recall any vocals during this trailer. The Character Artwork is about 16 images of different characters, and the Character Profiles are a page or a little longer on each of the 4 main characters.
.Hack the Game
A series of actual games based on .Hack are being released on PS2. At the time of writing, only the first of the four games is out (.Hack Infection), with the second to come shortly (.Hack Mutilation). The game pretends that you are online while playing, and you occasionally get e-mail sent to you, with hints for advancing the game or information on things that are happening. The game itself is fairly enjoyable, though except for the main characters, the graphics are quite generic. Pretty standard for a console RPG, and definitely not up to a Final Fantasy.
The games are an integral part of the story line though, continuing on 6 months from the end of the first .Hack animated series, and set a few years before the second series, Legend of Twilight.
Each game also include an unseen episode of the series that is placed about 6 months after the first series of the anime. I enjoyed this quite a bit, as it gives a very different perspective, as it is set in the "real world" at the same time as you are playing, and gives an idea of what is happening outside the game. |
| .Hack//sign - Volume 2 | available now |
| .Hack//sign - Volume 3 | available now |
| .Hack//sign - Volume 4 | available now |
| .Hack//sign - Volume 5 | available now |
| .Hack//sign - Volume 6 - final | available now |
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