.Hack//Sign

Type: Anime

Status: Complete (28 episodes)

Premise: In fictional 2005 "The World" is a MMORPG were through virtual reality you dive into the game playing a character through the various stages and interacting with others. Tsukasa is a player that is now unable to log out of "The World" and is slowly losing his identity to the game, but a few players take note of him and decide to unravel the mystery in order to help Tsukasa.

Thoughts: This show is rather bland when you consider that it is based on an MMORPG. There is little action and most of the story is developed through diologue and "Floating Heads". There is an interesting mystery inherent to the plot which does help in the second half of the series, but it is a slog in the beggining.

Prose: Good animation with great dialogue and character development rely makes the series. Also the plot once it engages is rather good.

Cons: Slow plot near the begging. Also the fact that this story is based on characters playing a video game results in some awkward dialogue at times were you just wish they would choose a way of thinking and speaking and stick to it.

-Notes: Fully dubbed. This anime as well as all the subsequent .hack// series are meant to be supplements to video games, in this case it is not noticeable as this series is meant to be a base for all the rest but the game follows directly after.

7.5/10          (Can you be any more antisocial?)