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Anime First Impressions

.hack//ROOTS – Anime First Impressions

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The .hack anime series and I have always been on pretty rough terms. Back when .hack//SIGN was released, I started watching it, but grew tired of the slow and confusing plot. I dropped it after a few episodes. When .hack//DUSK came out, I liked the new art style (chibi), but the plot was still pretty dumb. I saw it through thanks to Round Table’s awesome OP! So how does .hack//ROOTS fare?

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The .hack anime series and I have always been on pretty rough terms. Back when .hack//SIGN was released, I started watching it, but grew tired of the slow and confusing plot. I dropped it after a few episodes. When .hack//DUSK came out, I liked the new art style (chibi), but the plot was still pretty dumb. I saw it through thanks to Round Table’s awesome OP! So how does .hack//ROOTS fare?


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I have a feeling .hack//ROOTS will be closer to SIGN than DUSK. For those of you unfamiliar with the .hack anime, everything happens inside a massively multiplayer online game. So it’s kind of like watching people play World of Warcraft. The story is about a noob, Haseo, who is learning the ropes in “The World.” He gets PKed, and a player by the name of Ovan revives him.

Apparently, Ovan is a pretty popular player. After the incident, scores of players start harassing Haseo, asking him what his relationship with Ovan is. This mainly involves Haseo being beaten up by a bunch of girls, all stronger than he is.

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I can’t really say that I was looking forward to this anime, because I didn’t even know it was coming out until someone pointed it out to me in a comment. To me, the .hack anime are kind of a stupid idea. Who wants to just watch people play MMORPGs? I’d want to play it myself, personally (although I’ve never tried any of the .hack games).

Another thing that always bugs me about these .hack animes is that inevitably, someone in the real world will be affected by something happening in the game world. Seriously, would anyone play WOW if they got knocked out in real life whenever an orc smashed ’em in the face!? Maybe…

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As far as the art and animation go, they’re really good. This anime is shown in 720p, so the detail is very high (my laptop refuses to play it at a decent framerate). The anime features a cute cat girl (who appears to really like that pair of shoes), and the rest of the designs are good enough. That green-haired female assassin is just fugly, though.

The OP, Silly-Go-Round, is a pretty good driving rock. It’s no “New World,” but it’s passable. The ED is yet another ALI-PROJECT song. They did music for both Rozen Maiden shows. Problem is, all their songs sound the same! I’m getting tired of their cookie-cutter songs.

Download the OP: “Silly-Go-Round” by FictionJunction YUUKA
Download the ED: “National Awakening – Catharsis” by ALI-PROJECT

After watching the first episode of .hack//ROOTS, I have a feeling this anime will be more of the same .hack fare: predictable, boring, and slowwww. I’m putting this anime on my dropped list for sure.

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15 replies on “.hack//ROOTS – Anime First Impressions”

Well, the .hack series is really not for everyone. The .hack games weren’t for everyone either because it so truthfully captures the repetitive nature of MMORPGs that it got scary and boring. However, there is an MMORPG of .hack out in Japan called .hack//Fragments. That’s pretty much as close to the real thing as you can get, minus some of the freedoms you see in the anime. Whether that game will make it here to the states is a different thing.

And technically, people don’t get knocked out from playing “The World”, but rather its a bug in the game that causes the problem. Its kind of like that pokemon episode a while back that accidentally caused many people to have seizures (real ones) from watching the combination of flashing lights. Things like that are actually possible.

I semi-agree with the ALI PROJECT in Rozen Maiden bit. In the case of Kinjirareta Asobi (Rozen Maiden season 1) and Seishoujo Ryouiki (Rozen Maiden ~ Traumend [season 2]), both have a *very* simalar flow to them musicly. Personally, however, I haven’t gotten tired of hearing either of them…yet.

Back on topic, I’m not really impressed with ROOTS, either. It just feels done before, or rather like, “Here we go again, sorta.”~

Firs thing I’d like to say.
Boku wa Subaru Janai!

Second I personaly prefer story driven and detail packed anime such as .Hack//Sign. This is why I am Tsukasa instead of some one from Bleach or Naruto. All the storytelling and layering is missing from that type of anime.

As for . Hack//Duck in anime form….yeah duck. The story was rewriten into a help everyone anime rather than focus on “The World’s” evolution/growth. As for what the world is…It isn’t simply a realistic game like hosted on servers. The servers imply connect clients to “The World.”

Gah must stop…

Give me time with Mimiru and Subaru for a bit.

The .hack series is definitivly not for everyone. For one thing the story is driven by character interaction. i.e. very little actual action. If people want action they should watch the Karas OVAs. .hack//Roots seems to have the same style as the original .hack//Sign and the music is good too.

In short expect long in-depth character dialogs and very short (or none) action scenes and the catchy background music all put together with beautiful animation.

Well for me I like the anime so far and I think it will do great. I also like the character design. I just like anime with a really great plot that you can fallow with and as action and this has both, after all this is my second time watching the .hack series. I’ve only seen .hack sign and .hack roots and i like them both. It may not be for you but it sure is for me! So the heck with you guys that disagree.

Well, I agree that the .hack franchise is more character and plot related than action. And that it is not for everyone. Mainly those who can sit through the new Star Wars movies and say they enjoyed them. But really .hack//sign and .hack//roots are lead ups into the game. The first set of .hack games had a bunch of things that connected to .hack//sign and visa-versa.

So, what I am trying to say is, if you enjoy a compelling story line you’ll be hooked.

P.S the anime .hack//legend of the twilight (or //dusk) sucks, it’s all about the manga that was more of a story about the aftermath of the game’s story as opposed to the random crap that was the anime.

The dot hack// animes were not meant to be action packed. The games were. Oh yeah and this series actually has some action in it. But, yeah just like sign this series gets complicated and kinda forces you to play the dot hack//g.u. games ( vol 1 to 3) to find out what happens in the end. But, the ending is not that bad.

this series is about the players interacting and solving a problem. It isn’t about the game ‘The World’ at all, the mmo is just background for the rescues. Yes, I enjoyed the first one, .hack//sign. The second anime could have been better. The customer service was certainly bad… I look forward to this third one.

I would be Azure Kite, but thats taken.

I personally love everything .hack. It has the best characters EVER. ALmost all of the characters go through serious changes, likie Haseo going from good to bad to good again, and Tsukasa from being an anti-social outcast to a truly dependable hero. She is probably my favorite character from anything. I don’t see why people don’t like .hack//Twilight Bracelet the show. It was good enough to make me watch 11 episodes in 1 day. It was worth it.

.Hack is one of my favorite anime franchises. Well or series, I’m not sure what you all would call it. It isn’t for everyone, but I find that Roots is the best one.

Dusk was good in the manga and the anime both, but it ticks people off that the anime is nothing like the manga.

i disagree with all of i say it is for every one although it was a disapointment about no season 2 because so many things are left unanswered but i still think it completely awsome

I love dot hack//roots. (i guess because im a online player my self >.>) i just like the story line and how they cover up most of the things, just like speach bubles. the only problem…i dont have the dvd series so im stuck. they needed a bit more action, thats the only bad im saying

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