.hack//Sign

Kudos for being one of the first few animes with the topic of MMORPG. That is the only positive i can say of this title. Having recently finish season one of Log Horizon and still being in the mood for more anime with this genre,i decided to watch this series. Thinking that it would be of similar mold to Log Horizon,i went into this series having some what of a high expectation but was extremely disappointed. Even though,the artwork was not spectacular given that it came out in 2002,i was hoping that the story line would be interesting enough to compile me overlook this particular ... flaw. Sadly,the story line was worst than it's artwork,it was just 26 episodes of characters talking to each other. There were little to no action sequences at all throughout the either series. Even the conversations between the characters were boring as they use a lot of scientific sounding jargon that i think were probably made up for the series. Now,i pride myself as only watching animes with its original Japanese dubbing,but after three to four episodes,it became too tedious and i had to switch to the English dub. That did not help as the series continued to be dull,wanting to finish the whole series,i labored through the remaining episodes. Overall,if you are the type who likes animes with a lot of dialogues,than this series will suit you but for me,i would rather die than have to ever re-watch this series again. 2/10,re-watch Log Horizon if you have to instead of this title. (this rating is only for .Hack//Sign,i have not watch the other variations of this series)

The soundtrack for .hack//sign is one of Yuki Kajiura's early works, and it is absolutely amazing. When it came out, it was unlike almost anything else. (Noir is another early work by YK, and also very good). You should absolutely buy the soundtrack. Don't bother watching the anime.

The music is especially noticeable, because there is almost nothing else that will grab your attention on screen. The background art is decent, but most of the animation simply reuses the same sets over, and over, and over again. The first few episodes make you think that the anime is going to ... turn into something really cool, but it never pans out. The plot is entirely uninteresting, and the characters are either really annoying, or really boring, and often both.

The anime is supposedly set in an online MMORPG (kind of like Sword Art Online), but it has got to be the most boring game ever made, because we almost never see any of them actually play the game. Instead, they mostly sit around waiting for things to happen. Of course, nothing ever does.

All that would be okay if we had great characters and dialog, but the characters are entirely meh. The authors attempted to make the dialogue deep and mysterious, but nothing of importance is ever said or revealed, because nothing of importance ever happens in the plot, and the characters don't develop in any meaningful way. There's a little bit of action at the end, but after 20-something episodes of just waiting, I had long since ceased to care.

The anime is a bit aged but it ages well youll find the artwork fun to watch and "the world" expansive and appealing. the anime is alright but the storyline kinda sucks. the first five episodes will have you hooked, then it kinda repeats its self for 10+episodes. also a general lack in character depth just makes you think this could be so much more. in the end you might find yourself tearing threw the rest of the episodes to see how the story turns out

I don't often write reviews as I like to just enjoy and appreciate what I'm watching, but this anime was a complete waste of time. Not to sound immature but with the fantasy RPG setting, the massive franchise it spawned, and the flashy upbeat opening, I thought this was gonna be some grand, action-packed epic adventure. It was not. It's 26 episodes of everyone just moping and talking. Not that talking's bad, but where did any of these conversations go? Absolutely nowhere. I don't care about any of these characters. They're so dull and flat. The main character whose name I never remember even while ... watching is just Shinji Ikari except instead of not wanting to be in the robot he doesn't seem to really want to play the game. But who's forcing him? This was just an absolute chore to watch. I'm normally pretty good with 26 episode series because even if I only have time to watch 1 a day I can still knock it out quick. This took me months because the whole time I couldn't decide to drop or just finish it off. If you want a sci-fi series that moves at a slower pace but is actually good go watch Ergo Proxy.

Ok, I might not be the best candidate for writing a review since I only watched half of it and dropped it but I couldn't help it with this one. I would like to point out that my views are completely unbiased because I never played the games, so I am not a fan of the series, just someone who decided to watch the anime.

Story: 2/10

I remember hearing about this series when I was just in elementary school. I remember the dubbed version coming on late nights, but I used to watch other anime and never really got into it. Back then I used to ... think "I'm definetely going to watch this from the beginning." From the eyes of a child, it looked different, the character designs looked cool, the soundtrack sounded amazing, and I was very new to anime and only watched dubbed versions that came on television. In the end, I never really got around to watching it until now, when I've reached adulthood. I had really high expectations, but now if I had to describe this series in one word, it would be "disappointing".

I understand this series is probably what has inspired other shows based on MMORPGS like Sword Art Online and is probably original to the "stuck in a game" plot. It has a very unique premise for its time and that's why I'm giving this a 2/10 instead of 1/10. The storytelling is just downright awful and I couldn't stand watching it. There is just so much...dialogue. Characters just sit around and talk for a good 90% of the show. The story barely moves forward in each episode. Don't believe me? Go on Wikipedia Episodes list and look at each episodes summary. Just skim through if you don't want to ruin the story for yourself. In the end, I just read up online what happens in the show because I could no longer put myself to another 12 episodes of pure torture.

To be honest, I didn't know much about the series. I did some research and I realized that its part of a series of games. I realized later that its probably the reason why its so dragged out when it could have been much more condensed. It's sad that it was dragged out for the sake of the fans and probably to generate cash when it could have been made great with some proper storytelling.

Art: 3/10
Looking at the character designs now, some of it is cool and some of it is just downright weird. I don't know why I thought it was really cool.
It's an old series, so the animation is not fluid and the overall art isn't that great.

Sound: 6/10
Soundtrack is good, but it's used in some odd places, making it a little awkward.

Character: 3/10
The story progressed too slowly, so as a viewer, I did not get attached to any character. The main character in the beginning was just annoying, always running away from someone acting a little friend. You barely even get to see him actually, because its mostly the other characters sitting around and discussing things about the main character.
One thing I don't get is why were the other side characters so worried about him, always rushing to his aid, when he doesn't even care about them and treats them coldly.

Enjoyment: 1/10
I hate to say this, and despite my hatred toward harems, I thought sword art online was much more enjoyable than this. I don't mean to compare shows, but if you look at my reviews from SAO, I haven't given it a high rating, but since these two are similar in storyline, I would have to say SAO beats this.

Overall: 2/10
I think a lot of people like this show according to the reviews, so I do think that people may enjoy it despite it being slow, and that's completely fine, people have different tastes. But I do think that if you're an impatient person like me, don't bother with this series.

This series has a lot of good ideas in it and I understand the importance the anime has, being one of the first Isekai anime before the landscape became inundated with them (looking at you SAO). But the pacing of this series is just awful. This was a decent enough story that could've been told in half the time and was stretched thin to the point where my patience was on its last legs.

A lot of potential that it just didn't live up to in my opinion and I was left being utterly frustrated with the anime and my watching experience. I'll still be ... watching the OVAs but it's mainly because I like the ideas .Hack has and because they are far shorter.

Personally, I felt this series drag on needlessly at times. It was melodramatic and I felt as if I was supposed to feel certain scenes were important. A rule of thumb for me is that if I realize that I'm supposed to be feeling something instead of actually and naturally feeling it, then it could be better.

That being said, I understand it was trying to get at deeper things and I respect it as not being a cookie-cutter series that copies other anime formats. I don't think it was executed as well as it could've been.

To be better it would've moved faster, done away with ... unnecessary exaggerations, and had a better soundtrack.

For me, it's the type of anime you play in the background while doing something else.

I tried watching this anime when I was in high school, but couldn't get into it. Nearly 13 years later, I decided to give it another shot.

The art style is good, and the soundtrack is phenomenal. Sadly, that's all this anime has going for it. The story is alright...I do really like the premise, but how the producers carried it out onto the big screen is pretty lackluster and almost seems half-a$$ed. The dialogue was ghastly, and cheesy in most cases. There were a lot of..hiccups in the story progression that made me feel like I missed an episode somehow or that the episodes ... weren't consistent, and things that didn't make sense...like a character that was with the group a second ago is now elsewhere almost as if they were never in the group in the first place.

And the ending was terrible. We're left with a huge cliffhanger and things left unexplained.

Overall, this anime was a big disappointment.

I finished watching .hack//sign (including OVAs).

Above all else, the soundtrack is phenomenal. Yuki Kajiura is insanely talented.
One of the best OSTs I've heard in recent memory. Strongly recommend you check it out because it seems underappreciated.

Having said the above…
Let me clarify that I only watched the anime. Apparently this is a multimedia project, so others more immersed in the franchise might be more positive than me.

The only other positive thing I have to say is that the voice acting was actually pretty good. Definitely some talented voice actors in the cast.

The fundamental flaw of this anime is that it is extremely ... poorly directed. I literally felt like I was watching a highschool art project. It is that bad. There are occasional engaging scenes but overall the series uses screentime so wastefully. This is coming from someone who prefers slow pacing and SOL and dislikes watching action etc…

>doko tsukasa?
>shiranai lol
Congratulations you've now seen above 75% of .hack//sign.

Even visually the series has low artistic value.

I mainly watched this right before bed because it would lull you to sleep with its repetitiveness and just complete lack of value in most screentime. It was unrefined and incoherent. I mainly finished it because of the soundtrack, atmosphere, and because of its historical significance.

Overall 4/10. Amazing sound but abysmal direction.

This could've been a 6, maybe even a 7 depending how the ending went but, sadly, that was not the case. This review will contain spoilers, particularly about the ending however, what you at LEAST need to know that isn't a spoiler is, if you watch this anime, expect to have to play the games to get all the answers and possibly also watch the other anime in the franchise for any remaining ones and even then I cannot assure you you'll have all the mysteries solved as i have not played any game or seen any anime besides this one. I have however taken ... a look at stuff which tells me this is likely the only way you're going to get the answers you seek at the end of this season and episode 27 and 28 of this series... (Though someone claimed some of the answers but not all are answered in .hack//Legend Of The Twilight, cannot say if true or not...)

Now, onto the review but as i said spoilers will be mentioned.

.hack//Sign is an anime that has not aged well, I'd argue however it wasn't even good back in the day either and yet, somehow it draws you in. The mystery is nothing special and the writing is honestly bad. Lots of times the anime will simply skip parts so a character or a group of characters will be in one place both during and at the end of the episode, and the next thing they're suddenly in another place, not having shown or continued from where it left off both during and at the start of the episode. The acting in both the sub and Dub is good (I didn't watch the sub much, but what little I saw was as good as the dub) but thanks to the writing, the characters often enough speak in a slow or unrealistic manner, same with their actions. Speaking of action... do not expect to see much of that at all, despite being an MMORPG VR game, the battles are laughable, I swear so many compare this to SAO but none ever ONCE compare it to Spice and Wolf, which it shares FAR MORE in common with in the sense of its mostly just characters talking but unlike Spice and Wolf, .hack//Sign is not even CLOSE to being on the same lv of how GREAT that anime is. SAO it shares a few themes with but honestly, a LOT of anime shares similar themes (Especially these days with so many VR game anime popping up left and right) and in case you're wondering, there is NO comparison for how GOOD SAO is compared to this one. Sure I like SAO and will admit it has its own faults (many i fact) but if you're comparing the two as many have prolly done, SAO is the superior anime/series/franchise here hands down. Bonus points that you DON'T need to play a SINGLE SAO game to understand whats going on and have the mysteries solved for you :P

I normally never make comparisons to other anime when i review an anime unless its one in the series of the anime am reviewing, however, since a lot have made comparisons to SAO and seeing as this is likely the 1st trapped in a VR game world or one of the 1sts odds are, I felt it was needed to make those 2 comparisons. (Fyi, Spice and Wolf is FAR superior to this, even though its mostly talking its night and day difference between it and .hack//Sign)

Anyway, that's enough of the comparison. I'll just say this, as I said at the start of this review, this could've been a 6 or even a 7 depending on the ending, and by now you might've guessed WHY it's rated a 4.0. That is because at the end, the anime just ends... abruptly... The enemy would NOT log them out, yet that's what the anime seems to indicate happened... I suspect its a fake world and they're still in The World but alas, I'll not know unless I talk to a friend who knows, go read up on a wiki or go play the game(s) and if your viewer base has to do ANY of that, you have sadly, succeeded at something that NO writer should EVER make a reality as it turns the viewer off, it ruins it for anime only watchers and I say this not lightly because .hack//Sign left MANY MANY questions UNANSWERED on TOP of that abrupt ending! Again, this is what we call bad writing. The worst part of this is knowing they had EVERY opportunity to answer every question but they seemingly don't and that's made worse when they made more and more anime series in this franchise but didn't bother to properly continue this in the anime. (.hack//Legend Of The Twilight "might" answer some of this but since its focus is on two characters not in the Sign anime and has them playing as avatars based on the look a like Tsukasa and Mimiru called Kite and Black Rose respectively, it is unlikely this would continue the story with the Sign characters and even then you'd need knowledge of Kite and Black Rose possibly from the game(s) to fully enjoy that anime...)

It goes without saying but, even if the games are available to play (Which i doubt) I wouldn't be interested in playing them, especially when the anime's writing and animation were so laughably bad and unrealistic and as an anime only fan of this anime, i guess that means my friend and or a wiki is my only option for knowing what the anime SHOULD have told us. Like I said before, .hack//Sign somehow draws its viewers in, despite how bad it is but, it really did get lucky to release when it did, as bac then it was better as not many if any did what it did, however, that still doesn't make it a good anime/series and somehow it gained many games, anime and more. That just shows you how important timing is for when you release something as you know this wouldn't have gotten a sequel much less a game (and if it did not more than 1) if this had released in this day with modern art but the same style of animation and lastly, while the mysteries are what will likely keep you hooked, the stuff they DID answer was honestly, meh to bad. Totally not worth watching is my take on this but who knows, maybe you'll like it? Hopefully this review helped you to decide if you wanna watch it or not.

Oh, bonus round! You thought we were done? Nah lol Sora says: Oh, looook, later series and games made look a likes who look like Tsukasa, Mimiru, Bear etc. but are not them. THAT'S not confusing especially for kids~

P.s. This reviewer as said hasn't played the games nor seen any other anime, if anything I've said here is wrong my apologies but this SHOWS at the very least how jumbled up, confused the anime only viewers will be thanks to how they told the series' story and that as said is bad.

I really gave this a chance, and I just could not get into it. The story was so slow, with constant questions on my mind trying to understand what is going on. I get that the MC doesn't remember himself and is trying to figure it out too, but the things he does and how he does it really piss me off. The MC maybe a young child, even then how he acts towards some characters was ridiculous.

The few action scenes were slow and barely action really. Mostly one sided and after a move or two was over.

One of the things I did really ... enjoy was the music sound track in this anime. The opening was my least favorite of the music though. The background music was surprisingly unique and interesting. It felt like a actual game that made their own music for said game.

There were to many times where the story was creeping alone with the many pauses from the MC that made this a difficult anime to watch. The MC personality post memory loss was extremely annoying. It may have just cause if I continued to watch. Some of the actions of the other characters did not help to make the story better. Some tried to help the MC in very strange ways that just seems selfish more than anything.

Nothing against old style animes, but the direction of the story, the story progression, and characters made this a difficult watch. Not one I am willing to invest more of my time into.

"Trapped in a video game" has been a consistently enjoyable sub-genre for me and Yuki Kajiura, who did the soundtrack here, is literally my favorite musician and composer, period, as reflected in my favorite people list in my profile so I really, really wanted to like this. Unfortunately, I just didn't.

It's slow and boring and there's really no way around that. The pacing drags this show down in a huge way. This entire story, told in 26 episodes, could have been told in 18 without much trouble. There are other valid criticisms too such as shallow and minimal character development, a 47 year old man ... hanging out with a bunch of teenage girls daily and no one having any problem with it and a convoluted, messy plot that suffers from a serious lack of explanation but the biggest issue, far and away, is the pacing. There's a ton of talking and not much of anything else. There's very little action and for an MMO this game looks boring as hell because hardly any time whatsoever is spent showing players actually playing the game.

It's not ALL bad. The base plot concept is really cool and explores some deeper themes. There's an intriguing mystery at the core of all this. And, of course, Yuki Kajiura delivers the goods and provides a gorgeous soundtrack. But, again, I just cannot stress strongly enough the extent to which this is overshadowed and borderline ruined by the exhaustingly slow, sleep-inducing pacing.

If you've got the patience for something that moves very, very slowly and dialogue heavy anime doesn't bore you I guess this is worth a look. Ultimately I respect this anime more than I actually like it. It's the OG of the genre and it paved the way for better shows in the future. Hats off for that. I don't see too much value here beyond that though and I have no interest in rewatching this.

OBJECTIVE RATING- 6.5
PERSONAL ENJOYMENT RATING- 6