Ranked #3539

.hack//Legend of the Twilight

First off I would like to point out that I haven't played the .hack video games so already I really had no idea what was going on, although I do know that these .hack series did revolve around an MMORPG video game, so right off the bat I knew they were just players inside a video game.

Forgive me if I made some errors towards this review considering I saw this anime around a year ago so my memories might have been sort of disarrayed throughout those months but nevertheless I'll try to make this review as good as I can.

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Story

Unlike numerous animes that I've watched the story for this series never really caught on to me, and what I mean by that is that it never really got me to want to watch the next episode after watching one. I mean sure it was interesting enough that they were in a video game and not many other animes have that concept but the fact that they are in a video game kind of gave me an idea that yes there should be action considering everything in their world is fiction so anything might be possible, and that includes ridiculous laws of physics and whatnot, sadly that didn't really happen. It has the typical good guy and bad guy scene going on, it's fair but at the same time it leaves so much more improvement for a better more complicated storyline, instead they just chose to go linear with it. It might have been aimed towards more for the kids since the characters themselves are children compared to the other .hack series but can't really do much there.Bottom line for the storyline, considering it's a video game I expected a more complicated and action packed story rathen than a very linear and predictable tale.

Art

I didn't complain much about the Art, with the library of anime that I've watched it's safe to say that art isn't such a big factor for me to like it, it's more for the storyline and character development. This anime was made in 2003 and it certainly looked like it with the art, nothing too fancy, a few 3D edits here and there but nothing that'll really blow your mind. The very different and bright colours they chose really gave that fictional look on them which is perfect for the kind of concept this anime held. Overall, there was nothing wrong with the art, fair.

Character

Now the characters are the ones that I have the problem with, being myself I don't really like children that much, and with this anime having the protagonists being children made me clench my teeth already, BUT that doesn't mean that this part of the review is focusing on negative personal things, it means that they are just not my kind of characters (being children).
They have shown really good character growth from the start of the series to the end of the series, I guess that's what they called "leveling up"? If they didn't show signs of growing then they must've been playing the game wrong for sure haha. Overall, there was a good variety of characters, almost every kind of personality could relate to at least one of them and they showed tremendous growth (protagonist)

Overall

Honestly, this .hack series had the most action out of all the other ones and just for that I'd like to make this series the best one out of all, you might tell me "Oh, you haven't played the games that's why you think it's okay", well it's true that my opinions might change about it if I decide to play the game, but I'm giving you guys the perspective from a person that hasn't played the games and I'm sure there are tons of other people out there that want to start watching this anime but decide to get a view from a person that hasn't played the video games.

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I’d like to start off by saying that I am an avid fan of the .hack series, but have only ever seen all of .hack//SIGN and read/watched .hack//Legend of the Twilight. I am currently collecting all the games and will start playing them soon. Since I have not played the games yet, I am fairly unfamiliar with Kite and BlackRose’s characters, so I may not have been able to appreciate .hack//Legend of the Twilight (which I will call .hack//LOFT for short) to its fullest as the two main characters are based off Kite and BlackRose.

Story- .hack//LOFT’s story follows Rena and Shugo, who have just won character models of the famous .hackers, Kite and BlackRose. Once a high level monster defeats Shugo, he comes into contact with Aura, who gives him Kite’s bracelet. This bracelet allows him to “data drain” essentially any monster to defeat it with ease. The storyline then goes into Shugo and Rena investigating the mysteries behind the bracelet and how they meet other characters during their adventure. The storyline gets a lot more complex when people start falling into comas, as in previous .hack anime/games. I will not go into detail on this point to avoid spoilers, but I can say that I really enjoyed the story line as I got further and further into the series. The anime does an excellent job of luring the viewer into a false sense of security by portraying characters in chibi form, suggesting a simple, childish storyline. I was impressed as the story became more through and multifaceted.

Art- In my opinion, the chibi-style art that .hack//LOFT was animated in did not suit its storyline or many of its characters. This made for some awkward juxtaposition between a serious storyline and light-hearted, childlike characters. Besides this point, I thought the animation and artwork was really well done. The animation was clean and had a polished feel to it. Another pleasant surprise was the fact that the few fight scenes that came up in the series were also well animated. Each character’s movements were clean and fast-paced- a rare occurrence in some anime today where fight scenes are drawn out over the course of several entire episodes and contain extensive dialogue in between attacks. Backgrounds were also well done and had a polished look to them. Their vibrant colours and attention to detail provided visual eye-candy throughout every scene in the anime.

Sound- Overall, the sound in .hack//LOFT left much to be desired. The opening and ending songs were more boring and irritating than anything. All I can remember from them was a typical Japanese female voice droning on far longer than I care to listen to them. The background music was no better; a soundtrack that contains primarily music written in a major key with occasional vocal overdubs is destined to fail. Sound effects weren’t very memorable at all, but one noise I can never get sick off is the noise that sounds whenever a character logs in or out of an area. That particular noise is quite yummy and I am glad that they didn’t change it since the days of .hack//SIGN.

Character- The characters in .hack//LOFT did not feel nearly as developed as they should have been. Perhaps I was spoiled from the ample character development present in .hack//SIGN, but nonetheless, the characters felt fairly two dimensional on the whole. This is especially true for many of the secondary characters who have extremely stereotypical personalities (e.g. Mireille is the peppy and upbeat type, Ouka is strong and distant, Hotaru is caring and king-hearted, etc.) These characters barely, if ever, break their predictable personality traits and do not grow in any way during the series. Even the main characters, Shugo and Rena, show little to no growth during the series. The most growth that Shugo undergoes during the course of the anime is learning to enjoy and like videogames, when he used to think they were boring and for children. Not a very significant realization, if you ask me.

Enjoyment- First of all, a lot of the jokes in the series were very predictable, overdone, and generally not funny. While the chibi-ness of the characters worked as an effective basis for an element of surprise (as I mentioned earlier in the review), it also prevented me from being able to take the anime seriously. While the storyline did get interesting and fairly complex, the chibi-ness of the characters distracted me from much of its intellectual or artistic value. Also, since I read the manga before watching the anime, I was expecting the same storyline as the manga (for those that don’t know, the anime and manga storylines are VERY different). Once the story started to stray from the manga, I lost some interest in the series because it began to feel like one long filler. While the storyline did deserve some merit for its originality, I unfortunately couldn’t shake the feeling that I was watching an extremely long filler- sad, but true.

Overall- .hack//LOFT will be a major disappointment if you are hoping to see an animated version of the manga. However, if you can get over the chibi characters and are looking for an original storyline taking place within the infamous “The World” then be sure to check out .hack//Legend of the Twilight.
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