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I am a huge fan of the entire .hack franchise. I have played all of the games and watched the previous anime .hack sign. I even have some of the OST from these downloaded onto my phone. I felt that I should disclose how much I like the series as a whole before diving into this review.

The story: 5/10

The story is not horrible, but it isn't great either. Other than one or two big important events, not too much really happens. I would rate this a little higher if there were fewer episodes, but more should have ... happened in 26 episodes.

The pacing: 1/10

Oh my good sweet lord this show is so boring to watch. There are scenes that drag on and on and on. There is a particular fight scene where the characters yell and run at each other for like two minutes before the episode ends. It feels like they only did this to hit that minute requirement for the episode. To be honest, I was actually laughing really hard during this part because I couldn't believe that they actually did this. The show overall moves way too slow, and it feels like nothing is ever actually happening. The show has 26 or so episodes, but they could have told this story in 7 or 8.

Art: 5/10

Not bad, but not great. The movement is a little stiff, but everyone looks alright when they don't have to move.

Characters: 5/10

As usual, .hack characters have awesome designs. Like with other works in the series, all of the main cast looks really cool, but their looks are where the coolness ends. There isn't really any character development in this show. The purpose of this show is to prepare you to play the .hack GU games, and there is definitely a lot of character development in them, so I can understand why it doesn't happen here.

Overall score: 4/10

If it wasn't for the great games that come after this show, the score would be even lower. I am fully prepared to admit that I am biased toward .hack as a whole, but I tried to be as fair as possible. If you want to play the .hack GU games, I would recommend watching this show first (at 2x speed), but otherwise this is a good one to skip entirely.