I wanted to write a review for the website, but it's late and html takes too much time
So I watched the first disc of .hack//SIGN tonight. While eating fajitas that I made with all the excess onions and peppers I got from my CSA quarter share, but that's not important. The premise of .hack (the whole MMORPG world and being mind-trapped in the game) seemed weird and not interesting to a person like me (being avidly outspoken about MMORPGs), but the music is done by Yuki Kajiura and is ABSOLUTELY BEAUTIFUL...giving this one of the best scores I've heard in a show in a LOOOOOOOONG time. In fact, there's an option on the DVD extras to just watch the episodes with no dialog and just the isolated score. Which would be interesting to do, but possibly only with the aid of mind-altering substances if you were trying to do it for any length of time...... In addition to the score, the character design was done by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto of Evangelion fame, and the screenplay was by Kazunori Ito who wrote Ghost in the Shell. So overall, I felt like this should be at least good to listen to and look at.
And it holds to that. The art, especially the backgrounds, is gorgeous, and there's this amazingly awesome music going on all the time. It's a really neat experience. And the character designs are pretty good, though not as revolutionarily awesome as I had hoped. But the story is weird. Just weird. I was actually laughing at it. It takes itself WAAAAAAY too seriously. I mean, I guess it might be better if I were someone who didn't think MMORPGs were a bane on society in the first place, but even then this show is 100% unbelievable. For one thing, they assume you know a lot about the premise of the series, what's going on, and the actual game it's based off of. I guess I largely assumed that we would start out with a little experience of the characters in the real world living their lives and then logging on to the game....but we don't. We're just in the game with no explanation as to who these people are, what they're doing, or really even what the point of the game is. I still don't think I know that last part. So, after this non-explanation, I'm supposed to believe that somehow our main character is just mind-locked into the game because he's not actually sitting at a computer console so he can't even hard reset to get out. It's fine, I guess, but it's not very believable. And then everyone seems to make a big fuss over it, and they try to capture him. And somehow he's got this crazy guardian thing that kills people who try to oppose him.....it's all a bit weird. And the dialog is horrendous and forced. I guess that's maybe the only appeal I can see to watching this with the isolated score......at least you won't have to listen to these people talk. Many people say that the negative criticism of this sort is because of the slow pacing and charater-driven storyline, but I generally like that sort of thing, and I really just find the dialog horrendous. I mean, I appreciate the fact that the story advances by the characters interacting through conversation, but if you're going to do that, at least make the conversation easy to listen to. It's pretty awful as it is.
Anyway, I'll watch more of it....though it seemed to take FOREVER to get through 5 episodes. I marginally care what happens to this kid and why he's stuck in this game. No harm in finding out....especially if I can listen to more of the awesome score.
And it holds to that. The art, especially the backgrounds, is gorgeous, and there's this amazingly awesome music going on all the time. It's a really neat experience. And the character designs are pretty good, though not as revolutionarily awesome as I had hoped. But the story is weird. Just weird. I was actually laughing at it. It takes itself WAAAAAAY too seriously. I mean, I guess it might be better if I were someone who didn't think MMORPGs were a bane on society in the first place, but even then this show is 100% unbelievable. For one thing, they assume you know a lot about the premise of the series, what's going on, and the actual game it's based off of. I guess I largely assumed that we would start out with a little experience of the characters in the real world living their lives and then logging on to the game....but we don't. We're just in the game with no explanation as to who these people are, what they're doing, or really even what the point of the game is. I still don't think I know that last part. So, after this non-explanation, I'm supposed to believe that somehow our main character is just mind-locked into the game because he's not actually sitting at a computer console so he can't even hard reset to get out. It's fine, I guess, but it's not very believable. And then everyone seems to make a big fuss over it, and they try to capture him. And somehow he's got this crazy guardian thing that kills people who try to oppose him.....it's all a bit weird. And the dialog is horrendous and forced. I guess that's maybe the only appeal I can see to watching this with the isolated score......at least you won't have to listen to these people talk. Many people say that the negative criticism of this sort is because of the slow pacing and charater-driven storyline, but I generally like that sort of thing, and I really just find the dialog horrendous. I mean, I appreciate the fact that the story advances by the characters interacting through conversation, but if you're going to do that, at least make the conversation easy to listen to. It's pretty awful as it is.
Anyway, I'll watch more of it....though it seemed to take FOREVER to get through 5 episodes. I marginally care what happens to this kid and why he's stuck in this game. No harm in finding out....especially if I can listen to more of the awesome score.
posted by Yukino at 9:07 PM
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