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.

Yay for NANA

Which NANA character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Junko For some reason all your friends, except your boyfriend, end up being like your own childs. Always taking care of them and yelling at them when they make mistakes, but you also give good advise and are a kind person who truly worries for those you love. Don't change, everybody needs someone like you in their lives! Junko 83% Ren 67% Nobu 67% Takumi 58% Reira 58% Yasu 42% Nana 42% Shin 33% Hachi 33% Naoki 33%

Because I've been up since 4 and this seems interesting

Not that I think any of you will do this, but a friend of mine had it on her blog and it seemed fun.

Pick a fandom, and I'll tell you which character(s) I would
1. bake cupcakes for:
2. trust with the keys to my car (if I had a car):
3. put thumbtacks on their chair:
4. have a crush on:
5. pack up and leave if they moved next door:
6. vote for President:
7. pick as my partner in a buddy movie:
8. pair up:
9. vote off the island and into the volcano:
10. wheedle into fixing my MP3 player:

That said....try to pick things I'm at least reasonably well-acquainted with. But go to town.

Here's another one! This one I will do without prompting from my non-readers.

1. Pick 10 of your favorite anime.
2. Go to IMDb and find a quote from each anime.
3. Post them here for everyone to guess.
4. Fill in the title once it's guessed.
5. NO GOOGLING/using IMDb search functions to answer!


1. What are you getting so excited about? Mixing it up means enjoying yourself at the beach. Licking refers to yummy soft serve ice cream. Banging means hustling at the mole-hitting game.
2. Somehow, this has turned into a fighting anime. Fruits Basket
3. Native girl must stop! FLCL
4. Lay off, I'm as normal as they come and this is a contest of freaks. What do you want me to do, fire my slingshot at him?
5. Most things get better when I kick them... Cowboy Bebop
6. A whole block, was it? An Island? Blowing people's mistakes out of proportion is so much fun, isn't it?
7. I saw the bulletin board, your underwear's pretty tacky.
8. Even if you're tall, scary is scary.
9. I'll wager the A-lunch on him not making it back.
10. I think it's alright. There's lots of soul in it. And we get to see up your skirt! (That's actually from the manga cause I couldn't find any quotes from the anime)

Ok kids....guess away.