Kei's Anime Reviews

.hack//SIGN Episode 4

"Wanted"

Another episode of .hack, still not much story movement. The animation and sparse dialogue/story serve as a nice background to the music of .hack//SIGN. This episode is pretty much a rehash of one or two episodes ago, where Bear and Mimiru are supposed to meet up with Tsukasa, but then bother him, making him run away.

Trying to suspend my disbelief for this show is proving harder and harder. The idea that the system administrator somehow will go and read the logs of the game is somewhat absurd, when you consider the purported complexity of the World. Then you throw in silly game references, and it's very hard to accept the show's foundation.

Are we watching a fantasy anime, or are we really just watching a bunch of people playing a video game (a dramatically less interesting proposition, as what's the big deal, unless the World itself is some sort of sinister force). The problem is that we're supposed to care about Tsukasa's player (or Bear's or Mimiru's). We never really see them, though, and it is hard to differentiate their in-game character from their personality. How do we empathize with them, then? For me, personally, not very well.

It might go better if the plot started moving, and I wouldn't have to focus on these very boring characters.

Rating: D+

Posted by Kei at December 28, 2003 12:38 PM