.hack//Roots
http://www.slow.com/money-grubbing/bastards.html
Review by: M.H. "They data drained my soul" Torringjan
Length: 26 episodes
Genre: Video game, action, marketing
Watched: Was it really only 26 episodes?
When I heard that a new .hack game series was coming out, as well as an accompanying anime series prequel, I was guardedly optimistic. While I had enjoyed the story of the first series, the anime was slow at times, and the games were too repetitive (in that they kept taking my money and not giving all that much back). While that sour taste was still in my mouth, I had hopes that they would listen to their diehard fans and make the appropriate changes, producing an enjoyable, exciting, and interesting game and anime series. As of a week or so ago, I have completed the first part of the new journey, and all I have to say:
God dammit...
Plot summary: Haseo is a total newb when he logs on to the online game, The World, for the first time. He is accordingly quickly killed by PKers, only to be revived by a mysterious mage, Shino. He is soon invited to join the Twilight Brigade, a guild devoted to finding the legendary artifact, the Key of the Twilight. Instead of killing assloads of boars and getting stronger, he decides that he’ll join because of the pixilated babe (who could be a bearded old stalker, for all he knows). However, as they come closer to finding the artifact, another force, the guild TaN tries their best to stop the Brigade and get the Key for themselves. What is the Key of the Twilight (I pose the rhetorical question for the five people who haven’t played the game and actually want to watch this series), and why does TaN want it?
Artwork: It’s been four years since the last series came out, but to look at it, you’d think not much had changed between the two. The character designs have become more varied, and the artwork is just as colorful as always, both of which are nice. However, the problem of the blending between character and background is still present, and there are a lot of shortcuts in the animation. I mean, *a lot* of shortcuts, and noticeable ones. Like the characters just standing in place on a bridge for entire episodes, just talking, no camera motion, nothing. Picture the elevator scene from Neon Genesis Evangelion (you all know which one I’m talking about), and have one of those with conversation every episode. That’s what I’m talking about. It’s like they ran out of animation budget halfway through and tried to cover it up with a third of a plot. It’s like running out of peanut butter halfway through making a sandwich with slightly stale bread.
Music: This really is the highlight of the series. While Yuki Kajiura and her ever-present Latin lyrics were the main take-away from the original series, this series gives us perhaps a new rising star in the anime music industry, the group, ALI Project. You may remember that they wrote the opening theme for Kajiura’s previous effort in Noir. This marks their second series as the head producers (the first was Avenger), and it couldn’t have worked much better for them. The musical style is similar to that of Kajiura (including, unfortunately, the short length of playlist), with heavy techno influence, as well as slower tracks to set the mood. The feel of the soundtrack is really good, and could very well give a few favorites. However, there is a slight complaint in the placement of some tracks. While most of the time, the music matches the mood of the action, there are a few times when the track just doesn’t match up. The opening track is the only place where you will hear Kajiura on this soundtrack, as her group, FictionJunction wrote and performed it. The track is an upbeat, exciting track that leads one to believe (falsely) that there will be a lot of action in the series. It’s a nice track, ad definitely worth the download. The closing track is an aggressive, techno-infused rock beat by Ali Project, another nice one, but maybe a little bit over the top. And if you listen in and find out that you like them, you have a lot to look forward to, as I understand that they’re also doing the soundtrack for the game series (at least the first one).
Characters: The characters’ personalities seem about standard for the series, with a little bit of a mix of the characters from the game with the characters from the first series. Haseo is a newb who begins by not knowing his joystick from a pretzel stick. He joins the Twilight Brigade to help in their search for the Key of the Twilight (or at least, that’s what he says). While he doesn’t seem much of the conversational or friendly or team-oriented type, he has got his eyes on another of the guild members. He works with the others just as much as he needs to finish up a mission, but is otherwise gruff, reticent, and a major badass-wannabe. Shino is the female second-in-command of the guild who recruits Haseo and believes Ovan, the guild leader, unquestioningly. While her feelings regarding Ovan and Haseo are unclear, she is always willing to take the lead of the guild in Ovan’s absence. The other new member of the Guild is Tabby, a (bells ringing, klaxons blaring) catgirl with a friendly demeanor and a giving attitude. She does her best for the team and always works to get stronger so that she can contribute in some way. Her attempts to help are usually defused by Haseo, so it is unclear why she continually tries so hard to help him (if I was him, I wouldn’t be turning down the hot catgirl; but that might just be me. And Craig.). Phyllo is a Harvest player who sits on a bridge all day, staring out in to nothing. Not much is known about Phyllo besides that he is familiar with the Twilight Brigade and TaN. He is always willing to lend an ear to people with troubles and offer fatherly advice, although he usually seems like he knows more than he’s letting on. While there is nothing wrong with these characters in and of themselves (besides the utter tool-ness of Haseo), there is a problem with how they develop through the story. In some cases, an insufficient motivation for development is given, which leads to unbelievable plot developments. Overall, this could have been done better.
Plot: If you’ve played the first game, you’ve probably got a pretty decent idea of where this is going. In my case, the exact route it uses to get there is really the only thing that’s keeping me watching. In the case of this series, it took far too long to get to its destination, about four or five episodes too long. While there is a standard story progression through the first half of the series, with development, rising tension, and climax, the action stops immediately after the climax, going nowhere for about four or five episodes. Then, once the series finds its track again, it gets on cautiously and eventually decides it’s ready to lead into the cash co- err......... video game. I was okay with it for one or two episodes, but leaving us hanging for as long as it did before doing something does little to increase its popularity among the short-attention-span generation.
CHICKS!! Ah, another bright point of the series! And yes, you know where I’m going with this one. Shino is a polite, friendly, and quiet girl (character) who demonstrates fierce loyalty towards Ovan. Very little is known about her personal life, although I suspect that if you pulled her away from the damn computer screen for a few minutes, you could carry on a nice conversation. Her character is extremely lithe with features that aren’t all that accentuated. While not much is known about her IRL, it’s anime! It’s a safe bet that she’ll be at least of passable looks, if not a stunning beauty (because Anime Law # 327 is that all unacceptable-appearing girls are banned from anime). Now, for the reason that I’m here: the catgirl! Tabby is a bright and cheerful girl who joins the guild to have fun and find some friends. She is always looking to help out, no matter how many times she is turned down. She was also designed to be the fan favorite with proportions that would make any fanboy, regardless of their preference regarding catgirls, drool. It was a major marketing mistake to decide to exclude Tabby from the video game, but there are two more chapters yet to go.
Overall: While I will say that this series may prove to be useful while playing the video game (it seems a mistake on the part of Bandai to not even release the series before releasing the game in the States), I will not say that you should buy it when it is released here. The music is fantastic, the catgirl is the stuff dreams are made out of, and the story is still kind of interesting, but the major pitfalls of this series drag it down too much for it to be worth it. The series is nowhere near getting the special banner at the top, but it probably isn’t worth putting in the 10 hours to watch it if you’re playing the game (which promises to be at least better than the previous series). I would download it if you really want to, but please, for the love of god, don’t encourage them by giving them any money. And for those of you who are reading this and bought the .hack//A.I. Buster novels, I am ashamed for you. Sit in the corner for a half hour, and then come back and read more reviews.
In a nutshell:
+ Great soundtrack
+ Interesting story
+ Okay art design
- Poorly developed, uninteresting characters
- Poor pacing
- Animation shortcuts
Final Score: 5.5/10
Return to Index