Anyone who's been around me long enough knows that I am quite fond of Shino from the .hack series. In fact, she's still my favorite character period. This sometimes causes conflict when I encounter other people who... don't think so well of her.
First off, the different views on her. The positive outlook is that Shino... well, that she was just another character caught up in her own tragedy in the series. Ovan, the man she very deeply cares about, suddenly disappears without a word and she's left alone to lead a rather fragile guild that's literally falling apart after Ovan's absence. Then there's Haseo, who ends up voluntarily staying with her and helping her during this hard time. After Shino chooses to disband the Twilight Brigade, she and Haseo meet again in the cathedral. She says something to the affect of, "I'll wait for Ovan, even if I'm alone." To which Haseo replies, "You're not alone. I'll wait with you."
There's clearly some affection coming from Haseo's side; whether Shino ends up starting to reciprocate said feelings is up to debate. Either way, she doesn't stop him from staying and even shows some kind of affection, despite the fact she's still pretty much in love with Ovan.
Then before anything can be solidly confirmed about Haseo and Shino's relationship, whatever it may be, Shino falls into a coma and is not seen again until the end of the third G.U. game. This makes it tricky for her to get enough character development to dissuade all the negative comments against her.
Speaking of which, here's what the naysayers tend to think when it comes to the previously summarized story. They say Shino used Haseo to replace Ovan and didn't give two craps about him. Basically they claim she's a complete bitch. Personally, I have found no such evidence that backs up that claim (unless these people are much more loose with that term than I am, then that might explain a few things). I will admit to Shino "using" (I'm putting that in quotation marks because I don't like the negative implications it gives in this usage, but I can't think of a better verb at the moment) Haseo as an emotional crutch. However, to say she didn't like him or care about him or trust him AT ALL is going too far. There would be much more clearer signs of bitchery if that were true. The fact that she allowed Haseo to stay with her shows that she trusted him enough; not quite as much as Ovan, but considering Shino isn't the type to start spilling her guts to anyone she meets in The World, it's rather impressive.
Moving on, we have another controversial scene: The end of Redemption, when Haseo goes to meet Shino at the cathedral. Basically, the whole thing is extremely awkward on both sides; Haseo kind of doesn't say much (perhaps out of guilt) and Shino falls back on topics that they can hopefully both still relate to, which unfortunately ends up being things like the Twilight Brigade and Ovan.
Heck, she was in a coma for eight months! Of course she's still going to talk about those things. She does say that she was "watching, the entire time" through Ovan's left arm... somehow; which may imply that she knew exactly what Haseo went through and so why the hell should she be talking about the old days. Then again, it was through Ovan's left arm, not Haseo's. She may have seen some things, but not all. It is implied either way that she knew about some people, like Atoli.
Then, what should happen next but *gasp* ATOLI walking in! Oh no, the love interest! What will we do? But wait! As it turns out, Shino herself invited Atoli to come! Why, exactly? It's never really stated. Atoli starts congratulating Shino on being back, and... then she tells Haseo and Shino, "Good luck, and good bye!", and afterwards runs out. Haseo immediately says, "Wait!" but doesn't quite run after her yet. Shino, his old love, is still standing right there after all. What ensues (after a short pause and a small smile from Shino) is Shino saying, "Let's start the Twilight Brigade again! With just the two of us. We'll go find Ovan." There's an awkward pause before Haseo turns his eyes away and mumbles, "Well, I..." To which Shino then says, "Haseo, I saw it all. Everything. Now be honest with yourself." Essentially, she's telling him to go ahead and be with Atoli, that there's no reason for Haseo to feel like he has any duty to stay with Shino now. Haseo nods his head and finally runs after Atoli. Now alone in the cathedral, Shino (dramatically) turns to the big cathedral windows and says, "You're watching aren't you... Ovan."
That's really it. There's a lot to analyze here, and I already started to halfway through summarizing the scene. Let's start from the beginning then; I'll try to represent both the supporters' and the naysayers' sides of the argument as well.
Haseo hasn't seen Shino for eight months; he originally started fighting to save her and he apparently went to visit her in the hospital every day. Yet when he goes to meet her at the cathedral he's not exactly jumping for joy. He had a much more enthused reaction upon seeing Alkaid again (which, to this day, bothers the hell out of me). On Shino's end, all she did was talk about Ovan and the Twilight Brigade; it's argued that not once did she ever consider Haseo's feelings. After all, if she was "watching the entire time" then she should know what really went down, right? Well, regardless of how much she actually saw, there's also the matter of her inviting Atoli to the cathedral. Again, it was never stated exactly why she did that. I have some speculation that it might have been to work out this whole love triangle, which really isn't a love triangle anymore considering Haseo has (sort of) moved on and Shino still loves Ovan. But before anything could really be done, Atoli ran off. However, even after that Shino makes Haseo an offer: he can either continue to "stay" with Shino or... not. In the end she tells him to be honest to his own feelings and all is supposedly well.
Except... then you get the fans arguing about who did wrong here. The naysayers tend to not like that last little offer that Shino made to Haseo, 'cause it's inconsiderate or something and it somehow shows that she's still using him. They also think she’s being ignorant of or doesn’t care about how much Haseo actually did for her. The supporters obviously don't agree and don't really see the conversation as such a big issue. Honestly, the way the creators decided to handle the scene just made everything ambiguous and hard as hell to get down straight. At the same time, that can be considered an "artistic" way of doing things. I'm not necessarily against it, but it makes my job harder that's for sure.
So then, the naysayers look at that scene and say, "Shino's still trying to use him! She should just let him go!" (Which technically she does, but I'm jumping the gun here.) The supporters might say, "Haseo wasn't exactly acting happy to see her though, and just because she offered him an opportunity like that doesn't mean she's trying to use him again or had ill intentions or meant to isolate him from his friends, etc." Honestly, I don't think I can put it any better than that (at the moment).
It's pretty obvious that the people who don't like Shino will look at her actions in ANY scene as some kind of negative thing, and vice versa for those that actually like her. Maybe then my whole little rant just now was rather pointless. But, my point in doing this was to present the actions that tend to be debated and what both sides think of them, in the hopes that my side - the supporters' - would come out strongest. I still have no reason to see Shino as some kind of conniving creature that had any ill intentions towards anyone, especially Haseo. I'm not trying to pass her off as perfect either, far from it; just saying that she's not nearly as mean-spirited as others would have me believe.
I'm not asking people to like Shino; it's really quite subjective after all. But, what I do ask is that people look at what's there in the series and not try to drastically misinterpret it for their own means. I can only hope I haven't done that myself.
FIN *faints*
