Next up on Digital Week is Dot Hack Sign, one of the founding anime of this genre based on the Namco game of the same name.
Dot Hack Sign is about a player named Tsukasa whom after logging into "The World" online game finds that he cannot leave and doesn't remember much on how he logged in to begin with or why he's even there. This leads to a lengthy search and mystery which all works itself out by the end of the series.
This show actually put me off the Dot Hack franchise; it bothers me that an anime based on a fantasy JRPG with a core storyline of being trapped in an online world or solving the mysteries behind certain incidents within said world, cannot seem to blend a serious mystery plot with the action elements it has open to itself. There are warriors with swords that can take down cavalry riders yet Dot Hack Sign is cursed with infinite amounts of dialogue and little to no action.
I know a series that relies on dialogue and character development can work, Aria the Animation does it perfectly but the setting allows that anime to work, Dot Hack Sign doesn't because the characters are designed to look like they should be fighting each other yet they don't.
Tsukasa is barely tolerable early on and if you went into the show expecting more than what you got then you'll be finished with it as early as episode 4 with 22 more still waiting to go.
If you can stomach the dreadfully slow pacing and the lack of action then you are rewarded with a great ending but tolerance for certain characters and a commitment is needed to fully finish this series, thankfully unlike Quantum which I reviewed last year, you are not required to know the games to understand what's going on.
Dub is average and can induce sleep so I recommend subtitles to absorb all the information on screen.
Final Verdict: An anime this beautiful looking and open to so many possibilities is stuck with it's slow and painful story and refuses to use the other elements the franchise is famed for. While the ending is beautiful and satisfying, the commitment to get there would be too much for some people and I only recommend it to those who enjoy reading novels which is where this anime should be instead of onscreen.
After reviewing some terrible cartoons lets resume normal play with a review from the Dot Hack franchise with Dot Hack Quantum OVA.
In this story, the leads are a group of school girls named Asumi, Iori & Eri who all play "The World" online game but an incident during a guild battle draws them into a more desperate situation when Eri gets thrown into a coma after being PKed or Player Killed in the wrong zone, so it's up to Asumi & Iori to find out the problem and retrieve their friend before it's too late.
Now I attempted Dot Hack Sign a long time ago and found it boring and extremely slow paced, it didn't help that I don't play multiplayer online games like World of Warcraft so half the time I didn't know what they were talking about but come today I'm a little more educated on the subject but the OVA refused me entry as without knowing the full history of Dot Hack, a new viewer will be left in the cold. Oh well I did get this DVD for free after selling some old films so I'm not complaining and the characters are quite charming, especially lead character Asumi who makes me smile, and the dub was well done enough to not give me a headache.
So does this make me like Dot Hack? No, but I don't think so badly of the franchise anymore.
Final Verdict: If you're well versed in the Dot Hack franchise then you'll have no problems watching Quantum and you'll like the breath of fresh air the characters bring, but if you're new to the series, then it's not worth investing further unless you're willing to search around bargain shelves for the PS2 games; without the original story as a guide, you'll get lost straight away.
