.hack/Roots: Review

Title: .hack//Roots

Air Date: Apr 6, 2006, to Sep 28, 2006

Episodes: 24

Genre: Adventure, Sci-fi

Where to watch: Funimation, Hulu

Languages: Japanese, English

Similar Shows: Sword Art Online, Persona series, Ar Tonelico: The Girl Who Sings at the End of the World

Introduction:

in the second iteration of "The World." Newcomer to the game, Haseo works to navigate how to play this new game and make friends. On his first day in the game, Haseo thinks that he finds friends he can play with, but they turn out to be player killers And turn against him. Finally, the guild leader of the "Twilight Brigade", Ovan, rescues and invites him the Guild. Intrigued, Haseo tries to discover whatever information he can about the Guild and its fearless leader from others in the game. However, the information he finds bolt scares him and makes him even more curious to discover the secrets behind the Guild.

Before I get into a mess, obviously, I won't judge you if you're a fan of this series. I've played none of the games in the .hack series, and I'm not sure honestly if I ever will. Roots Are the third that I've seen from the series overall, and while they aren't terrible, in no way, shape or form are they even remotely good. These shows are purely dedicated to the diehard fans of the games, and for that, I'm not mad.

Animation:

I always have to remember what year or the period these shows came out. The attempt of inclusivity with the characters of color. But they just weren't done well. So I'm thankful but also not simultaneously; it's very conflicting. My issues with the character's design are virtually the same as Legend of Twilight. You could tell the different characters that exist by you can tell nothing else. Which sure, I guess. I'd honestly just like to stop being confused while watching the shows in the series because I get so caught up in how weird the character is drawn. Still, I don't actually pay attention to the story. Not that there's a story to pay attention to, but I'll get into that in just a few moments.

Of all the characters, Haseo and Gord are two of the most natural-looking characters within the whole show. And I'm thankful for that because if Haseo looked weird, I'd probably just turn the tv off.

Pacing:

You ever watch a show, and it seems like it lasts forever? Watching this show, I felt as if I was watching either Naruto or Bleach. Each episode is only 25 minutes long, but everything felt so much longer. It took a while to figure out why but I think naturally, there's too much dialogue between the characters. At any point in the show, I'd like to be entertained. Whether that be through action or something more. It took roughly five episodes to discover more information about Ovan.

That essentially caused me to lose interest in the show.

Each character we meet within those episodes says something special about Haseo. But no one even goes into detail about what or how they got this information, so I guess. Is the community that small within a couple days, everyone knows who he is?

I was so annoyed by the lack of development due to everyone continuously having a conversation. Still, I missed the overall point of probably everything. I could actually care less about the twilight item. The show was 26 episodes long, but honestly, it didn't need to be any over 12. usually, I'll say the opposite, but there was too much dialogue for me to justify 26 whole episodes.

Character Development:

This is another area I'd be hard-pressed to find an answer to. It could be only me, but as the season progressed, Haseo got a tad angrier and more driven to be Ovan which I thought was contradictory for joining his Guild and working alongside him. Mostly, he didn't seem to show any interest in nearly anything throughout the series. It wasn't clear why joining the guilds made sense when he didn't believe in what they were doing initially.

Overall Score: D (I Acknowledge it exists)

To sum up, the show felt disjointed and like a documentary. There never indicated how the characters were connected and how one event led to another. They had so much time to establish this. 26 whole episodes. Although I'm sure back when the show aired, it had a good following due to the fan base of the video game, if it weren't for that, it would fall flat. Alec knowledge that it's a thing, but I probably won't watch it again or even think about it.

Oddly enough, the most enjoyable thing was probably the ending theme. It would randomly pop up the rollout of the episode. The odd-sounding song virtually was the only thing that helped me regain my attention when I flat out stopped watching. It's catchy, but it's also not clear how to dance to it; I've linked it below to check it out.

OP Song: Silly-Go-Round by FicitonJunction Yuuka

CL Song: boukoku kakusei catharsis