S7 Anime Club Monthly Feature - November 2016

Alright, with the start of November we are moving on from Phantom and starting a new adventure.  This month we will be featuring an anime called .hack//sign.  Below is all the details you'll need...

Monthly Feature for November 2016 - .hack//sign



Synopsis: Set within a virtual reality MMORPG, the story revolves around various players in The World, and their interactions with one another as a series of mysterious events cause one lone wavemaster, Tsukasa, to become trapped within the game, unable to remember who he was or how he became trapped there. The story follows his interactions with Mimiru, a headstrong Heavy Blade, Bear an experienced veteran player, and a mysterious force seemingly acting as Tsukasa's guardian.


A plot of interweaving mysteries and emotional growth, Tsukasa journey is filled with more questions than answers much of the time as he tries to understand just who he is and why these events are unfolding around him.


Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Game, Magic, Mystery, Sci-Fi
Episodes: 26
Rating: PG-13
Original Air Date: Apr 4, 2002 to Sep 26, 2002
Similar Titles: Sword Art Online, Log Horizon
Links to watch: Funimation

Note: We plan to discuss the first 13 episodes on November 15th and discuss the series as a whole at the end of the month.


Alright, that's it!  Get out there and start watching.  We'll meet up here on the 15th to discuss the first half.  Until then feel free to post initial thoughts, just keep it spoiler free.  Any questions?  Let me know.

I am personally excited about this months feature.  I have always wanted to see this series but never got around to it.  It comes highly recommend and I'm excited to finally watch it.  Anyone else here new to the series?

dot hack has always been one of my favorite series.

I find the story itself a lot more interesting than some of the current series with similar plots.
As most of you know I'm usually a big fan of action/fighting - but this series is fantastic even though fighting itself is pretty minimal.

Never watched this series. I hope it's better than Log Horizon. I was fine with Log Horizon at first until I noticed there wasn't really any danger to the players other than losing their memories after losing battles. I just felt there was not much suspense in that regard. I would have preferred something like Sword Art Online where death in-game was real. But I'm also not into the romance and creepy sexual crap from Sword Art Online.

Xpert2010 wrote:Never watched this series. I hope it's better than Log Horizon. I was fine with Log Horizon at first until I noticed there wasn't really any danger to the players other than losing their memories after losing battles. I just felt there was not much suspense in that regard. I would have preferred something like Sword Art Online where death in-game was real.  But I'm also not into the romance and creepy sexual crap from Sword Art Online.

I liked Log Horizon for the first season but lost interest after that.  I also liked SAO a lot, romance included, but creepy sexual crap was a little uncomfortable.  Not enough to throw me off the series though.  No idea what to expect here but I like the whole "trapped in a video game" vibe in general so I'm looking forward to this.

S7 Interseptor wrote:

Xpert2010 wrote:Never watched this series. I hope it's better than Log Horizon. I was fine with Log Horizon at first until I noticed there wasn't really any danger to the players other than losing their memories after losing battles. I just felt there was not much suspense in that regard. I would have preferred something like Sword Art Online where death in-game was real.  But I'm also not into the romance and creepy sexual crap from Sword Art Online.

I liked Log Horizon for the first season but lost interest after that.  I also liked SAO a lot, romance included, but creepy sexual crap was a little uncomfortable.  Not enough to throw me off the series though.  No idea what to expect here but I like the whole "trapped in a video game" vibe in general so I'm looking forward to this.

I think the romance thing that bugs me with Sword Art Online is:  Hero meets new girl, girl falls in love with hero, hero already has gilfriend, girl still attracted to hero, hero absolutely freakin\' clueless.

Yeah, also remember this is the OG of the 'trapped in a game' anime series.
I find it especially interesting that everyone except the main character are just playing a game like normal.

Well, I started over the weekend.  It's a bit of a slow start so far but interesting.  I'm interested to see where it goes from here.

Finished up the first 13 last night.  It definitely takes a while to really get going but it's definitely starting to get good now.  One thing that really stands out is the soundtrack (thanks to Atrum for pointing that out).  I love when music is part of the series and not just the opening sequence.  Be sure to pay attention as you guys watch.  

The 15th is right around the corner.  Anyone else started yet?  Planning to binge this weekend?

I've been having to force myself just a smidgen to watch at least an episode or two a day. Like you said its a little slow but has really good concepts.

So here we are.  The half-way point. After 13 eps not a lot has actually happened but an introduction to all the characters and some of their motivations.  Overall, it feels a sluggish but it's interesting and I'm interested to see what is happening behind the scenes.  

OK so the first question is, what is up with Tsukasa?  Seems to me he is in a coma but If he is not in front of a console, what is his deal?  Is he constantly connected?  Or perhaps just his consciousness?  And further more can he actually escape? and if so, will that somehow bring him out of the coma?  A lot of questions surrounding him at this point.

Also, what about the girl?  Is she also a trapped player?  Another coma patient? or something else entirely?  Same with the cat player for that matter.  I'd love to hear what you guys think about all this.

I can't really say much since I'm so familiar with the series. Suffice to say that these questions are covered, and the plot progression picks up quite a bit.

It's really interesting seeing the players real lives impact their gameplay in a normal way though. Most modern series it's always 100% of players are trapped/pulled in to some life and death scenario.

This one is a big deal, but if mimiru or bear were to simply get bored of playing, they could step out and wash their hands of the whole situation at any time.

Makes things interesting.

Finished the series and all OVA's too (just because).  How's everyone else doing?

Horrible

Xpert2010 wrote:Horrible

Agreed, haven't started

Just finished this today and I'm quite interested in hearing some thoughts

Well, I won't begin actual discussion - but I'm posting a spoiler-y video below.

If you've watched this, you know this is essentially the core of the universe of .hack
Lots of other series, games, short stories, etc. based off this universe.

If you're interested in diving into the universe more, I'd strongly recommend watching .hack//ROOTS
It's got a LOT more action than SIGN, and is more friendly to new people to the series.

The video below runs over the timeline and is pretty vague on details, but by its nature has spoiler-ish contents.

Time is officially up!  Discuss?

For me this series was not very enjoyable.  It was way too slow.  And I don't mean the action but everything about it. The story progressed very slowly, characters talked slowly, ton of pauses in dialog and just blank screen time looking at each other.  It was maddening at times.  Here is a prime example near the climax of the story:

The rest of the party gathers to take the hackers portal to Netslum and Tsukasa is late.  Everyone else goes in but Subaru, who is going to wait as long as she can for Tsukasa to arrive.  Waiting goes on for a bit (like everything in this series) and eventually the portal starts to flash and break up.  It's obvious the portal is about to close any second...  Tsukasa arrives just then and what happens?  They just freakin\' stare at each other for like 20 seconds!!!!  The portal is closing!  Don't you think you would say something like "Hurry Tsukasa!  The portal is closing!"?  Nope.  Just stand there and stare.

And frankly the whole series was like that for me.  I liked the characters and setting well enough and the music was great but the pace just killed it for me.  Might be interested in one of the later, more action orientated series.

How did you guys like it?

I love the show.

It's got fantastic animation (a lot of watercolour used), a great soundtrack, and breaks the standard fantasy stereotypes.
Most fantasy series rely on action to move scenes along and progress the story. SIGN is more of a fantasy/mystery series where the characters are trying to uncover secrets.

The longer pauses are part of the alternative pacing style. Oddly enough, SAO had its soundtrack made by the same person as SIGN - and obviously uses more modern animation techniques and relies on action to move the story.

SIGN might progress at a crawl, but the story is pretty consistent through the entire series, whereas something like SAO has very distinct 'boring' sections where the action dies down.

I didn't say it was boring but slow.  It was an interesting story but the pace of each scene was excruciatingly slow.  Part of that is simple the age of the anime.  A lot of old anime moved at a slower pace for sure.  Just how it was.  Even Phantom had similar issues IMO.  I think I am spoiled to newer anime.  In this case it was just too much for me.

You're like that kid talking sh!t about older games because they aren't as frantic as new releases

Sorry i haven't been on the chat nor commented on this thread but once. Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas?!? its getting busy here and i haven't even gotten on the site in a while, buuuuuutt nevertheless here we go!

Ok, If i'm giving my honest opinion on the anime, it wasn't terrible, but i don't see myself ever watching it again. I'm not sure if its because SAO is one of my top anime and i've seen it 3 or 4 times through, so when i see the setting that we are in i "expect" things to go a certain way. Not to beat a dead horse with a stick, but i'm with Interseptor 100%. I found myself looking away from screen, or grabbing my phone during the super slow/boring parts. Don't get me wrong all animes tend to have that small section of dialog or maybe a filler episode that i just stare and say to myself "come on lets go! Do something"

I did like the idea of the anime, the concept was pretty cool, i like the mystery it had. Figuring stuff out, that was all perfect for me. As you guys know i'm just used to someone figuring it out with a couple fight scenes, but thats why i'm here. To get out of my comfort zone and see something different and that's what this was.

Interesting point, which reminded me.

When I first heard SAO was going to be coming out, I was super excited because I've always loved the .hack// series.

Some of the other series (such as roots) have a lot more action, but still not on the level SAO does.
So when SAO did come out, it was a pretty awesome change-up.

I can see how the reverse would be less exciting. Going from a super action oriented series to the slow pacing of SIGN isn't exactly a rollercoaster. lol

Atrum wrote:Interesting point, which reminded me.

When I first heard SAO was going to be coming out, I was super excited because I've always loved the .hack// series.

Some of the other series (such as roots) have a lot more action, but still not on the level SAO does.
So when SAO did come out, it was a pretty awesome change-up.

I can see how the reverse would be less exciting. Going from a super action oriented series to the slow pacing of SIGN isn't exactly a rollercoaster. lol

Exactly, i bet if i watched them in the reverse order than i did it would have been better! lol

I tried watching a bit of it. I think I just don't enjoy anime that does the 'stuck in a game world' sort of thing. I don't like SAO and Log Horizon either (never finished them). That mixed in with the slowness of .Hack... I just couldn't push myself to finish the series when there are other things I'd rather do. I might take the time to finish it some other time.

I think the only 'stuck in a game world' anime that I like is No Game No Life.