 Another trip to The World of .hack, although this time in SD
style. Having watched this in fansub form a year or so ago I was quite
looking forward to it, but it seems the rewatch value of the adventures
of Shugo & Rena isn't good...
1 - The Legendary Hero
Four years on from the events of .hack//SIGN,
and The World's a very different place - it's gone all SD for a
start... Shugo & his twin sister Rena have won limited-edition
Player Characters in a contest - which works out well for them. They
get the opportunity to be in The Wold together, which makes up a bit
for being separated in the real world. Shugo's first foray into the
world proves to be quite difficult - for some reason there are level-48
monsters roaming in the newbie area, and Shugo is very quickly killed
off. An encounter with Aura saves him, though, and she leaves Shugo a
gift - a bracelet of amazing power...
2 - Kite's Bracelet
Shugo & Rena's run-in with an Armed Super Shogun has raised
concerns in some places that The World is about to take another turn
for the worse, as is the appearance of Shugo's bracelet. Not that such
things are any concern to Shugo & Rena - who have been joined, like
it or not, by Mirielle (no, not that
Mireille...), collector of Rare Items. Conveniently, there's a Rare
Item Event scheduled for today, so the party of three head for the
event field. In a sign that the unusual seems to be becoming
commonplace, it's not long before Shugo's again placed in a position
where he's forced to use the power of his bracelet - although this time
it doesn't quite work as planned...
3 - The Phoenix Feather
The gang have worked out a possible reason why Shugo's control of the
bracelet it so weak - it's obviously a really high-level item, but with
Shugo just being a newbie he doesn't have the experience to control it
- so it's off to the combat fields to work on levelling-up a bit.
Meanwhile, Balmung and Reki are trying to figure out who has been
causing the unexpected problems The World has been experiencing lately.
Later, in something of a rerun of .hack//SIGN's
episode 'Epitaph', Shugo finds himself looking after a grunty while its
owner is away for a few days - and just as before, the grunty has
Grunty Flu...
4 - Tanabata Night
Shugo's training continues, although it seems he may not be cut out for
this 'legendary warrior' gig. Fear not, though, it's Tanabata Night,
which Rena reckons should be a very romantic evening. Shugo's not
impressed by such things, but someone else is - by chance, former
classmate Komiyama appears, and he definitely likes what he sees when
he sees Rena's in-game form, so when it turns out that Rena's the
'prize' in the Tanabata event, all bets are off between Shugo
(determined to preserve his sister's honour) and Komiyama (determined
to get his hands on her)...
I enjoyed .hack//LotT first time around - it's a fun re-interpretation of the game worl first seen in /hack//SIGN,
with cute character designs and, in some ways, quite a twisted sense of
humour. So I was very disppointed when, second time around (and in its
full DVD glory, instead of fansub-o-vision), it completely failed to
grab me at all. By the end of the second episode I was finding it hard
going to watch, and even leaving the remaining episodes for a few days
& coming back to it didn't help.
I can't even put my finger on why it's lost its appeal - the are
some good characters here, with a certain amount of ecchi humour &
and ongoing hacking plot that should pull together to make an enjoyable show, but on second viewing it just didn't work.
Given all that, I can't really recommend this as a 'buy'. There's
definitely potential as a rental in there, but very definitely try
before you buy. |
