Rating: 
Summary: You can do better
Review: This title is weak. It feels as if a marketing consulting group was the impetus for the creation, characters and storyline. And the target audience is the American male age 12-15. The artwork is uninspired, in fact so are the characters, soundtrack and story. While it can provide entertainment, of the saturday-morning-mindless variety, .hack//sign is in my opinion one of the least interesting titles to have come out in a long time. There is a lot more out there more worthy of your time and money.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent series, the best deal
Review: Very first off, Amazon.com incorrectly state that .hack//SIGN is based on a PlayStation2 game. This is not true. .hack//SIGN is a story about an online PC game called THE WORLD. The direct sequel to .hack//SIGN is a PlayStation2 game called .hack//INFECTION. Someone at Amazon.com, clearly someone who did not see the series before writing the review, got these points confused and they will not accept corrections of their editorial review, just the title and some technical details. First off let me preface this by saying I don't like Anime. Usually it is too silly, too violent, or too "adult" for me, so I'd never been into an Anime series before...it had kind of a medieval look to it, so that interested me. Plus, this friend of mine had told me basically what it was about; an online RPG where one user can't log out. So when I had the first episode, I watched it, and I liked it. I ended up watching the whole 26 episodes, in Japanese, with English subtitles, translated and captioned by fans. Being my first Anime experience, I realized one major difference between "cartoons" and this Anime is that while cartoons are self containing - that is, you don't have to see them in order, and the plot starts at the beginning and ends at the end of each episode. Kind of like Star Trek was, only no multi-part episodes. ;) Rather, Hack Sign was like an 8 hour 40 minute animated superfeature, with ending and opening themes inserted every 20 minutes. Before I point out some of the flaws in the series, let me point out that the objectives in making a successful film script are radically different between an 8 hour 40 minute script and a 2-3 hour script. That said, character development is unusually slow. The characters very slowly reveal themselves, but then again, it is an online video game, and people on the Net like to be anonymous except with businesses and close friends. Also, while it was happening, the plot was somewhat hard to follow. A lot of scenes were unnecessary and redundant. One episode was a "recap" episode which was highlights from the ones previous. Correction. 8 hour 20 minute animated superfeature. It's still longer than the original Star Wars Trilogy. ;) And more fun to watch, I must say. Most of what Hack Sign is about, I've already covered. I can't reveal too much about the story without spoiling it, and that is even more so true with this DVD that contains only the first 5 episodes. By themselves, the first 5 episodes will leave a new Hack Sign fan more disappointed than the end of Fellowship of the Ring did. They should have put the whole series on one or two DVDs. If you want to see the whole story, you'll have to collect all the DVDs. With 26 episodes, there should be 5 DVDs. I doubt Bandai will be stupid enough to market a DVD #6 with only Episode 26 on it and maybe some bomb special features, but sadly enough I confess I'd buy it, especially as the last episode is the best one. :) As far as the special edition. You can get the DVD with the episodes for $... most places, more if you go to a mall. This is...more than that, but it is such a great deal. The first thing you see when you open the box from Amazon.com is the air padding. Yep! Better than bubble wrap, you get air padding. Those are always fun to have around. No, seriously, the first thing is the black hexagonal box. It is a very sturdy box, made of thick cardboard, with high quality prints on all sides, Three of the sides say .hack//SIGN and the other 3 have character animations. When you open the box, which is held shut with an elastic band and a lilte mushroom post, the first gift you see is the Grunty plush. He's about 4" long and 2-3" tall and wide. He doesn't stand on all four legs well, as he's rather front-heavy, but it can be done. Next you get a nice envelope which contains stickers, and three postcards you'd be a fool to nail. Mine are up on my wall, taped on the back so they don't get damaged. After that, a demo disc of Hack Infection, the PlayStation2 sequel for Hack Sign. Next, the first Soundtrack to .hack//SIGN complete with lyrics and artwork. There is a second Soundtrack and an Extra soundtrack which contains instrumentals and remixes, but these are not included. I have HEARD that Soundtrack 2 will ship with the second set of episodes, which will be great because both are awesome albums, and funny enough, I don't typically like Anime music either! Next is the DVD itself, which contains 5 episodes, the textless (no credit overlays) opening and closing themes, previews for three unrelated Animes, a video preview of the Playstation2 game, and most interestingly of all, you can watch the episodes in not only English and Japanese, but the Instrumental Score as well which is NO lines, NO sound effects, JUST the music! It's cool! Throw the English subtitles on so you know what they're saying, and enjoy! Finally, there is a T-shirt (mine was Size XL) with .hack//SIGN on the front, and Mimiru on the back with Bear and Tsukasa in the background. If you like Hack Sign, I strongly recommend getting this. If you don't know Hack Sign yet, you really should get this because it's the complete set and everything in it is above and beyond awesome...I was very happy with Amazon on this deal! Thanks again Amazon!
Rating:
Summary: Doesn't go ANYWHERE
Review: Well I'm sorry, but I don't know what the other reviewer was talking about. I've now seen through episode 11, and the plot hasn't moved anywhere since the 2nd episode. I have to give it to the creators though, the production aspect of the series is outstanding. From the visuals to the music, there are few series that come close to this. Even the main concept of the storyline is extremely interesting, and yet they failed to develop it in any way. I have never been so disappointed with a series, and find it very hard to want to continue watching further; a friend of mine has seen the entire series and says that it won't get any better. Therefore, I'm giving it 2 stars instead of 1 just because I could tell that there was a lot of effort put into the design of the series, just not much thought put into developing the plot. What a shame; .hack//sign had a lot of promise.
Rating:
Summary: Deserves a 100 out of five! ^-^
Review: When I saw it, I knew I had to have it. The plushie caught my eye first, so I read what it contained. ALL THAT FOR JUST 65 DOLLARS!! I WOULD PAY 65,000 DOLLARS FOR THAT!! I'm totally in luv with .hack//SIGN!!
Rating:
Summary: Enrapturing and Inspiring...
Review: When people think anime, they think violence, curse words, sometimes nudity, and sometimes even worse things. Dot Hack Sign, however, is a step above all of them. The Dot Hack Sign story is fantastic, and considering that Dot Hack Sign relies wholly upon its story to keep its viewers interested, that's saying quite a lot. People who have become hooked on anime for its violence, action, destruction, and adult content should avoid Dot Hack Sign. There is very, very little action in the series (I've seen all of it, so I know), and it is liable to bore people who are more interested in flashy animation. Dot Hack Sign's story, however, is enthralling. The characters are developed so well, and the story executed so wonderfully, that you find yourself actually caring about what goes on. After watching all of the series, I even found myself caught up in it for several days afterward. It is that sort of story that endears itself to you, so that you'll never forget it. As mentioned before, the story progresses slowly, but you can easily get caught up into it and don't notice. Normal 25-minute episodes seem to stretch for an hour, which is only a bad thing if you have to go to the bathroom. The story spans itself across all of the episodes, and there aren't any "breather" episodes that provide a pause in the story (instead, the writers cleverly wrote an episode or two like that into the story). This provides a very solid story, though you're in trouble if you miss an episode. Overall, this is my favorite anime series out of all that I have seen (and I have seen many), and that is not to disparage anime. In fact, I can safely say that this is my most favorite series of any genre, anime or otherwise. Recommended to: People who love character development and long, elaborate, and great stories. People who want a great story that catches them and makes them actually care about it and its characters. Not recommended to: People who like action and violence, and lots of it, people who are looking for traditional Western stories, or people who dislike stories that develop slowly.
Rating:
Summary: The World has come!
Review: Yay, I've been watching .hack on Cartoon Network and couldn't wait to buy the dvd. Though I've seen the episodes on it already it's still awesome. The story is slow, but building to what I hope is a very cool, heart warming, end. I recommend this to anyone. The games is good as well, though being cut up into 4 parts in annoying. So get the anime, the music is wonderful, and I'm going to have to get the soundtracks eventually but for now the anime will do just fine!
Rating: 
Summary: What series are you people watching ??????????
Review: Yes, the music is great and so is the art but the show is dull with poorly defined characters and a slow pace that could lull a hyperactive ten year old to sleep. This is one of the worst animes ever made ! I've seen some more episodes on Cartoon Network....it doesn't get any better, folks. Save your money and buy something good. CLAMP has out X (slow paced in the beginning but with gorgeous animation and a great story, and amazing characters), or Chobits (a light and fun series from CLAMP about a guy who finds a cute female robot in a dumpster and falls in love with her). You'll be MUCH better off taking my advice.
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