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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
No .hack background needed!, September 21, 2006
I watched .hack//Legend of the Twilight without having seen any of .hack//Sign. I have however, played the first three .hack games that had been released for the PS2. In any case, .hack//Legend of the Twilight works without any previous .hack anime or game background.
.hack//Legend of the Twilight is mainly about 14-year old Shugo and his twin sister Rena. Their parents have been separated for some time. Shugo lives with their father while Rena lives with their mother. They remain close although they haven't seen each other in a while, and so getting together online to play in "The World" proves to be a very joyful and fulfilling experience for them. Shugo and Rena make a lot of new friends in "The World", all of which subsequently help them in their quest to get to the bottom of the mysterious events which transpire.
.hack//Legend of the Twilight pans out just like a typical MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game). Kite, Black Rose, and their companions go in dungeons, fight monsters, level up, get items, participate in special in-game events... if you have never played an MMORPG, this series will give you a rather clear picture of what it's like. The plot thickens when bizarre occurences keep coming Shugo and Rena's way. They come across perpetually regenerating monsters, eerie non-player characters, and supposedly inaccessible areas among others. Soon, players start going comatose while logged in "The World" -- including Rena. This prompts Shugo and his friends to investigate, at the risk of going against the group which the CC Corporation (the company behind "The World") assigned to do the job. It's a pretty straightforward storyline interspersed with some philosophical concepts that are not at all difficult to grasp. I was, however, a tad uncomfortable with the incestuous implications of Shugo and Rena's relationship.
Exceptionally crisp and vibrant visuals make up .hack//Legend of the Twilight, although the character designs are a bit of a mixed bag. Kite and Black Rose (especially Black Rose) are rendered in an overly cutesy, superdeformed-esque style which I wasn't particularly fond of. The rest of the characters (i.e. Balmung, Sanjuro, Ohka, etc.) looked really good however. I loved the catchy opening theme "New World", but I found the background music that would play during the scenes to be distracting in general.
Overall, I found .hack//Legend of the Twilight to be an enjoyable and entertaining series with just the right number of episodes -- not too long that it would drag, but not too short that it would hang.
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5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fantastic Anime, November 18, 2006
Before I bought this, I had absolutely no idea what .Hack was all about. I've got a friend that told me some things about the games but other than that I knew nothing.
This series is about a brother and sister's adventure into an online game called The World. It all starts out with Shugo (the Brother) and Rena (the Sister) winning an online contest. The prizes for this contest are Special Edition Play Forms, Black Rose and Kite. The siblings then enter The World and start exploring and getting a feel for things.
However, it soon becomes apparent that there is something really evil going on inside of The World and they have something to do with it. Everywhere the duo travels, the encounter monsters that should not be there in the first place, but they also have the ability to automatically regenerate their damage.
Soon, the duo encounter and add new friends to their clan as they travel The World, attempting to level up. Soon things take a turn for the worse when Rena disappears inside of The World and her body goes into a coma in the "real world". Now, it's up to Shugo and his friends to try to find Rena and try to save The World from the evil that threatens it.
All I have to say is that this show is both fantastic and hilarious. There are some really funny moments in this show. The animation itself is beautifully done. I believe that anyone that buys this DVD will not be disappointed in the least bit. The only bad thing is that the opening and ending credits are in their original language. However, at the end of each DVD, the ending credits have been translated so you'll know when that volume is over. Oh, and at the end of the very last episode, make sure to watch all the way through the credits for the final ending. I was so scared that it was gonna be one of those "open endings". Anyway, I'm really anxious to get the next series .Hack//Sign, it sounds like it has as much promise as this one did.
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Depends on your taste, October 20, 2008
Let me start by saying I split my review into two parts. The first part is if you already read the manga (like I had), and the second part is if you're coming into this series as a newbie.
If you already read the manga, . . .
. . . brace yourself. Don't get me wrong, the anime isn't horrible, but considering I enjoyed the manga so much, I was very disappointed at how much this series deterred from what I thought was a great story line. First off, in order to condense the story into a thirteen ep anime much of the original plot-line was chopped up and thrown out. Much of the conclusion was altered quite a bit to something that seemed very inconclusive. In addition, a major character (Zefie) was completely eliminated. And while you may not need a .hack background to watch this anime, I felt they could have referenced a little more to the storyline from the first .hack game. The twins relationship also seems to have hiked a bit and balances on the line of implied incest. What's with that?
If you haven't read the manga . . .
. . . and you like chibi, you'll like Twilight. The character's are either drawn really cute or really attractive, and their costume designs, like the rest of the .hack universe, are always fun to look at (though a bit too skimpy at times). There's quite a bit of humor to get things started, though the series quickly reveals that something's amiss in the virtual universe called The World. The characters themselves are fun too, my personal favs being the oh so cute and energetic Mireille and the smart, somewhat dorky Reki. There are even a couple "I can't believe he/she did that" surprises thrown in. My biggest issue was with the ending, which I felt was very anti-climatic and possibly even a bit confusing for some. Shugo's behavior around his sister's avatar is a bit over the top too. Yes, he's supposed to protect and love her, but their relationship almost seems incestuous at times.
Overall, this anime's a short, simple, light-hearted little story that even the most .hack illiterate viewers can follow with no problem. It does lack the character development and deeper plots of prior .hack series and other animes for that matter. And for manga fans, except for maybe the first four episodes, this series is a very different story, you might even say it's been "dumbed down." The show's cute, but nothing spectacular.
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