.hack//SIGN cannot be judged alone. This show was meant to be connected with many other forms of multimedia and many other shows. There is.hack//Liminality 4 episode series, .hack//DUSK manga and anime (a.k.a. Legend of the Twilight Bracelet), and the gaming series. Each seperate show/game/manga fills in those questions that are left by the others and you must even do some investigating yourself to fill in some of the blanks.
Standing alone, .hack//SIGN is a work of art. The scenery is amazing, the character designs are very original, and the soundtrack is mindblowing. Because the entire series takes place witin a digital world, the artists had a lot of freedom in the design of the enviroment; yet they also had the guidelines of keeping the same feeling of the enviroment in the games (.hack//Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, and Quarintine). This provided a challenge because the graphics in the games aren't exactly wonderful. But the artists pull through keeping true to the game and making an unforgetable world for us to enjoy. Anoter big challenge was to create a way to make the main characters recognizable while keeping them within design of the "extras" because the series is a game where there are skins for the players. The characters that stick out in my mind are Chrim and Mimiru. Finally, during the course of the whole series, there are very few moments where there is no music playing and whenever this happens, it is for dramatic effect. They even have a feature on the DVD to take out the dialogue and just watch the beautiful art and listen to the amazing muisc.
I don't want to talk much about the story because it is something you need to discover for yourself. All you need to know is that at times the story can drag and seem slow but all you need to do is stick with it and make sure you don't get lost in the many intellegent conversations that take place.
I HIGHLY reccomend this series espicially with taking part in the many other offered .hack media.
