A Simple Masterpiece

I'll be talking about a special anime that I think is an unorthodox masterpiece.

In the world of MMORPG, Tsukasa finds himself trapped in this unfamiliar world as he is unable to log out and has slight amnesia. He awakes in the dungeon with no recollection of the past, Tsukasa tries to avoid all interaction with other players as much as possible while looking for answers of why he got here in the first place as he tries to avoid people that all fails as he meets a particular character named Mimiru.

She tries to interact with Tsukasa but he is an introvert to social activity, in result he ends up running away everytime. That doesn't stop Mimiru as later they finally form a bond, she noticed that Tsukasa is vulnerable as a player and as a person so she vows to protect him no matter what. She has another acquaintance named Bear who acts like the moral group support and strength of the group. Tsukasa joins the squad of average users in a quest to untangle the mystery behind Tsukasa's amnesia.

Tsukasa seems to be always be pulled by the strings of fate towards the leader of the player organisation called Crimson Knights, the organisation was created to cleanse the world of corruption and make the realm a fair place for everyone. The leader of the Crimson Knights is Subaru an 18 year old girl. Tsukasa has a faint hunch that she maybe could be the key to solving the puzzle. She eventually joins the group to help him.

When the main character meets Bear who is the oldest among them who is willing to put anything aside to help him out with a calm and focused personality, to help Bear does research in the real world to endeavor to find Tsukasa's real identity which he is successful in and is the first to know of it. Tsukasa discovers a mysterious items called a Guardian which promises to protect her from danger.

Now to the "meat" of the blog why is this anime a masterpiece?? Some of you may say that's it just an RPG themed isekai anime that we see overpopulating the stream of anime production. First of all, this Japanese was made in 2002 back before the trend of RPG anime was even popular. It was one of the first but for being a RPG game which is known for battling it out but it doesn't have many actual actions scenes because it mainly focused more on character progression and development which in result having a lot of dialogue.

.Hack//Sign is extremely slow paced, there can be times when a whole episode feels like forever; most of the people that watch this may have that's it boring. Hack Sign isn't for everyone or your regular anime watcher. I would only advise you to see the show if you can withstand that. There was also an underlying plot of Tsukasa which is subtle and it brings feelings of being listless and it shows you him his feelings.

The reason I rated this anime so high was based on the progression of the main character and even though there isn't much story in the show it makes me want to find its mystery element of the show. In relation, the final part of the show will be worth the hours of slow, mundane entertainment because it has an extremely touching and heartfelt conclusion which wasn't extravagant or over the top but made me love the series anyway.

I would compare the series in terms of story to clannad in relation to .Hack//Sign as it builds up the foundations for the building blocks of a fantastic progressive story and amazing ending; this type of narrative can either be a hit or miss so some watchers may find it to be the opposite of what I think of the show and that's alright, everyone has a right to that opinion. Comparing it to SAO, some may find SAO more visually pleasing but it falls into a lot of generic tropes unlike Hack Sign, on top of that Hack Sign is more of an insight into a lot of psychological and sociological problems; including extremely deep character development but that being said it's slow and hard to hold a person's interested for very long.

The biggest reason why this anime is a very nostalgic and fantastic narrative is down to the original soundtrack or OST for short, the music is done by Yuki Kaijura, a musician and composer who specialises in keyboard, singing and piano who worked on the Soundtracks of Noir, Madoka Magica, Kara No Kyoukai and Fate/Zero. The Soundtrack is perfect for every scene conveying suspense and melancholy, I thoroughly enjoyed these songs; A stray child, Key Of Twilight, Aura, Obsession and fake wings to name a few, This cements its ground to being a simple Masterpiece.

.hack//sign includes a lot of psychological and sociological subjects like anxiety and escapism which I can relate to on a personal level, this type of subject not many anime can pull off and have that kind of effect on people which is rare in animation. This show might be a wake up call to people and it portrays these issues extremely well through the characters mainly Tsukasa. That being said it does move at a slow pace but a steady one considering the show is slow but at least it keeps it consistent then also adding multiple layers on to it as well, impressive!

Thanks For Reading!