.Hack//Roots

One tiny nitpick... Shino's actually super important.

Anyways, I'm looking forward to .hack//Roots. The character designs don't really seem to fit the image presented in .hack//G.U.+ or the games, but I guess the plot matters more than the designs.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Enkidu

Sa-Kun: I found out from when I was making the thead for the game, it's changed in the above post (is it known that sh'll be important in the anime, or will she only pair up with Tri-Edge in the game?).

She doesn't follow Tri-Edge, persay.

I guess I have no choice but to spoiler tag the following, even though it's in the end of the first chapter of G.U.+. It's quite possibly the ending of Roots, though, so spoiler tagging is the way to go.

Spoiler:

Her importance is that she's a good friend of Haseo's--perhaps even more than a friend--and that she gets Data Drained by Tri-Edge, leaving the player herself in a coma.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by larxene

What's the thing on Ovan's arm?

We, um, don't know. They haven't said much other than it's a seal or something to that effect on his arm.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

TV Tokyo's official site for the series has opened, but there's nothing to see at the moment. I guess we'll just file the URL away for a later date.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by LivingDreams

Ok this shit is gonna be extended like Dragonball z and Gundamn wings w/e. They gonna keep making newer and newer series every year. I like the first series tho, but then they had some other shit, and the damn games that they keep making.

Wow. You obviously missed the memo when the whole concept behind .hack was announced.

.hack was always meant to be a large multimedia franchise. From the outset, there were four branches: .hack//SIGN (anime), .hack (games), .hack//Liminality (OVA), and .hack//UdeDen (manga). As time went on, additional branches and media forms were added.

So you see, .hack thrives upon different storylines. .hack itself focuses primarily upon Morgana and the ramifications of Aura's birth, but .hack//G.U. deals with what happens years after Aura's birth and the (apparent) effects of the creation of The World R:2.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Conan-the-3rd

Shoot, Just went and got myself Boogiepop and others (My Local Comicbook store rocks somthing dumb, geting somthing that's a Borders US excuslive 4 moths early than the "And others" Release date.)

I highly recommend Boogiepop and Others over .hack//AI buster in this instance because AI buster's translation was dreadful. Tokyopop didn't pay attention to any standardized English terms at all, so AI buster (and AI buster2, and probably Another Birth) has some wacky terms that will make readers scratch their heads.

Not to mention the huge mistake they made with a character's gender in AI buster. Oopsie, Tokyopop, might want to go back and research what you're translating.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Tritoch

For some reason, I've loved all things .Hack so far except for the .Hack//Key of the Twilight anime. Near the middle it turned away from what the manga did and was pretty awful. .Hack//Sign was interesting to me since I was more curious about the plot rather than hoping for tons of action. AI Buster was okay for a quick read, but Tokyopop did seem to make it a bit confusing on the main character's gender.

Like Conan-the-3rd said, it's surprising that .Hack//Roots seems to pretty much mirror the game rather than add a different story to it. I hope it becomes certain as to whether or not that's the case soon, since I'd rather not spoil the game by watching the anime first.

The character I'm referring to with the gender confusion is Albireo's/Watarai's assistant at CC Corp., the one who's referred to as a male in the translation. That character is actually Shibayama Saki, otherwise known as Kamui.

.hack//Roots doesn't mirror the games. That's G.U.+, the manga adaptation of the games. Roots merely precedes the game.

FELIPE NO

Ahh, there's not much to say about it. If the song playing in the background is Silly-Go-Round, well, it sounds weird and not at all fitting to the atmosphere G.U. is trying to create. I doubt it is, though, since it doesn't sound like a typical Yuki Kajiura composition. Maybe it's Boukoku Kakusei Catharsis?

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I've only watched the OP, ED, and various random parts of the episode. So far, I'm not so sure where the series is going; the OP is not what I expected, especially not with the bright colors and the overly poppy song. The ED was okay, I guess, but whatever happened to the "edgier" image that G.U. was trying to push?

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Foshi

I don't want Haseo to have some stupid reason to why he is "special."

If anything, it's probably the Avatar "power" he possesses.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I've caught up with the series to episode 5. So far, I'm not really sure where the series is going and how it's going to tie into the games. It's pretty dull so far, save for some references to the previous games that didn't go unnoticed. (Oh noes, Haseo is suspected of being a double agent for TaN!)

C'mon, put in some actual plot already.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Triple posting? Wow. This is new.

Nothing really happened in episode 6 other than the slightest hint that Tri-Edge's out and about. The preview for episode 7 makes it seem like we're finally going to meet Tri-Edge, so that's something to look forward to.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Summonmaster

I do like Hack Roots...at least I thought I did. I finally decided to try out watching a season of a Hack anime, and after the initial excitement about finally getting into the concept of "The World", I also felt how slow the series is going.

I feel like it's going at an even slower pace than .hack//SIGN was. I mean, honestly. Just get on with it already so those looking forward to the game will get the backstory they need.

I was never a huge fan of Shinsen in the first place. Za Waarudo seems to be doing a good job with keeping terms intact (i.e. @HOME) and displaying some general knowledge of the franchise, so I'm sticking with them.

EDIT: This is what I wish someone would do to Haseo. He's so aloof that I want to knock some sense into him.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by SILBER-1

Okay, this is going to sound really stupid, but how do you get ZW's torrents to work? When I try to click the link or right click+Save As I always just get a page of garbled gibberish. I downloaded the first episode from them somehow but I haven't been able to figure out how to do it again.

I use the torrent listings from Tokyo Toshokan.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by SILBER-1

That's where I get my torrents from as well. When I click ZW's links I just get a page of gibberish though, and when I try to Save As it only shows up as a text file containing the same gibberish.

So http://www.ggkthx.org/torrents/Roots06h.torrent gives you nothing?

FELIPE NO

Originally Posted by SILBER-1

Yeah, I usually don't right click -> Save As. I'm just mentioning that I've tried it since that's usually the first suggestion people make.

Since you're getting "gibberish" files, try Save As, and then saving it as a .torrent file.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Originally Posted by Ovain

wait a minute..... why does Tri-Edge look like Kite or Shugo?.... is it like a remnace of them?.....

No idea, but according to chapter 2 of .hack//G.U.+, Tri-Edge is an AIDA (Artificial Intelligent Data Anomaly), which is "an illegal entity that violates the system rules."

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by SILBER-1

Is the manga seperate, a retelling of Roots, or a retelling of the new game? I've heard all of those from different sources so far.

It's an adaptation of the games. Exactly how far it plans to go with the story remains to be seen; despite the fact that Vol.1 Rebirth is out in Japan now, there's been very little information on it on the interenet.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Episode 7 was not nearly as boring as episode 6, but there were still some pointless moments in the episode (Haseo staring at that gigantic floating statue forever is not exciting).

Tri-Edge, however, does seem to be making his mark in The World R:2, so things are finally looking up for the series.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I'm probably beating a dead horse here, but on with the show!

Episode 9:

Okay, the first thing the episode does is show us Tri-Edge "materializing" in a Lost Ground. That looks promising, but then everything's forgotten in favor of the whole Virus Cores + Lost Ground = ZOMG THE KEY OF THE TWILIGHT ordeal. The episode actually makes up for some of the lack of viable substance in earlier episodes with its inclusion of action (gasp!) and the promise of plot advancement.

TaN's really starting to get on my nerves. What the hell is up with Naobi and will Tawaraya stop being so annoying? Don't get me started on Ender. She's just plain annoying.

I'm not quite sure where the rest of the series is heading if they're "so close to the Key of the Twilight." Are we going to see Shino do her color switch soon? Is she going to be attacked by Tri-Edge?

Eh, I wouldn't be too upset if .hack//Roots turns out to be only thirteen episodes long.

How ya doing, buddy?

Originally Posted by Foshi

I really don't know why i'm still watching this series. So many reasons not too; boring episodes with little story advancement, no action, weak characters, story i've heard a million times before. I've yet to watch episode 9, but if it is still boring and it ends without anything really happening i'm going to stop watching this series. Time is precious to me and this series just seems to be wasting it.

My only drive to finish the series at the moment is the desire to know the events that lead up to volume 1 of the G.U. games. Otherwise, it's a piss-poor series that's got a flawed plot structure and a slowly agitating soundtrack.

Most amazing jew boots

Wow. Something actually happened.

Episode 10:

People who are not very receptive to lengthy scenes with lots of explanatory dialogue probably won't like this episode very much, but I found it to be especially intriguing. Ovan didn't find the Key of the Twilight after all, but now I'm curious as to TaN's whole little deal with the sys admins.

Ovan's peculiarites shouldn't come as a surprise to those who know about what goes on in the games, but all the same, what happened to the player? Shino said she couldn't get in touch with him, but does she live close enough to him to visit?

If you take out the stupidly long scene of Shino and Haseo staring at each other at the waterfall, then this was, quite surprisingly, a decent episode.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Originally Posted by Keym

Yes. TRI-EDGE SHOWED UP IN THE LAST FIVE SECONDS!! ... And no one noticed him, even though he was 2 feet above everyone else on the street.

Seriously, what's the deal. Stop teasing us with glimpses of Tri-Edge.

Er, what?:

The episode ended with the scene of Naobi and Ender talking and Ovan groaning. The scene before that was of Gord and Haseo talking.

FELIPE NO

Episodes 11 and 12:

Sakisaka's starting to annoy me with his whole "OVAN GRR EVIL KEY-STEALING BASTARD" act. The Tri-Edge glimpse at the end of 11 seemed forced, almost like they were trying to say, "Hey, folks! Don't forget about this Tri-Edge fellow!"

Episode 12 finally brought some answers to questions that've been on many fans' minds. I'm just really confused about Yata and Pai now, though. I mean, they were so bitchy and mean as Naobi and Ender, and then they team up with Haseo in the games? What?

Shino finally got her color set changed! YES! Her hair's still pink, though.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

Episode 13:

Well. The shit's hit the fan now.

I thought that Shino wouldn't get PKed by Tri-Edge until the end of the series, but now I'm just completely lost as to where the series is going. Okay, sure, the rest of Roots will probably show Haseo getting stronger and all that stuff, but then where's the light at the end of the tunnel?

Good stuff, episode 13 is. It certainly makes up for the crappiness of the earlier episodes.

Jam it back in, in the dark.