dtstratovarius (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} dtstratovarius) wrote,@ 2008-09-01 08:18:00 |
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Matt's Anime Review: ".hack/SIGN" TV series
Hey all,
Well, it’s time for the second of two anime reviews (with one coming up later in the week). Now, we have the review of the 25 episode (plus 2 bonus episodes: an ep about Mimiru’s mentor, and a compilation summary episode of the second half of the series). With the video-game-based “.hack//SIGN,” this started to explode director Koichi Mashimo (“Noir,” “Madlax”) and studio Bee Train’s careers, along with veteran musician Yuki Kajiura (and her side project, See-Saw).
NOTE: I’ll be reviewing it’s “sequel” – “.hack//SIGN: Legend of the Twilight” once I finish it this morning, sometime later in the week.
STORY (from ANN):
----- Amidst a popular online role playing game in the near future, characters try to play out the goals they set for entertainment and passing of time. The World as the RPG is called is one with a setting of monsters, player characters and dungeons. Tsukasa is a detached and introverted character that has a number of mysteries about his player character. Many weird happenings seem to suround Tsukasa and his involvement in a rare item called 'The Key Of The Twilight' sparks Tsukasa'a meeting with different online characters and the befriending of their real life counterparts; All without ever meeting face to face in reality. What is strange about Tsukasa is that he can't seem to log out of The World. Subaru and Silver Knight of The Crimson Knights continue to look for proof of why Tsukasa can not log out or the existance of The Key Of The Twilight. Meanwhile Bear, Mimiru, and BT as Tsukasa's friends try to help him understand who he really is and how he can return to the real world.
PRODUCTION:
This series is the start of a pretty powerful production team here with very similar credits. Studio Bee Train is slapped on the map with the hard work they’ve done, following it up with successes with “Noir,” “Madlax,” and the upcoming “Witch Hunter.” Director Koichi Mashimo (“Noir,” “Madlax,” “Witch Hunter”) has starts his stellar career with this one, but isn’t really helped by his writers. Music is done by Yuki Kajiura (“Noir,” “Madlax,” “Le Petitte Cosette,” “Elemental Gelade”), who had tremendous success prior as part of the group See-Saw, kick-started a new career for herself with her new techno-orchestral style that has been her trademark. Interestingly enough, Kajiura had See-Saw do the opening and closing themes.
DUB:
This is a dub by somewhat newer studio, PCB Productions, who has really had a very up-and-down career, as fans have not really cared for their dubs and don’t necessarily care for PCB’s primary ADR director, Keith Arem, who is seemingly better as a sound engineer and ADR director than he is as a voice actor(most fans want to kill him for his voice acting in the Evangelion movies). The seemingly good thing about PCB is that they do bring in a lot of talented video game voice actors who rarely (if ever) do anime roles. Arem himself handles the ADR Direction (as he usually does with PCB Productions), and does a decent job, but does force his wife, Valerie, on us as the villain, Morganna.
First off, we have Brianne Siddall (aka Ian Hawk; Jim Hawking in “Outlaw Star;” Sheyenne Rainstorm in “Wild Arms;” Zazu Torque in “Magic Knight Rayearth 2”) who usually does young boy voices as Tsukasa, who believes he is a boy in “the World” but is a girl in the real world. Siddall does a great job with both versions of Tsukasa, and this is the role that allowed Siddall to finally get out of being typecast as a young boy. Video game VA Paul Mercier (Leon Kennedy in “Resident Evil 4”) voices fatherly Bear, a William Wallace-inspired-look swordsman. Anime vet Amanda Winn-Lee (Asuka in “Evangelion;” Momiji in “Blue Seed;” Rally Vincent in “Gunsmith Cats”) voices Mimuru, a spunky, headstrong heavy-swordswoman. Veteran Lex Lang (Sansouke in “Rurouni Kenshin” TV; and MANY other roles) voices adventurer Crim. Video game vet (though finally branching into anime) Kim Mai Guest (Nina Einstein in “Code Geass;” Mei Ling in “Metal Gear Solid”) voices Lady Subaru, and shows why she deserves more anime roles. Fellow veteran Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Lady Cornelia in “Code Geass;” Major Motoko Kusanagi in “Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex”) voices Helba, a master hacker who aids our main group later. Dave Wittenberg (Takumi in “Initial D;” Kei Kusanagi in “Please Teacher;” Kaouru in “Ai Yori Aoshi”) really goes off his usual game as the manipulative Sora, a double-crossing player-killer character who just seems to want his own fun.
All-in-all, this is a solid dub, though pretty rare for PCB.
OVERALL:
--Okay, this series does start very well for about the first dozen episodes, then the next 10 episodes just fall pretty flat. It’s kind of like “Madlax” in a way, where the series starts really well, but then just loses its steam until the end. Honestly, it was getting to the point where I was about to just ignore the series while it was playing. The story and concept is VERY intriguing, but they just leave you waiting for awhile. I won’t ruin the ending, but it is weird. The last 2-3 episodes (and the “Intermezzo” bonus episode) do almost save the series, but it’s not enough to really recommended it. Rent it.
GRADE: C+; great dub and tremendous soundtrack by Kajiura doesn’t save this from the storyline stall-out it had in the middle of the series. They tried to save things in the end, but even the final battle falls kind of flat. The ending had some weird moments to it, but was satisfying but SHORT. They really needed a full-fledged “what happened to our hero group offline” after the final episode few minutes after the episode, or a full-blown episode dedicated to that. And so far, the “sequel” “.hack//SIGN: Legend of the Twilight” isn’t really winning me over either.
Hey all,
Well, it’s time for the second of two anime reviews (with one coming up later in the week). Now, we have the review of the 25 episode (plus 2 bonus episodes: an ep about Mimiru’s mentor, and a compilation summary episode of the second half of the series). With the video-game-based “.hack//SIGN,” this started to explode director Koichi Mashimo (“Noir,” “Madlax”) and studio Bee Train’s careers, along with veteran musician Yuki Kajiura (and her side project, See-Saw).
NOTE: I’ll be reviewing it’s “sequel” – “.hack//SIGN: Legend of the Twilight” once I finish it this morning, sometime later in the week.
STORY (from ANN):
----- Amidst a popular online role playing game in the near future, characters try to play out the goals they set for entertainment and passing of time. The World as the RPG is called is one with a setting of monsters, player characters and dungeons. Tsukasa is a detached and introverted character that has a number of mysteries about his player character. Many weird happenings seem to suround Tsukasa and his involvement in a rare item called 'The Key Of The Twilight' sparks Tsukasa'a meeting with different online characters and the befriending of their real life counterparts; All without ever meeting face to face in reality. What is strange about Tsukasa is that he can't seem to log out of The World. Subaru and Silver Knight of The Crimson Knights continue to look for proof of why Tsukasa can not log out or the existance of The Key Of The Twilight. Meanwhile Bear, Mimiru, and BT as Tsukasa's friends try to help him understand who he really is and how he can return to the real world.
PRODUCTION:
This series is the start of a pretty powerful production team here with very similar credits. Studio Bee Train is slapped on the map with the hard work they’ve done, following it up with successes with “Noir,” “Madlax,” and the upcoming “Witch Hunter.” Director Koichi Mashimo (“Noir,” “Madlax,” “Witch Hunter”) has starts his stellar career with this one, but isn’t really helped by his writers. Music is done by Yuki Kajiura (“Noir,” “Madlax,” “Le Petitte Cosette,” “Elemental Gelade”), who had tremendous success prior as part of the group See-Saw, kick-started a new career for herself with her new techno-orchestral style that has been her trademark. Interestingly enough, Kajiura had See-Saw do the opening and closing themes.
DUB:
This is a dub by somewhat newer studio, PCB Productions, who has really had a very up-and-down career, as fans have not really cared for their dubs and don’t necessarily care for PCB’s primary ADR director, Keith Arem, who is seemingly better as a sound engineer and ADR director than he is as a voice actor(most fans want to kill him for his voice acting in the Evangelion movies). The seemingly good thing about PCB is that they do bring in a lot of talented video game voice actors who rarely (if ever) do anime roles. Arem himself handles the ADR Direction (as he usually does with PCB Productions), and does a decent job, but does force his wife, Valerie, on us as the villain, Morganna.
First off, we have Brianne Siddall (aka Ian Hawk; Jim Hawking in “Outlaw Star;” Sheyenne Rainstorm in “Wild Arms;” Zazu Torque in “Magic Knight Rayearth 2”) who usually does young boy voices as Tsukasa, who believes he is a boy in “the World” but is a girl in the real world. Siddall does a great job with both versions of Tsukasa, and this is the role that allowed Siddall to finally get out of being typecast as a young boy. Video game VA Paul Mercier (Leon Kennedy in “Resident Evil 4”) voices fatherly Bear, a William Wallace-inspired-look swordsman. Anime vet Amanda Winn-Lee (Asuka in “Evangelion;” Momiji in “Blue Seed;” Rally Vincent in “Gunsmith Cats”) voices Mimuru, a spunky, headstrong heavy-swordswoman. Veteran Lex Lang (Sansouke in “Rurouni Kenshin” TV; and MANY other roles) voices adventurer Crim. Video game vet (though finally branching into anime) Kim Mai Guest (Nina Einstein in “Code Geass;” Mei Ling in “Metal Gear Solid”) voices Lady Subaru, and shows why she deserves more anime roles. Fellow veteran Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (Lady Cornelia in “Code Geass;” Major Motoko Kusanagi in “Ghost in the Shell: Stand-Alone Complex”) voices Helba, a master hacker who aids our main group later. Dave Wittenberg (Takumi in “Initial D;” Kei Kusanagi in “Please Teacher;” Kaouru in “Ai Yori Aoshi”) really goes off his usual game as the manipulative Sora, a double-crossing player-killer character who just seems to want his own fun.
All-in-all, this is a solid dub, though pretty rare for PCB.
OVERALL:
--Okay, this series does start very well for about the first dozen episodes, then the next 10 episodes just fall pretty flat. It’s kind of like “Madlax” in a way, where the series starts really well, but then just loses its steam until the end. Honestly, it was getting to the point where I was about to just ignore the series while it was playing. The story and concept is VERY intriguing, but they just leave you waiting for awhile. I won’t ruin the ending, but it is weird. The last 2-3 episodes (and the “Intermezzo” bonus episode) do almost save the series, but it’s not enough to really recommended it. Rent it.
GRADE: C+; great dub and tremendous soundtrack by Kajiura doesn’t save this from the storyline stall-out it had in the middle of the series. They tried to save things in the end, but even the final battle falls kind of flat. The ending had some weird moments to it, but was satisfying but SHORT. They really needed a full-fledged “what happened to our hero group offline” after the final episode few minutes after the episode, or a full-blown episode dedicated to that. And so far, the “sequel” “.hack//SIGN: Legend of the Twilight” isn’t really winning me over either.
