@@DolusVulpes yea but the games were games, so there's a lot more interactivity going on whereas the anime series draggggggeeed on for no reason.. there wre conversations in the series where they weren't even talking about anything and that ish was jus tboring they were just LARPing hardcore in game.
I still have fond memories of this show. The thing is, it was a strange mix of escapism and psychological drama. Maybe the reason I kept waiting for the next episode is that it kept hinting over and over that there was much more going on behind the scenes, wondering about the protagonists' real life and issues. It felt a lot like the ordinary life of shut-in gamers who preferred to stay more in the game than in real life. And that was part of its charm... my life kinda sucked back then, and felt too much identified with it. Maybe it's time this show gets a proper reboot, with a better writer. The show, with its premise and characters had just too much potential that was never exploited.
Exactly this. The show came out when my sister and I were getting into MMOs, and when my life was 100% escapism. Also the whole "The male character was secretly being played by a female" made me contemplate a lot of shit about gender and sexuality way before that became as common lol. (Yeah uh, that started the whole "K Discovers She's Pansexual" thing)
Same character designer as Neon Genesis Evangelion and it had one of anime's best composers, Yuki Kajiura. She composed for most of .Hack actually. And her ost for .Sign is one of the most beautiful I'd ever heard so, yeah there are definitely good elements to this show
Hey now, my name may not be Josh but I have done NOTHING to warrant being called out in this manner! Edit: Especially that second time! O_O Not touching that or anything related to it with a ten foot pole!
All I remember from this show is seeing it on toonami 2-3 times, and the character named Lady Subaru. And I only remember her cuz I was a dumb little kid and thought "Wow, they named a car after her!"
Subaru does have probably the most interesting story going on about herself. Since she is the leader of the Silver Knights and originally made that group because she and her friends wanted to maintain a fun and engaging atmosphere that was for every player.
Isekai Super Sixteen 120%, which comes after four seasons of Isekai Quartet (each season being four separate Isekai being grouped together (I'm assuming, I have no idea what Isekai Quartet actually is)). It groups together all four seasons of Isekai Quartet into one scenario where ALL the characters wake up in another OTHER game world and all of them have to go through the entire standard Isekai plot but there's 16 different groups of characters going through all of it at the same time, in the same place, and constantly shouting over each other to get every plot point in before the end of the standard-length special episode.
@@TOSkwar22 Isekai Quartet, as much as I don't want to ruin this joke, is a high-school parody anime consisting of the casts of four isekai series as its main cast: Overlord, Tanya the Evil, Re:ZERO, and Konosuba.
there's a certain irony... or perhaps just an unfortunate coincidence, in the fact that sage seems deadset on pointing out how all of the characters and plot points make for a terrible story here... and... he's not wrong... but if you look at it from a human perspective... all the people deadset on solving a mystery that may not even exist, player communities springing up to self-govern the game, teenagers swinging wildly from hating each other to being obsessed with each other to being friends with each other... characters having no real energy in their interactions, preferring to just sit or stand in place while they discuss the seemingly obviously non-existent mystery item, and the fact that there actually is a mystery to solve, even though its nothing like what anyone expects... Even the fact that 20million is a considerable number of players for the show's canon... All of this mirrors how games, teenagers, the internet, internet mysteries in general, happened at the time of the setting of the show, and at the time the show was made. Have a look at the community that sprang up around solving the galaxy brain mysteries of ICO and Shadow of the Colossus... mysteries which it was... actually kind of factually proven didn't go anywhere, and were just leftover assets that weren't used in the final games. Mysteries that fed well into confirmation bias... communities that latched onto and talked for literal years and formed whole hacking subcommunities to try and break into the game's code to solve them....Some people believing it to be some kind of grand metaphor, some believing it to be a treatise on human nature or some kind of political statement buried in layers and layers of symbolism, some believing it to be part of the game's internal narrative instead... and some... not really caring what the answer is, but just wanting to see the mystery put to rest. .hack//SIGN is not a great anime... but it is a surprisingly accurate look at a specific subset of people. And also, at the time, because I was one of those people, though of the more cynical nature believing the mystery is fake and the type to simply try to weed out any evidence that is refutable... but still wanting there to be a mystery, even if I tried to squash it... I was one of these people, and this show was, to me, excellent. I realize its flaws now, but I simply wish to provide a context. To mention that in spite of how stilted and backward and poorly written as it may seem, this to me, was my life. Because life can often by stilted and meaningless and seemingly self contradictory, especially when you're a teenager, only just recently having learned to think, but still having too many hormones to actually practice that skill... something that won't even really go away until you're nearly middle aged really... I remember spending hours not-playing MMOs with my friends... whom I only knew in those MMOs. Only occasionally standing up from my favorite vista to actually play the game properly. I won't say the series is particularly great... but it was unique in what it tried to do. It was trying, and not necessarily succeeding, but trying, to be an ARG. Moreover, it was trying to be an ARG about people in an ARG, about people in a videogame. Perhaps a bad idea... but I'm glad it exists. It's still my favorite part of the franchise that spawned up around it.
Bingo. This is a large part of what people don't understand about .hack//. If SAO's first season was a good look at what made late 2000s MMO communities interesting, .hack// is a series about the vast mystery, intrique, and interrelation of the internet, MMOs, and people in the 90s and early 2000s. I think the only equivalent experience people really have these days is in specific video game subreddits like /r/raidsecrets.
You have a point.... Much like lain has its accuracies.... But a lot of that is just a fairly good guess at how things were going to progress/magnify from already existing situations and such. I mean there was second life back then and the Sims. And the start of mmo's... So in all it's not a wildly out there prediction as it is, actually, a bit conservative. Still, you have a point.
Eamonn Deane Yeah that one was great. Also a fan of their dub for Project ARMS, where they managed to make a low budget and flawed adaptation of its source material worth the fun watch with all the funny Adlibs they sneak in.
I believe the first legit "Iseki" anime was aura battler dunbine, way back in 1983. if this was mentioned in the video that i am in the middle of listening to, well, that's on me.
@Al X. Andra To be franks, the isekai genre is almost as old as literature itself. Stories like Alice in Wonderland and Wizard of Oz are great examples. But as far as anime/manga, it started around the 70's, usually with a fantasy character comes to the real world.
Isekai as a concept is pretty old. When most folks talk about isekai in anime though, it's a very specific trend from the last decade or so with specific tropes related to it as well, typically
Generally problem with Isakai isn't that it is bad, but problem is that it is so lazy trope that it was banned on several manga competitions. After all you take generic Japanese student, thrown him in world where is everything new with few Moe loli and you can pretend that you have plot, as you always find some lazy "fish out the water" scenario anyway. What obviously doesn't mean that at least some shows (usually older) did have good ideas for the plot. Hell! There is even good MMO anime (well, Chinese counterpart) like The Kings Avatar, what is really about players and pro-gaming industry, so blandness of genre itself doesn't distract from references for the fans (what in this case also are real and not "oh, no! I have hit points").
@@TheRezro It's like any genre where the variations can only go so far and it becomes much more difficult to spin it in a new way, considering the medium as we know it is still only 60~ years old, roughly. You have something like Seraph of the End which has vampires, but then adds more elements like demons and angels (I mean, it's in the title, basically), so it keeps things fresh (not sure when that's going to end, it's monthly)
I found the anime discs that came with the games, telling the story of the people in the real world instead of the the people in the game, to be far more enjoyable.
They realised the first 3 games 1 after another all within the same year in 2002. I agree the action kinda sucks when compared to the newer version .hack//gu but it definitely has its qualities also. I feel like they just didnt put the proper time into the game and rushed them all at once. The storyline to it all is what's really good. All the movies/shows/games all connected which I thought was a really cool concept. I remember in the first set of games if youngo to the cathedral after certain events you could see cut scenes from the anime that also mix in with what's going on in the game. There are hidden messages in these games hidden unlockable characters that can join you in the game, hidden weapons and hidden area 2. Dont get me started on .hack//gu with its book of 1000, and all of its secrets. You can find a message on the message bord after doing certain events and you can see where bear and mimiru are talking to each other. I thought these little extra where very cool for a game of its age.
@@analogbrayn exactly explains why skeith screamed "i've found you" at haseo and how white haseo on later half of volume 3 behave a lot like sora. sorry not sorry for necro
@@CornishCreamtea07 Sadly she moved on from Voice Acting, not to mention her accident a few years back. But yeah Brianne could have made a great Shinji Ikari.
I mean I guess it's hilarious if you just now figured it out. Literally like half the main characters in g.u are from the first 4 games, elk , Wiseman, etc
@@ShadowWolfRising yeah I just did a complete deep dive into dot hack again I never knew that in all my time playing dot hack and watching the show that they were the same person that fucking crazy; dot hack is seriously so underrated now a days it’s unfortunate the story is split up so much with the games. I hope we can get a Remake or a Anime of the original series
Honestly, though, seeing Sage being fit and tough enough to freaking cosplay Bear reminded me with how much hope it filled me seeing Sage fit If Sage can optimise and healthen his body, - I can fix my body
As for Aura the idea is that her mind is being created from the experiences of the people in the game. however by selecting someone who has nothing but negative experiences and making them the main template that Aura would use to develop herself Morganna was effectively damaging Aura in the womb, which not only stall Aura's Birth but possible corrupt her code in a way that would prevent her from taking Morganna's Place. At least that's ome of the easier ways I can explain it.
I use to love the dot hack series honestly. Yes it centered more around conversations and relationships more than action but I considered that part of it's charm. Largely it was about getting Tsukasa to realize that despite its hardships that life was still worth living.All the others had various problems going on in their real lives that you slowly piece together and some learn how to resolve. No chance of you doing one on dot hack roots is there Bennett?
And let's not forget its spectacular soundtrack! Gotta love that final scene of the last episode, as the pinnacle of the series to wrap everything up... Just before trollishly being literally *frozen & denied to us* by the same franchise, while basically telling us: *_"You want happy ending? You buy games!"_*
It really says something about a series when the most I remember about it is a character going by username "BT" going on a long-winded tangent about how much she hates lettuce, thus her name (BLT minus L), and then other characters going on another discussion about this same "reveal."
Yeah, the problems with the original four games are hard to ignore. Though, I suppose they only become more pronounced when your trying to do a Let's Play for them.
2:14 I like how the very first clip you show after mentioning Ghost in the Shell is a clip of Helba, who is voiced by the same voice actress who voiced Motoko Kusanagi in Innocence and the Stand Alone Complex anime.
Appreciate the monster rancher call out. I loved that show and for the longest time I didn't even know there was a third season. When I found it I was super stoked.
I'm glad he mentioned it, I'm annoyed that he didn't mention other influential isekai anime from before .hack and acted like Monster Rancher was the only one, especially since he's reviewed _several_ isekai anime that predate both.
I missed El Hazard but the first Isekai I recall was Escaflowne. It was so hard to find anime (or as we called it JapAnimation) back in the before time.
I still own the DVDs for the first two series (never saw the third). I remember being lucky finding them at a cheap price since the first series was one of those rare series where the DVDs cost like $50 apiece.
Not gonna lie. The mangas of .hack I find FAR superior to the anime. And the games they crossover into to this day? Amazing. The anime may be a fail as we see it today, but all it left and made? Worth it
I don't blame Bennet for not liking the series. It's one HELL of an acquired taste. .Hack//Sign was more a show about themes of escapism than an actual adventure. No denying that its very slow for its own good, but I still stand that its use of themes of anti-social behavior and escapism are top notch. It can still be a fun watch, but ironically, not suited for fans of modern isekai AT ALL. I think .Hack//Sign can now be looked as the flawed prototype of what Log Horizon eventually managed to become as the current cornerstone of quality slow-paced isekai.
I agree. He has points about the animation being cheap and the writing being slow as hell, but I love the themes and the story. I love it but other people I've shown it to hate it. Super acquired taste.
@@morganmcinroy4211 I love it because of it's slow as hell, I have these depressive spells that fell like time is at a stand still for me, .hack//sign just fills your time and quiet moments
I haven't watched any of your stuff in... a decade, it seems like. Someone linked this video a while ago and I jumped to watch it since I was a fan of .hack//SIGN back in the day, and still love the music and the artwork of the different zones and environments in The World. I gotta say, I'm not disappointed!
Well, AnnXSubaru was one of the first lesbian relationships that I’ve been exposed to... which did help me in discovering myself. So I can’t hate this show.
I agree, that was one of my favorite things about the ending. The fact that when Subaru discovered Tsukasa was actually a girl, she didn't care. She loved Tsukasa, and that was all that mattered. It made me smile, and I can't ever say that this show is bad.
Whyyy do you make me remember!!! As my search for how isekai became over saturated I started with this since it's one of the first ones this video brings back my repressed memories...
For people that are interested in knowing more about the Mix Media History of .Hack// series that gives much more detail and insight into it's Esoteric nature. Look up Deshinta of Shinta Reviews who has been Waist deep in this series and has SO MUCH insight into this.
As someone who admittedly only has watched lets plays of Quadrilogy and GU, as well as watched Liminality, SIGN and Roots, the whole series is a mishmash that requires you to really constantly re-engage with everything to have an understanding of the chronology, the lore and general importance of anything, most of it connecting to a damn epic poem, iirc.
I love this anime! I haven't watched it for a while, but I've always loved the .hack//series in general! sign, roots, the games, luminality and all the graphic novels are all connected in a single timeline. Also, there's a plot twist about Tsukasa towards the end. My favs were Mimiru and Bear.
Also, I loved that Sora was super annoying in Sign, but that was because he was like 8 or something. Then he fell into a coma in Sign. But then he starts playing the game again when he’s a lot older, and he becomes Haseo in the future .hack. I loved that it’s a little ironic that he doesn’t remember anything from then Sign days because he lost his memory, but he was a PK in Sign. But he’s a PK PK in GU.
I did enjoy .Hack//SIGN when it out during my highshcool days, I think I like how the characters did talk like normal people despite that yes it is a game they should be doing something, but yea beside some moments its blah. And I love the music, how mystic and haunting tones. Honestly I rather watch SIGN again then Sword Art Online.
@@LordSathar I think he means isekai(in the modern trend), not MMO game. Ultima is pretty great, love the story about the game creator's character being assassinated with a fireball scroll.
@@GachakoiThomas Isekai as in "MC gets thrown into another world against their will (often by dying in their world)" trope existed for a LONG while. It gained popularity in pulp fantasy in the 80's, which you'd often find in paperback novels with covers that avoid copyright from TSR by mere miracle. TRON and Ultima's plot isnt even original - they were just following the contemporary fantasy trends. In fact it PEAKED in literature near the end of the 90's, before Light Novels (and then manga/anime) picked it up and ran with it. Even if you count anime only, then there are quite a few Isekai examples before Hack - like El-Hazard, Fushigi Yuugi and Escaflowne (Inu-Yasha doesent count since MC gains ability to return and go back and forth rather quickly, so she's often not really locked into the world).
I think the show slows down in the scenes that happen in the virtual world to represent that despair that Tsukasa has to go through, who is stuck in it all the time. And I think I remember that the Crimson Knight, their reason was a little stronger: the knights defeated by the Guardian remained in a coma, and the knights were "HOLY MOLY, our friends are suddenly in Comma after met Tsukasa, we need to investigate! ! " But I agree the series was stretched too much, easily this could have been done in 15 chapters.
The thing I love most about .hack//SIGN is something I haven't seen in anime for a long time: amazing sound design. All the noises coalesce in a mood that just comforts me. Might be nostalgia speaking, but the thicc atmosphere is just premium.
I remember watching this on Toonami back in high school and friggin loved it. I never watched any of the other .hack shows or played any of the games, but I loved this show. Its soundtrack was actually one of the first albums I downloaded off of the early version of the internet back then.
Actually the PS2 games are relatively easy to get except for the 4th one that I still don't have. The 4th game is expensive, like $130+ expensive. So I watched a video of it on youtube to see what happened in the 4th game because the series simply wasn't good enough to justify that kind of cash to see the ending. And you're right: the anime intro is awesome while the show leaves much to be desired. The games are mediocre in terms of gameplay but the whole idea of simulating playing an online game was absolutely fascinating to me, game's plot was intriguing. Another note: they actually had an online version of "The World" in Japan!
.hack SIGN is my personal favorite anime of all time, even if it's objectively not the best anime I've seen. I really respect it's themes about escapism and how it's more mystery than action. It balances how game ecapism can be both a good and a bad thing. It's a missing person story in reverse where they find a lost soul that doesn't want to be found. I'm aware it can bore people to tears but I love it. And I support Sage's opinion and Patreon no matter how bomb diggity this shindig is.
I think, personally, after having gone through a looong struggle with depression, I can somewhat understand An. A lack of agency and the lack of having to do anything becomes its own reward. Falling into a torpor without having to move and fading into oblivion is a release when even things like eating becomes a chore. If all bodily needs and all necessities are destroyed, so all you have left is your wants and desires, but without even them, what remains? I think An as a character does exemplify that. A listless nothing that looks for oblivion, but it is just barely out of reach. Morganna at least promises stasis, which is the closest you could get to true oblivion. It is a siren temptation in the throes of depression to not be needed and not be wanted, because then you can simply let go of everything and disappear. True depression is not despair and sorrow. Despair and sorrow is the byproduct of living with depression. True depression is the want of nothing, the hope of nothing, the search of nothing, and ultimately the pursuit of being nothing. It is the polar opposite of contentedness. Contentedness is when all your wants and needs are fulfilled. Depression are when none remains.
Honestly, I always saw SIGN as a prologue to the games, introducing us to the concept of The World before you experience it yourself in the games and then expand upon the knowledge with the light novels and manga that are associated with this part of the series.
This makes me feel validated. I remember even at the time thinking SIGN was about as interesting as drying paint and was just a gigantic ball of wasted potential, but it seems like all of my similarly-aged friends and other people I talk to that remember the show always do so rather fondly, though they can't ever seem to tell me anything they actually *liked* about it. I never played the games, but from what I can tell things actually *happen* in those so they're probably pretty good!
I can tell you what I liked about it. It came out when I was just getting into MMOs, and it made me think I could someday have really cool internet friends.
The thumbnail nailed it summing up this anime lmao. The series itself is okay, but honestly it's the soundtrack is what made it. "Key of the Twilight" and "Fake Wings" are notable.
you do know that isekais are much older than ./hack, right? rayearth, escaflowne and Fushigi Yugi came long before ./hack, and even if you point to game worlds, its not the first, with moon on the psx being a pretty famous "left in japan" game.
The games take place after the anime. The characters that in the anime are only in the games as minor characters, and most of them are just referenced to.
Oh god do a review of Legend of the Twilight and Roots I want to see you suffer. With Twilight's incest overtones and horrible comedy and Roots even more lethargic pacing and 3/4ths focus on side characters that mean nothing to the subsequent games, .hack//G.U., I'll take SIGN over those two any day. Honestly out of all the .hack anime SIGN and the OVA Quantum are the only ones worth watching, but both definitely have their problems. .hack the Movie though is honestly a pretty good standalone entry, but you'll have to find a subbed version online due to it not being released outside of Japan. I still like watching SIGN if not to just have it playing in the background while I work, much like I'm doing with this video. The music is good and while the mystery isn't that deep it is still kind of intriguing to me. I also think the characters are given a bit more of a sense of realism compared to other Isekai, like they have their own lives outside of the game. I would recommend playing the games after watching SIGN, SIGN is the first half of the story and the games are the second half of the story, but yeah .hack part 4 Quarantine going for $120 to $150 kind of makes it a hard sell. Alternatively I would recommend reading the .hack Another Birth light novel adaptation of the games from Blackrose's perspective. It's the better half of the story in my opinion and Another Birth improves upon the game's plot by quite a bit, each of the volumes are hovering around $5 so it's a better deal as well. If you want a game that plays like the original .hack games but is way less clunky with a better story I would recommend playing Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition when it comes out next year. If there is anything I would recommend anyone get of the series it is .hack//G.U. I personally like the original games a bit more, for nostalgia reasons, but I can't deny that .hack//G.U. is better in many ways. .hack//G.U. Last Recode, the remaster, goes on sale for about $15 to $20 every once in a while on PC and PS4, these games originally went for $150 in total. It's also got more of a shounen, less lethargic, approach to its story while maintaining the mystery and character study elements. Avoid .hack//Link like the plague. If you think SIGN is boring you don't know how tortuous and boring this series got at its worst. It's also a glorified poor retelling of every a little sub series in this franchise, and believe it or not they made the retelling of SIGN even more boring and slow in Link. Also Asura's Wrath is a pretty good "interactive anime" with poorly handled DLC practices, the freaking ending was DLC which is inexcusable. I would recommend watching a let's play without commentary as it's a good story with some awesome action, though playing it with the mostly forgiving QTE's does enhance the experience in my opinion.
When I was younger, I wasn’t in to anime as much as I am now. Back then, whenever an anime came on I just left it on because I was bored and rather had something on while I lied on my bed. There were some anime I watched (Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, Outlaw Star and especially FLCL), but this one I remembered a lot, mainly because of its opening, but other than that, I always ignored it since I thought that it was boring and they never did much in it. When I got older, I felt bad that I did that, since I thought I was so uneducated in the fine arts of story telling and anime when I was so much younger… after seeing this, I can safely say that younger me wasn’t as ignorant as I thought.
Man, the nostalgia. Lots of things from my childhood got mentioned here. Spider Riders, Metabots, Monster Rancher, and of course the topic of this video itself.
Uggg... I've forced myself to watch this anime just to see what happens, by the end I cried with tears of joy that it's finally over, or so I thought, I ended up seeing the other Hack Roots and I just end up crying in despair when I got to it's ending.
This was honestly one of the worst reviews I've seen. Many (if not nearly all) of the negative points that you made were either incorrect with regards to the actual plot or very shortsighted. Tsukasa's character was a perfect target for Morganna to choose as Aura's key. Tsukasa hated the real world, due to the abuse and loneliness she constantly lived through. We see this in the various real world flashbacks (which you were incorrect that she didn't remember...) Likewise she didn't open up to anyone because of it, she didn't want to be hurt again by others. The song "the world" literally sings why Tsukasa is the way that they are, which usually plays in key moments revolving Tsukasa. "Well what about all the other players who fit the bill as Tsukasa" Your argument about it devaluing Tsukasa's character is very weak. Yes it could have been any other player that was in the same mindset as Tsukasa. For all we know Morganna may have targeted those players too. But it was Tsukasa that it ended up happening to. It doesn't devalue her character at all just because it happened to her. As for what Morganna's goal was, she didn't want her purpose to come to a conclusion with Aura eventually being born/awoken. She was a sentient AI. It's why she purposely tricked Tsukasa and tied them to Aura. By having Tsukasa be swallowed in their negative emotions Aura would be corrupted, never awakening and Morganna would continue on. "Hope is the best spice to bring out despair" is her key quote indicating her intentions for Tsukasa. Regarding why would people care to try and help Tsukasa when they're playing a video game... Why does anyone try to help another? It's one of the key points of this story. What are the connections that bring individuals together, especially in a virtual setting through a video game of all things? Because you brought up Mimiru in your review, let's discuss her reasoning. She didn't want to just end the connection she had to Tsukasa. There's quite literally an episode and a half (that you just so happen to ignore and skip over) that goes over her reason why. She knew Tsukasa was someone that needed help and wanted to support them. She cares about them. As for the monsters/danger the other characters that help Tsukasa face... We literally see a character get data drained by the Guardian and we are told that they ended up going unconscious in the real world. Tsukasa quite literally ended up in a coma (and was in danger of dying because of her real life circumstances) in the real world from what Morganna did to them. And while the story is unfolding they all have no true idea how to awaken in the real world. They could all end up in a coma as well, or possibly even worse for all they know. Which leads to your point that they killed an "unkillable" monster. Yes they were able to defeat the Guardian commanded by Morganna but you also fail to note that they are just player characters within the game (though you seemed to love bringing it up when it fit your argument). They have set limitations within the game like HP, SP and items. Eventually they can run out (besides Tsukasa and Helba most likely) of resources and at that point what will they do? Just hope it hits 0s on them while they whack at it with their weapons enough times to kill it? When Morganna has the ability to keep summoning more monsters such as Skeith? Lastly, at no point is this show telling you it's based on action. Yes there are "some" action scenes where we see fighting but this is a psychological show. It's focus is on the characters from the get go, with the action playing part to fill the "online MMORPG" concept at the points it needs to convey that it is a video game (and even drive home the point that something is very wrong if Tsukasa is telling the truth that they feel pain when attacked.) You're complaining there are weapons in the show when they don't do anything (cause they're not there for fighting) and would likely complain if there weren't because "why wouldn't there be weapons for characters to use in a video game" if it tried to blatantly tell you it wasn't about action by not including them. There are many other flaws in your review but those are the most annoying and incorrect ones to be blunt. The one credit I'll agree with is it ended more poorly. Yes it did tie into the original first four games (infection, Mutation, Outbreak and Quarantine - IMOQ for short) but even I remember being very confused as a kid watching it on Toonami thinking it just looped back to the beginning. It wasn't until the OVA Unison came that clearly wrapped it up that they did defeat Morganna and saved "the world." But I'd give some leeway with how it tied into another media platform and continuing story.
Honestly music is at the level of listening outside of it. And it is really easier to for OST from things you care, yet I also found .Hack/Sign boring, so music is really amazing.
