.hack//Roots Review

Overall Rating 7.6 out of 10 - A true successor of .hack//Sign and mostly a great show on its own.

I recommend watching.

Out of many anime that are part of .hack franchise, this one can be considered a true successor to the .hack//Sign. 

Compare to its predecessor its darker and somewhat meaner. I do not mean that because Haseo. Sure, Haseo is indeed dark and maybe even mean character, but that is not because he is a bad person. In fact, characters around him are in many ways are to blame, particularly Naobi and Ender. 

Naobi and Ender of the TaN core (later Yata and Pi of Raven) with their meddling with players out of desire to "protect the game" actually caused many of the problems. They are like a clandestine version of Crimson Knights form .hack//Sign. They kidnapped Ovan, that caused mental breakdown of Shino and later Haseo.

In .hack//Sign most of the characters were on Tsukasa's side. They wanted to help him and protected him from Crimson Knights as well as Macha and the game AI. Even Subaru was on his side despite leading abovementioned Crimson Knights. Together they made show somewhat warmer and friendlier. 

Art too was brighter; it had both eerie and magical, but also cozy and idyllic feel to it. Most of the time World in //Sign felt like the place you wanted to live in.

In contrast in //Roots, a lot of characters plot things behind the scenes and groom Haseo and few other select characters to their undisclosed aims. Naobi/Yata and Ender/Pi constantly monitor every Haseo move, like creepy stalkers they are. Even Tarawaya/Tohta eventually got disillusioned with his bosses from TaN. 

Art too got darker and much more dilapidated, but it managed to retain some of the magical feel of the //Sign era.

Both //Sign and //Roots dealt with more complex existential and psychological issues, that is one of the reasons I give these show such high marks. Topics they cover are different. //Sign was about nihilism and self-preservation (fear of being hurt). In contrast //Roots is about loss and drive for revenge. That is if you take main characters only. As many of the support cast have story of their own, too long to mention them all here.

Since this review is about //Roots I will cover these here. I wrote a few separate articles about //Sign to cover such topics for that show. A lot of characters in //Roots suffer from unrequited love. There is an unrequited love chain: Shino loves Ovan, Haseo loves Shino, Tabby loves Haseo and that other guy loves Tabby. Struggles of all these characters with their feelings occupy significant time of the show.

Haseo got obsessed with defeating Tri-edge after he witnessed him killing Shino and turning her in to Lost One, someone who is unconscious IRL. Such feelings are relatable for me, as is Haseo's characters in general (most of the time). Tabby wished to help him, but she actually wished he cared for her instead of Shino. Neither of them wanted to give up on object of their interest, but neither could progress anywhere with their love. Such a tragedy. Done in best tradition of the Ancient Greeks.

Then there is issue of plots around Haseo. Ovan wanted to set him up to his own ends. Naobi/Yata too had some ulterior motives on him. The difference was that Ovan wanted Haseo to develop some qualities and Yata to prevent him from developing these. Haseo got caught in showdown between these two and arguably suffered from both. In general, these two treated Haseo like guinea pig for their experiments. Sad that they were not defeated in the end.

Then there is Shino who is nice and my type waifu material. Her preference for Ovan somewhat complicates things as I do not want to be stuck in unrequited love. Other than that, she is nicer than say Subaru from //Sign, though Subaru deserves a separate article to explain her nuanced role in //Sign.

Tabby is clearly nicer than Mimiru, but somewhat lacking compared to Shino. At times you can sympathize with her dedication, but other times she just complains and gets distracted.

Overall, despite some flaws, it's a very solid experience. It somewhat less pleasant that //Sign, but no less deep and profound. I clearly recommend watching it.