[Tab] New post at TAB: Tom's Anime Blog

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Posted by Tom:
.HACK Legend of Twilight's Bracelet: Let's Meet Offline

   Although it's been too long for me to give it a proper review, I'm
   confident in saying that .HACK Legend of Twilight's Bracelet (aka
   .HACK//Dusk) is the best of the two .HACK series. It may be better
   than the game... I can't really say, as I'm only halfway through the
   4-game series (and on indefinite hiatus).

   Anyway, Let's Meet Offline is a strange beast. Rather than being a
   proper anime, it feels more like an illustrated radio drama, or one of
   those shows on public TV where the one guy reads a storybook while the
   other draws pictures to illustrate important scenes. The scenes tend
   to consist of a static background with character pictures that change
   to illustrate their emotions laid atop it, so a comparison to visual
   novel bishoujo games would not be out of place.

   This is obviously an attempt to milk the franchise for all it's worth.
   But whatever, it's worth it. The story is simple... it winds up that
   two members of the cast are actually Americans playing "The World" to
   improve their Japanese skills, and they decided to take a trip to
   Japan. They got separated, and the younger one managed to get to an
   internet cafe and log in to "The World". It's now up to the rest of
   the cast to find them, a task that's complicated by the fact that the
   cast is comprised of groups of people that have never met in real
   life.

   It worked. The minimal animation didn't hurt the telling of the story,
   the story was interesting, and more was revealed about the characters
   than we had any right to expect. (There was even a cool tie-in between
   .HACK//LOTB and the game, which I didn't expect.)

   I'll rate this good, but with the caveat that if you haven't seen the
   show, it won't make any sense whatsoever.