Common Name: .Hack//Roots & .Hack//G.U. Trilogy
Score: 8/10, 2/5
Length: 26 episodes, 93 minute movie
Genre: Adventure, Action, Drama, Video Game, Sci-fi
Summary: When the original video game The World dies off, a sequel to highly successful but bug-filled MMORPG is made from what was originally planned to be a different game with fragments of The World's original code added, resulting in new problems arising in this new iteration, The World R:2. Haseo is a new character to the game whose fate, and the fates of those close to him, becomes intertwined with the future of The World as remnants of its corrupt past seek to manipulate their new home and its many players.
Review: I pair these two different works together because they are both parts of a whole narrative. As stated in the Legend of the Twilight review, .Hack's story has become something told and pieced together via multiple different platforms. The whole story of G.U. is told through a manga series, anime, video game series, and a CG movie. The anime, .Hack//Roots, serves as the prequel to the video game franchise. The movie, .Hack//G.U. Trilogy, is an abridgment of said video game franchise's story. Like most other .Hack titles, knowledge of the previous entries in the entire body of work aid in the understanding of the story, but are not entirely necessary for the titles to be enjoyed. Roots, itself, serves as a good introduction and a fresh start for the series. The characters and story are probably the best this series has offered yet, since these characters are actually relatable. More than that though, they become sympathetic as the show's plot-driving drama plays them against one another and allows for the main character's (Haseo) growth. Trilogy serves as the conclusion for the story of Haseo. Though it is told in a rather slap-shod manner, the movie itself is fairly cohesive in spite of its origins and continues to tell Haseo's action-packed story.