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Shelf Life - I Am Roots


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Ovan~the~Rebirth



Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 127
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 9:45 am Reply with quote
It should be noted that Zvezda Plot is a DVD release and not a BD.
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Key
Moderator


Joined: 03 Nov 2003
Posts: 18135
Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley)
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 10:33 am Reply with quote
Quote:
Admittedly, my take-away from World Conquest Zvezda Plot could be utterly and completely wrong.

Analyzing the series in the context of child-adult relationships is an angle that I had not considered myself, but the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced that such an interpretation was intended. It definitely fills in a lot of gaps in the way that I was trying to make sense of the series.
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Ambimunch



Joined: 30 Aug 2012
Posts: 2012
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 10:45 am Reply with quote
.hack//ROOTS is worth the watch if you ever wanna play the .hack//GU trilogy on the ps2 since the story of Vol. 1 Rebirth takes place right after the finale of ROOTS - it's essentially a prequel. These 3 games are honestly some of the best ps2 games released.
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relyat08



Joined: 20 Mar 2013
Posts: 4125
Location: Northern Virginia
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 10:54 am Reply with quote
Well, I certainly would buy Zvezda plot if I could justify buying something that isn't on Blu-ray. In my opinion it is a pretty gorgeous show, so DVD-only is really a shame. Crying or Very sad
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Tuor_of_Gondolin



Joined: 20 Apr 2009
Posts: 3524
Location: Bellevue, WA
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 12:09 pm Reply with quote
Ambimunch wrote:
.hack//ROOTS is worth the watch if you ever wanna play the .hack//GU trilogy on the ps2 since the story of Vol. 1 Rebirth takes place right after the finale of ROOTS - it's essentially a prequel. These 3 games are honestly some of the best ps2 games released.

Unfortunately, in terms of an anime series, it was dreadfully slow, meandering, and its conclusion was truncated and dull. I sat through the whole series, just recently in fact, and it was clear they were trying to capture some of what made .hack/sign as well received as it was, but they missed their mark, pretty much entirely.
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Ovan~the~Rebirth



Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 127
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 12:17 pm Reply with quote
Tuor_of_Gondolin wrote:
Ambimunch wrote:
.hack//ROOTS is worth the watch if you ever wanna play the .hack//GU trilogy on the ps2 since the story of Vol. 1 Rebirth takes place right after the finale of ROOTS - it's essentially a prequel. These 3 games are honestly some of the best ps2 games released.

Unfortunately, in terms of an anime series, it was dreadfully slow, meandering, and its conclusion was truncated and dull. I sat through the whole series, just recently in fact, and it was clear they were trying to capture some of what made .hack/sign as well received as it was, but they missed their mark, pretty much entirely.


As is every .hack// anime. The games, novels, manga, are all great! But they always chose the worst stories to adapt as anime. Granted most .hack anime were done by Bee Train, and theyre by far one of the worst studios. I seriously have no clue why Funimation licenced all of .hack//. Its been a dead franchise for quite awhile.
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gedata



Joined: 04 May 2013
Posts: 615
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 12:42 pm Reply with quote
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That summary might make the show sound exciting, but I promise you it isn't. Roots moves with all the speed of a glacier and all the narrative focus of an eight-year-old's diary. It wanders aimlessly from one idea to another, rarely bothering to bring any of its storylines to a remotely satisfying conclusion. Fight scenes are few and far between, and most are hardly worth watching in the first place. Characters spend multiple minutes per episode standing around and staring off into the distance, which at least makes for some pretty visuals thanks to the consistently impressive background art. The whole series feels like someone took a very rough draft of a thirteen-episode story and stretched it to twenty-six without adding anything to fill the extra screen time. I'm typically one of the first people to jump to the defense of slow, thoughtful anime, but Roots is lethargic beyond justification.

Sounds almost exactly like SIGN to me, which I was never a fan of. An easy pass I suppose then.
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belvadeer





PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 1:02 pm Reply with quote
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(I have to confess that I was on her side during her anti-smoking crusade, and silently cheered when she succeeded in driving them out of town. Sorry, smokers.)


I'd cheer too, Bamboo. Smoking is repulsive.

As for .hack//Roots, it was a lot of trouble to get through honestly. It didn't help that they eventually stuck the remainder of the show in a death slot (5:30 AM) on Cartoon Network years ago, so finishing it became even more of a slog. About the only thing I ended up liking about the show was the Ya Tribe. I never played the GU line unfortunately, so maybe there's some great context I'm missing out on. On that note, Haseo will be Kite's partner for Project X Zone 2 this year (BlackRose got the boot sadly), so he'll likely make some references from the PS2 games.
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unitmikey



Joined: 15 Feb 2013
Posts: 286
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 1:33 pm Reply with quote
So happy Zvezda is getting more exposure through the reviews on this site. "Underrated" is an overused term, but it fits perfectly for this good looking show that is surprisingly layered. And it's funny.
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Blue21



Joined: 13 Feb 2014
Posts: 244
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 2:34 pm Reply with quote
Quote:
Fans of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos may enjoy this goofy and light-hearted take, filled with fanservice and romantic hijinks.


Uhmm, I think the last thing those fans want is seeing their favourite monsters derailed into cute anime girls with crushes on below-average humans.
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CrownKlown



Joined: 05 May 2011
Posts: 1762
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 2:41 pm Reply with quote
Blue21 wrote:
Quote:
Fans of H.P. Lovecraft's Cthulhu mythos may enjoy this goofy and light-hearted take, filled with fanservice and romantic hijinks.


Uhmm, I think the last thing those fans want is seeing their favourite monsters derailed into cute anime girls with crushes on below-average humans.


I love the occult and lovecrafts works, and I love harem, so I loved the show.

I honestly think if anything the moeifying of the lovecraft deities is strangely appropriate as I find charaters, in particular nyarohotep to be trolls, messing with humanity just because they can, viewing them as nothing more than specks of dust. So having these deities as moe anime characters strangely fits with some of their personalities.
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whiskeyii



Joined: 29 May 2013
Posts: 2242
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 2:45 pm Reply with quote
Even with the payoff of the GU games, I don't think .hack//Roots works well. And I use the term "payoff" rather loosely; Haseo takes a looooooong time to drop the angsty jerk act, and the story felt a little to similar to //Sign to make it worthwhile for my taste. That, and what they did to Elk was just painful.
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Lynx Amali





PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 2:55 pm Reply with quote
Ovan~the~Rebirth wrote:
. Granted most .hack anime were done by Bee Train, and theyre by far one of the worst studios.


Bee Train..one of the worst studios?
Am I reading this right?

The studio that did Medabots Season 1, Noir, the IGPX mini-series, Phantom and the best episode of Halo Legends (next to Odd One Out by Toei, of course) is one of the worst?

I can't imagine what the absolute worse one is. Rolling Eyes
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SilverTalon01



Joined: 02 Apr 2012
Posts: 2401
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 3:40 pm Reply with quote
Tuor_of_Gondolin wrote:
Unfortunately, in terms of an anime series, it was dreadfully slow, meandering, and its conclusion was truncated and dull. I sat through the whole series, just recently in fact, and it was clear they were trying to capture some of what made .hack/sign as well received as it was, but they missed their mark, pretty much entirely.


Sign actually felt like they had a story they wanted to and succeeded in telling even though it actually left a bunch of things open for the games to finish.

Roots feels like a ludicrously long intro for the games. Absolutely nothing gets resolved. In fact it ends with a cliffhanger. I wouldn't even recommend it to some one about to play the games. I would just suggest they read a brief summary
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Ovan~the~Rebirth



Joined: 03 Jul 2007
Posts: 127
PostPosted: Mon Jun 22, 2015 4:14 pm Reply with quote
Lynx Amali wrote:
Ovan~the~Rebirth wrote:
. Granted most .hack anime were done by Bee Train, and theyre by far one of the worst studios.


Bee Train..one of the worst studios?
Am I reading this right?

The studio that did Medabots Season 1, Noir, the IGPX mini-series, Phantom and the best episode of Halo Legends (next to Odd One Out by Toei, of course) is one of the worst?

I can't imagine what the absolute worse one is. Rolling Eyes


You read right, Bee Train = lazy animation. I couldn't stand Noir, and as much as I loved Tsubasa it too suffers from cost cutting practices. It's hard to call .hack//Roots animation sometimes.

I never saw MEdabots, and the IGPX mini series if I remember wasn't bad at all. Though I prefer I.G's version that was made. I just have a poor track record with them. I'll have to check out Phantom.

Toei is probably worst since they botched, World Trigger, SM:C, and One Piece has been meh looking since the time skip.
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