Abandoned #8 (.hack//sign, Black Cat, Buddy Complex)

ashleycapes Anime, Series September 26, 2020 1 Minute

Generally with these posts, I don’t rule out returning to the shows featured (unless I say so specifically for an individual title) so I’ll include my usual disclaimer, maybe I will return to these three, who knows? 🙂

It’s also just a short post this time around, after my previous monstrous list!

Black Cat

I’m actually 9 episodes in but I just sort of drifted away and haven’t returned yet. I was enjoying it, but basically, I remember thinking that there wasn’t enough Sven!

Buddy Complex

This seems bright and fun, and I like mecha a lot, so I probably could come back to this but somehow, despite an action-packed episode one, I wasn’t hooked. (Early signs of wonky charactarisation with Hina perhaps.)

.hack//sign

Long been aware of this classic isekai and I finally gave it a shot the other day. I like Noir from the same studio and loved the world and the set-up here, along with hints that the pacing would be a little different, but after a whole episode of the insufferable Tsukasa I just couldn’t go on.

But because it feels like he’ll have a good character arc, I think I could return to this one day for sure, but only when I have more energy for that kinda lead character.

Published by ashleycapes

Ashley is an Australian poet, novelist and teacher. He's currently running a casual review blog called "The Review Heap" focusing film, anime, games, books and music - and (very) occasionally other stuff too. He is the author of half a dozen poetry collections and a few novels, some published traditionally and some self-published. He also occasionally publishes other folks too. View all posts by ashleycapes

Published September 26, 2020

7 thoughts on “Abandoned #8 (.hack//sign, Black Cat, Buddy Complex)”

ospreyshire says:

September 26, 2020 at 1:55 pm

I’ve seen a bit of Black Cat and I’ve seen .hack//Sign. I haven’t seen all of Black Cat, but I did like the theme song. The .hack series could’ve been so much better. The animation is good, and the music is fantastic, but it gets very tedious and Sign doesn’t have that much action despite everyone having a weapon on them all the time. Liminality was better and that took place in the real world when it comes to that series.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Reply
1. ashleycapes says:
  
  September 27, 2020 at 2:55 am
  
  Ah, I see – would you recommend perhaps I start with Liminality instead? (It’s not a small franchise, huh :D)
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
  
  Reply
  1. ospreyshire says:
    
    September 27, 2020 at 5:28 pm
    
    Good question. Liminality would come off as a bit of a shock since it rarely has anything to do with the game except for a few scenes. It’s not perfect, but I did like some of the worldbuilding from outside of the game. Weirdly enough, I heard .hack takes place in the early 10s which would’ve been the future when it came out.
    
    LikeLiked by 1 person
    
    Reply
    1. ashleycapes says:
      
      September 30, 2020 at 3:16 pm
      
      Cool, I’m more and more interested 😀
      
      LikeLike
      
      Reply
      1. ospreyshire says:
        
        September 30, 2020 at 5:58 pm
        
        Nice. I think that’s my favorite .hack work that I’ve seen so far. I’ve seen Sign, part of Twilight, and the comedy OVAs (forget the name).
        
        LikeLiked by 1 person
alsmangablog says:

September 27, 2020 at 4:15 pm

I’m not surprised you found it hard to get into .Hack//sign. I enjoyed it a lot when I was younger, but, when I recently rewatched it, I found the slow pacing and the characters ponderous philosophizing to be insufferable at times. There are some good things about it though, Tsukasa does grow as a character and the music is great.

LikeLiked by 1 person

Reply
1. ashleycapes says:
  
  September 30, 2020 at 3:17 pm
  
  Nice to know – great music always comes across as a worthy trade off for me, so one day when I come back to it, I might be able to press on 🙂
  
  LikeLiked by 1 person
  
  Reply