How does the anime that started the stuck in MMORPG relate to modern standards? spoilerfree review This anime is odd especially if youre going in with the assumption that youll have to witness combat strategy mmo monsters: most of these things barely make it as background filler and nothing else. This show instead decides to take a step back and deliver us a show that is much more down to earth than all the SAO and Log Horizonlike things that we know a show where slow pacing and a heavy focus on characters is predominant stories of the people behind their computers are narrated simply by little bits of information here and there that slowly but surely will complete a puzzle in your mind by the time youre at the last episode. The premise is that this character Tsukasa gets stuck in The World and cant logout his mind fogged by a weird and recent amnesia. Many characters will get interested many will fear him things will happen things will get asked. And you the viewer are as clueless as Tsukasa in the beginning and to know the truth you need to grow with him to learn his point of views his reasons with the aid of a few other players. Those other players too have dreams fears and different approaches to the game and every little dialogue expands what we know about them thanks to the aforementioned style of storytelling. One of the best aspects in my opinions is how everything seems semirealistic: you can feel most of the players you meet take the game for what it is a game and they just want to help Tsukasa to logout by doing so some of them even start to investigate in the offline world as they call it even though such world is barely ever shown again brilliantly done imo. Biggest downside is that events can drag itself quite a bit especially if you try to marathon it but by the time I was at episode ten it had my full attention: I wanted answers to the many questions that had filled my mind and Im gonna be honest youre not gonna get all the answers you need because this is a prologue to the first .hack quadrilogy of games on the PS2 nevertheless many things will conclude and theres some satisfaction to it although I highly recommend to simply continue and at least watch summaries of the games on if not playthroughs. When it comes to the more technical side the drawings and the animations were good for its times but whats really superb is the soundtrack: Yuki Kajiura showcases one of her most carefully crafted works where every single tune resonates perfectly with the world theyre trying to portray. All in all even with all the pacing issues I enjoyed this one so much that it convinced me to play the games and its a solid eight out of ten for me. I suggest you give this a try if you dont mind slow paced things.