Well, what is it that can be said of .hack//Roots now that I’ve finished watching it. Bear with me, as I give my opinion right now, but overall, I found it a bit disappointing.

Even though I really enjoyed the first part of the anime, when the turnaround event occured the show went downhill until a certain point, and only at the end did it bounce back. Some of the characters started to act as if they were being forced into things they did not feel, specially the main character, which went from a timid boy with a crush to an enraged maniac.

Thankfully, some of the characters remained unaltered, while others, which contributed almost nothing to the story, remained in it, and continued to contribute absolutely nothing right to the last second.

When I saw the first trailers of the upcoming .hack//G.U. game (which will be released tomorrow in the United States), I thought to myself that .hack’s image was being stained, and that you would now play as a PKK (Player-Killer Killer), however, one of the things I was pleased with when this show ended was that they didn’t stain the image that badly, and it’s focus continues to be the human mind and behavior, rather than cool “show-offy” battles and special power displays.

If I hadn’t been “marked” with .hack//SIGN, I’d probably like this Anime much more, but even knowing what I do know, I can’t say that it was really all that bad. The first part of the show, and the very last episodes were great, but somewhere between those two something was lost in the storyline.

In short, you can cut off about a quarter of the show, from the second half onwards, and skip to the end, and you’ll still understand what is going on, because almost nothing changes until then. But still, it’s a good experience overall.

I give this show a 3.5 out of 5.