The world map that shows the distribution of AIDS AIDA victims. There seems to be none in Malaysia though, and only one in the whole Africa.
The second review for today is the .hack//G.U. Trilogy movie, an adaptation of the hack//G.U. game trilogy (which I personally think as the best RPG in Playstation 2, even better than the original .hack or the two Final Fantasy games, Star Ocean 3 or Persona 3 & 4). This is the third 2008 title reviewed here, so it will compete with H2O footprints on the sand for the Best Anime of The Year 2008 title.
Story:-
It is an adaptation of the story of the games that follows .hack//ROOTS, but with a lot of omission and alterations to the game storyline. This is definitely not the substitute of playing the games itself. Anyway, in my point of view as someone who has played the trilogy, the story did not come out too well, mainly because of the aforementioned omission of details available in the trilogy.
The story develops faster than I would have liked, but then again blame it on Japan trying to shove 60 hours of story gameplay (a lot more if you grind to level up, plus bike racing and Crimson VS) into 90 minutes of a movie. Short time shifts are common and this caused the characters development to suffer. You don’t even get to know how the main protagonist becomes powerful; he just gets a power-up after a moment of angst (Shinnnnnnooooooo or Atolllllllllliiiiii). Definitely not as good as the one in the game, plus the ending is just average.
One of those CGI scenes that looks fake to me.
Character Design:-
The design transfer from the game and the 2D anime to the CGI animation in this movie is seamless. Haseo in the game and anime looks just the same as the one in this movie, for example. Anyway, the design is decent but there is nothing else to comment about.
Voice Acting:-
Surprisingly, the voice acting in this movie is very well done, definitely the positive point of this anime. Haseo and Atoli shines the most with their excellent gigs.
Music:-
Complete fail. The OST failed, and so are the ED theme.
Animation/Direction:-
This CGI animation movie is fluid in all kind of situations, although it looks fake sometimes. Choreography is also where this anime really shines, with all the awesome fighting scenes this movie has (for comparison, this movie does it better than Karas). The directing is mixed bag though, with issues mentioned in the story section above mixed with some nifty camera works.
Conclusion:-
7 out of 10. Same score with H2O, but I think I will give H2O footprint on the sand the benefit of the doubt and allows it to keep the throne for the time being.
How the MMORPG is played.
