.Hack tells the story of Tsucasa. Tsucasa has a miserable life, which he tries to escape by playing an MMORPG called "The World." One day, he awakens to find that he is no longer in front of his computer, and has been drawn into "The World." He experiences "The World" as though it were real; able to touch, taste, smell and feel pain as if the game is real. He also finds, to his delight, that his incarceration within "The World" seem to be permanent; he is unable to log out or return to his life in the real-world. He is given a guardian which, essentially, makes him the most powerful character in the game. He sets off, and explores his new reality with zeal.

As Tsucasa wanders through the game world, however, many players and admins become fascinated with him. Some want to know where he got his guardian, others want to help him log out, other simply want to defeat him so that he can't continue to wreak havoc with his guardian. These characters try to unravel the mystery around Tsucasa, discover why he has been trapped in the game, and figure out how he got his guardian.

The story is rich with intrigue, suspense, mysteries, and the unexpected. Although there are touches of action and drama throughout, the overall mood of the story is surreal and mysterious. Events move slowly as the characters slowly unravel the mysteries of Tsucasa. It can be a little slow at times, but that's part of its charm; it's no fun if the mystery gets solved before it can be intriguing. Overall, the story, setting, and mood of the anime are all excellent.

There's also a bit of philosophy sprinkled in (Tsucasa is, essentially, an extended escapism metaphor), but it manages to be unobtrusive. No one ever comes out and says "this is how you should feel about escapism," the show just gives you a fascinating story that occasionally reflects on escapism, and leaves you to think about it. This is an excellent way to slip a moral (well it's not really a 'moral,' more like a 'possible argument,' but still) into a story. To quote my first fiction writing professor: "never write a story for a moral, put the moral within the story." I hate it when authors bend their stories to force lessons on their readers (which is why I punched myself in the face when I read the final Sword of Truth book), but I love the way .Hack manages to talk about escapism without actually pausing the story to discuss it.

I do, however, have mixed feeling about the ending. This is not because the ending is bad, but because it's odd. I can't really explain it without spoiling the story, but suffice to say it's more of an "oh, that's kind of interesting" ending, and less of an "oh good, everything got wrapped up" ending. This is probably because you're expected to buy the .Hack games after you watch the series (unless you're me and you played them first) to see what happens next. Most people won't buy the games, however, because a) they were hard to find even when they were new, b) the games have entirely different characters than the show (with a few exceptions) so not everyone who likes the anime will be interested, c) not everyone who watches the show is a gamer, and d) [insert other reasons here]. It's sad, because the anime is easily good enough to survive by its own merits, and doesn't need the games to be artistic, or marketable. The ending isn't bad - in fact it's pretty good - but it could have been better without the "gee I wonder what happens next *nudge* *nudge* buy the games *nudge*" vibe tacked onto it.

Every character is interesting, well-developed, easy to empathize with, and has a believable reason for being obsessed with Tsucasa (which is good, because that's the kind of thing that can get really arbitrary). Theyr have interesting traits - be it Tsucasa's profound sadness, Mimiru's short fuse, Bear's unassuming brilliance, or Sora's childish deviousness - and feel realistic. I also had fun trying to guess who each character was in the real-world. The only real exception to this is Helba, who remains in the background until the last few episodes.

Depending on how much you like talking about philosophy, you may find Tsucasa a little unapproachable. He is, in my opinion, the most interesting character, but you could argue that his status as an extended metaphor occasionally makes him less relatable.

If you like interesting characters, slowly-unraveling mysteries, and some lite philosophy, then you'll be glued to your seat for all 26 episodes (well, probably not in row because you'll need to eat and go to school/work, but you know what I mean). It does feel a little short at 26 episodes (particularly with the abrupt ending), but dragging the mystery out over more episodes probably wouldn't have been a good idea. The interesting characters, philosophy, and emotional moments might bring you back for a second or third screening.

The animation is beautiful. The scenery does an excellent job of conveying the MMO environment that the characters find themselves in. The characters themselves are also well designed, and their movements are fluid and well detailed.

My favorite visual element, however, has to be the way the real world is portrayed. While "The World" is vibrant, colorful, and fascinating, the real world is colorless, grainy, and silent (like something from the silent film era). This reflects the dichotomy that exists between fantasy and reality, adds to the show's overall message about escapism, and deepens the mystery by making it extremely difficult to tell which in-game character corresponds to which real-world character. It's not impossible to figure out who is who, but figuring it out does require you to pay attention.

There is, however, one small problem with this formula. Because the real-world is modeled after a silent movie, the characters in the real-world all communicate in subtitles. On my DVD, these subtitles were in Japanese even though I was watching the show in English. So every time someone talked in the real-world, I had to pause the DVD and put on the English subtitles. Once everyone was done talking, I had to pause the DVD and turn the subtitles off again. It got annoying fast.

The soundtrack (music is done by Kujuira) is absolutely perfect. The beautiful music always seems to convey just the right mood and intensity to go with what is happening in the story.

The voice acting is good, for the most part. The actors do a good job representing the traits of their characters, reacting to what is happening in the story, and delivering the well-written script. Occasionally someone will ham it up and say a line with way too much zeal, but that only happens once in a while.

If you're looking for a fast-paced anime with lots of fight scenes and explosions, then .Hack is not for you. At all.

If you're looking for a slow-moving mystery rich with intrigue, and don't mind a little philosophy, then look no further.