Xebek\’s Blog

Haseo deals with his retrun to level one, allowing him to get persepctive on things as he finds out the news of what happened to Phyllo from Touta.

Summary: 

• Haseo is told by Touta about Phyllo. Haseo seems to be in utter disbelief but Touta mentions how it’s true, and that Phyllo was worried about Haseo up until his death. He give shim Phyllo’s last message, “No matter what happens, faith will break through.”
• We see Yata looking at his screens and seeing a bubbling mass starting to form. Pai and Kuhn head out to fight it. The bubbling mass starts to grow claw like things and Kuhn powers up and summons his Avatar, the two of them defeating it.
• Eventually, after Haseo briefly talks with Saburou, and Tabby with Touta, Haseo is walking and Tabby sees him and runs up and hugs him. However Haseo takes her to the cathedral and tells her about Phyllo. Tabby is in shock too. They talk and Tabby says how she has decided that she will become a nurse, so she can help Shino in real life. They joke, Haseo saying that that will take too long, he will have saved her by then. Tabby asks sadly if he is going to become a PKKer again but he says no, that didn’t work and he won’t loose himself in that again, Tabby smiling at this.
• Yata is looking at the data from the fight and the newly mutated blob, saying they need a name for it. He says how it is some kind of AI, and eventually names it AIDA, Artificial Intelligence Data Anomaly (although they don’t technically give the definition of the acronym, they just say AIDA).
• We see a brief shot of some cyberspace, three colored lights traveling and materializing, one into Tri Edge, the other into zombie like renditions of Balmung and Orca. We then see Ovan alone in the Cathedral, looking at the sign on the altar, saying to himself for Haseo to become stronger, strong enough to kill him.
• Haseo stands at the waterfall Lost Ground and remembers back to all the times with Shino, and flashback to meeting her and Ovan, and everything that has happened, He decides how he will save her, and not give up, however this time seemingly doing it sanely. We see him as he stands there with his eyes closed, an image of Skeith appear around him, and an image of his fourth form armor.

Impressions:

Two things that I was just ecstatic about seeing were Skeith and the three Azure Knights together. Not only did they just show a shot of Skeith at the beginning, but then at the end they showed it over Haseo symbolizing that is his and his power which was cool. Then, we also see Balmung and Orca along with tri Edge, the two of them in their zombie looking forms.

They showed Haseo’s fourth form! That surprised me a bit too, as I didn’t even learn about a fourth form for him until I watched the teaser trailer for vol. 3, but you can CLEARLY see that when they show Haseo in the waterfall place, there is an outline of his armor form around him, now it is not the same as we saw him in before, you even see a neck decoration thing. That is his fourth form, duel pistol Haseo.

Although he died in the last episode, I just want to say here how sad of a moment it was when Touta was telling Haseo of Phyllo’s death. Phyllo was such an amazing character, he was a kind sweet old man and the whole remark about Phyllo worrying about Haseo till the end was just amazing. He really played the role of a father in this series and it was just really sad to see him go, as his death is real, it’s not a comma or anything. His quote, “No matter what happens, faith will break through,” I think will become important later on, maybe even as late as Vol. 3. The quote could very well be influenced by what he learned from Ovan so I think that it could possibly motivate or hint Haseo towards something, giving him the hope to continue past something.

One thing about this episode that just totally took me by surprise, and I swear when I saw it I yelled out loud in my house WHAT THE FUCK! That would be the appearance of Ginkan. Maybe more widely known as Scarlet Knight or Silver Knight which was what the English version called him, he was a huge part in Sign, he was also in Udeden for a bit too. Anyways, he seemed to be completely pointless in this episode. I mean I seriously think they just put him in this episode to say that he is in every .hack anime (except for Liminality). Every .hack anime that is focus on the game at least and not outside it. Whether he will indeed meet Haseo again like he said or not I really don’t know but I found that part completely weird and unexpected.

Final Words:

Overall, I am impressed. Many people may complain about how this wasn’t conclusive or crap like that, but it never was supposed to be. If you look at as what it is supposed to be, a prequel, then it did a GREAT job. I think it expertly showed the characters featured in G.U., not only that but showing characters that don’t appear in G.U. and how they effect the ones that do. Overall the point of this was just as the name of the anime says, show the Roots of G.U. which it does. It shows us Haseo’s motivation to do what he is doing, trying to save Shino. It shows us how he used to be, what Shino’s death did to him, and then the realization of what he had become and him changing.

Speaking of Haseo’s change, I am so glad that he turned back to a sane person. I don’t hate that they showed his other form, the super crazy killing everyone form, because I think it is a important part of his past. It showed Haseo as a human, that he has feelings other then honor and courage, and he isn’t perfect. I liked the realization however that Haseo specifically said that he won’t become like he used to be. I mean, he may get his other forms back, well, he DOES, but that doesn’t mean he has to go all crazy. As he said it didn’t really help anything. Him going all emo I think really showed us a point that is focused in G.U., and without showing it to us here we wouldn’t have fully understood his motivation and what he went through.

In summation, this is a great prequel. Stand alone, there may be3 too many mysterious things for it to really be a good show, but its not supposed to be. This is supposed to be a prequel, and does a good job at that. They showed how Haseo went from normal, to the death of Shino causing him to go crazy but then the realization that that isn’t helping anything, ending the series off with Haseo set on saving Shino, but not loosing himself in it. For the moment when he was all emo and crazy, he lost himself in his cause, but at the end he regained perspective as he goes into the game