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Sorry for the late reply. .hack//SIGN has not aged well. I first watched it in Japanese with fan subs, and I had nothing to base my expectations on. It was bad, but I didn't know any better. Years later I watched the English dub, and it was borderline unwatchable, so I tried going back to the Japanese version, and it wasn't any better. I don't think it was meant to be good (in that way) and I don't think it can be saved.
The second season of .hack (Legend of the Twilight; also called Legend of the Twilight Bracelet in fansub) went full chibi. This actually started, I believe, with an OVA to SIGN (the first season) called .hack//GIFT, which ended with the boys spying on the girls in the bath. The whole thing was a farce, but the chibi element dominated the second season. .hack tried to take itself way more seriously with the third season, but I couldn't get into it. I think I got 8 episodes in before throwing in the towel?
.hack is not good, IMO. Maybe there's a point to be made. SAO, on the other hand, works very hard to make you think it's cool. And it is cool. As an old guy who grew up with Star Wars, I think it's a great modern media franchise. Certainly better than any of the last three mainline Star Wars films, and arguably SAO is also better than Phantom Menace, and a case could be made for the other two. It does borrow quite a bit from .hack (or maybe they both just borrow MMO tropes; I never played MMOs), but it expands on those ideas greatly. For example, .hack//Another Story. Another OVA where one of the main girls is telling one of the guys about her first friend in the game, this unbeatable girl warrior and the sacrifice she made. So when the last third or so of SAO season 2 came out, and here comes a similar purple-haired female duelist, I said "oh I bet she's logged in 24/7." And I'm not going to spoil it, but while SAO took the story in the same direction, it went way deeper, and was so much more satisfying. I knew how the story was going to end because I'd seen the original. But SAO did it way, way better. Honestly, if the Mother's Rosary (name of the book it's based on) section of SAO were a standalone anime, it would probably be my favorite anime of all time.
Wow! Thank you so much for taking your time and sharing your point or view! No need to apologize!
My takeaway is, that, for now, that one volume of .hack shall stay buried in my cellar. 😅