.hack
I watched Red Bard's video on the .hack series:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxUErZM8M2E
and it made me think about my own history with the series, so-to-speak.
I watched .hack//sign years ago as a teen and fell in love with. It was a show that I was actually kind of worried wouldn't hold up, but even having watched it a couple of years back, I'm still enormously fond of its tone and pacing.
Funnily enough, the emotional resonance that series had on me has made me reluctant to check out any of games or other bits of .hack media, because I'm worried it won't live up to my weird expectations that sign gave me. Especially when people only reluctantly recommend sign because of the perceived faults that made me fall in love with the series in the first place.
re: .hack
Following up on this, I did *acquire* .hack//infection, and right off the bat I'm pretty gosh dang charmed, coming from my own experience playing MMOs. Certainly getting more 'RP Server' vibes than my own experiences, from how seriously characters are treating the threat of being killed in-game, but I love the minutia surrounding the framing, from the message boards to the 'player characters' running around the town hub.