.hack//SIGN (Anime Outsider W/O)

Project .hack

Project .hack is the group that brought the .hack series to life. The main people behind Project .hack are Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, Kazunori Ito, and Koishi Mashimo.

Yoshiyui Sadamoto is the character designer. He is well known for his work on Nadia: Secret of the Blue Water, FLCL, and Neon Genesis Evangelion. He is a pretty sought-after character designer. Kazunori Ito is the scriptwriter, and is known for his work on Ghost in the Shell, as well as some older titles such as Dirty Pair, Maison Ikkoku, and Patlabor. Koishi Mashimo is the animation director. His work includes Noir and Irresponsible Captain Tylor.

Project .hack not only came out with the .hack//SIGN anime, but also manga, novels, Playstation 2 games, and a collectible card game. In November of 2005, the first multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) named .hack//fragment was released in Japan; but there is no information on a US release date yet.

Story

The story takes place before the PS2 games (.hack//Infection, .hack//Mutation, .hack//Outbreak, .hack//Quarantine) and the .hack//Liminality series included with the games. It introduces "The World" and the events that take place before and leading up to the game.

In 2005 a computer virus called "Pluto's Kiss" shut down millions of computers across the world. Near the end of 2007, "The World", a MMORPG, was released running on a secure operating system called ALTIMIT. People access "The World" by putting on virtual reality goggles and using a game controller. By the year 2010, when the .hack//SIGN story takes place, over 20 million users have subscribed to the game.

Players can be different classes, learn lots of spells/skills, adventure by themselves or join with others and form parties. Level up and collect new items, explore strange new areas and send each other flash mail. They start out in root towns, which contain shops, a save point, lots of other players, and the chaos gate. Chaos gates are portals where players enter key words to generate a zone and dungeon, and every root town has one.

The main thing that deters some people from this series, is the pacing. It's really slow to start. Nearly the entire anime takes place within the game, and you only briefly see shots of characters in their real-world environment. Unlike a real MMORPG however, the action is little and far between during most of the anime. Instead, it focuses on the individual characters, often sacrificing action for depth. This is not to say there is no action though, especially as the series draws closer and closer to the end. Sometimes you can watch entire episodes without learning anything new about the plot, and instead learn more about the characters as the interact with each other.

The story revolves around the character Tsukasa, a young wavemaster character who seems to have strange and unusual powers. He can teleport around the world at will, without the use of a chaos gate... but he also is able to smell and feel things inside the game as if it was real life. To top it off, he is completely unable to log out from the game no matter what, and in real life he is not sitting behind a computer terminal playing the game like everyone else. This is the main problem, and the whole point of the plot and story behind the game. Tsukasa is a loner, and tries hard to push everyone else away throughout most of the series, wanting only to be left alone despite his problems.

Other key characters include Mimiru, Bear, BT, Sora, Helba, Subaru, Crim, and the Silver Knight. Mimiru is a heavy blade character who also played the game by herself, but she takes a liking to Tsukasa despite him constantly pushing her away, and she tries to help him out as much as she can. Bear is a blademaster who knows a lot of people in the game. Curiosity gets the better of him and he eventually finds himself neck deep in Tsukasa's problems.

The wavemaster BT is a little too smart for her own good. She spends more time manipulating other players than doing anything else in the game, and eventually gets involved in Tsukasa's plight. She is friends with Bear and has met him in real life, but that does not deter her from gossiping about anything he might tell her in confidence. The twin blade Sora is even worse, he double crosses his fellow adventurers many times and annoys everyone around him, especially Mimiru, who can't stand him. He kills other players for fun, including killing BT once.

Lady Subaru is a heavy axeman who commands the Crimson Knights, a self appointed body who believes it is their purpose to enforce the rules and help keep the game running smoothly and trouble-free. Subaru is kind, and towards the end of the series becomes good friends with Tsukasa. She is probably more devoted to helping Tsukasa than anyone else, though Mimiru is a very close second.

Crim is a fun-loving long arm character, who tries not to take the game too seriously. He was a former member of the Crimson Knights, and recently returned to the game after a long absense. He and Subaru are good friends. The Silver Knight is a stern leader of the Crimson Knights, who does not tolerate anything illegal in the game regardless of what it is. He tends to go a little overboard in that area, and also seems to have a thing for Lady Subaru. Sometimes he gets jealous of others taking her attention.

Helba is a brilliant computer hacker, who monitors nearly everything going on in "The World". She takes an interest in Tsukasa and his problems, mainly due to the fact that Tsukasa's problem is only part of a much bigger picture... a picture that may change "The World" completely.

Animation & Sound

The animation is colorful and well drawn, character designs are terrific and well detailed. Everything about the animation is brilliant; it's all so fluid and detailed. Great attention was paid to the backgrounds, characters, movements, etc. Combined with the music, the imaginative characters really come to life and have emotion and depth to them.

The .hack//SIGN soundtrack was composed by Yuki Kajiura, and it does the series justice. Yuki Kajiura also composed music for Noir and Aquarian Age.

The opening theme song "Obsession", and the ending theme "Yasashii Yoake" were both done by Yuki Kajiura's musical group See-Saw. The group features Chiaki Ishikawa with lead vocals and Yuki Kajiura on the keyboard and backup vocals. See-Saw also performed the opening and ending themes for .hack//Liminality, and some songs in Noir and Gundam Seed.

Some songs such as "Aura", "Open Your Heart", and "End of the World" were performed by Emily Bindiger; who has recorded soundtracks for many Hollywood movies such as "The Stepford Wives" and "One Life to Live". Other songs such as "Das Wandern" and "Warp" were performed by Yuriko Kaida.

Voice acting was super, giving depth and life to every character. The DVD provides voice tracks in both Japanese and English. Personally I thought the English voice acting was superior to the Japanese, but then again I don't speak Japanese and couldn't understand more than a couple words that were said.

Character - English voice actor, Japanese voice actor

Tsukasa - Brianne Siddal, Mitsuki Saiga
Mimiru - Amanda Winn Lee, Megumi Toyoguchi
Bear - Paul Mercier, Kazuhiro Nakata
Subaru - Kim Mai Guest, Kaori Nazuka
Silver Knight - Doug Rye, Isshin Chiba
BT - Donna Rawlins, Akiko Hiramatsu
Sora - Dave Wittenberg, Hiroshi Yanaka
Morganna - Valerie Arem, Rie Tenaka
Crim - Lex Lang, Shinichiro Miki
Helba - Mary Elizabeth McGlynn, Yumi Touma
A-20 - Sandy Fox, Atsuko Enomoto

Episodes

Episodes 1 through 26 originally aired between April 3rd and September 25th of 2002 in Japan on TV-Tokyo. They were later adapted for American audiences and aired on Cartoon Network starting February 1st, 2003. Episodes 27 and 28 are only available on DVD.

Some people add .hack//GIFT into the series and call it episode 29, but it was only a single episode released on the .hack//Liminality DVD that accompanies the fourth PS2 game, .hack//Quarantine. It's a parody episode between .hack//SIGN and the PS2 .hack games, drawn in a funny, distorted style, complete with Matrix style fighting sequences. Character's weapons are replaced with baseball bats and other objects. The ending shows some of the female characters from .hack//SIGN in the nude. It's not included on the .hack//SIGN DVD, and is not really part of the series.

Brief episode guide - Warning: The following section contains SPOILERS and gives away a lot more of the plot than the previous section!

Episode 1 - Role Play. Tsukasa wakes up in a dungeon, unable to remember where he is or what he is doing. He meets Mimiru, Bear, and a character named Macha who looks like a cat. A voice tells him "As long as we walk together, I will protect you", and he is given a guardian capable of killing other players.

Episode 2 - Guardian. The cat character Macha takes Tsukasa to a new place, that is beyond the system boundaries and unreachable by normal means. Tsukasa encounters a little girl clad in white, comatose and hovering above a white bed. Mimiru and Bear are trying to find Tsukasa to try and help him, and when they do find him his guardian attacks them.

Episode 3 - Folklore. Lady Subaru and the other characters get a little more involved in Tsukasa's plight. The Key of the Twilight is mentioned, which is a legendary item said to transcend the system rules. It is talked about and brings the interest of a few more players, and many of them begin quests to find it.

Episode 4 - Wanted. Everyone continues to search for answers, and Tsukasa becomes a wanted criminal because his guardian keeps attacking other players despite his best efforts to stop it. Tsukasa's access to the game gets restricted by the system administration, but it does not effect him.

Episode 5 - Captured. Sora and the silver knight hatch a plot to capture Tsukasa. They spread a rumor of another monster like Tsukasa's guardian, which draws Tsukasa right into the trap. They eventually drag Tsukasa off to a dark prison.

Episode 6 - Encounter. Lady Subaru talks with Tsukasa about his ability to smell and feel things in the world, and decides to release him as long as he don't cause any more trouble. More monsters similar to Tsukasa's guardian appear all over the world.

Episode 7 - Reason. Mimiru meets a young player named A-20, who convinces her to go to a tough dungeon together. She gets disgusted with A-20 and leaves, and later has a talk with Subaru about Tsukasa. She realizes that it's best to finish what you start, and goes back to find A-20 in the dungeon and help her finish it.

Episode 8 - Promise. Mimiru decides she wants to talk to Tsukasa, so she sends him an email to meet her at a certain place. She intends to sit there forever until he shows up, but after talking with Sora she realizes that she should have chose a dungeon or a place without a ton of people around. Tsukasa eventually shows up, and Mimiru tells him that she has decided she wants to protect him.

Episode 9 - Epitaph. The players talk more about the Key of the Twilight. Tsukasa agrees to take care of a baby grunty (little pig looking creature) for another player while she is gone for a few days. The grunty turns out to be sick, and Tsukasa goes chasing after some berries to make it well again. Mimiru spots him and follows him back to the grunty, and watches as he tries to feed it the berries... but he didn't make it in time, and the grunty vanishes into thin air.

Episode 10 - Compensation. BT tells Bear that he is interested in Tsukasa's problems because he feels like he wasn't a good enough father. Lady Subaru gets a little closer to Tsukasa, while BT and Crim follow more clues searching for the Key of the Twilight.

Episode 11 - Party. Mimiru decides she wants to participate in a limited event, and forms a party with Tsukasa and Bear to do it. They answer a few questions and get a few items, which allow them to summon the final boss of the event. When it hits Tsukasa he calls his guardian to kill it, Mimiru and Bear tell him not to do that. They are in a party, and win or lose it's fun playing. Using the guardian would be cheating. They beat the boss, and they each get a golden coin. Tsukasa goes to his secret place and places the coin on the floating girl.

Episode 12 - Entanglement. The white floating girl (Aura) is covered in thick vines. Tsukasa tries to rip them off, but they only grow back thicker. They cut his hands, but he keeps trying to rip them off anyway. Bear finds Tsukasa in real life, in a hospital in a coma. He talks with Subaru about what will happen to Tsukasa when he logs out/wakes up.

Episode 13 - Twilight Eye. The players figure out how to open the Eye of the Twilight, and proceed to continue their quest fo the Key of the Twilight. Sora gets in contact with the hacker Helba, who meets with Bear. Bear tells BT about Tsukasa being in a coma, but tells her not to worry Mimiru with such information and keep it to herself.

Episode 14 - Castle. BT and Crim open the Eye of the Twilight and go to the dungeon beyond it. It's a broken upside-down dungeon. Tsukasa, Mimiru and Bear also enter the broken dungeon by using Tsukasa's power to transport them there. At the end they encounter a broken man, who sounds like a broken record and makes little sense to Bear and Mimiru. Tsukasa thinks he might know what the man was talking about, and might have found the Key of the Twilight. Macha appears and summons a guardian to attack the players, Tsukasa pushes Mimiru out of the way and is killed by the guardian.

Episode 15 - Evidence. "When the Twilight Eye opens, the path to my destination appears. It promises insurmountable power. It will be the key that will change everything. The Key of the Twilight." This episode is mostly just a bunch of flashbacks to previous episodes.

Episode 16 - Depth. Tsukasa wakes up in the secret place with Aura, and realizes that he can't die in the game. He knows he is not in front of a computer in real life, and he can't log out of the game either; and wonders if he is even real. Bear and Mimiru wonder what happened to him after he was killed. Subaru finds Tsukasa and has a talk with him. She says "A small light shines best in darkness.", and tells him that he must really be alive if he can feel her heart beat.

Episode 17 - Conflict. BT attempts to help a couple "newbies", but they turn out to be player killers and want to kill her. Before they get the chance, they turn around and see Tsukasa standing by the enterance to the dungeon. The recognize him as the lonely wavemaster with the killer guardian and they get scared off by his presence. Him and BT have a little talk, where BT reveals why she chose the name she did... because she hated lettuce. So she took her favorite food, BLT, and dropped the lettuce.

Episode 18 - Declaration. The silver knight goes a little too far in seeking justice in the game, and he goes over Subaru's head asking the system admins for personal player info. Lady Subaru thinks hard about what the Crimson Knights are like lately, and disbands them. Tsukasa, after dying in the broken dungeon, can't remember anything about saying he had possibly found the Key of the Twilight or knowing what the broken man was rambling about.

Episode 19 - Recollection. Tsukasa and Subaru grow a little closer, and we also find out about Subaru in the real world. She is attacked by another player while wandering around, contemplating the disbanding of her Crimson Knights. There are a few flashbacks to her past with Crim.

Episode 20 - Tempest. Subaru and Tsukasa continue to grow closer to each other, Tsukasa takes Subaru to the secret place where Aura is... but when they get there, Aura is gone. A power pulls Tsukasa to the bed where Aura used to be, and then he gets attacked by the voice (Morganna) and is left lying on the bed.

Episode 21 - Despair. Nobody can find Tsukasa, and continue looking for him. Tsukasa sits against the bed dazed and can barely move. Subaru tells BT that she wants to find Tsukasa and talk with him again, and will keep looking until she does. BT almost tells Subaru that the Tsukasa in real life is a girl, but decides against it at the last second. Aura appears upside-down hanging from a swirling vortex in the sky.

Episode 22 - Phantom. Helba finds another place where the broken man is, and opens up a chaos gate for Bear, Mimiru and Subaru. They learn that Aura is getting corrupted, and Morganna is using Tsukasa to corrupt her. Sora stumbles upon Macha as he's teleporting to the place where Aura is, and Sora jumps on Macha and hitches a ride.

Episode 23 - The Eve. Helba contacts the players and has them meet in one place. Crim talks to Tsukasa and gives him some advice that he gave Subaru a long time ago. He asks Tsukasa to take responsibility, transform his insecurity into anger and take control, and not to run away. Helba opens a chaos gate, and everyone teleports through it except for Subaru, who waits outside for Tsukasa.

Episode 24 - Net Slum. Tsukasa shows up, and he teleports in with Subaru. There are floating replicas of Tsukasa all over the zone, and Helba explains to everyone that they are just erased data and bugs that escaped detection. Helba explains that Tsukasa is the key to waking up Aura, that when he can log out she will wake up. When Tsukasa thinks positively Aura grows right, but when he feels sorrow and despair she grows distorted, they are linked by thought. Macha appears and summons a guardian like Tsukasa's to kill them, they hold it off for a little bit and then Tsukasa's guardian appears and the two blobs kill each other.

Episode 25 - Catastrophe. The players leave Net Slum because obviously Morganna found the place and sent Macha to attack them. They move to another place, and before long they are attacked by another guardian. They band together and actually manage to defeat it. Bear tells Tsukasa he will adopt him and send him to school if he wants. Three more guardians appear and go after Tsukasa and Subaru, but Macha appears and stands between them and is killed by the guardian instead. Tsukasa and Subaru are surrounded by a strange light, and Mimiru runs towards them and they all disappear.

Episode 26 - Return. Tsukasa, Subaru and Mimiru find themselves in a strange place, and meet alternate versions of each other. The floor vanishes and they find themselves in the place with Aura hanging from the vortex. Aura wakes up and the voice is mad. Sora appears and tells everyone to run and take Aura, and tells the voice Morganna that it's too devious to be friends with. The voice traps him and summons a huge minion named Skeith, who captures Sora with his weapon. Skeith finds the players, and Helba deletes the zone that they are all in to get rid of Skeith, and Tsukasa finally can log out. Tsukasa and Subaru meet outside a hospital.

Episode 27 - Intermezzo. This episode is only available on the DVD. It takes place a couple years before the preceding episodes, and tells of how Mimiru first got started in the game. She met a character who was really strong, and found out it was controlled by 3 different people. The 3 girls were friends in real life and felt ordinary, so they decided to play one character and work hard to make it strong.

Episode 28 - Unison. The final episode, also available only on the DVD, takes place after the end of .hack//SIGN and the .hack PS2 games. The players all meet up, including Tsukasa. The players are also introduced to characters from the .hack PS2 games; including Kite, Blackrose, Orca, Mistral, and Elk, who also log in and Helba throws a party complete with fireworks.

This review is part of the Anime Outsider W/O hosted by ssjakira1.