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It was about 3 years ago that I stumbled upon a pebble. At first, I thought the pebble was insignificant and useless. But out of curiosity, I picked it up and lo and behold, I realized that the pebble had great potential. Little did I know that I was wrong. So wrong that every word in the dictionary couldn't explain how wrong I was about the small thing called .hack.

For those who don't know, .hack (pronounced dot-hack) is an anime, video game, manga, and trading card game created by director Kouichi Mashimo (Dirty Pair: Project E.D.E.N., Noir, Xenogears), scripter Kazunori Ito (Maison Ikkoku, Mobile Police Patlabor, Ghost in the Shell), and character designer Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (FLCL, Neon Genesis Evangelion) which revolves around an online game known only as "The World". At first the premise seems a little bit shaky but as you watch, play, and read, you realize that there is much to the series than just being about a non-existent game. Let us start by examining the first part of the .hack series, .hack//SIGN.

"'The World' and all of its wonders. This is my world."

.hack//SIGN revolves around the story of Tsukasa, a male Wavemaster (think magic user in video games) in the online game "The World". He awakes within a dungeon, hurt and unable to remember anything but the fact that somehow he ended up unconscious. But unfortunately that is only the tip of an iceberg which contains Tsukasa's problems. Not only is he unable to remember but he realizes that he is unable to log out of "The World". Faced with such an unusual dilemma, Tsukasa attracts attention from fellow players, the first being Bear and Mimiru, two players who actually start the quest for answers by the simple question. Is the Tsukasa actually playing "The World" from a terminal or not? With the answer of this question, they start their quest on helping the player Tsukasa log out of the world. Meanwhile in the real world, people are falling unconscious due to playing the online game "The World". The answer for how is unknown but as the cast of .hack//SIGN search for answers, the audience soon realizes the density, complexity, and fragility of the situation not only in the real world but in "The World".

"I must speak with Morganna..."

Now that you've been introduced to "The World" by .hack//SIGN, here comes the tricky part. The series takes a jump from anime to a four DVD OVA and four Playstation 2 games simultaneously. The OVAs mentioned is a series known as .hack//Liminality and the games would be .hack//INFECTION, .hack//MUTATION, .hack//OUTBREAK, .hack//QUARENTINE. Confused? Don't be. What it really means is that each of the 4 scenes of the OVA corresponds with one of the games. The beautiful thing about this is that the game and the OVA take place at exactly the same time. To make things simple, let?s start off with the gaming aspect of the series.

The four PS2 .hack games take place 2 years after .hack//SIGN and revolve around the story of a young boy named Kite who is invited to play "The World" by his best friend, a player known as Orca of the Azure Sea, on of a pair known as the Descendants of Fianna, who are considered the best players of "The World". As Kite's first experience in the world, Orca brings him to a dungeon to show him the ropes and teach him how to play (keep in mind that you?re playing those parts so in a sense you are Kite). During their little trip in the dungeon, the come across a floating girl being chased by a monster with a red cross/axe/scythe sort of weapon. When they follow, it only leads them to a dead end. But as they continue to journey down the dungeon, they encounter her again but this time, the encounter is short lived and tragic. As the girl, Aura, gives an item known as the Book of the Twilight to Orca, the monster later revealed as Skeith appears and does battle with Orca, who ends up being killed and having the Book of Twilight transferred to Kite. Luckily, an unknown person ends up saving the day, causing the system to crash and logging everybody out. But as Kite tries to contact his friend Orca in the real world he is only astonished and saddened by the news that he was put into a coma the same day as the incident. From there, Kite starts a quest to find the answers behind his best friend's coma along with the reasons behind the mysterious Skeith and Aura. Soon after he starts his quest, he meets a character Black Rose who wants him to help her level up in an area known as Hidden Forbidden Holy Ground. Once there, they encounter a monster within the game which is invincible. Of course they have a bit of help from a character known as Balmung of the Azure Skies, the second Descendant of Fianna (and my favorite character in the entire series beside Bear, Crim, and Wiseman). During the ensuing fight, The Book of Twilight activates and gives him the power to perform a move known as Data Drain, the same move which put his best friend into a coma. With this new found power he continues his quest into the origins of "The World" and the mysteries it holds.

"I heard a noise."

Shortly after the beginning of .hack//INFECTION, .hack//Liminality starts. The story revolves around a high school student Mai Minase and allies as they search in the real world for the reasoning behind players of "The World" being driven into a coma. As the OVA starts, we see Mai Minase and her "friend" Tomonari Kasumi, known as Seig in "The World", being rushed into a hospital unconscious. Fortunately Mai awakens but the same fate doesn't befall her boyfriend. Shocked and confused, she encounters a man named Junjichiro Tokuoka, an ex-employee of CC Corporation, the company that created "The World". With this ally, her life changes as they attempt to clear the mist around the comatose victims.

"I have to get stronger...for Rena!"

At the top of the hype yet another .hack was released in the form of a manga published by Tokyopop and an anime which later aired on Cartoon Network. Taking place four years after the events of the four .hack games and .hack//Liminality, .hack//Legend of the Twilight, which is also known as .hack//udeden or .hack//DUSK, revolves around a brother named Shugo and his sister Rena who win a special contest which grants them characters designs that resemble the legendary group known as the .hackers (which is practically the cast of the .hack games). It also just so happens that Shugo and Rena win the character designs of the two most famous .hackers, Kite and Black Rose. And so the brother and sister start their adventures in "The World". But after a few weeks of playing, Rena's character goes missing in a dungeon and in the real world; she is put into a coma. And so Shugo joins his friends in the search for his long lost sister.

"The World" as I know it

.hack graces the screens beautifully with smooth animation and detail. The sheer mass, quality, and dedication of this project are clearly illustrated on every form of media from the beginning. The darker tones of .hack//SIGN's story are shown through the art as they use a lot of night sceneries and dark colorations within "The World" and the black and white graphics used for the real world brings out the density of conflict as you see that as there is trouble in "The World" it is like wise within the real world. The dedication from the .hack project's team remains constant with the manga version of .hack//DUSK as Rei Izumi brought out the efforts of CC Corps efforts to cover up what the original .hackers efforts brought upon to "The World" with the use of childish designs to show that even children have their troubles and ordeals that weigh them.

The musical score is also a masterpiece worthy of praise, not only in the fact that assisted in creating the series but that the music reveals an incredible amount of the story and characters. Take into consideration Tsukasa's "theme" song "The World". As the song starts out, the vocals and water effects in the background add a hint of mysticism. With the following of drums and violins brings the realization that the person is no longer in an environment which they are familiar with. Then there are the lyrics:

You are here alone again
In your sweet insanity
All too calm, you hide yourself from reality
Do you call it solitude? Do you call it liberty?
When all the world turns away to leave you lonely

The fields are filled with desires
All voices crying for freedom
But all in vain they will fade away
There's only you to answer you, forever

In blinded mind you are singing
A glorious hallelujah
The distant flutter of angels
They're all too far, too far to reach for you

I am here alone again
In my sweet serenity
Hoping you will ever find me in any place
I will call it solitude
when all my songs fade in vain
In my voice, far away to eternity


With these lyrics come great deals of information about the character Tsukasa. It shows the fact that the real person behind Tsukasa played "The World" to escape the harsh reality which she lived in. Then on the third segment, the song reveals that maybe she got too much of what she asked for as it states that even though the person is free, they are also trapped now within their own prison yet also very free to do absolutely anything they want. Also, the use of this song during the opening scene of the show as Tsukasa wakes up was brilliant due to the song fitting perfectly into the scene without any rearranging or editing.

Finally, as in any anime, the characters are what make .hack shine. Every one of the characters not only brings a personality but a complexity which makes them seem horrifically human like. Everybody on the show reveals their face value but like all of us, they also have things which they want nobody to know. Feelings. Emotions. Insecurities. Doubts. Fears. Aspirations. All of it is revealed slowly through their actions and words that make each individual who they are. It is in that complexity that makes .hack more of a star.

What does the future hold for .hack?

During the E3, Cyber Connect 2 (the team that created the .hack video games for Playstation 2) and ?Project .hack?, revealed a new addition into the .hack world. This will be a new game for the Playstation 2 called .hack//G.U. From my first glances and information on it, the story revolves around a boy named Haseo who is dead set on destroying Player Killers (PK) in ?The World?. One of the main things which I noticed when viewing the trailer for the game, was that Haseo has a weapon that doesn?t fit the already created player classes in the .hack series. Another was the appearance of eight players in the game which had the titles of the 8 phases of the ?Cursed Wave? from the four already released .hack video games. Finally and probably the thing that will make most people play it, was the unveiling of a Twin Blade character named Tri-Blade which looks a great deal like Kite from the .hack games, who in the trailer, defeats Haseo and performs a Data Drain on him (which could put him into a coma in the real world). Unfortunately, this project does not have a set release date in the US. If you are interested, you can go to the official US .hack site at dothack.com and see the new .hack//G.U. trailer.

Another addition is the supposed release of .hack//A.I Busters in the US on August ninth, 2005. This will be released under Tokyopop?s label and take place before .hack//G.U. Unfortunately, I do not know anything more concerning this project but if I do, you can bet I will update.

Logging off?..

The world of .hack encompasses so much that it truly is hard to explain and sometimes comprehend and it is in saying that, which makes it one of my personal favorite franchises. Isn't it beautiful how a pebble found is sometimes mountain?

~ Great Dragon Ragnarok (Aqua Dragon King)
Ani-Romancers West Branch Leader
Copyright 9/29/05 Ani-Romancers

((Sorry. I'm almost done. Its just been hard for me to update lately.))

i've only seen .hack//sign

i don't know much about the others

I haven't seen that much

heart I love the music!!!!! heart

yeah i'm up onall htti've read i think it was .hack//Legend i think that was the titel but then again i didn't know thier were more

Yeah, it's one of those series that you don't want to get into unless your willing to spend a lot of time and money on it. sweatdrop

Kudos to you. I see I'm not the only gamer here (of course my company is still Square Enix. My first gaming love and my forever).

Yes the .hack games were good but they lacked inovation between each disc. I honestly expected more than a progressing storyline, awe inspiring music, deep characters, and the Liminality DVDs. It was a slight disappointment but I still love it none the less. As for it being one of my favorite game series, we'll see when .hack//G.U is released. Then again my favorite series is still Final Fantasy, Guilty Gear, the Capcom fighting games (Capcom VS SNK 2: Mark of the Millenium 2001, Marvel Vs Capcom 2, and Rival Schools mostly), and Katamari Damacy (what can I say? They got me by the balls. Just love rolling the thing over EVERYTHING. Plus I like the screams of agony. So fun).

Oh and I have an update on .hack//A.I. Busters. It actually is not a manga but a novel (for those who don't know anything about the world outside of anime, that means you have to read not just look at the pretty pictures on the front).

The story is actually a prequel to .hack//SIGN revolving around a man named Albireo, who is a debugger who played the beta version of "The World" known as Fragment. One day while playing "The World", he encounters what he thinks is a NPC (Non-Player Character in a MMORPG) named Lycoris. What he doesn't know, is that she is a failed version of Aura (poor Herald.... Guess he has some weak genes.... Or maybe he shouldah used a condom xd ). Deaf, blind, and mute due to Albireo debugging her and pretty much screwing up her major files, he goes out to collect the misplaced files which are sewn into "The World" as rare items. But when Lycoris is assembled back to her full self again, she turns into her teenage form, growing flowing purple hair and looks suspiciously like Aura. Unfortunately for Albireo, he has fallen victim to the single and most deadly affliction that has befallen all the great characters of the .hack universe, for due to his "acquaintance with Lycoris, Albireo cannot log out of the game and exit the World." For those who play the game, there is a history of Fragment on the Liminality DVD in the extras. And while your at it, do some history on Morganna Mode Gone because I have a feeling she is going to be attached to this one. And thank you Tokyopop for the information.

cool

i had no idea there was a manga

i'll have to check it out whee