.hack//Sign

A young wavemaster, only known by the alias of Tsukasa, wakes up in an MMORPG called The World, with slight amnesia. He does not know what he has previously done before he woke up. In The World, the Crimson Knights suspects him of being a hacker, as he was seen accompanying a tweaked character in the form of a cat. Unable to log out from the game, he wanders around looking for answers, avoiding the knights and other players he meets along the way.

As Tsukasa explores The World, he stumbles upon a magical item that takes the form of a "guardian," which promises him protection from all harm. Subaru, the leader of the Crimson Knights, along with several other players who became acquainted with Tsukasa, set out to investigate why Tsukasa is unable to log out, and attempt to get to the bottom of the problem before it gets out of hand.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Tsukasa Main

Saiga, Mitsuki Japanese

Subaru Main

Nazuka, Kaori Japanese

Mimiru Main

Toyoguchi, Megumi Japanese

Bear Main

Nakata, Kazuhiro Japanese

BT Main

Hiramatsu, Akiko Japanese

Kite Supporting

Aida, Sayaka Japanese

Sora Supporting

Yanaka, Hiroshi Japanese

Balmung Supporting

Hiyama, Nobuyuki Japanese

Crim Supporting

Miki, Shinichiro Japanese

Blackrose Supporting

Asano, Masumi Japanese

Sasaki, Shirou Producer

Nozaki, Keiichi Producer

Uchiyama, Daisuke Producer

Maru, Ryouji Producer, Production Manager

Reviews

Jun 21, 2008

Mashu

Recommended

.Hack//Sign is a single part in the Project .Hack franchise, one that combines novels, manga, TV anime and OVA's to form one grand narrative with characters and events happening not only chronologically, but simultaneously as well. The review below is written from the franchise point of view, and as an standalone anime.

The general consensus of Hack//Sign is that the story's boring, there is almost no action and it doesn't make fast progress. While some of these points are quite true, the story is one of character development and interaction. The viewer learn more about every side character through their interaction with the rest of the ... cast, their surroundings and gradually helps move the plot. The plot is one of clashing and matching personalities, driven by mysteries.

.Hack//Sign, The story:
+ It's detailed
- It does feel slow at times

Then, we have the art, fun scenery's and great character designs do give you the feel of an online game world that was actually thought out (see the games .hack//IMOQ and .hack//Frägment). The animation however, is quite sloppy and the characters themselves aren't drawn very detailed.

+ The art does create the illusion of an actual MMORPG
+ Great and original character designs

Then we have the Sound, if there was an option to give it more then a ten out of ten, then I would choose it. The compositions by Yuki Kajiura, are in my opinion, what lifts the anime up from a meagre 7 to a 10. With an enormous array of songs and tunes, Yuki adds depth to the art and the story, giving it time when the characters need time and hypes the viewer when it's going down.

+ Yuki Kajiura's music is truly a work of art

The characters of .Hack//Sign are gamers, and thus some try to act online like someone they aren't. Some take their offline situations into the game and some try to forget them instead.
Complex emotions and double personalities are just some of the things you can find here.

+ Character actually have character progress without it being important to the main storyline

Reviewer’s Rating: 10

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Nov 1, 2008

Stormy_77

Mixed Feelings

As a former hard core gamer, I had high expectations of this series which has been languishing in my list of stuff to someday get to watching. So I started viewing this intending to finish all the .hack series.

Story/Character

The premise is exciting - one player in "The World" is suddenly unable to log out - why? The mystery gets deeper and deeper as we are pulled into his life and the life of the other characters (in game and in the real world) who either want to help him, want to solve the mystery or have some other hidden agendas of their own.

The set up ... (first 8 episodes) was very well done. Just as I started to get fascinated the series went on a philosophical bent and the plot stagnated. By the time it tried to recover I was frankly pretty bored and was just going through the motions of finishing the series.

The characters are a mish mash. Some you remember and some could actually have been left out of the anime without making any impact at all. It was hard to even like any of them except 1-2 (you'll know what I mean).

Art/Animation and sound

The animation was great for that time. Very cute and I can see where "World of Warcraft" may have copied some of the stuff. Songs were pretty decent but not as good as the art. It's a very pretty anime and as a gamer I was satisfied with both.

Enjoyment

The series starts well, gets slow in the middle and tries to end with a bang but somewhat fails to pull it together. The end is ambiguous which detracts from overall enjoyment, hence the low score.

Overall

This is one of those polarizing anime. You either love it or you hate it. There are a lot of similarities to "Serial Experiments Lain" (which I hated) but I scored this a lot higher due to the effort it took to make the gaming world realistic, which I really appreciated. Overall I gave this a 5 -- there was much more that this series could have done that they didn't do, and the slow pace really made this less enjoyable than I would have liked.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Jun 21, 2015

Hikari-Kuro

Not Recommended

Funny

Kudos for being one of the first few animes with the topic of MMORPG. That is the only positive i can say of this title. Having recently finish season one of Log Horizon and still being in the mood for more anime with this genre,i decided to watch this series. Thinking that it would be of similar mold to Log Horizon,i went into this series having some what of a high expectation but was extremely disappointed. Even though,the artwork was not spectacular given that it came out in 2002,i was hoping that the story line would be interesting enough to compile me overlook this particular ... flaw. Sadly,the story line was worst than it's artwork,it was just 26 episodes of characters talking to each other. There were little to no action sequences at all throughout the either series. Even the conversations between the characters were boring as they use a lot of scientific sounding jargon that i think were probably made up for the series. Now,i pride myself as only watching animes with its original Japanese dubbing,but after three to four episodes,it became too tedious and i had to switch to the English dub. That did not help as the series continued to be dull,wanting to finish the whole series,i labored through the remaining episodes. Overall,if you are the type who likes animes with a lot of dialogues,than this series will suit you but for me,i would rather die than have to ever re-watch this series again. 2/10,re-watch Log Horizon if you have to instead of this title. (this rating is only for .Hack//Sign,i have not watch the other variations of this series)

Reviewer’s Rating: 2

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