.hack//Sign

.hack//Sign
File:Hack SIGN title.png .hack//SIGN
Genre	Adventure, Drama, Fantasy, Mystery, Science Fiction
Anime
Directed by	Kôichi Mashimo
Studio	Bee Train
Anime
.hack//Intermezzo
Directed by	Koichi Mashimo
Studio	Bee Train
Anime
.hack//Unison
Directed by	Koichi Mashimo
Studio	Bee Train
Anime
.hack//GIFT
Directed by	Koichi Mashimo
Studio	Bee Train
Related Works
.hack (video games) .hack//Liminality .hack//Legend of the Twilight

.hack//SIGN is a 29-episode anime series, produced by studio Bee Train and Bandai Visual, that makes up one of the four original storylines of the .hack franchise. Twenty-six of these episodes were shown on television, and three additional episodes, Intermezzo, Unison, and GIFT (a parody between SIGN and the .hack games drawn in an abstract, "cartoony" style) were originally released as OVA releases via DVD.

The series premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo between April 3 and September 25, 2002, and has also been broadcast across East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America, and other regions, by the anime television network, Animax, and across the United States by Cartoon Network and Canada by YTV. It is distributed across North America by Bandai Entertainment.

.hack//SIGN follows the story of Tsukasa (司) as he struggles to cope with his inner self, his past, and his inability to log out of the MMORPG The World. The storyline moves at a leisurely pace and has multiple layers—the viewer is quite often fed false information and red herrings, plausibly leading to confusion until the true nature of events is revealed towards the end of the series. Character development is also very strong in the series; there are few flat characters, and each of the important characters goes through great change through the story. .hack//SIGN has sometimes been labelled quite "chatty" series considering its video game setting. This is viewed as both a positive and negative aspect: some viewers cannot stand what they deride as a slow and tedious plot with minimal action, while others call .hack//SIGN one of the greatest anime series ever for much the same reason.

.hack//SIGN is well-known for its soundtrack, all of which was composed by the talented Yuki Kajiura of Noir and Aquarian Age fame. Much of the background music was sung by Emily Bindiger and Yuriko Kaida, while the opening and ending themes, Obsession and Yasashii Yoake, were done by Kajiura's musical group See-Saw. Most fans consider the soundtrack to be one of the defining elements of the series, with nearly every scene in each episode having some sort of character-definitive background music.

Plot

In the year 2005, a computer virus called "Pluto Kiss" destroys the networks of computers all around the world, subjecting the cyberspace to severe restrictions. Two years later, as free access to the networks recovers, people are now crazed over a full-immersion virtual gaming environment called "The World." However, when reality and virtual reality collide, a whole new adventure unfolds as a mysterious accident leaves Wave Master Tsukasa permanently logged in. Now a group of ciphers must figure out the truth behind Tsukasa while a rash of mysterious game-related incidents in the real world begins to draw the attention of even the most powerful players within the game.

Characters

The characters' names as officially defined by Bandai and CyberConnect2 are listed first, followed by the name in Japanese. The romaji rendering of the Japanese name is given as an aside in certain cases (most notably that of Silver Knight, whose name was translated literally).

File:Hack SIGN Tsukasa.jpeg

Tsukasa, the main character

Tsukasa (司) // An Shouji (荘司杏 - note that the second kanji in her last name, the "ji," is the same kanji as "Tsukasa")

The main character of .hack//SIGN who has an ambiguous voice and body features. In The World he's a Wavemaster class. At the start of the series, he wakes up to find himself in a dungeon in The World, except that he has no idea why he is where he is, or for that matter, who he is to begin with. In addition, he finds himself pursued by the Crimson Knights for dealing with an illegally modified character, who he remembers seeing, but does not know when, where, or why. At the start of the series, all he seeks is to be alone, but this simply leads him deeper into trouble. He is given a "Guardian," a golden-orange barbell-shaped monster that defends him. He is also led by the cat-like Macha to a hidden area, where he meets Morganna as just a voice (who he initially believes is his mother) and the unborn Aura. Tsukasa eventually brings Subaru to Morganna's hidden zone. Angered, Morganna sends (Data Drained, perhaps) Tsukasa into a temporary trance and moves the unawakened Aura to a new area. At the end of the series, Tsukasa, now revealed to be a girl in real life, wakes up from the coma, and eventually leaves the hospital. She encounters a girl in a wheelchair (who is Subaru in real life). It is implied from certain scenes in the TV show that Tsukasa had an emotionally unstable father and deceased mother and was ostracized by her peers as a child. Also, from the novel .hack//ZERO we learn that Bear adopts her and allows her to go to a boarding school, and she and Subaru still love each other despite the fact that Tsukasa is really a girl. It says that they are dating.

Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga (Japanese); Brianne Siddall (English)

File:Subaru (.Hack-.jpg

Subaru

Subaru (昴) // Mariko Misono (御園真理子)

Leader of the Crimson Knights, a player organization designed to fight injustice in The World. At times she seems to be the only one preventing the Crimson Knights from running wild; she knows that they must restrain from abusing their power. She eventually joins in the search for Tsukasa, and builds a strong relationship with him. In real life, she is physically handicapped, which is why she spends so much time in The World; it is the only place where she can roam freely on her own, because she's a paraplegic in real life. She is friends with the player Crim and the two share a close bond. She is also a friend of Balmung of Azure Sky. In The World, she is a female Heavy Axeman. However, she is somewhat inexperienced in combat, as a result of others, such as Crim, Silver Knight, and even Balmung of Azure Sky, being overprotective of her and fighting her battles for her.

Voiced by: Kaori Nazuka (Japanese); Kim Mai Guest (English)

File:Hack SIGN Mimiru.jpeg

Mimiru

Mimiru (ミミル)

Mimiru plays her character as a "tough-it-out-through-anything", devil-may-care fighter who is poor at planning things out and following through on them; however, she is skilled in the art of swordplay. She's the first player to meet Tsukasa, and later tries to form a bond with him in order to protect him from the outside world. Originally she was playing The World as a solo player but decided to team up with Tsukasa in order to help him log out and find the secret behind the Key of the Twilight. Tsukasa comes to trust her without fear and eventually sees her as a friend. In the real world she is a tenth grade student at a public school. In The World, her character is a Heavyblade. She learns from Bear that Tsukasa may have been a girl in real life living in Tokyo. Regardless, she remains Tsukasa's friend even after the truth is revealed, even asking that they should meet up one day and go shopping together in Shimonotaka.

Voiced by: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese); Amanda Winn Lee (English)

File:Bear01.jpg

Bear

Bear (ベア) // Ryou Sakuma

An older player of the game as well as an author in real life, Bear plays a Blademaster in The World. He is a friend of Mimiru and B.T. He is cool and collected, and usually is the one to conduct research in the real world on Tsukasa in the attempt to try to figure out who he really is. He's the first one who discovers that Tsukasa is a girl in real life. He sees Tsukasa as his own child supposedly because of how he failed to take care of his real-life son, whom he meets up with later in the Lambda server root town, Carmina Gadelica. Additionally, Bear is perhaps the character who is most experienced with role-playing games, especially ones produced several years before The World. He adopts Tsukasa after she finally wakes up from the coma which she was put in by Morganna. He has met B.T. in the real world. Scenes of Bear and B.T. in The World suggest that they might have a relationship beyond just friendship.

Voiced by: Kazuhiro Nakata (Japanese); Paul Mercier (English)

File:Bt01.jpg

B.T.

A Wavemaster in the game. B.T. is a plotting, scheming character who forms friendships just to achieve a goal, only to watch the friendship crumble when the other person finds out that they've been used. She rarely ventures out to fight monsters, but is said to be good with both offensive and defensive magic. In The World, she teams up with Sora in order to find the Key of the Twilight and uses the other characters in order to find leads. B.T. appears to be the character least concerned with Tsukasa or his plight. She has met with Bear in the real world several times. While it is implied they are more than just casual friends, the degree to how far their relationship goes is unknown. In the real world she is a retired model in her late twenties. She named her character after her favorite food, the B.L.T. (bacon, lettuce, and tomato) sandwich, minus the L for lettuce (a food she doesn't hate but also does not particularly enjoy). There has been speculation among fans of whether it is also a reference to Bee Train, and still others speculate that it may be alluding B and T cells, which play a role in apoptosis, which Bear speaks of to Mimiru later in the series.

Voiced by: Akiko Hiramatsu (Japanese); Donna Rawlins (English)

File:Sora01.jpg

Sora

Sora (楚良)

Sora is a ruthless player-killer of the Twin Blade class who isn't afraid to backstab people only minutes after allying with them. His method of Player Killing is usually to sneak up from behind and ask for his victim's Member Addresses, an in-game email address. Apparently he prefers "pretty girls" as victims, though he will kill male players as well, usually for information. He's maxed out his levels, making him a tough opponent that can kill most players in one or two hits. He doesn't like the player Crim, and can be seen fighting him throughout the series. He also hates to lose, perhaps a motivating force in his maxed-out stats, and has only lost (as we can see) once to Crim. This motivation inevitably brought him to search for the Key of the Twilight in order to become stronger. He switches sides constantly throughout the story; this habit eventually becomes his undoing when, after ensuring Tsukasa's escape from her, Morganna assimilates his character's data with the Phase known as Skeith, who uses "Data Drain" on him. In real life, he is a boy in the fourth grade who tries to keep his cool (and usually succeeds at it). A high level area revealed on the board early in .Hack//OUTBREAK says a "Red Wand was seen", though it is much too difficult for Kite to handle right then. After completing it, Sora appears and says "Thank you" before disappearing. Also despite his malice he's also rather goofy, and full of pep.

Voiced by: Hiroshi Yanaka (Japanese); Dave Wittenberg (English)

File:Ginkan01.jpg

Silver Knight

Silver Knight (銀漢, Ginkan)

Second-in-command of the Crimson Knights. He possesses a strong sense of justice (becoming overzealous at times), but is also extremely naïve, leading him to end up as more of a tool to be used by whoever is in control. Late in the series, he tells Mimiru that he is 23 and works in a video store. (In the parody episode, GIFT, Subaru points this out while beating Silver Knight up with her axe.) He is extremely overprotective of Subaru, more so than anyone else.

Silver Knight also appears in the .hack//Legend of Twilight anime in an episode where he helps Shugo several times. Here he had left The World for some time, but returned much in the manner of Crim, no longer serious and foreboding, but friendly and spritely. After helping Shugo escape Cobalt Knights, he is captured and Kamui deletes his player data.

Voiced by: Isshin Chiba (Japanese); Doug Rye (English)

File:Kurimu01.jpg

Crim

Crim (クリム, Kurimu)

A friend of Subaru who founded the Crimson Knights organization with her, but afterwards left it. He founded the Crimson Knights in the heat of battle as he fought to protect Subaru from Player Killers. Eventually, he left the order after being constantly chewed out by Silver Knight. Amiable, easygoing and sociable, his stated goal when playing the game is simply to have fun, rather than to simply gain levels or better items. He is an extremely skilled fighter, as good as (if not better than) Sora, and takes it upon himself to protect Subaru and the others. In real life, he is a business man who often travels. He and B.T. have met in real life. He is the only one who knows that Subaru is handicapped until he reveals the secret to Tsukasa in episode 23. As a token of their friendship, Subaru was given a phone number that could be used to contact Crim in the real world at any time and he encourages her to call him whenever she wants to talk (she never uses it though); he casually refers to this number as a "spell". While a tad overprotective of Subaru, he still encourages her to become stronger herself.

Voiced by: Shinichiro Miki (Japanese); Lex Lang (English)

Macha (マハ, Maha)

A cat-like NPC who tries to help Tsukasa when it can, although not always directly. It can talk, but only Tsukasa (and almost never the audience) can hear it. The only time it is heard is when Macha is attacked and destroyed by a guardian while protecting Tsukasa but even then it is just a scream. In the English dub, this is barely audible, if at all.

Harald Hoerwick (ハロルド・ヒューイック, Harorudo Hyuuikku)

The creator of The World. Because he was disappointed in himself for failing as a father in real life, he created Aura, an AI, to serve as his "daughter" in The World, and left Morganna to watch over Aura and help her develop. A likeness of himself, resembling an old man floating upside-down in a throne-like structure, exists in several hidden areas throughout the game. He may not actually be upside down, it is possible that the characters who meet him are upside down.

Morganna (モルガナ, Morugana)

Initially created as an omnipresent AI to help Aura develop. Using the Eight Phases, Morganna was supposed to feed information to Aura about the thoughts, feelings, and actions of the players in The World in order to teach her what it means to be human. However, Morganna realized that once Aura was born, she would become useless and powerless and thus deleted. Thus, Morganna linked Tsukasa to Aura, which put Tsukasa's real life self into a coma, and attempted to push him into utter despair to feed only negative thoughts to Aura, destroying her and allowing Morganna's power to grow unchecked.

Voiced by: Rie Tanaka (Japanese); Valerie Arem (English)

Aura (アウラ)

The AI "daughter" of Harald, represented as a young girl clad entirely in white floating above a bed. She becomes directly linked to Tsukasa through the actions of Morganna, to the point where Tsukasa's mood alone dictates her development. She exists in a hidden area accessible only by Tsukasa and Macha, the nature of which changes according to Tsukasa's current disposition (the hidden area's changes are inversely related to Tsukasa's emotions: it becomes such when he is happy, and when he is depressed is unrealisticalliy bright and idyllic.)

Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto

Helba (ヘルバ, Heruba)

A genius hacker (or a whole team of them using the same account) of the Wavemaster class who even controls her own hidden fields in The World. Out of concern for Tsukasa, worry about the state of The World, and simple interest in the outcome, she helps guide the other characters on their quest to save Tsukasa. In the .hack games, she is Kite's guide to Virus Cores and Gate Hacking.

Voiced by: Yumi Touma (Japanese); Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (English)

A young female Twin Blade in The World whose carelessness and motivations for playing help Mimiru to realize her own reasons for playing the game. A-20 originally joined the game merely because it was popular among her classmates, and she desired to complete a difficult dungeon in order to prove her valor. In real life, "A-20" is the player's student number at school, along with A-1 through 19, who are only mentioned. After getting a rare Golden Grunty item (which she describes as "ugly"), she decides to collect them. After this, she continues adventure with Mimiru in The World on occasion.

Voiced by: Atsuko Enomoto (Japanese); Sandy Fox (English)

Balmung (バルムンク, Barumunku)

One of the main characters in the .hack games, Balmung is mentioned several times in .hack//SIGN but only appears in episode 22 as well as the additional episodes Unison and Gift. He is a regarded as a legendary character and holds the title "of the Azure Sky" ("Souten no Balmung"). His appearance in the series is heroic as he saves Subaru from an undefeatable monster. The result of the battle is unknown, although it is rumored that he may have beaten the monster when Morganna was defeated. It is not known how he knows Subaru nor how deep his friendship with her is. He and Orca are regarded as "Descendants of Fianna" ("Fianna no matsuei") for beating the Spectrum Dragon during the "One Sin" event. The "One Sin" event is told in AI Buster. Balmung takes his name from the sword Sigurd used to defeat the dragon Fafnir in Der Ring des Nibelungen in Norse mythology.

Voiced by: Nobuyuki Hiyama (Japanese); Crispin Freeman (English)

Orca (オルカ, Oruka)

Like Balmung, Orca is also regarded as a legendary character. He bears the moniker "of the Azure Sea" ("Soukai no Orca"). Although he is mentioned several times in the show, Orca only appears in the episode Unison and the parody episode Gift. He bears a close resemblance to Bear; this distinction is the basis for a running gag in Gift. He and Balmung are regarded as "Descendants of Fianna" ("Fianna no matsuei") for beating the Spectrum Dragon in the "One Sin" event. The "One Sin" event is explained in AI Buster.

Voiced by: Yasunori Masutani (Japanese); Kirk Thornton (English)

Kaochin

Like Sora, Kaochin is really a player killer. Her resemblence is that of Subaru's the differences include an alternate color pallete for her clothing, eye and hair, and the marking on her forehead - a green reverse question mark. Her wings are also a noticeably tanner shade than Subaru's. Kaochin's role is not great as she appears only in this one episode, however, she symbolizes the changes going through The World at that point in the series. Her use of Subaru's player skin is due to the release and popularization of Subaru's own unique look. Kaochin comments about this change, stating that she is not merely another Subaru clone. When Kaochin realizes she's speaking to the real Subaru, she pesters her to become friends, but quickly grows hostile at the rejection she receives. When the drama between them intensifies with Kaochin's threatening, Subaru stands up to her, and angers her. Kaochin finally attacks Subaru, leaving her half dead, and beaten.

Voiced by: Brianne Siddall

List of episodes

1. Role Play
2. Guardian
3. Folklore
4. Wanted
5. Captured
6. Encounter
7. Reason
8. Promise
9. Epitaph
10. Compensation
11. Party
12. Entanglement
13. Twilight Eye
14. Castle
15. Evidence
16. Depth
17. Conflict
18. Declaration
19. Recollection
20. Tempest
21. Despair
22. Phantom
23. The Eve
24. Net Slum
25. Catastrophe
26. Return
27. Intermezzo
28. Unison
29. GIFT

Music

All music lyrics and arrangement are by: Yuki Kajiura

Opening Theme Song

"Obsession" by See-Saw, music, lyrics and arrangement by Yuki Kajiura

Ending Theme Song

"Yasashii Yoake" (優しい夜明け, lit. Gentle Dawn) by See-Saw, music, lyrics and arrangement by Yuki Kajiura

Insert Themes

Performed by Emily Bindiger; 1,2,4,6,7,8 music and arrangement (also 1,2,4,7 lyrics) by Yuki Kajiura

1. "A Stray Child"
2. "Aura"
3. "End of the World"
4. "Fake Wings"
5. "In the Land of Twilight, Under the Moon"
6. "Key of the Twilight"
7. "Open Your Heart" / "~Reprise"
8. "The World"
9. "To Nowhere"

Performed by Yuriko Kaida

1. "Mimiru"
2. "Das Wandern"
3. "Warp"

Trivia

• Bear makes the analogy that Morganna is a temporary part of the system in the same way cells between the fingers selectively die to form fingers. He references a biological term called apoptosis in which a programmed cell death occurs to gain something.

• While Mimiru is waiting for Tsukasa, another character walks up to her and asks her if she is "waiting for Godot". Waiting for Godot is an Absurdist play written by Samuel Beckett, in which two men are waiting by the roadside to meet with Godot. He never turns up, but a messenger sent in his stead tells them "surely tomorrow" he will arrive.

• The first letters of the DVD volumes titles (on the spines) of the complete U.S. six-disc collection spell out the word "LOGOUT"

External links

• dothack.com - Official
• .hack//SIGN ({{{type}}}) at Anime News Network's encyclopedia
• .hack//Sign at IMDb
• .hack//SIGN on YTV
• hack.channel.or.jp - Official Template:Ja icon