Balmung

Crim

Morganna Mode Gone

Subaru

Aura

Bear

Mimiru

Tsukasa

Helba

Harald Hoerwick

Sora

Kaochin

Silver Knight

Macha

A-20

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, he is suspected to be a hacker of the Crimson Knights, 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.<br><br>
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.<br><br>
[Written by MAL Rewrite]

#~~~How does the anime that started the "stuck in MMORPG" relate to modern standards? (spoiler-free review)
~~~
This anime is odd, especially if you're going in with the assumption that you'll have to witness combat, strategy, mmo monsters: most of these things __barely make it as background filler__ and nothing else.

This show, instead, decides to take a step back and deliver us a show that is much more down to earth than all the SAO and Log Horizon-like things that we know, a show where slow pacing and a heavy focus on characters is predominant; stories of the people behind their computers are narrated simply by little bits of information here and there, that slowly but surely will complete a puzzle in your mind by the time you're at the last episode. 

The premise is that this character, Tsukasa, gets stuck in The World and can't logout, his mind fogged by a weird and recent amnesia. Many characters will get interested, many will fear him, things will happen, things will get asked.
And you, the viewer, are as clueless as Tsukasa in the beginning, and to know the truth you need to grow with him, to learn his point of views, his reasons, with the aid of a few other players. Those other players too have dreams, fears, and different approaches to the game, and every little dialogue expands what we know about them, thanks to the aforementioned style of storytelling.

One of the best aspects, in my opinions, is how everything seems semi-realistic: you can feel most of the players you meet take the game for what it is, a game, and they just want to help Tsukasa to logout; by doing so, some of them even start to investigate in the "offline" world, as they call it, even though such world is barely ever shown (again, brilliantly done imo).

Biggest downside is that events can drag itself quite a bit, especially if you try to marathon it, but by the time I was at episode ten it had my full attention: I wanted answers to the many questions that had filled my mind; and I'm gonna be honest - __you're not gonna get all the answers you need__, because this is a prologue to the first .hack quadrilogy of games on the PS2; nevertheless, many things will conclude and there's some satisfaction to it, although I highly recommend to simply continue and at least watch summaries of the games on youtube, if not playthroughs.

When it comes to the more technical side the drawings and the animations were good for its times, but what's really superb is the soundtrack: Yuki Kajiura showcases one of her most carefully crafted works, where every single tune resonates perfectly with the world they're trying to portray.

All in all, even with all the pacing issues, I enjoyed this one so much that it convinced me to play the games, and it's a solid __eight out of ten__ for me. I suggest you give this a try, if you don't mind slow paced things.

How does the anime that started the "stuck in MMORPG" relate to modern standards? (spoiler-free review)

I want to start off by mentioning _I've not played any of the games_ in the series, so I do wonder if my stance would of changed if I had done so. I wanted to judge this anime independently, mainly to see if I enjoyed it as much as I did when I was a kid when it aired on Toonami. 

~~~img220(https://media1.tenor.com/m/uzZhGe23ACMAAAAd/hacksign-dothacksign.gif)~~~

__.hack//sign __is meant to serve as an entry point into the '.hack ' series. It follow Tsubasa, a player in a MMORPG who suddenly has no recollection on past events and currently incapable of logging out of the game known similar as 'The World.' The anime itself is very unique in a way, and doesn't seem to follow a lot of typical cliches and tropes.

I have to honestly admit that _I didn't really like_ Tsubasa's character as  I found him to be kind of mopey and just a bit of a jerk. It doesn't help that half the time he's on screen;  he's either sat there sulking or dipping at the first sign of a conversation. I sorta empathized with his character later in the season, but at that point it was about  3/4 of the way through, which feels way too late. 

On the contrary though; I found many of the other characters to be likable and enjoyed their dynamic, especially with Bear and Mimiru. I even found many of the minor characters rather charming in their own way too. The slow pacing allows for quite a bit of conversation between them, making their relationships between each other feel more fluid and realistic.

Speaking of realism; the show does a good job at depicting these characters as actual characters in a MMORPG. These people all have lives beyond playing the game and will regularly log out to sleep and do other things. They converse a lot about emails they receive or send and also about the 'board' which is assumed to be an online bulletin board for game updates. 

~~~img220(https://64.media.tumblr.com/47d61d7bb3773733ddb306e11156e56e/tumblr_pzdfe5ZHO81vhsb8co1_540.gif)~~~

As I mentioned before; this anime's pacing is VERY slow and it's something that not everyone will enjoy. I found that it took at least five episodes or so before things actually began to happen. There are times where this pacing can really amplify the atmosphere and really add to the experience, especially with the beautiful soundtrack composed by the lovely Yuki Kajiura.

Most of the mysteries won't be solved. You might even come out of it with more questions than answers, but I think that's perfectly fine. Not every story needs all the answers on the table and I found the mysteries throughout the series to be rather engaging and interesting. The one thing that did disappoint me though was the ending, despite how heartwarming it was. It felt VERY anticlimatic and almost soured the whole journey for me. On the plus side, it got me mildly curious about the games so I guess that's a win for them.

Overall, I think if you aren't too bothered about something slow paced and more casual despite being in a MMORPG then you'll probably have an okay time with this show like I did.

A look into a show I liked as a kid without my nostalgia goggles on.

.hack//Sign was a prequel to the .hack// video game series made by CyberConnect2 and released by Bandai about a decade ago. If I'm right, .hack//Sign and the rest of the series garnered a bit of popularity back in the day, though nowadays they are a bit aged and are becoming more and more forgotten. Despite being a prequel, .hack//Sign can work as a standalone product for the most part, and as such it can even be looked at on its own.

.hack//Sign is a slow moving anime, mostly focusing on character relationships and for the most part not showing much sign of a story for the first 10 episodes. In that time, we learn that Tsukasa, the main protagonist, is for some reason or another stuck in the game known as The World, and his being stuck there may have some relation with a legendary hidden item within The World called the Key of the Twilight. Other characters want to help Tsukasa leave the game and go searching for this hiden item. As a mystery anime, .hack//Sign throws out a lot of red herrings. It tries to get the viewer to latch onto ideas that serve little relevance to the main plot. And that's one of the problems: Almost all of the dialogue in .hack//Sign is unimportant and uninteresting, and it does little to move the plot forward. Other characters constantly find themselves trying to figure out what's going on with Tsukasa. They want to help him, but each episode just leads to more false information or no actual progress in helping him. It waters down the story and cuts the enjoyment of this anime down by a lot. Don't get me wrong, I like .hack//Sign, but it can be pretty hard for many anime viewers to watch I suspect due to all of the pointless talking. Its unnecessary, and the show could have been cut down considerably in the number of episodes and still tell the main storyline. The main story itself though is told in a way that still leaves the viewer interested. What is the Key of the Twilight? Will Tsukasa and the others find it? Why is Tsukasa stuck in the game, and why does he keep running away? What are all these flashbacks to the real world? Speaking of that, Tsukasa is worse than Shinji from Evangelion when it comes to running away and moving the story forward. It seems like Tsukasa being stuck in the game is a plot device, as its the other characters that actually work towards solving the mysteries and moving things forward for a good while. The story IS interesting however, and the setting of The World grants it a lot of mysteries, some of which admittedly go unsolved within this anime. You want to know what's going on. Its just that the execution of the story is problematic, and while the story is interesting, the story is also relatively short and simple. Its something simple told in a rather complex and somewhat realistic, somewhat dumb way.

The characters of the anime are a mixed bag. Most of the characters come off as dull and near lifeless, and the constant talking references their personal lives. While this may seem like good characterization, since the characters start off initially bland, the viewer may already be uninterested in learning about the individual characters lives. Added to this, most of the information about their personal lives that is mentioned in the anime, which takes up much more of the anime than it should, is really pointless and uninteresting. Do we really need an episode dedicated to a character's dislike of lettuce? That said, it is a unique thing that it goes so in depth on the characters, its just that it wasn't well executed in .hack//Sign. Still, none of the characters are hateable, and Tsukasa himself and a girl by the name of Lady Subaru are legitimately interesting. Tsukasa himself from the very beginning sparks interest in the viewer. Why does he keep running away, and why is he so unwilling to be social? .hack//Sign uses Tsukasa to explore one of the main themes of the show: Escapism. The whole show focuses heavily on the concept of escapism and how it affects the one running away and those around said person. (themes of escapism also show in how the real world is depicted)Tsukasa may be another Shinji, but he is his own character in just how far the show takes it. Then characters like Sora, a silly yet powerful player always searching for new information help keep things fun. And while it takes a long while for him to seem interesting, Silver Knight, a lawful knight who enforces the rules of the game, becomes interesting after some added characterization late in the series. But that's one of the problems with the show: It takes too long to move the story forward, and it takes too long to make most of the characters worth caring for. Only Tsukasa and Lady Subaru (who shows great interest in Tsukasa's situation) really start out interesting.

The art itself in the series is pretty to look at, though admittedly sometimes a bit simplistic, especially in backgrounds and fields. The age of the show shows, but nice character designs from the same person who did the character designs in Neon Genesis Evangelion make the characters interesting to look at. Occasionally close ups give added detail to the artwork, making it extremely impressive to look at, even to the point of making this show a great source for desktop backgrounds. The animation however, is usually pretty minimal. In the Monogatari Series, characters talk to each other for long periods of time, often with lots of crazy and silly yet good animation being shown on screen to keep things interesting. That isn't the case here. Most of the time, the animation is minimal and very boring. Occasionally however, when its really important, the animation takes vast improvements by leaps and bounds and everything moves really smoothly, however this is rare and is used for the most important scenes.

Now the sound is what I call a 10/10. The music was done by Yuki Kaijura, known for such soundtracks as the Sword Art Online soundtrack and the soundtrack to Puella Magi Madoka Magica. And while those soundtracks were good, .hack//Sign has by far some of the best music in any anime period, and the music outshines the music in SAO by a long shot and PMMM somewhat. Much of the music is comprised of what sounds like a violin or something similar, an acoustic guitar, an electric guitar, and pretty English vocals with lyrics often somewhat fitting to the storyline of the show. Its often very relaxing to listen to. Tracks like "The World" and "Key of the Twilight" really shine. I don't know how good the acting is in the Japanese voice track, but the English dub is pretty mediocre. Nothing too cringe-worthy or bad, but with the writing in this show, which is somewhat poorly written, things sound really weird being heard. It'd probably sound less weird reading it than listening to it. The acting itself is pretty mediocre too. Tsukasa sounds fine, Subaru's voice seems to fit the character well and Mimiru does a fine job, however the rest of the cast is varied. Some of which usually are entertaining to listen to while others are boring and lifeless or downright have bad acting.

Overall, .hack//Sign is a show that really shines in its music and artwork. It has plenty of character development if you're patient enough to wait for it, however ultimately that's what this show requires: Patience. If you don't like slow moving shows with lots of dialogue, stay away. If you're here because you liked Sword Art Online and wanted another MMO anime, just know that this show is VERY, VERY different. Ultimately I don't think I could recomend this anime for most anime fans. If you're patient or are a .hack// fan, go for it. Otherwise, .hack//Sign isn't the anime for you. Don't let that deter you from watching other .hack// anime however. Not all of them are the same. If you want .hack// but want something a bit faster paced and more fun, then .hack//Quantum or .hack//The Movie might be better suited for you.

Meandering and time-wasting, Yuki Kaijura saves this thoughtful attempt at what should be a good show, but isn't

.hack// Series Watch Order

.hack//Sign

.hack//Legend of the Twilight

.hack//Roots

.hack//G.U. Trilogy (A summery of all three .hack//G.U. Games)

.hack//Quantum Walking Party OVA