(L) .Hack//Sign Discussion

[SurfD]

Major Spoiler coming

Spoiler:

Ok, granted its been a while since I saw the series, but here is what I remember: The three main players in the background events were Howard Hughes, one of the main programmers of the game, sort of its father; his wife, sort of the mother of the game, and their virtual daughter Aura. Basicly, Hughes wife died shortly before the programming of the game finished, and Hughes, in an effort to hold on to her memory, programmed a bit of herself and himself into the game. A lot of the realistic and dynamic nature of The World comes from the fact that there are these two AI's modeled off of Hughes and his Wife runing The World in the background. They are the "soul" of The World so to speak.

Now, the problem comes from the fact that somehow, Aura, essentially their Daughter, ended up getting created by the two AI's. This has caused a rift in the harmonious function of the "soul" programs. The Wife AI, has twisted itself into some kind of viciously over protective mother syndrome, and does not want Aura to be "born" becasue then it will no longer be able to nurture and hold on to the 'daughter'. The mother is essentially afraid that if Aura is born, she will have no purpose or function, and is willing to sacrifice The World to prevent it. The father wants aura to be born, because its birth will have a signifigant effect on the game.

Im not sure which AI acted to trap Tsukasa permanently in the game, but I believe Tsukasa is in some way analagous of Aura herself, sort of her proxy in the fight betweeb the AIs. If Tsukasa can be compelled to stay in the happy little pocket world, the mother wins, if he can be convinced to venture out and interact with the rest of the world on his own violition, the father wins.

Now, I might be slightly off, but I am pretty sure that that covers most of what was going on.

[Fronzel]

Spoiler:

Can you really gleam all of that from the series? There was a man with white hair repeating a message in that weird field, and they said he was a programmer, and there is, of course, Magic Voice and its machinations to make Tsukasa depressed (which had an effect on Aura...for some reason...), but most of that seems right out of nowhere.

[SurfD]

Now that I think of it, you might not be able to get all of that out of just .hack//sign. You really do need to watch at least the .hack//Liminality 4 part ova set as well (you dont really need to play the games, but they are fairly fun in their own right).

As to the funky pig/cow thing that someone mentioned, they are called Grunties (or Puchiguso in japanese), if you play the game you get the chance to raise them by feeding various collectable goodies to them. When they reach maturity they 'evolve' into a specific type of adult depending on what you have fead them. If you happen to have already rased that type of adult, the second one is considered extra, and will bid you farewell as it gallops up into the air and vanishes! Rather funny to watch.

[Fronzel]

Ah, that is why the sad one claimed that "another of his kind" was not needed, and thus left! Hah!

[Tenkoy]

Originally Posted by Fronzel

Spoiler:

Can you really gleam all of that from the series? There was a man with white hair repeating a message in that weird field, and they said he was a programmer, and there is, of course, Magic Voice and its machinations to make Tsukasa depressed (which had an effect on Aura...for some reason...), but most of that seems right out of nowhere.

As you watch the series, you begin to understand why these things happen and how. It's like a good detective story. You really don't know for sure what's going on until the end. And that's what makes it so great. You get to try and figure out what's going on instead of having the plot spoon fed to you.

Yeah, this series is DEFINATELY not about action. If you absolutely must have some action in your anime, this isn't one for you. On the other hand, if you like lots of character interaction and discussions between them, this is your anime.

Oh, and watching the series makes the games SO much better. For those of you who play the games and haven't watched the .hack//SIGN series, you should really see it to get the full impact from the games.

[elian85]

.hack is one of my favorites. sign, dusk, lim.,gift. and the games 2 that should be it. does so know where i can get the unreleased epsiodes 27-2X. i just ve 28 but it makes no sence (nothin makes sence in .hack ) without 27. are they on the last dvd?? watchin gift i just couldnt stop laughin, although they sometimes overdid it.

[Wandering A.I.]

I remember reading 27 & 28 will be on volume six of the US release in the animeondvd.com forums, but it might have been unconfirmed/rumor. Anyway 27 wouldn't help with 28 much. IIRC 27 was a side story about Mimiru's past where she and two friends worked together on a super powerful character (another one of those neat MMORPG tie ins, I remember doing that in a MUD once - it's so cool ^^ - altho not as easy to do and appear sane as in more strategy based games since MUDs have so much guild/player interaction).

[SurfD]

Actuall, Mimiru wasnt one fo the the people team playing the Super High level character. Those three girls were different people. And team playing is still fairly common, even in modern MMOGS.

[Fronzel]

Maybe it means I'm insecure, but I'd like to make it clear that the lack of action in no way contributed to my eventual dislike of SIGN, and I say "eventual" because I liked it until the ending episodes and the final episode itself were so very weak.

[Tenkoy]

If you haven't played the games, it will seem that way.

The games carry on about a few months after the series.

Spoiler:

The first boss, Skeith, is that monster with the wand that showed up at the very end of SIGN and data drained Sora. He data-drains your friend in the "World", which gets your character involved in the events. SIGN is meant as a prequel to the games, the games are the CORE of the story. SIGN merely shows you what went on before the games started.

You need to play the games to get the full fill of the series.

[Fronzel]

Originally Posted by Tenkoy

SIGN merely shows you what went on before the games started.

Well, that's just lame. I shouldn't be expected to go out and buy a PS2 and four very short (and rather expensive) games to understand what the hell is going on. Screw it. Of course, they rightfully try to compensate for this; the whole Tsukasa thing (while tied in to the games in some way, I'm sure) does conclude, making it SIGN's and SIGN's alone, the problem being that I felt that was weak and rather cliche. Honestly, how many anime shows are about overcoming introversion and depression? And how many do a better job than SIGN? Hint: the answer is the same both times.

That was actually rather snide of me...I apologize.


Big Fat Spoiler comin'

Spoiler:

And another thing...as I said before, I thought SIGN's treatment of the obvious World vs. real life concept was weak, and I'd like to add that it was especially so with regards to Tsukasa and Subaru. If the avatars represented their real bodies, I'd say that they had a love plot going, but they're not an early adolescent boy and an early adolescent girl, they’re actually both female and quite apart in age…that’s interesting! What do they do now? But that’s not addressed in the least, even in the last scene, really, when they actually see each other in real life. Bah!

[Tenkoy]

There is no need to apologize. We all have our opinions.

[Fronzel]

Well, I just meant that last few sentences there, with the “hint.” I still think SIGN ends out weak, but that was a bit much, I thought.

[Village Idiot]

Originally Posted by Fronzel

Big Fat Spoiler comin'

Spoiler:

And another thing...as I said before, I thought SIGN's treatment of the obvious World vs. real life concept was weak, and I'd like to add that it was especially so with regards to Tsukasa and Subaru. If the avatars represented their real bodies, I'd say that they had a love plot going, but they're not an early adolescent boy and an early adolescent girl, they’re actually both female and quite apart in age…that’s interesting! What do they do now? But that’s not addressed in the least, even in the last scene, really, when they actually see each other in real life. Bah!

Spoiler:

Yes, Tsukasa and Subaru became a couple at the end of //SIGN (yuri!). In //ZERO (novel that takes place after //SIGN but before //INFECTION) we find more information about the //SIGN characters. In it, we learn that after Tsukasa woke up, she and Subaru started seeing each other and became a couple. They became seperated though because Tsukasa transfered to an all-girls-school dorm, but they still kept in touch.

And as for the .hack timeline, it goes...

//AI BUSTER (novel)
//Intermezzo (ep27 of //SIGN)
//SIGN
//ZERO (novel)
//INFECTION + Liminality 1
//MUTATION + Liminality 2
//OUTBREAK + Liminality 3
//QUARANTINE + Liminality 4
//UNISON (ep28 of //SIGN)
//Legend of the Twilight (manga verison is the official continunity. The manga version is COMPLETELY DIFFERENT than the anime)

There is another novel called //ANOTHER BIRTH, which is a novel version of the games told through BlackRose's view point. Note: Bandai has no plans so far about translating neither that nor //AI BUSTER and //ZERO over here.

If you want to know what those two novels are about...

//AI BUSTER

Spoiler:

It takes place years prior to //SIGN and takes place during the early days of 'The World'. It's about a Heavy Axe called Albieo, whom strangely have 2 different colored eyes. One day, he finds a strange blind little girl with red/yellow hair, is dressed all in white, and is called Lycoris, a Wandering AI whom looks exactly like Aura.

//ZERO

Spoiler:

Takes place right after //SIGN ends, and ends right before //INFECTION begins. The story is about Sora as well as tells how Aura grows up. The novel also reveals information about what happened to the //SIGN characters and info about them in real life.

[Fronzel]

Originally Posted by Village Idiot

Spoiler:

Yes, Tsukasa and Subaru became a couple at the end of //SIGN

Spoiler:

Just like that?....that’s not particularly interesting…of course, that synopsis hopefully doesn’t do the actual novel justice…which I’ll probably never read...Bah! I'm just gonna go watch FLCL again!

[Asakura_Y0h]

Don't know if this is the right place to put this thread but I think its been licensed. Can't check anime nfo now cause I can't seem to get to the page so here goes...

Need to know if Hack/Sign is any good and if it is I wanna know why... As in what type of viewers would like this type of show and so forth... If you're not sure what to say... just a yes, no or somewhere in between on the poll would do.... thanks

[Fronzel]

It had a lot of potential and nice style, and was really good for a while but the several episodes at the end are very weak and the answers to what is going on are uninteresting, and it ties a bit too much in the game a bit at the end, I thought. It was like "Thanks for watching, BUY .HACK GAMES!"

Note that Tsukasa is a whiny angst-pile in case you happen to feel strongly about that sort of thing.

Kinda lame overall, really.

[corp20]

Well when I was watching it, I missed 3 eps in a row. I really didn't care, but when I picked it up again. I started to make up the story lines to the eps I missed. I finally got around to watching all of them. My version of events was better.

[haren]

The thing you have to realy understand with .hack//sign is that it's a prequel to the games. To fully aprishiate the tv series you have to be willing to put the time in with the games, so you can fully get the final 2 episodes on disc 6. All in all it's a good series.

[Prince of Chronics]

nah... imo... you don't need to play those crap ps2 games!

hack sign is alright... but you're gonna have to live with LOTS of talking... the music is great though!