.hack

.hack (pronounced "Dot Hack") is a Japanese multimedia franchise that encompasses two projects: Project .hack and .hack Conglomerate. They were primarily created and developed by CyberConnect2, and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. The series features an alternative history setting in the rise of the new millennium regarding the technological rise of a new version of the internet following a major global computer network disaster in the year 2005, and the mysterious events regarding the wildly popular fictional massively multiplayer online role-playing game The World.

Project .hack

Project .hack was the first project of the .hack series. It launched in 2002 with the anime series .hack//Sign in April 2002 and the PlayStation 2 game .hack//Infection in June 2002. Project developers included Koichi Mashimo (Bee Train), Kazunori Itō (Catfish) and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto (Gainax). Since then, Project .hack has spanned television, video games, manga and novels. It centers mainly on the events and affairs of the prime installment of The World. The franchise began internationally when Bandai announced .hack//Infection, which was released in 2003 and .hack//Sign got an English dub, which was released on Cartoon Network in the same year.

Games

.hack, a series of four PlayStation 2 games that follow the story of the .hackers,

.hack Conglomerate

.hack Conglomerate is the current project of .hack by CyberConnect2 and various other companies and successor to Project .hack. The companies include Victor Entertainment, Nippon Cultural Broadcasting, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Bee Train, and Kadokawa Shoten. It encompasses a series of three PlayStation 2 games called .hack//G.U., an anime series called .hack//Roots, prose, and manga. .hack Conglomerate focuses on times and installments after the original The World MMORPG.

Games

.hack//G.U. is a series of three video games (Vol. 1 Rebirth, Vol. 2 Reminisce, and Vol. 3 Redemption) released for the .hack Conglomerate project. Taking place in the installment of The World R:2 in the year 2017, the series focuses on the player Haseo's search for a cure after his friend was attacked by a player known as Tri-edge, which led to his eventual involvement with Project G.U, and the mysterious anomalies called AIDA that plague The World R:2. A remastered collection was released on November 3, 2017 for the PlayStation 4 and PC that included all three previous volumes and added a new 4th volume called Reconnection.
.hack//Link, a PSP game released under the .hack Conglomerate project. It was claimed to be the last game in the series; the game centers on a youth named Tokio in the year 2020, who is given a free copy of The World R:X by the popular but mysterious new classmate Saika Amagi. Contains unplayable characters from .hack and .hack//G.U. video games.

Other appearances

A few characters from the franchise appear in the Nintendo 3DS games Project X Zone and Project X Zone 2.

External links

References

Miyako Matsuda. Presentation Protoculture Addicts, April 2003, retrieved August 14, 2007^
Miyako Matsuda. .hack//Sign Essay Protoculture, retrieved August 14, 2007^
Origins Award Winners for 2003 and Hall of Fame Inductees www.gamingreport.com, retrieved 2017-03-27

Anime

.hack//Sign is an anime television series directed by Kōichi Mashimo and produced by studio Bee Train and Bandai Visual. It consists of twenty six original episodes and three additional ones, released on DVD as original video animations. The series focuses on a Wavemaster (magic user) named Tsukasa, a player character in the virtual reality game. He wakes up to find himself in a dungeon in The World, but he suffers amnesia as he wonders where he is and how he got there. The situation gets worse when he discovers he cannot log out and is trapped in the game. Tsukasa embarks with other players on a quest to find the truth behind the abnormal situation. The series is influenced by psychological and sociological subjects, such as anxiety, escapism and interpersonal relationships.[1][2] The series premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo between April 4, 2002 and September 25, 2002. It was later broadcast across East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Latin America by the anime television network, Animax; and across the United States, Nigeria, Canada, and the United Kingdom by Cartoon Network, YTV, and AnimeCentral (English and Japanese) respectively. It is distributed across North America by Bandai Entertainment.

.hack//Legend of the Twilight is a miniseries adaptation of the manga series written by Tatsuya Hamazaki and drawn by Rei Izumi. The series was directed by Koichi Mashimo and Koji Sawai, and produced by Bee Train. Set in a fictional MMORPG, The World, the series focuses on twins Rena and Shugo, who receive chibi avatars in the design of the legendary .hackers known as Kite and BlackRose. After Shugo is given the Twilight Bracelet by a mysterious girl, the two embark on a quest to find Aura and unravel the mystery of the Twilight Bracelet. The anime series features many of the same characters as the manga version, but with an alternative storyline. It was localized as .hack//Dusk, among other names, in fan translations prior to the official English release.

.hack//Liminality is a set of four DVD OVAs included with the .hack video game series for the PlayStation 2. Liminality is focused on the real world as opposed to the games' MMORPG The World. Separated into four volumes; each volume was released with its corresponding game. The initial episode is 45 minutes long and each subsequent episode is 30 minutes long. The video series was directed by Koichi Mashimo, and written by Kazunori Itō with music by Yuki Kajiura. Primary animation production was handled by Mashimo's studio Bee Train which collaborated for the four games as well as handled major production on .hack//Sign. Liminality follows the story of Mai Minase, Yuki Aihara, Kyoko Tohno, and ex-CyberConnect employee Junichiro Tokuoka as they attempt to find out why players are falling into comas when playing in The World.

.hack//Gift, a self-deprecating, tongue-in-cheek, OVA that was created as a "gift" for those who had bought and completed all four .hack video games. It was released under Project .hack. In Japan, it was available when the Data Flag on the memory card file in .hack//Quarantine was present, whereas the American version included Gift on the fourth Liminality DVD. It is predominantly a comedy that makes fun of everything that developed throughout the series, even the franchise's own shortcomings. Character designs are deliberately simplistic.

Project .hack

Games

.hack Conglomerate

Games

Other appearances

External links

References

Anime

Novels

Manga

Anime

Novels

Manga