.hack

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.hack (pronounced "dot-hack") is a Japanese multimedia franchise that encompasses two multimedia projects: Project .hack and .hack Conglomerate. Both projects were primarily created/developed by CyberConnect2, and published by Bandai. The series is still ongoing, with a new manga series recently announced.

Contents

[edit] Plot

The plot of .hack is set in the early part of the 21st century. In this world, the Internet has spread across the planet, creating a unified global network which controls everything from the stock market to vending machines. At the center of this network is a popular virtual-reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) called The World. Players from all around the world play this game, which has been made available in over 20 different languages. However, problems begin to arise when players begin mysteriously falling into comas while playing the game. Each part of the .hack series gives the viewer a different piece of the mystery of The World, which when put together explains what is actually occurring within the game. Each project, Project .hack and .hack Conglomerate, is set in a different part of The World's history. Project .hack occurs in the original game The World and .hack Conglomerate takes place in its sequel, The World R:2. Both stories are related, and share common themes and characters.

[edit] Major Characters

See also: List of .hack characters
  • Kite: The main character of the original video game series and its spinoffs. Kite started playing The World at the behest of his close friend and classmate Yasuhiko. During their first adventure Yasuhiko's character Orca was attacked by a strange monster, who destroyed his character and placed him into a coma in the real world using a technique called Data Drain. After obtaining an illegal character modification from a mysterious girl named Aura, Kite found he was also able to use this technique, and embarked on a quest to save his friend. An adventure that would lead him straight into the mystery of The World itself.
  • Haseo: The main character of the second video game series, its spinoffs, and the anime .hack//Roots. Haseo is an infamous player killer killer (PKK) known as "The Terror of Death". His PKK hunting is a result of his search for a famous player killer known as "Tri-Edge"(Kite), who attacked his friend Shino and placed her in a coma. During his search Haseo becomes affiliated with a secretive organization known as Project G.U., and begins to awaken a strange and dangerous power hidden deep inside of his character data, the power of Skeith one of the 8 epitaphs. A power that has ties to both the past, and future of The World.
  • Tsukasa: The main character of the anime .hack//Sign. One day, Tsukasa awakened to discover that he was trapped inside of The World. Not only was he unable to log out, but he was able to experience things that should have been impossible, like being able to feel and smell things within the game. Guided only by a mysterious voice, and a strange floating cat, Tsukasa began to explore his new existence. The whole time faced with the question, did he really want to return to the real world?
  • Aura: A mysterious girl in white who appears in almost every part of the .hack series. Aura is an incredibly powerful A.I. program, and is referred to as an "Ultimate A.I.". The story of her creation and her purpose is the story of the entire .hack series.
  • Harald Hoerwick: The genius programmer who created The World. It is said that Harald created The World as an act of love for a woman named Emma Wielant. The secret programs he installed inside of The World are the cause of most of the problems within the series.

[edit] Project .hack

Project .hack was the first generation of the .hack series. It launched in 2002 with the PlayStation 2 game, .hack//Infection and the anime series .hack//Sign. Project developers included Koichi Mashimo, Kazunori Ito, and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto. Since then Project .hack has spanned television, video games, manga, novels, and even trading cards.

[edit] Main Storyline

Series that are part of the official continuity (canon) of the project.
  • .hack//AI buster, a novel telling the story of Albireo and a prototype of the ultimate AI, Lycoris, and of how Orca and Balmung defeated 'The One Sin' and became the Descendants of Fianna.
  • .hack//AI buster 2, a collection of stories involving the characters of AI Buster and Legend of the Twilight Bracelet. (".hack//2nd Character", ".hack//Wotan's Spear", ".hack//Kamui", ".hack//Rumor" -previously released with the Rena Special Pack in Japan-, and ".hack//Firefly"). It has now been released in America as well.
  • .hack//Sign, an anime series surrounding the character Tsukasa and his (her) inability to log out of The World.
  • .hack//Zero, a novel series that tells the story of a Long Arm named Carl, of what happened to Sora after he was trapped in The World by Morganna, and of Tsukasa's real life after being able to log out from The World.
  • .hack, a series of four PlayStation 2 games that follow the story of the .hackers, Kite and BlackRose, and their attempts to find out what caused the sudden coma of Kite's friend, Orca, and BlackRose's brother, Kazu. The four volumes are known as .hack//Infection, .hack//Mutation, .hack//Outbreak, and .hack//Quarantine, respectively.
  • .hack//Another Birth, a novelization of the .hack games, from BlackRose's point of view, which consist of four Japanese volumes. Tokyopop has released all the volumes in English: the first volume was released on June 13, 2006, the second on October 10, 2006, the third one on February 7, 2007, and the final one on July 3, 2007.
  • .hack//Liminality, a set of four DVD OVAs included with the games that follow the story of Mai Minase, Yuki Aihara, Kyoko Touno, and ex-CyberConnect employee Junichiro Tokuoka as they attempt to find out what is causing the comas.
  • .hack//Legend of the Twilight manga series. It follows the player characters Shugo and Rena, as they win a mysterious contest that earns them super deformed character models of the legendary .hackers Kite and BlackRose (from the .hack PlayStation 2 games).

[edit] Other Storylines

Alternative stories (non-canon) of the project.
  • .hack//Gift, a self-deprecating, tongue-in-cheek, one-episode OVA that was created as a "gift" for those who had bought all 4 .hack games and completed it (in Japan, one could only watch Gift if 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 - Balmung wears a tie round his head in this title to symbolise that he is an office worker.
  • .hack//4koma, a manga series which throws a little humor into both the .hack and .hack//G.U. franchises alike.
  • .hack//XXXX (read as "X-Fourth"), a manga series that adapts the four original .hack video games.
  • .hack//Legend of the Twilight anime series. It features most of the same characters as the manga version, but with an alternative storyline. It was incorrectly called .hack//Dusk, among other names, because of early fan-translated versions.

[edit] Related products

  • .hack//Enemy, a collectible card game created by Decipher Inc. based on the .hack storylines. It was discontinued after running five separate expansions between 2003-2005.
  • .hack//fragment, the first .hack ORPG (Online Role-Playing Game). It was released in Japan and the servers have since been closed, ending all official online gameplay. Bandai has announced at E3 '06 that frägment will not be coming to North America.

[edit] .hack Conglomerate

.hack Conglomerate is the sequel to Project .hack and the group of companies behind this second chapter of the series, although no true "conglomerate" has been formed. 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.

[edit] Main storyline

Series that are part of the official continuity (canon) of the project.
  • .hack//Roots, an anime series which follows Haseo and his joining (and subsequent exploits with) the Twilight Brigade guild. It also shows his rise to power and how he becomes known as "The Terror of Death". Towards the end of the series we see the start of .hack.//G.U.
  • .hack//G.U., a series of three video games (Vol. 1 Rebirth, Vol. 2 Reminisce, and Vol. 3 Redemption) that focus on Haseo's chase of Tri-Edge, his eventual involvement with Project G.U, and the mysterious AIDA who plague The World R:2. This latest series has proven greatly successful to the .hack franchise, with the recent release of .hack//G.U. Vol 3 in Japan selling over 100,000 copies in one day and becoming the number one game in Japan.
  • .hack//CELL, a novel which involves a female Edge Punisher called Midori who acts as a "professional victim", by letting people PK her for money.
  • .hack//GnU, a humorous manga series about a male Blade Brandier called Raid and the seventh division of the Moon Tree guild.
  • .hack//Alcor, a manga series that focuses on a girl called Nanase, who appears to be quite fond of Silabus, as well as Alkaid during her days as emperor of the Demon Palace.
  • Online Jack, a set on anime clips in the news section of the .hack//G.U. games' fake internet. It tells the "real world" story of the mysterious "Doll Syndrome".
  • .hack//Link, a manga that occurs three years after the end of .hack//G.U. in a new version of "The World", "The World R:X". It focuses on a player named Tokio and a mysterious exchange student named Ayaka.

[edit] Other storylines

Alternative stories (non-canon) of the project.
  • .hack//G.U.+, a non-canon manga adaptation of the three .hack//G.U. video games.
  • .hack//G.U. Trilogy, a cgi video adaptation of the .hack//G.U. video games.
  • .hack//4koma, a manga series which throws a little humor into both Project .hack and .hack Conglomerate alike.

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

v • d • e
.hack
Video games:
Anime:
Books:
Characters:
Albireo · Alkaid · Aura · Azure Kite · Balmung · Bear · BlackRose · BT · Crim · Cubia · Elk · Emma Wielant · Endrance · Harald Hoerwick · Haseo · Helba · Kite · Kuhn · Mia · Mimiru · Morganna · Orca · Ovan · Rena · Shugo · Silver Knight · Skeith · Sora · Subaru · Tri-Edge · Tsukasa · Zefie · .hack//Sign characters
Other: