The Order of the .Hack anime

[knikon]

Hello,

I am a huge anime fan and have been for many years. I recently started watching the .hack//sign anime and I will admit that having watched only a few episodes I feel lost. Can anyone tell me what order the anime series actually go in. I always like to watch animes that are no longer active from beginning to end but I can not seem to find the place to start here. Being an MMO gamer myself (UO, Everquest, AC2, WoW) I find that I like the overall plot in this anime but I still feel like I am missing something so can someone help me out? Did I start the series at the wrong point or what? After I finish .Hack//sign where do I go from there?

Thank you for your time

[FallenDragon]

The order is:

.hack//SIGN
.Hack//Legend of The Twilight Bracelet
.hack//Roots

Then again there are also the videogames and the mangas, and watching SIGN alone doesn't answer all the questions. From SIGN I suggest you continue to the .hack games Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, Quarantine. That's all I can think of for now.

[TheSorrow]

That's the correct anime order indeed, however, you'll need more than just the anime to fully understand the series.

.Hack's plot is mostly centered around the games, being those the actual development and main plot of each generation of .Hack (project and conglomerate...or better, R:1 and R:2). So if you really wanna understand .Hack's plot, you'll have to play the games. Most of the things you watch in anime will be unclear unless you play the games, especially with SIGN. And yes, there's the mangas too, which contribute more to the storyline and reveal more information, or in the case of Legend of the Twilight Bracelet, are the actual canonical one (The LoTB anime doesn't happens during the real .Hack storyline, only the manga).

You started fine with SIGN, but you'll have to read the mangas and play the games in order to fully understand it (and use your logic to connect everything). Or if you can't get them and have certain doubts you could search them in .Hack//wiki, which contains pretty much everything you'd need to know, or ask them here. But i'd highly recommend you to at least play all of the games. They explain all the story by itself and everything will be clearer to you, while mangas and other sources will just support the information and "fill the gaps".

[AuraTwilight]

The order goes, from earliest to latest:

Epitaph of Twilight (Novel, Unreleased)
AI Buster* (Novel)
Sign (Anime)
Zero (Novel, Unfinished and Untranslated)
Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, Quarantine (Both games and novels, has a non-canon alternate universe manga called XXXX)
Liminality (OVA series, happens at same time as the above entry)
Unison (Bonus Sign episode, might or might not be canon, we're not sure)
Legend of the Twilight or "Udeden" for short (Manga, has a non-canon anime alternate universe)

*The sequel, AI Buster 2, is a collection of short stories that happen all around the above timeline

Roots (Anime)
Cell (Novels, Untranslated, happens at same time as Roots)
Alcor (manga, Untranslated)
GU: Rebirth, Reminisce, Redemption (Games, have a manga, movie and novel version, all of which are non-canon alternate universes)
GnU (Manga, happens at the same time as above entry, may or may not be canon, we're not sure, Untranslated)
Returner (Bonus Roots Episode, this one we know is canon)
Link (Manga, currently in progress, Untranslated)

[Terejima Ryoko]

The order goes, from earliest to latest:

Epitaph of Twilight (Novel, Unreleased)
AI Buster* (Novel)
Sign (Anime)
Zero (Novel, Unfinished and Untranslated)
Infection, Mutation, Outbreak, Quarantine (Both games and novels, has a non-canon alternate universe manga called XXXX)
Liminality (OVA series, happens at same time as the above entry)
Unison (Bonus Sign episode, might or might not be canon, we're not sure)
Legend of the Twilight or "Udeden" for short (Manga, has a non-canon anime alternate universe)

*The sequel, AI Buster 2, is a collection of short stories that happen all around the above timeline

Roots (Anime)
Cell (Novels, Untranslated, happens at same time as Roots)
Alcor (manga, Untranslated)
GU: Rebirth, Reminisce, Redemption (Games, have a manga, movie and novel version, all of which are non-canon alternate universes)
GnU (Manga, happens at the same time as above entry, may or may not be canon, we're not sure, Untranslated)
Returner (Bonus Roots Episode, this one we know is canon)
Link (Manga, currently in progress, Untranslated)

why is zero unfinished?

[AuraTwilight]

They just didn't get around to it.

[knikon]

So basically I am wasting my time then. Half of the material for this story to make sense is unfinished and out of the parts that are finished most of those are not even translated. Have the video games even be translated? Did the company that bought SIGN to translate it do their research before they jumped into this? I mean, I am a die hard anime fan and being a huge MMO fan I got a lot out of this series but the plotline progresses way too slowly for most people, who would become frustrated at not being able to understand all of this. There is no wonder that this series caused a lot of backlash with the American Audience. This series is untranslated for the most part and incomplete. Why did the original company even agree to this project if they did not plan on finishing what they started? The only thing that I can think of is it must not have been well recieved over in Japan either. That does not make sense based on everything that I have read but it is the only thing I can think of to explain it. Why else would you take something that is making you money and not complete the project. You leave it half finished. So, the things that you have not completed not only take huge chunks out of the story, but also, from a company standpoint all of the money spent on that part of the project is wasted because they spent capital getting as far into the project as they did. The parts that have been worked on but are unfinished are not making them a dime.

How sad

[AuraTwilight]

So basically I am wasting my time then. Half of the material for this story to make sense is unfinished and out of the parts that are finished most of those are not even translated.

That's not true. Most of the stuff is bonus people if you want more glimpses of the story universe. All you really need are .hack//Sign, .hack//Roots, and the seven games.

Have the video games even be translated?

Yes.

Did the company that bought SIGN to translate it do their research before they jumped into this?

Yes, they did. .hack//Sign was the first .hack product created, and there was no way they'd have known it would become what it was now.

I mean, I am a die hard anime fan and being a huge MMO fan I got a lot out of this series but the plotline progresses way too slowly for most people, who would become frustrated at not being able to understand all of this. There is no wonder that this series caused a lot of backlash with the American Audience. This series is untranslated for the most part and incomplete.

It's incomplete because it's still ongoing, it's not like it's a "finished" product like older series. The American Audience gave backlash because of .hack//Sign's slow pace, not because of the other stuff. Really, the only "unfinished" part of the storyline is Zero, which isn't that important and you can get what basically happened from the other parts in the series. Epitaph of Twilight, the unreleased novel at the beginning of my timeline, just released it's first volume recently, and is currently in progress. .hack//Link is releasing more chapters as well.

Why did the original company even agree to this project if they did not plan on finishing what they started?

We don't know why Zero was never finished. One theory is that something happened to the author, as she was apparently struggling with an illness while writing Another Birth.

The only thing that I can think of is it must not have been well recieved over in Japan either. That does not make sense based on everything that I have read but it is the only thing I can think of to explain it. Why else would you take something that is making you money and not complete the project. You leave it half finished.

More like 99% finished. Chill the hell out, it's just one book.

So, the things that you have not completed not only take huge chunks out of the story, but also, from a company standpoint all of the money spent on that part of the project is wasted because they spent capital getting as far into the project as they did. The parts that have been worked on but are unfinished are not making them a dime.

How sad

One. Book. Chill.

[Azalan]

Good job AT you sure showed that guy the ropes! I do hope h/she comes back to the board though. He/she seemed quite interesting.

[AuraTwilight]

Well, if he doesn't, I can PM them. The board emails you with a PM notice by default.

[Prepare to Die]

So basically I am wasting my time then. Half of the material for this story to make sense is unfinished and out of the parts that are finished most of those are not even translated.

That's not true. Most of the stuff is bonus people if you want more glimpses of the story universe. All you really need are .hack//Sign, .hack//Roots, and the seven games.

Now i'm relieved. ^^
So...there's only roots left for me

[Kazekun]

The order is:

.hack//SIGN
.Hack//Legend of The Twilight Bracelet
.hack//Roots

The only unfortunate thing is that the Legend of the Twilight anime is not canon. Only the Legend of the Twilight manga is.
(but that shouldn't ruin the experience!)

[AuraTwilight]

The order is:

.hack//SIGN
.Hack//Legend of The Twilight Bracelet
.hack//Roots

The only unfortunate thing is that the Legend of the Twilight anime is not canon. Only the Legend of the Twilight manga is.
(but that shouldn't ruin the experience!)

More like fortunate. The anime sucked.

[vagrantAI]

I realize it's an ancient thread but what's the word on the Epitaph novels? Are they translated yet?

[milliennium_fox]

No word on them being licensed yet. It's likely TokyoPop will pick it up though.