What got you into the .hack series?

[Belldandu]

As the title says. I want everyone to tell us how they found out about .hack and what got them to stay.

I'll start us off.

A couple of years ago i was reading an issue of Animerica and came across the image of what i now know to be Aura on the .hack//infection case. I decided to read the section on the game and was instantly pulled in by the characters especially Aura (yes i'm an aura lover BITE ME kik). PS the magazine can be bought here http://www.ebay.com/itm/Animerica-Vol-1 ... 1388665857 for anyone who is interested. (pretty sure its that one but i could be wrong).
I picked up the games shortly after from gamestop and then found out about the anime's. I recently rewatched all of .hack on funimation's website and i still love the series . I can't wait for japan to localize Versus for PS3 in the US. (if ever :C).

[Oxidizer]

It was YTV's Bionix block way back in 03-04 that got me into //SIGN. Mimiru was and still remains my favourite character to this day.

I then forgot about it until 2010, and then my ex-girlfriend got me back into it. Since then I've never looked back.

[SSJScygoku]

?_? I think there was a thread like this somewhere?

@.@ Back in 2004 I game across .hack//INFECTION in my local GAME store, looked good and couldn't resist the "free anime DVD inside" sticker as my collection had only just begun recently. After that I made my first internet order for .hack//SIGN vol 1+2 since Mutation wasn't due out for some time, i've kept going since then ^_^

[NiuWang]

Watched my brother play it growing up and what appealed to me was the Grunties speaking French. I'd mimic them all the time. Geeze, I remember spending hours on IMOQ

[Xu Yuan]

My love of dot hack goes all the way back to .hack//SIGN. I recall seeing some snippets of it here and there on Cartoon Network when it was first being broadcast, but I didn't really get into it until it was moved to Midnight Run, at that point they were up to the Crimson Knights plotting with BT to catch Tsukasa and I recall being impressed by the battle scene where the Guardian just mopped the floor with everything. At that point I had no idea that this was meant to be an online game or anything of that sort at all. It was only in later episodes that I caught onto what the show was about. I recall being enthralled by the mystery of what was happening with Tsukasa, what Macha was and the voice that spoke to Tsukasa as his mother. But what drew me into the show and into dot hack from thereon out was Harald.

I was floored when they made it through Bitter Fantasy Mirror World to find a bizarre sight, a man floating upside down rambling to himself. It was unnerving, but it was incredible! Talk about a way to introduce a character! He also seemed to have some connection with the floating girl which was also intriguing. I loved Harald's character from the moment they introduced him! I can even still recite his ramblings to the letter, that's how much of an impression it made on my 14 year old mind. As the series went on I kept on wondering what was going to happen next and then when Morganna finally throws Tsukasa aside I was very surprised.

I recall by the time of Phantom I had picked up //Infection at Walmart and felt a little ripped off at first... "What is this?! Tsukasa, Bear, and Mimiru are clearly on the front cover? What? Who's Orca? Is this pink haired girl meant to be Mimiru? Where's the SIGN Crew!!" So I didn't play it that much at first, didn't help I went to a Level 6 field and was floored immediately, haha!

After another episode or two I gave it another chance (I think it was Phantom which made me decide to give it a larger chance, since Helba seemed to be a connecting point between the show and anime.) I then watched Liminality and that's when I realized what was happening. The games were taking place some time after the show. Now it was a matter of knowing how //Sign wrapped up. It gave a wonderfully manipulative sadistic character to Morganna or known at that time as "The Voice" and from the end of //Sign it's clear she sent Skeith to catch Aura and it lead directly into the games (as far as I knew) from there. Now if I can complain in one aspect of the story was that Morganna's character is basically non-existent in the games. She's always some shadowy figure which never interacts directly with Kite or anyone that we see on screen. (I believe //Analysis confirms that the "Anonymous" email is not sent by Lios as can be assumed, but Morganna herself. It has been a while though) I can understand why they did that. It creates a real sense of uneasiness to fight something which is not a monster that will not speak back to you; "no will to fight against an omnipresent force". I do really like that //Link allows Morganna to say Something during the Quadrilogy section.

What a series and what a game! I recall when Quarantine came out I skipped school for two days playing it non-stop. I have been a fanboy of dot hack ever since.

[Belldandu]

No one else D: ?

[Avatar_Crim]

I am prolly like most people. I saw it on T.V. back in the day. Caught the first episode when it aired on Toonami and kept watching it ever since.

[Dasha]

Back in the day on the TV, Tsukasa was sassy.

"I don't like you." Poor Mimiru.

[Falions]

It's all by chance, really!
When I was real young, say, 7 years old, I happened to stay up really late at one of my parents' friends house, and caught SIGN on Bionix, the Canadian equivalent of Toonami. All I can remember from that fateful night is the music being loud and a close-up of Bear against a funky backgroun. Later I read that the first few episodes of SIGN intentionally had a louder soundtrack to see the effect on the audience, and it certainly did on me! Anyways, while I didn't immediately watch more (I actually wasn't allowed to be watching YTV, haha..) the show's odd name stuck with me and that summer I ended up watching it on Megavideo (RIP) by manually typing in "(dot) HACK sign EP __" because it wouldn't show up if I typed in anything else. I couldn't afford a PS2 as a kid, and I only managed to get the 7 games (for a cumulative price of $300) back in 2013. But, even still, I was dedicated to watching the animes, and every birthday I would ask for the newest .hack manga, so my only interpretations of IMOQ and G.U. were XXXX and G.U.+.

Anyway, it was my first real anime. Since then, it's consumed my entire life. I honestly think I'd be a different person without .hack.

[Tron]

It started with the soundtracks for me.
I started listening to various .hack// music, and eventually I watched some of the anime and then played the games.
It's weird though, since I remember watching some of SIGN before this and hating it.
The world is a weird place.

[Xu Yuan]

It started with the soundtracks for me.
I started listening to various .hack// music, and eventually I watched some of the anime and then played the games.
It's weird though, since I remember watching some of SIGN before this and hating it.
The world is a weird place.

I would say the start of //SIGN without much more to go on can be a bit dry, but if the person watching would have a little more info whether it be from the novels, manga, it would pique people's interests. While the games referred to //SIGN a fair amount here and there you really don't see the full picture of the games unless you've seen //SIGN and it works a little vice-versa.

[Tron]

Well. I suppose you're right.
However at this point I quite like SIGN and appreciate it for what it is.
There's one piece of .hack// anime I outright despise though and that's ROOTS.
I mean, when I played GU, the way Haseo acted in regards to Shino, I imagined his times with the Brigade being different.
But no. All of their relationships were weird and... I dunno. They kinda killed for me everything the games established.
Plus, they clearly tried to do another SIGN with ROOTS, but it just doesn't work. There's too much of a tone incositency with the games. Had I seen this before playing the games... maybe I would have liked it a bit better? But in general though, ROOTS is just... ugh.
But I digress.

[Xu Yuan]

Well. I suppose you're right.
However at this point I quite like SIGN and appreciate it for what it is.
There's one piece of .hack// anime I outright despise though and that's ROOTS.
I mean, when I played GU, the way Haseo acted in regards to Shino, I imagined his times with the Brigade being different.
But no. All of their relationships were weird and... I dunno. They kinda killed for me everything the games established.
Plus, they clearly tried to do another SIGN with ROOTS, but it just doesn't work. There's too much of a tone incositency with the games. Had I seen this before playing the games... maybe I would have liked it a bit better? But in general though, ROOTS is just... ugh.
But I digress.

Having seen //ROOTS before playing the games, I still didn't quite care for it nearly as much as //SIGN, I like what they *tried* to do with it, seeing Yata and Pi scheming that early on was fun, but I do agree that something in the tone seems... off. There's some select great moments, I enjoy the actual hunt for the Key of the Twilight. Shino implying that she and Ovan know what Haseo does for a living (which Haseo doesn't really seem to catch onto) and Shino's increasing desperation to find Ovan after he goes missing, (which ties in very well to the end of Redemption. "Hey, thanks for saving me, let's go find Ovan!")

As for characters I really like Tawaraya/Touta and was a bit upset that he was never referenced in the games at all since he was a really fun character at least Phyllo was given some mention in the games. I don't care much for the second half of //Roots after Shino is attacked by Tri-Edge though. I liked the Labyrinth and the Harald mention but everything seems to slow down from there.

[Falions]

Well. I suppose you're right.
However at this point I quite like SIGN and appreciate it for what it is.
There's one piece of .hack// anime I outright despise though and that's ROOTS.
I mean, when I played GU, the way Haseo acted in regards to Shino, I imagined his times with the Brigade being different.
But no. All of their relationships were weird and... I dunno. They kinda killed for me everything the games established.
Plus, they clearly tried to do another SIGN with ROOTS, but it just doesn't work. There's too much of a tone incositency with the games. Had I seen this before playing the games... maybe I would have liked it a bit better? But in general though, ROOTS is just... ugh.
But I digress.

I agree. While the games take on a more typical anime/shounen pace and tone, the anime tries to match the leisurely pace of SIGN, which just doesn't work in G.U.
SIGN, however, I feel works just fine by itself, as it has much to say about anxiety and escapism and doesn't necessarily need the tie-in of IMOQ.

[Tron]

Yes. SIGN works even stand alone (mostly). ROOTS is just... there. For some reason.

[Dasha]

I liked Roots because of Phyllo, Sakisaka, Tabby and Bset (I remember when I thought that she was BT from SIGN).

I wish Sakisaka joined in G.U. :<

[Falions]

I liked Roots because of Phyllo, Sakisaka, Tabby and Bset (I remember when I thought that she was BT from SIGN).

I wish Sakisaka joined in G.U. :<

Speaking of which...
Did BT ever get any sort of continuation after SIGN? Does she reappear as another character, or is she mentioned at all?
Also, I picked up a few old used copies of Genshiken at a local book store a couple months ago, and spotted a BT!

[Dasha]

God, she looks just like her, haha.

And no, we haven't seen her as another character, nor mentioned by someone else after the first Project. Which is sad because I really, really liked her. I still want to believe that she WAS Bset, but hey...

That's like when I thought Saburou was Subaru when she was revealed, but then again, "her" personality was so different from Subaru's, and yeah, IRL, it was a male, lol.

[Xu Yuan]

God, she looks just like her, haha.

And no, we haven't seen her as another character, nor mentioned by someone else after the first Project. Which is sad because I really, really liked her. I still want to believe that she WAS Bset, but hey...

That's like when I thought Saburou was Subaru when she was revealed, but then again, "her" personality was so different from Subaru's, and yeah, IRL, it was a male, lol.

BT was a good character one of my favorite really, but it seemed she only really played the game to hang out with Bear (I guess before the two became an item in the real world? Granted, I always suspected that BT may have had something to do with Bear's divorce since she already knew Bear's job and personal life.) My bets are on the //SIGN crew moving on when R:1 transitioned to R:2. Since B-set stopped believing in the Key of the Twilight and seemed to hold an infatuation for Ovan, BT who knew the entire truth (Unison even has her mention something about Morganna meaning that she was keeping recent with her info throughout the timeline of the four games since //SIGN never says Morganna's name) would know what the Key of the Twilight was and would have been able to give a lot more information to the Twilight Brigade than I'm sure even Wiseman/Yata could have given to Ovan.

In my opinion //ROOTS is pretty good until Shino is attacked, than some of the best characters are gone (The opening always amused me because after Episode 13 it is basically irrelevant, it may as well be an opening for another show by that point!) I too rather liked Sakisaka and the previous Twilight Brigade members. One thing I did really enjoy about //ROOTS was the implication that Silabus is literally mocking Haseo during his fall from grace. Since Kuhn specifically told him that Haseo would be showing up soon in a weakened state. It was always a bit of a shame that //ROOTS didn't focus more on Canard as Silabus and Kuhn aren't exactly minor characters.

[Falions]

God, she looks just like her, haha.

And no, we haven't seen her as another character, nor mentioned by someone else after the first Project. Which is sad because I really, really liked her. I still want to believe that she WAS Bset, but hey...

That's like when I thought Saburou was Subaru when she was revealed, but then again, "her" personality was so different from Subaru's, and yeah, IRL, it was a male, lol.

I think that the guy next to her is supposed to be Crim, too, I just didn't realize since his hair is so much... shorter.
But I do like the idea that SIGN's cast mostly leaves The World, as their time there sort of acts as a transitional stage in their lives. They move on. They grow up. They become G.U.