We live in a world dominated by computers. Online communities replace real communities. A person can chat with someone in England right from their home in New York and it would seem that they were across the street from one another. Turn on your Playstation 2 and play an online game with someone in Australia, but feel like you are in the arcade. Yep, it is a new era and it only makes sense that anime takes a look at this new world with an anime based online, in a world that exists in our minds, but in this show, is a reality.

     .hack//SIGN is a new anime from Bandai Entertainment featured on the Cartoon Network, in manga and on the Playstation 2. The series presents The World, a futuristic gaming environment where players log-on to test their skills in virtual adventures and battles that are presented to us as if they are real. Set in a massive multi-player online role-playing game similar to that of Everquest, the story follows a young boy named Tsukasa as he searches for a way out of The World after becoming trapped after a gamming session. While everyone else can sign off and resume their normal lives, Tsukasa is stuck in the online world, growing more powerful the longer he stays logged in and becoming a nuisance and hazard to those in charge of making sure the game runs smoothly.

     Tsukasa is a very interesting character. The viewer is not sure what to make of him. Even the players in the game, friends and enemies are not totally sure what he is all about. All they know is that he has powers beyond their comprehension, a strange creature that protects him and the ability to just disappear whenever he no longer feels like being in a certain area for any length of time. He seems to want to get home, but at the same time, he is not sure what awaits him back there. Until he figures out what he wants, he is content with playing outside the rules of the game, an act that makes him the target of many.

     However, others are curious of his abilities and look to help him. Mimiru is a strong headed woman who teams with Bear, a wise online gamer, to find the true identity Tsukasa while tracking him in the online environment. The creators really put a lot of research into it and it shows. Even when you die in the game, you come back, because you can’t really die in the online world, you just have to start over and get back to the spot from your last save point.

     This story is very interesting. Already a runaway hit in Japan, .hack//SIGN features character designs by famed illustrator Yoshiyuki Sadamoto of Neon Genesis Evangelion fame and a script by Kazunori Ito of Ghost in the Shell and Patlabor. The show features wonderful animation bringing out the online world under the direction of Kouichi Mashimo, who directed Noir. The soundtrack is unique and worth purchasing on its own, but the story is the major selling point. Viewers should immediately be warned that the tale is complex and somewhat slow to begin with, but towards the end of the DVD, things pick up and set the pace for what should be an exciting tale over the next few DVDs.

     Just the idea of an online world is intriguing enough to give this title a chance. Is Mimiru really strong and is Bear really that wise? Who the hell is Tsukasa? You never really know in an online community. How many of us act like our true selves online? In addition, with so many computers all over the Earth, the number of characters that can become involved is endless, making .hack//SIGN a franchise that could take on a life of its own. Take Serial Experiments Lain, Tron and the old cartoon Dungeons and Dragons and you kind of get the idea of what kind of tale to look forward to. Take a journey as far as your imagination can take you.

     Send comments and questions about this article to Blackhart@ybfree.com.

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