Tron was one of my favorite movies. Its look at a world inside the computer was fascinating and ahead of its time. Serial Experiments Lain was also a unique tale looking at a cyber society as the Internet quickly dominated all of our lives. Now, as the Internet craze expands and game companies have realized the values of online worlds where people can have adventures and live their fantasies without leaving their home, .hack//SIGN, an ambitious project that spans through original anime, manga and videogames. Like Tron and Lain, I like this series, but the anime is certainly hard to get through.

     .hack//SIGN is about Tsukasa, a boy trapped in the largest online role playing game, The World. While his friends can log out at any time, Tsukasa always remains, and unlike the other players Tsukasa can feel pain, yet death cannot eliminate him. As Tsukasa’s struggle to discover if his existence is real or virtual he meets up with a variety of different friends, enemies and obstacles that he must deal with in order to find the Key of The Twilight, which might lead him to the origin of his existence.

     Volume four of the series takes place after Tsukasa and his friends have battled at the upside down castle and he is killed. While everyone returns to the regular playing field, Tsukasa does not. When he finally does return, he is not himself, forgetting previous conversations he had with his friend Mimiru about meeting in the outside world and feeling more lost than usual. To make matters worse, a former powerful ally, Tsukasa’s only ally at the beginning of the show, seems to have developed a jealous streak and wants him to herself.

     At the same time, other significant events are taking part in The World. Mimiru is trying to deal with Tsukasa’s mental breakdown. Bear, our older hero, seems to have developed into a role as a mentor, something he could not be in the real world. Crim, who once led the Crimson Knights, an army that was to make sure people followed the rules of the game, is now a free spirit, trying to uncover the secrets of the Twilight with help of BT, who wants a real relationship between the two on the outside. Subaru, commander of the Knights, discovers that the Silver Knight has not been truthful to her and is taking his role too seriously in the game. Questioning her own role in the game, she also starts developing a sympathetic bond with Tsukasa. And, BT, the tough woman, tells us she hates lettuce and in fact, her name is BT, because she took out the L in BLT, since lettuce has no smell and you really can’t taste it. I am not even joking about that!

     The plot of this series gives fans something intriguing and relatable. .hack//SIGN probably has one the best soundtrack to a series, other than Berserk, and I keep singing the lead song over and over again. There is striking animation with fantastic backgrounds that truly bring the online world to life. The characters are well developed and diverse, with their own backgrounds, problems and reasons for taking part in The World. I also love all the little things, like the way they answer email and talk the jargon about being in the world, even having conversations that sound like they are online conversations. Yet, despite these points at most times this tale is just way too slow, basically if you are looking for total action and adventure you will not find it here. It seems that the video game was for action, the manga just for fun, and the anime was the true story, but they just constantly tell a story, and while it is good to know, it does get quite tedious over time.

     Though I have fought off sleep a couple of times in this latest edition, there is still something positively magnetic about this series that just has me wanting more and discovering the truth about the online world and the characters that play in it. I hope things pick up, but if it doesn’t, I have a funny feeling I will somehow be satisfied with the series as a whole and I will want to visit The World again.

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

Related Articles

• .hack//SIGN Version 01 Login
• .hack//Legend of the Twilight Manga Volume 1
• Serial Experiments Lain
• Tron Soundtrack Review

Return to YBFREE.com's Main Page