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Last Updated on:
Thursday, September 15, 2005 9:20 PM
PST
| Production
Crew | .Hack Intro | .Hack
// Sign | Media Lists | .Hack
Tshirt | Anime Expo |
Koichi Mashimo posed with cosplay characters
Mr. Mashimo was taking pictures of .Hack cosplayers himself!!!
Project .Hack (pronounced "Project dot
Hack") is a huge production. It is meant to be a saga with
various twists and turns. It is a master-planned project to fully
use all the mediums of entertainment and marketing. (It's
master plan can rival that of the master housing developments of
Orange County, California =P)
Project .Hack is a combination of anime (animation
broadcasted on network television), OVA (Original
Video Animation // stuff that went straight to video), music
cds and soundtracks, manga books, playstation
games, dueling decks, plushies, collector box
sets, etc.! The production minds behind this project are brilliant.
They are tackling all the elements of marketing all at once! Seriously,
what other anime productions have included a 4 part DVD inside their
own 4 part Playstation game??? Not even my beloved Sailor Moon was
this together on their game plan.
*NEW* - Pictures of
.Hack
Special Guest Panel from the Anime
Expo 2004!
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Production Crew
behind .Hack // Sign
Koichi Mashimo - Director (Noir) (see picture
above)
Yuki Kajiura - Composer of Music (Noir) (see picture below)
Kazunori Ito - Script Writer (Ghost in the Shell)
Yoshiyuki Sadamoto - Character Design (Evangelion)
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So what is Project .Hack??
Click here to read
a GREAT INTRO.
A web of stories revolving around a fictional online MMORPG game
called "The World". The story revolves around the characters
while they are playing online and in the REAL world. Taking place
in in the early 21st centry. Around 2002 to 2010ish.
Other websites about Project .Hack:
.Hack//Sign
Defragmented
.Hackers
.Hack for Dummies
.Hack
Insiders
Official US .Hack
Site
Official
Japanese .Hack Site (in Japanese)
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My version of .Hack // Sign
- Please remember that .Hack // Sign is only the anime part of Project
.Hack. Sign takes place after the infrastructure of the Internet
has been stablized. A MMORPG (Massive Multiplayer Online Role
Playing Game) has been released. This game is called "The
World". It is an incredibly popular and successful game created
by CC Corporation (CyberConnect Corporation).
(Imagine Diablo II: LOD, Ragnarok,
or Everquest, on a HUGE GRAND scale, where you can roam
anywhere and visualize everything in 3D. You wear special visors
to be in the game. You don't have to type to message other players.
Simply use your own voice and ears to speak and listen to other
players. It is a virtually interactive game. You create your own
purpose - raise grunties, fight battles and earn treasures, gain
experience points, make friends, get away from reality, walk and
watch the virtual sunset, YOUR choice.)
 In
.Hack // Sign, a player named Tsukasa enters the game. He cannot
log out. He is part of the game. He can touch and feel everything
in the game. He can even trip and fall while he's running through
the game. When Tsukasa first played the game, he got sucked into
it. He was granted special powers and can go wherever he pleases.
A mysterious and powerful voice in the sky speaks to him, Tsukasa
calls this voice "Mother". He also meets a girl floating
in the air, later revealed as "Aura". Then there's a cat
character named "Maha" who can float and ONLY speaks Tsukasa.
We the audience cannot hear any sounds coming from Maha as he speaks
to Tsukasa or the Voice. The true motives of "Mother"
& "Maha" have yet to be revealed.
Tsukasa encounters other players, such as Mimiru,
Bear, BT, Crim, Lady Subaru, Sora, Silver Knight, etc. All these
characters are on the quest for the Key of the Twilight, a key who
supposedly grants its owners POWERFUL abilities beyond the original
design and limitation of the system.
Other characters such as Helba, "the broken man
in the upside down dungeon" Herald Horwick (sp?), Balmung of
the Azure Sky (very cute character ~_^), Crimson Knights, will also
come into play.
.Hack // Sign is/was playing
on Cartoon
Network at 12:30 AM PST Sunday mornings.
.Hack // Legend of the Twilight
Bracelet is/was playing on Cartoon
Network at 1:00 AM PST Saturday mornings.
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Project .Hack Media List
To get an idea of how HUGE the Project .Hack is, just
take a look at this list of series (some are in the making, others
have been released.):
I only list the North American version. The original
Japanese versions go by different names.
.hack // AI Buster
- Similar to the Animatrix, this series plan to tell the story prior
to the events of .Hack // Sign. AI Buster details the events during
the downfall and reconstruction of the entire internet infrastructure.
(AI = Artificial Intelligence)
TV Series (1st Anime)
.Hack
// Sign Episode List
.hack // Sign Version 1.0 - Login
(Story of Tsukasa)
.hack // Sign Version 2.0 - Outcast
(Tsukasa is captured, jailbreak, Mimiru vs. BT, quest for Key of
Twilight beings)
.hack // Sign Version 3.0 - Gestalt
(Bear, Mimiru, & Tsukasa plays in a world sponsored event. Helba,
Crim and B.T. discover secret portal of the Twilight Eye. Ends at
the end of the battle at the castle)
.hack // Sign Version 4.0 - Omnipotence
(Everyone returns to the world with Tsukasa missing parts of his
memory. Silver Knight vs. Lady Subaru)
.hack // Sign Version 5.0 - Uncovered
(Lady Subaru is now on her own and her relationship with Tsukasa
deepens. More secrets of the World is revealed, including the mysterious
floating girl, and the master plan of the voice from the sky.)
.hack // Sign Version 6.0 - Terminus
(Finale to the .Hack//Sign series. Inlcuding awakening of Aura.)
TV Series (2nd
Anime)
.Hack // Twilight Episode List
.hack // Legend of the Twilight Volume 1 - A
New World (It is now 4 years after the incident from .Hack//Sign.
Introduction to a twin brother and sister duo Shugo and Rena. Many
other new characters are introduced. Reapperance of Balmung of the
Azure Sky.)
.hack Playstation
Games
.hack // Infection PS2
- Part 1 (contains Part 1 of .Hack // Liminality DVD)
.hack // Mutation PS2 -
Part 2 (contains Part 2 of .Hack // Liminality DVD)
.hack // Outbreak PS2 -
Part 3 (contains Part 3 of .Hack // Liminality DVD)
.hack // Quarantine PS2
- Part 4 (contains Part 4 of .Hack // Liminality DVD)
.hack // Liminality (OVA
= Original Video Anime = straight to video)
(This video is packaged within the four PS2 games. There are four
DVDs, each 45 minutes.)
.hack // Legend of the Twilight
(manga version) - Known as .Hack
// Dusk for the anime version, but was officially named ".Hack
// Legend of the Twilight" by Tokyopop for the manga version.
The first volume of .hack // Legend of the Twilight is to be released
on September 9, 2003 for $9.99 a volume (based on information listed
on pg. 74 in the October 2003 Anime Insider Magazine). Please note
that it is not called "Legend of the Twilight Bracelet",
it is simply named "Legend of the Twilight". I don't know
why they left out the word "bracelet" from the American
manga version, but it was.
.hack // Legend of the Twilight is a manga written by Tatsuya Hamazaki,
art by Rei Izumi. - Story about two twins: Shugo and Rena Kunisaki,
and the Legend of the Twilight Bracelet. An anime series is also
in the workds to re-enact the manga. However there are always slight
differences between the manga and anime version.
.hack // Enemy - Trading
card game by Decipher. "Based in the same world and storyline,
you try to accumulate Victory Points while leveling up your abilities"
(pg. 86 in the October 2003 Anime Insider Magazine) http://www.decipher.com/
More titles will be listed as they are translated and marketed
in North America.
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.Hack // Outbreak Tshirt from Anime Expo
At the Anime Expo 2003, Bandai marketed Project .Hack. Here are
pictures of a tshirt I won while playing .hack//Outbreak's Grunty
Racing Game. (The controls were very difficult to use and definitely
something to get used to).
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Pictures from the Anime Expo
2003
July 4, 2003
Pictures of the Project .Hack Panel
Cosplayers of Project .Hack
Bear and BT
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© Project
.Hack is copyrighted to Project Hack, Bandai, TV Tokyo, Comptiq,
and other respective publishers. This is merely a one-page fan site
giving a brief description of what is Project .Hack. There are also
personal pictures I took while at the Anime
Expo on July 4, 2003.
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