Product Details

• Actors: Mitsuki Saiga, Megumi Toyoguchi, Kazuhiro Nakata, Akiko Hiramatsu, Kaori Nazuka
• Format: Anamorphic, Animated, Box set, Color, DVD, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: Japanese (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround), English (Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.66:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: Unrated
• Studio: Bandai
• DVD Release Date: March 4, 2003
• Run Time: 125 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (76 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000087F7W
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #107,461 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Animation > Characters & Series > .hack//SIGN

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com
Based on a popular PlayStation2 game, the fantasy-adventure .hack//Sign is set in the world within an online game. Tsukasa, a powerful Wave Master, finds himself lost in the cyberworld, with little memory of how he got there. More significantly, he's unable to log out of the game and is apparently immune to many of its restrictions. He may be the focus of an impending crisis linked to the mysterious Key of the Twilight. As he wanders through different realms, Tsukasa meets spunky girl warrior Mimiru; earnest soldier Bear; the Crimson Knights, who maintain order in the game-world; and genially heroic Crim, a Heavy Spear wielder. Tsukasa also encounters a potent but unseen entity who promises to protect him--and does. Handsomely designed, nicely animated, intriguingly scripted, and refreshingly free of unnecessary dialogue, .hack//Sign looks like a winner. (Rated 13 and older: violence) --Charles Solomon

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

30 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great series, looks like a great Box Set, February 8, 2003

By A Customer

I have seen the entire series and it is one of my favorites, ranking right up there with EVA and Cowboy Bebop. It's very easy to give too much of the story away, but basically pretend you are playing a MMORPG one day, and you go to logout, but can't. That's the start of the story for Tsukasa. However it develops a great deal from there and is never boring, a downfall of many series. I couldn't wait to see the next episode, and I had to limit myself to watching one a day to keep myself from blowing through it in a weekend.

The storyline overall is serious and dramatic, but not excessively. There is no sappy high school lovestory to suffer through, no horribly shallow characters. If you liked Lain, EVA, and Cowboy Bebop, I think you will like this one to. Subaru is by far my favorite character, while all the others are well done and fit in their roles nicely. The animation is very good.

The music gets it's own paragraph. It's simply outstanding. I often found myself ignoring the dialogue just to listen to amazing songs like "Fake Wings". That soundtrack included with this set will not just be a filler I promise you.

I don't do many reviews but I felt I just had to for this one. Many people probably haven't heard of this one yet and aren't sure if they would like it. This is an outstanding series and this box set looks like a great deal.

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars .hack Feeds Gamers and Otakus Alike!, March 13, 2003

By	"shivan550" (Hudson Valley, NY USA) - See all my reviews

I heard of .hack from Cartoon Network, pre-debut and got very excited. An anime that takes place in an MMORPG (mass multiplayer online role playing game)? This sounds like a really great idea! I was further pleased to find it had a real twist to it, and not just staged within the game. Tsukasa, our 'hero', can't log out of the game for some reason, and has lost his body to the game. The World, the game everyone's playing in this anime, is a beautiful world displayed with fantastic artwork. It's however not enough to have the visual effect however. The music, done by someone Yuki Kajiura, someone ive never heard of before but rivals Yoko Kanno herself, is fantastic and makes the soundtrack alone worth holding back on getting that last DVD of Cowboy Bebop. The only reason i can't give it 5 stars is because the character build so far doesn't seem to be going very far. That doesn't mean it's not an amazing series, cause it is! I think it just needs a bit more time. Perhaps by the 3rd dvd things will heat up. The package comes with a box for all your .hack dvds, a soundtrack with 19 tracks, 2 postcards, one sheet of stickers, a Grunty doll (coolest stuffed animal ive ever seen), a .hack t-shirt (XL) and the DVD with the first 5 episodes dubbed OR subbed. Not bad at all if you ask me. The dvd, soundtrack, and t-shirt should be worth over $(...) as it is, so there's no questioning the value, and believe me I've checked: Amazon(.com) has it the cheapest. Places like discountanimedvd have it marked for at least 53. Take away shipping as well cause you can get it free here, and you're saving around $(...) by buying it through amazon.(com) Not bad if you ask me. I cant wait to see more.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent series, the best deal, March 30, 2003

By	Nathan Jolly "professional slacker" (Chocowinity, North Carolina, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Very first off, Amazon.com incorrectly state that .hack//SIGN is based on a PlayStation2 game. This is not true. .hack//SIGN is a story about an online PC game called THE WORLD. The direct sequel to .hack//SIGN is a PlayStation2 game called .hack//INFECTION. Someone at Amazon.com, clearly someone who did not see the series before writing the review, got these points confused and they will not accept corrections of their editorial review, just the title and some technical details.

First off let me preface this by saying I don't like Anime. Usually it is too silly, too violent, or too "adult" for me, so I'd never been into an Anime series before...it had kind of a medieval look to it, so that interested me. Plus, this friend of mine had told me basically what it was about; an online RPG where one user can't log out. So when I had the first episode, I watched it, and I liked it. I ended up watching the whole 26 episodes, in Japanese, with English subtitles, translated and captioned by fans.

Being my first Anime experience, I realized one major difference between "cartoons" and this Anime is that while cartoons are self containing - that is, you don't have to see them in order, and the plot starts at the beginning and ends at the end of each episode. Kind of like Star Trek was, only no multi-part episodes. ;) Rather, Hack Sign was like an 8 hour 40 minute animated superfeature, with ending and opening themes inserted every 20 minutes.

Before I point out some of the flaws in the series, let me point out that the objectives in making a successful film script are radically different between an 8 hour 40 minute script and a 2-3 hour script. That said, character development is unusually slow. The characters very slowly reveal themselves, but then again, it is an online video game, and people on the Net like to be anonymous except with businesses and close friends. Also, while it was happening, the plot was somewhat hard to follow. A lot of scenes were unnecessary and redundant. One episode was a "recap" episode which was highlights from the ones previous. Correction. 8 hour 20 minute animated superfeature. It's still longer than the original Star Wars Trilogy. ;) And more fun to watch, I must say.

Most of what Hack Sign is about, I've already covered. I can't reveal too much about the story without spoiling it, and that is even more so true with this DVD that contains only the first 5 episodes. By themselves, the first 5 episodes will leave a new Hack Sign fan more disappointed than the end of Fellowship of the Ring did. They should have put the whole series on one or two DVDs. If you want to see the whole story, you'll have to collect all the DVDs. With 26 episodes, there should be 5 DVDs. I doubt Bandai will be stupid enough to market a DVD #6 with only Episode 26 on it and maybe some bomb special features, but sadly enough I confess I'd buy it, especially as the last episode is the best one. :)

As far as the special edition. You can get the DVD with the episodes for $... most places, more if you go to a mall. This is...more than that, but it is such a great deal. The first thing you see when you open the box from Amazon.com is the air padding. Yep! Better than bubble wrap, you get air padding. Those are always fun to have around. No, seriously, the first thing is the black hexagonal box. It is a very sturdy box, made of thick cardboard, with high quality prints on all sides, Three of the sides say .hack//SIGN and the other 3 have character animations. When you open the box, which is held shut with an elastic band and a lilte mushroom post, the first gift you see is the Grunty plush. He's about 4" long and 2-3" tall and wide. He doesn't stand on all four legs well, as he's rather front-heavy, but it can be done. Next you get a nice envelope which contains stickers, and three postcards you'd be a fool to nail. Mine are up on my wall, taped on the back so they don't get damaged. After that, a demo disc of Hack Infection, the PlayStation2 sequel for Hack Sign. Next, the first Soundtrack to .hack//SIGN complete with lyrics and artwork. There is a second Soundtrack and an Extra soundtrack which contains instrumentals and remixes, but these are not included. I have HEARD that Soundtrack 2 will ship with the second set of episodes, which will be great because both are awesome albums, and funny enough, I don't typically like Anime music either! Next is the DVD itself, which contains 5 episodes, the textless (no credit overlays) opening and closing themes, previews for three unrelated Animes, a video preview of the Playstation2 game, and most interestingly of all, you can watch the episodes in not only English and Japanese, but the Instrumental Score as well which is NO lines, NO sound effects, JUST the music! It's cool! Throw the English subtitles on so you know what they're saying, and enjoy! Finally, there is a T-shirt (mine was Size XL) with .hack//SIGN on the front, and Mimiru on the back with Bear and Tsukasa in the background.

If you like Hack Sign, I strongly recommend getting this. If you don't know Hack Sign yet, you really should get this because it's the complete set and everything in it is above and beyond awesome...I was very happy with Amazon on this deal! Thanks again Amazon!