.hack//SIGN
.hack//SIGN (ドットハック サイン, pronounced "dot hack sign") is a Japanese anime television series that aired from April to September 2002.
The show was an early entry of the .hack franchise, which tells a cohesive story over the course of various multimedia releases.
The series was produced by studio Bee Train and Bandai Visual. 26 episodes were aired on TV Tokyo[2], while additional OVA episodes were made available through home media releases. The events of the series were set in an alternate history and took place in the then-future of 2010. As the first anime title for the series, the release was timed to work in conjunction with the release of the Games Tetralogy as an introduction to the setting of Project .hack.
Synopsis
.hack//SIGN explores the plight of a character who finds himself trapped in an online game called The World and the players who try to solve the mystery behind his predicament and help him find a way back to reality.The anime is a cerebral exploration of the hazy intersection of offline and online life during the early days of mass communication networks being adopted worldwide and made available to the public. The .hack series poses questions about the risks of opening a network initially limited for use by vital government entities and businesses to the public for entertainment and social interactions, and how damage to a game could impact the rest of the net and the offline world beyond it. At the time of release, .hack//SIGN was notable for its unique premise and exploration of deep themes such as identity, escapism, and interpersonal connections.
//SIGN introduces some of these questions on a smaller, more intimate scale, as ordinary players are forced to reckon with a game that is becoming increasingly intertwined with far-reaching consequences that impact the offline world. The series is unusual when compared to other anime that explore the concept of being trapped in a game, in that it isn't focused on action or game stats, but instead focuses on the relationships of the characters, the motivations of the players, as well as the appeal and drawbacks of escapism.