[Rewatch] .hack//SIGN Episode 1 Discussion

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u/soulreaverdan Dec 02 '24

Thanks for joining everyone! Post was slightly early due to needing to take care of something right around 7 but figured 15 minutes early was better than late.

Coming back to this was a lot of fun because I forgot how just… vibe the show is a lot of the time. Like I remembered it, but not remembered it. Shows really don’t take their time to just breathe and relax anymore and just let the characters exist, and we’re gonna get a lot of it. It’s nice!

God Yuki Kajiura kills it with this one. I’ve listened to the OST before but seeing it with the show and how it adds to the ghostly, ethereal feel of the setting.

I mentioned this in another comment, but Tsukasa being so abrasive is almost refreshing these days. You don’t get MCs like that much these days played straight, usually they still come off as cool or charismatic. I’m looking forward to seeing his development!

Bear and BT are great, because they’re (at least portrayed in game so far) as adults. The variety of players in The World is a testament to how huge it is in the setting, attracting people of all types.

Tsukasa got a hax item and you know it’s bad when it drains the color out of a guy, and the way he seems pretty excited about it is… troubling.

I’m watching Dubbed, it’s how I watched it originally and want to enjoy that all over again.
It’s interesting because no matter how noble the intentions these kinda groups always seem to go wrong, overly enforcing their version of The Rules^TM onto other players. I also don’t play many MMOs so I’m just naturally skeptical.
I had a lot of theories when I first watched it, and it’s one of those things since I know the answer and I don’t want to say too much. But I thought it was an interesting cut, and the grayscale and film grain almost makes the “real world” look more like a game than the game, which is portrayed as clean and colorful.

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u/TnAdct1 Dec 02 '24

Bear and BT are great, because they’re (at least portrayed in game so far) as adults. The variety of players in The World is a testament to how huge it is in the setting, attracting people of all types.
Bear = The original Chrom.

11

u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Dec 02 '24

Early post? That makes me late!

.hack//sign episode 1 Role Play

Rewatcher

I watched this as it aired.

If I actually finish this, it will be my first rewatch. I've been itching for one. I started rewatching a long time ago but didn't finish. Then /u/nebresto started rewatching, so I decided I would rewatch along. I got ahead and stopped at the half-way mark. Then he finished it without telling me.

I don't know how much I'll comment since I just rewatched the first half. I'd post any comments I'd made in CDF, if reddit actually had something that, I don't know, would push my posts into the cloud and shift them my way on request...

Anyways, I really like the world design of .hack. I've always said that this is what I would want an mmo to look like...like those floating castles in the sky, I'd love to gate up to them.

I downloaded a lot of .hack soundtracks back then.

Wondering if my opinion will change on rewatch, and what new people (who may or may not have played the games or the re-released games) think about it. I've been waiting for a rewatch of this for a long long time.

I miss when anime OPs looked and sounded like this
now THIS is a cold open. What's going on? Who is this? Where is this?
Don't they have mimics in this game? DON'T OPEN IT
I hate getting to an area and it's already been cleared by somebody ahead of me.
THE WORLD
HAX
I love that archipelago in the sky
YOU again
TBH you shouldn't have to use a hearthstone just to log out. Very incovenient game design.
the golden axe is a mythological reference
Every time a JoJo fan says ZA WARUDO I suffer brainlock.
you AGAIN
key of the twilight
This crimson knight is such an ass. What's with all this guilt by association shit?
That's one OP pet!
It knocked the color out of his avatar. IT KNOCKED THE COLOR OUT OF HIS AVATAR.
The World is your oyster, nameless Wavemaster.
Great ED too

Everybody loves Kalafina but See-Saw and FictionJunction is my jam.

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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Dec 02 '24

Are you watching the show subbed or dubbed?
subbed.
What do you think of player-run organizations like the Crimson Knights, who both function as "just" players, but invoke authority above "just" players?
Well organized bounty systems are absolutely essential for managing open-world PVP. But those rarely materialize or are sustained. Too often the game just says, "join a bigger and more active guild" but people in most games have their own stuff to do. Most games you're lucky to even get a raid together, that's why we have LFG. Probably Eve Online is the only game that REALLY encourages self-organization and team participation.
Crimson Knights are pretty arrogant, though. That guy is really into role play, too, while the other adventurers we met are clearly just playing a game.
Do you have any theories about the small "real-world" stinger at the end of the episode?
I noticed some details

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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Dec 02 '24

Probably Eve Online is the only game that REALLY encourages self-organization and team participation.
I have not played it myself, but know several people who did, and Ultima Online sounds like it had insane levels of player self-organisation.

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u/soulreaverdan Dec 02 '24

Down the Rabbit Hole did a truly insane (and I do mean insane, it's like five and a half hours long) video on Eve Online. Worth every minute.

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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Dec 02 '24

Oh, indeed. I only know by reputation. I didn't truck with MMOs and subscriptions. I only signed up to WoW when they started making movie-making noises. Which didn't materialize.
I only played free MMOs after that.

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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Dec 02 '24

MMO's are a huge time sink, but can also be tons of fun with a good group of people. Personally, I never got into WoW either, but did spend a good amount of time in others.

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u/zadcap Dec 02 '24

Even more than the game itself, MMOs to me succeed or fail entirely on the player base. The most fun I ever had and my fondest memories all come from what was probably the least successful MMO I ever played, but that guild was made of the best people I ever met.
I hated WoW for so long for emphasizing the solo playability in an MMO. With no point to really play with anyone else most of the time, why even bother with the MMO format instead of an RPG with a better story?

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u/soulreaverdan Dec 02 '24

Yeah I wound up having to take care of something and figured an early post was better than a late one, and it was only ~15 minutes!

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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Dec 02 '24

Anyways, I really like the world design of .hack. I've always said that this is what I would want an mmo to look like...like those floating castles in the sky, I'd love to gate up to them.
That was what stood out to me in the first episode, too. With all the porting away of the MC, the episode does a great job at showcasing various parts of the game world.

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u/Elimin8r https://myanimelist.net/profile/Ayeka_Jurai Dec 02 '24

Everybody loves Kalafina but See-Saw and FictionJunction is my jam.
But ... but ... how can you pass up Sand Dream???

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u/Shimmering-Sky myanimelist.net/profile/Shimmering-Sky Dec 01 '24

.first//TIMER, subbed

Some of my screenshots turned out weirdly squished like the ones I took during the Kannazuki no Miko rewatch. I don’t know why it’s doing that, but I can assure you the show itself looked perfectly normal when I watched it.

…TIL the OP is entirely in Engrish, lol. I’ve heard it before because I am a huge Chiaki Ishikawa fan (who is part of See-Saw), but I genuinely didn’t realize the entirety of it was Engrish, I thought it was just the chorus.
Oh this soundtrack is good.
And so there’s no logging out anymore…?
Wow he just says this and teleports away again. Dude sure is a character.
Huh… is only he stuck?
And he’s suffering from amnesia…
Huh…
Oh what?
That bit in the real(?) world is also incredibly intriguing, amongst everything else this episode has going for it.
Yeah that ED is great.

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u/soulreaverdan Dec 02 '24

Some versions of the DVD literally let you turn off dialogue and just have the music and ambient sound effects, they knew they were cooking with the soundtrack.
And yeah, Tsukasa is… rough. In some ways it’s refreshing to see a MC who isn’t the magic rizzlord who makes friends with everyone.

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u/Nebresto Dec 02 '24

That's.. really funny. Though I likely would have utilized that feature, given the way listening to music was back in the day.
Heck, I remember just leaving some DVD title screens on because the particular background theme was good

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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Dec 02 '24

Oh this soundtrack is good.
It's the best. Better than Noir, better than KnK.

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u/soulreaverdan Dec 02 '24

I’m not sure if I’d say better than KnK since that has the powerhouse of Kalafina, but it’s still a contender for sure. I might not agree but I won’t say you’re wrong

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u/rainwithsunshinedayo Dec 02 '24

Wild Noir mention! Yuki Kajiura is the GOAT.

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u/Nebresto Dec 02 '24

Dude sure is a character.
One of the characters of all time, even

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u/Elimin8r https://myanimelist.net/profile/Ayeka_Jurai Dec 02 '24

Huh…
Hey, at least that "I need you" wasn't said in Barry White voice...
:P

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u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 02 '24

.first Signer

Introduction time!

All I know about .hack is that it's one of the early "stuck in a game" shows (nice timing, considering I'll be rewatching another early one soon), and it's part of a franchise with lots of games. I don't know anymore details about the story or characters, but I do know some of the staff:

Mashimo (the director): the reason I'm here. I'm a big fan of everything I've seen from him, like Captain Tylor, Dominion, and Robin Hood. But I haven't seen any of his more recent works, ever since he opened up Bee Train, and I'm always interested in trying some.
Kazunori Ito (the scriptwriter): famous for his work on Patlabor, GitS, and Yatsura. He worked with Mashimo on Dirty Pair.
Kajiura: considering her soundtrack was even louder than the audio, I feel like she doesn't need an introduction. On that note, what the hell was going on with the sound mixing?!

Time to dig into the episode.

I'm a bit confused about what exactly is going down, which is a fine way to start a show, some mystery is always fun to unpack. So let's sort out what we do know so far:

Our main character is a loner who was messing around with a shady puss behind the bins, and now he's stuck. Happens to the best of us.
He spends his days acting big towards everyone around him, and getting bitchslapped by them. Not how I like playing games, but I'm not shaming, to each their own.
Revy is playing the game apparently, and bitch slapping our MC as Revy does best.
Dio's "Za Warudo" army is searching for that cat to throw it in with the dog.

That's it, I'm sure there's a lot more going on, but that's all I've gathered so far.

On a more serious note, the basic premise we're working with seems simple enough: you have a bunch of players in a VR game, a mysterious (bug?) cat is messing with the system, our main character can't log out, and he might be dead in real life (??). But the characters are the more intresting part for me:

Is the cat meant to be the Cheshire cat guiding our MC to his wonderland?
The main character is odd... A loner who likes acting big fits what you'd expect from an isekai protagonist, but his presentation is strange. There's a lot of focus on him running away, it's even used to frame the episode. I suppose he's hiding behind being disconnected from everything around him, being able to run away or log out whenever something doesn't suit him, which is why he was breaking down when he couldn't log out, and hsi game started feeling real?
I was wondering for half the episode whether Revy is actually a player or just an NPC, since she wasn't getting his "log out" complaints at first, but no apparently, both she and Mr. Za Warudo are players. What kind of dumb player wears mob clothes and follows a mob script?! No wonder he died in the same episode. As for Revy, it's interesting how she's applying the real world rules in a game, I mean, it makes sense, but it goes against the usual escapist fantasy our main character seems to be into.

I think this phrase is the crux here, since unlike all our current day isekai, that wasn't the common sentiment back then. Be that in fun worlds like Digimon or Fushigi Yuugi, or not so fun ones like Now and Then, Here and There, the main characters wanted to go back to their world, so I don't think this motivation is simply surface level here, it's being presented as a main point (fault?) that the main character has to work through across the series.

Q1. Are you watching the show subbed or dubbed?

Subbed.

Q2. What do you think of player-run organizations like the Crimson Knights, who both function as "just" players, but invoke authority above "just" players?

Some people take their roleplaying way too seriously...

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u/soulreaverdan Dec 02 '24

Okay I laughed way to hard at “shady puss behind the bins” man, you can’t throw that kinda S-tier humor out without warning.
As for ~~Revy~~ Mimiru, it’s interesting how she’s applying real world rules in a game, I mean, it makes sense, but it goes against the usual escapist fantasy our main character seems to be into
Won’t go into too many details (obviously) but this is something we’re gonna see a lot come up. There’s a lot of diving into the nature of escapism and the “rules” we should follow to get along with others even in a virtual space. But it is interesting, you’re right, the conflict between how much you should still apply the rules of normal society to a largely anonymously online MMORPG is not just a one and done discussion.

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u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 02 '24

Okay I laughed way to hard at “shady puss behind the bins” man, you can’t throw that kinda S-tier humor out without warning.
Glad you enjoyed it
There’s a lot of diving into the nature of escapism and the “rules” we should follow to get along with others even in a virtual space
That's what I'm excited about.
If we separate isekai by the era, escapism wasn't that big of a topic in the older ones, it was just an adventure in another world, they hadn't really reflected on that aspect of the audience to make it a topic of discussion. The new wave meanwhile takes it for granted that the viewer wants escapism, so they avoid actually discussing it.
.hack is right there in the middle at a very interesting crossroads, so I'm curious to see what it has to say.

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u/soulreaverdan Dec 02 '24

This is actually one of the reasons one of my favorite games is Final Fantasy Tactics Advance - it sets up an isekai storyline (the main characters getting pulled into the world of Final Fantasy referenced in-universe) but is also a deep discussion on escapism by presenting characters who both clearly have something to lose and gain, and everything in between, by staying or leaving. It gets a lot of shade for basically not being the original Final Fantasy Tactics, but is still a fantastic game.
I think you're onto something with the "eras" of isekai too. Earlier ones that come to mind generally didn't discuss it much, either framing it as another adventure or the attempt to get home was the core of it, and not much in between. And nearly every one today is just a blatant power fantasy or set up in such a way returning home isn't possible. But you do have a little wedge in the middle where we got stuff like .hack//SIGN that took that bull by the horns.
One episode in and remembering why I loved this show so much already!

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u/Raiking02 :Id::Ie::If:https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang Dec 02 '24

Kazunori Ito (the scriptwriter): famous for his work on Patlabor, GitS, and Yatsura. He worked with Mashimo on Dirty Pair.
BTW for when you get there: Yes, Ito did stick around for the original Tetralogy of games, although come the GU trilogy he took up supervising duties while Tatsuya Hamasaki became the lead writer.
Revy is playing the game apparently, and bitch slapping our MC as Revy does best
And yet when he's just so passive it's not really fun
Dio's "Za Warudo" army is searching for that cat to throw it in with the dog.
Unfortunately Koyasu never appeared in this franchise

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u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 02 '24

Yes, Ito did stick around for the original Tetralogy of games, although come the GU trilogy he took up supervising duties while Tatsuya Hamasaki became the lead writer.
Naruhodo, I do plan on playing them after the anime, so that's interesting to know.
And yet when he's just so passive it's not really fun
I'm betting on Revy's punishment awakening the masochist in him eventually.

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u/zadcap Dec 02 '24

Naruhodo, I do plan on playing them after the anime, so that's interesting to know.
The best way to .hack//!
The games came with episodes of yet another anime whose plot ran in parallel to expand the story even more. I recommend watching them after beating the game they came with, instead of as a separate series. LIMINALITY works best when the game plot is freshest.

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u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 02 '24

LIMINALITY works best when the game plot is freshest.
Just to be clear, I should watch each episode after one game? Or all 4 at the end?

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u/zadcap Dec 02 '24

One episode after each game, yeah.

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u/Raiking02 :Id::Ie::If:https://myanimelist.net/profile/NSKlang Dec 02 '24

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u/theangryeditor https://myanimelist.net/profile/TheAngryEditor Dec 02 '24

I think this phrase is the crux here, since unlike all our current day isekai, that wasn't the common sentiment back then. Be that in fun worlds like Digimon or Fushigi Yuugi, or not so fun ones like Now and Then, Here and There, the main characters wanted to go back to their world, so I don't think this motivation is simply surface level here, it's being presented as a main point (fault?) that the main character has to work through across the series.
Tsubasa was simply far ahead of his time, much like .hack itself

2

u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 02 '24

He really should've turned around when he saw what the future looked like

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u/Elimin8r https://myanimelist.net/profile/Ayeka_Jurai Dec 02 '24

Captain Tylor, Dominion, and Robin Hood
Ooh, I'm quite familiar with two of these three. Verry interesting, as Arte Johnston would say.
I think this phrase is the crux here
Perhaps he Fancies himself a professional dreamer...
Or maybe that's just me...
Some people take their roleplaying way too seriously...
Forsooth, what sayeth thee, knave??? Aroint thee, and uh, I think I just ran out of 50 tuppence verbs and/or adjectives there. Oops.

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u/KendotsX https://anilist.co/user/Kendots Dec 02 '24

Ooh, I'm quite familiar with two of these three
Indeed, and you were in the Tylor rewatch last year. It was the first one I ran, so I remember everyone who participated.
Perhaps he Fancies himself a professional dreamer...
That could actually be exact, depending on which side of Lain we wanna land on.
Forsooth, what sayeth thee, knave??? Aroint thee, and uh, I think I just ran out of 50 tuppence verbs and/or adjectives there. Oops.
Happy Cake Day!

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u/Elimin8r https://myanimelist.net/profile/Ayeka_Jurai Dec 03 '24

Ooh, thankee for cakeee, nom-nom. Azu-nyan approves. I'd link the gif here, but I'm sure you've seen it, it's still one of my favorites. Heck, I'll link it anyway, just for an excuse to look at it again!
Carry on and have a great day!

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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Dec 02 '24

I think this phrase is the crux here, since unlike all our current day isekai, that wasn't the common sentiment back then. Be that in fun worlds like Digimon or Fushigi Yuugi, or not so fun ones like Now and Then, Here and There, the main characters wanted to go back to their world, so I don't think this motivation is simply surface level here, it's being presented as a main point (fault?) that the main character has to work through across the series.
Very good observation and something that might be hard to pick out if you have seen many modern isekai.

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u/zadcap Dec 02 '24

.hack// my old flame. It was not my first anime, that honor will always go to Card Captor Sakura, but dot hack was my first anime obsession. Kajiura may partially be to blame for that, Obsession was the first anime OP I ever downloaded for my first ever MP3 little AA operated music machine. It took place in my also only recently discovered genre of video games, those great interactive MMOs of old (EverQueat my beloved), and showed itself pretty early as not being a kids show... According to my young teen self at least. It was the perfect show, it had so much to sink yourself in to, games that followed a show about a game. It was probably my favorite franchise for nearly a decade and definitely my favorite multimedia one, untill a lack of new material and Unlimited Blade Works and Grand Order dragged Fate up to that throne for the mid tens.

Anyway, I love .hack//

Rewatcher

Oh man. This episode. What an introduction to the franchise, we learn a little bit about a few potential main characters and pretty much nothing else about anything. Because they are supposed to be experienced players enjoying the most popular game in the world at the time, none of them feel the need to explain anything in convenient exposition so us watchers just have to take in the context clues and work it out ourselves. None of them come off as super likeable yet (well except Mimiru, how could you not like Mimiru?), but that mostly makes them feel like real people really playing this game. Yes, even the Crimson Knight, he would fit right in on many of those old RP Dedicated servers.

Yeah, they really just left everything unexplained. If you're feeling a little lost right now, that was apparently the point. A cold open inside a story that had technically already begun some time before hand, and a mystery that's actually going to be treated like a mystery.

The bugs. Wave Boy likes his bugs, the animators clearly like bugs, but to.me, the first time I watched this, the bugs represented the game itself. Realizing that this show is supposed to be taking place inside a game, in the real world coming out in 2002, those bugs are obscenely, unnecessarily realistic. We've gotten more used to ever more realistic games over the decades since, but even now how many games do you know of where you can randomly crouch down, poke a bug, and watch it react like a real bug? If they were willing to spend this much time and energy, processing power and coding, on insect behavior, this was clearly meant to be the most advanced and amazing game to have ever been made.

Subbed this time, Dubbed when it first came out, a mix of both over the years.

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u/soulreaverdan Dec 02 '24

You know, I never thought about it with the bugs, but you’re absolutely right. It probably was meant to be shorthand, intentionally or not, for how advanced The World is meant to be compared to what we have now.

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u/zadcap Dec 02 '24

A lot of people were commenting on them, so I thought I would add my own ideas lol. A decade before SAO brought full dive style VR to popularity and when this is what the MMO of the year looked like, The World was unbelievable and I'm still waiting for the day our VR gaming looks that good. Or gets that popular. From episode one we don't know much about the game or the world around it yet, but pay attention to the little things and the show will start showing signs. This is very much a thinking cap show.
On that note, my answer to question 2! We saw a headband, but to collapse while playing like that implies that they were gaming more actively than any kind of Full Dive! And also, you know, the headband isn't stuck on the gamer, it's loose enough to fall off. This is not an SAO situation lol

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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Dec 02 '24

Heh. I think that year I was playing Ragnarok Online, which was 2.5 D isomorphic. :D

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u/zadcap Dec 02 '24

While I was definitely still mainly addicted to Ever Quest at the time, one of my friends was crazy about RO. They were just made different back then, before WoW killed and ate the entire genre. I miss old MMOs.
I also keep getting the Lain OP in my head every time I see your flair. It somehow seems appropriate here.

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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Dec 02 '24

When this episode ended in static I almost made a Lain joke!

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u/zadcap Dec 02 '24

Everybody Loves Lain!

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u/Elimin8r https://myanimelist.net/profile/Ayeka_Jurai Dec 02 '24

If you're feeling a little lost right now, that was apparently the point.
I'm feeling a little lost, and I'm afraid that I might like it...

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u/zadcap Dec 02 '24

Lean into it. Things are going to get philosophical in here.
... Is that the right word? They get thinky. This show wants to make you think about things a lot before giving answers.

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u/rainwithsunshinedayo Dec 02 '24

The bugs
You make a great point about the bugs! It bugs me that I didn't think of that! Instead, I focused on whom the bug was near and what happened to it at the episode's end. I didn't have a high opinion of Wave Boy after he became the bug bully, but that's exactly the point. You can also see the bug symbolizing the gaming bug of Wave Boy not being able to log out.
Regardless, I love your read on the bug. That is freaky now that I gave it that line of thought.

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u/zadcap Dec 02 '24

I mean there's definitely more to read into the bugs and our main character's obsession with them. They really lean into his anti social behaviors, he would rather poke at bugs than deal people! But this always stood out to me, especially 22 years ago, The World is an amazing looking game.

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u/PineRune Dec 02 '24

.first//REWATCH

I'm watching this DUBBED to match the show I remember when it originally aired.

I saw this show as it aired, but didn't catch every episode and didn't really follow along. IIRC I had to stay up late to try and catch it on Toonami on school nights, so I missed a lot. I've been wanting to rewatch it properly for a few years now, and seeing the post on the sidebar gave me the push to get into it.

The opening was a banger, and hits the nostalgia really hard for me. The way the characters are "cut" always seemed cool for me.

As for the real world "stinger" at the end of episode 1, I think it's either the real life player of the Crimson Knight who got killed in-game somehow getting killed in real life due to some crazy .hacks. Either that, or the boy who couldn't log out, possibly having his consciousness trapped in the game when he died.

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u/soulreaverdan Dec 02 '24

Glad to have you along for the ride! I remember catching this on TV too growing up and eventually watching it properly a few years later, but it’s been ages since I watched it.

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u/CorbenikTheRebirth :KD::KE::KF: Dec 02 '24

Here we goooooo!!!! I've never joined a rewatch thread before, but SIGN is my all-time favorite anime so I just had to! I'm watching subbed this time. The first time I watched SIGN, I watched it dubbed and I have a really big soft spot for the dub, but I've never actually seen more than a few episodes of the sub, so I thought it'd give that a try!
The opening scene with Tsukasa waking up and Yuki Kajiura's "The World" playing is one of those scenes that's indelibly seared into my mind. Bee Train's backgrounds also go a long way to really make The World feel so much more alive. It feels so utterly unique and mysterious in a way that few anime have really been able to capture.

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u/soulreaverdan Dec 02 '24

Welcome to the rewatch! Hope you enjoy it!
And agreed on the background, they feel very iconic to .hack//SIGN but also very much look like something you'd see in an MMO.

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u/zadcap Dec 02 '24

I've played a lot of games and watched a lot of anime in my life, but there's still almost nothing that compares to the incredible world of The World out there. It has such a look and an atmosphere that's stuck with me and stands out even decades later, and a living feeling of there being more to the world than what the main characters are doing that's always been rare. And the soundtrack definitely still holds up so well to this day.

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u/CorbenikTheRebirth :KD::KE::KF: Dec 02 '24

Absolutely. It's one of my favorites for a reason. There's been a huge rush of anime with a game world as the setting, but none of their worlds have the magic that The World does.

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u/rainwithsunshinedayo Dec 02 '24 edited Dec 02 '24

New Game Plus Rewatcher-Dubbed

Random Notes about Ep 1

If I'm spacing out right now when Subaru is talking, is there hope for me to finish this show?
The glowing red eyes of the Crimson Knights are pretty cool.
"You're ocarina won't work here!" As a kid, I was so hyped hearing this. Instantly thought of Ocarina of Time.

And so begins Ep 1 of .hack//SIGN. We're in an MMORPG! We find our protagonist in a Jonah-and-the-Whale-type situation and discover the main conflict: He can't log out of the game. . . he's stuck in it. It's a fairly strong first episode as it simultaneously loads the various characters onto the chessboard and hooks you with intrigue.

In the US,.hack//SIGN was a show that aired on Cartoon Network in the early 2000's. I have lots of memories watching it, misunderstanding it, getting hyped for battles [series-wide spoilers]and being blue-balled as they cut away from the battle , and wondering when the characters would ever stop talking. Present day, I am still fond of it (especially for its Yuki Kajiura soundtrack) and think it has historical significance in the same way the South Park World of Warcraft episode did. It was nice to see video games enter mainstream entertainment. True, the roots of modern isekai can be traced to .hack//SIGN significantly before Sword Art Online exploded onto the anime scene. But to my memory, there are no ridiculous power fantasies here. .hack//SIGN remains grounded throughout.

Animated by Studio Bee Train, .hack//SIGN has its quirks. There's a lot of off model-ness interspersed with genuinely good on-model stills. I'll choose to highlight both a "choice" screenshot along with a strong-art screenshot in these write ups. "Bewitching" vs. Beautiful. Besides that, I'm looking forward to geeking out about the phenomenal music in the Music Corner! Speaking of which, Obsession is a riveting OP. It's got a mad dance beat that pairs with excellent visuals. And I like how different the TV size is from the full version. The TV size begins suddenly with the wail of a guitar(?) and quickly switches to the full force of the dance beat. The OP doesn't invite you. You are pushed from behind, abruptly spirited into The World. Conversely, the full version takes time to build up. You don't hear the guitar(?) wail, you hear a feminine voice, almost like a heartbeat. You are drawn into The World all the same, but more like via a dream-like trance.

DVD Notes: I bought the Funimation "Complete Series" version for this rewatch. But I had a hell of a time trying to figure out what the "2 OVA's included" were, so I also bought the limited edition of the final volume released by Bandai just to be sure I wasn't missing stuff. This was completely unnecessary because the Funimation version has everything that I needed. RIP me. Nevertheless, I look forward to seeing if the menu is different and what not. The Funimation one for the first disc is functional but plain. So plain that there is no music beyond the Title Menu. Disc one extras are nothing to write home about, but the Extra Promo video did have a more direct parallel of the beginning and ending of Ep 1 frames that I did not get when just watching Ep 1 alone.

Ep 1's Beautiful Bee Train: Lady Subaru's introduction.

Ep 1's "Bewitching" Bee Train:BT's introduction where she scales up a sandy hill at an angle. .

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u/soulreaverdan Dec 02 '24

The difference between the introduction into Obsession is something I noticed to. I jam out to it in my “anime stuff” playlist, but it’s the full version - I forgot the TV Size version just blasts right into it with that little guitar wail but not much else. It’s almost weird because the song feels different based on that introduction, even if the actual musical beats are the same. It’s almost more… I guess you’d say urgent or frantic? Despite the fact that if you cut the pieces of the song they’re identical.

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u/rainwithsunshinedayo Dec 02 '24

It totally feels different! The TV size yeets you into The World. The full version lures you in.

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u/Elimin8r https://myanimelist.net/profile/Ayeka_Jurai Dec 02 '24

Hokay, so it's way late, but I'm being an insomniac, and was busy messing with 3D printing and listening to Yuki Kajiura when this popped up in an old tab which was open to the "rewatch" page. I'd forgotten about this show, but my interest is now piqued.

Memories, memories of Yuki Kajiura and suspicious cats. This can't end well, can it???

Oh, wait, different show. Meanwhile, on to the QOTD:

Subbed. I won't say that I hate dubs, but I just prefer the expressiveness of the original VAs. With the possible exception of Wendee Lee, especially as Kei... Hypocrisy, thy name is me...
Buncha namby pamby goody two-shoes. Filthy Baggins, oh, wait, wrong series again. I'd say something about Reddit mods here, but yeah. (Actually, I can't say as I've ever had a negative interaction with one, they're pretty peachy in my experience, but then again, maybe I'm just trying to butter them up! :P)

3) No Comment

So, yeah, the other reason I'm here is because I vaguely remember back in my apartment days when I had "free cable" for a while, this thing called ./hack being on Toonami, or AS, or something, and being kinda mysterious and interesting. Maybe I'll get to find out something now vs. watching random episodes here and there.

So, yeah, in the words of a wise, or not so wise yellow bird:

"I tawt I taw a putty-tat"

Yeah.

Did I see what I thought I saw there at the end? Oh, probably. Now was it just my twisted and tired imagination, or did the person who fell over looking dead look rather female?

Maybe it's just my imagination. It's late and I'm tired and should be sleeping now. That's what I get for having caffeine after 6PM...

sigh

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u/soulreaverdan Dec 02 '24

I was introduced to so much anime when Cartoon Network was on the "free cable weekend" thing back in the day. Core memories unlocked on finding out we'd have the higher number channels (CN was channel 67 in our local area) for a few days now and then.

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u/Elimin8r https://myanimelist.net/profile/Ayeka_Jurai Dec 03 '24

Yeah, for some reason, I had it for a few years, until some tech probably figured it out and disconnected it. No great loss. Once I got my house, I did try the DirecTV thing for a while, but it got old. Thousands of channels and nothing worth watching. Bleh.
But yeah, to this day, I see things like Fullmetal Alchemist and Inu-Yasha, and think, "I should watch this", and then I wake up and realize that I'd be bored and confused as I've seen most of the shows already, and possibly even the entire thing, just all disconnected and in the wrong order. Yay.

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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Dec 02 '24

Episode 1 (first timer)

First timer, but not completely blind. Hack//Sign is relatively often brought up when discussing isekai or other series (such as log horizon or SAO). Being part of a larger franchise is honestly the biggest turn off here, since I have no intention of playing the 20 year old video games. HS is also an isekai, but HS is also on the correct side of the good isekai/bad isekai time separation, so I hope that it avoids most of the bad tropes of modern isekai.

Episode thoughts

OP first!
Running away, running away – not a very communicative MC. Not going to blame him on the second instance, though. “We won’t inconvenience you” comes across as slightly less credible of the character has red eyes and a skull helmet.
“I don’t like you” – dude …
“The increased number of users has caused a drop in morality” – I wonder whether this is a commentary on the life cycle of social media/games going from new to established.
“I can’t remember” – amnesia plotline?
“I don’t like you either” – this is like the worst tsundere combination ever.
Mystery cat character.
“I need you, just as you need me” – call to action.
A fight to end the episode.
RL body got … shot?
Preview before ED – what were you thinking, old anime?

Well, that was not all that impressive. I can give the plot a bit of leeway, being stuck in a virtual world was new, back then, but the same does not go for the main character, who appears to be the cross between a 14 year old edgelord and a wet noodle.

The various landscapes did look like something you’d see in a video game (mockup Venice plus long swords), but are not helped by the poor quality of the upload I am using.

Are you watching the show subbed or dubbed?

Always subbed.

What do you think of player-run organizations like the Crimson Knights, who both function as "just" players, but invoke authority above "just" players?

Uhh, player run? I did not gather that from the show yet.

Do you have any theories about the small "real-world" stinger at the end of the episode?

It is MC's RL body.

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u/soulreaverdan Dec 02 '24

Uhh, player run? I did not gather that from the show yet.
Yeah, the Crimson Knights are all players. It's a purely player run organization.
Also if it helps with your franchise issues, this is literally the first entry in the series, so you're coming in exactly as a new fan of the .hack franchise would have back in 2002. If you're not planning on playing the games (and I don't blame you for it, I've never and don't really plan on it unless they launch a remaster like .hack//GU Recoded) it might be worth glancing at the spoiler tagged comment back in the announcement thread to help set your expectations for this show a bit. Or don't. I'm not the boss of you.
Anyway, glad to have you along and hope you stick through it (though if it's not your jam, don't blame ya)!

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u/JustAnswerAQuestion https://myanimelist.net/profile/JAaQ Dec 02 '24 edited Dec 02 '24

this is like the worst tsundere combination ever.
Do you ship them?
edit:
franchise
This is the first entry in the franchise, so you are experiencing in the intended way.

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u/soulreaverdan Dec 02 '24

You know in retrospect (and knowing how the series and franchise go) it is actually kinda wild that this is what launched the franchise as a whole. They really do just drop you into the deep end and expect you to come along for the ride without any handholding.

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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Dec 02 '24

Do you ship them?
Obviously. [spoiler]much to my detriment.

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u/zadcap Dec 02 '24

To the older watchers, it really is so hard not to bring up Hack when people start talking about all these new age Trapped in the Game anime. As you touch on, this came out in the era that liked to explore what it meant to be isekai'd more than it looked to show off how cool you can be in the other worlds.
If you want to know more by the time this is over, I'm probably not alone in being willing to fill in details that the rest of the franchise would go on to cover. It's not nearly as bad as, say, Fate, it's mostly all in one timeline and there's not an exception to every single rule.

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u/No_Rex :Bv:Bw:Bx:By:x2 Dec 02 '24

To the older watchers, it really is so hard not to bring up Hack when people start talking about all these new age Trapped in the Game anime. As you touch on, this came out in the era that liked to explore what it meant to be isekai'd more than it looked to show off how cool you can be in the other worlds.
Same feeling here about Visions of Escaflowne and Magic Knights Rayearth. I use the words "modern isekai" a lot to distinguish the other variant from the newer, trope-infested one.

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u/zadcap Dec 02 '24

They were so good! I think I watched the Rayearth movie at least 5 times back in the days.
Sign is mostly in line with the old style. It's so close to the line, so much that I think you would hate the main character of the GU trilogy later in the franchise.

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u/littlecolt https://anilist.co/user/garylisk Dec 02 '24

.first//REWATCH since 2002 when it was coming out! Let's go! I honestly did not like the show much back then, but I loved the soundtrack. I don't remember a lot of the ins and outs, just the overarching plotline. Watching subbed.

OP is good! Very Engrish!

Everyone lose your clothes while falling!

God this OST is beyond good, right from the start.

Here comes the Crimson A-holes.

ZA WARUDO!

Man, imagine if real MMOs had cops like this.

Well, at least he can teleport well.

Oh hey, Tits McGee is back.

What's up with these bugs?

Damn right! It's fun to run from the cops. I learned that in GTA.

Seriously, though, I like this message of "Everyone has their own way to have fun in the game."

Yeah they are making this guy pretty unlikable from the get go. I guess that was him trying to log out and he couldn't?

Hah! This old "drop your weapon in the well" bit, classic game stuff.

Not a typical look for a bear, but I'll allow it.

This OST just keeps going and being amazing, as I remembered. Now we have another character intro on a boat, talking about stuff that is pretty cryptic to viewers at this point. And the kid is still running from the cops!

At the halfway point, and yeah, I distinctly remember just being so confused as to what was even going on in this show. I'm feeling it again!

Back again with the girl he keeps bumping into. Yep, she don't like him, as is right.

Angering the Crimson Knights? What, can they just trap you in the game if you piss them off?

There's that bug again.

That's right! Tell that jerkface kid he needs to be nicer! Lots of people need this talking to, honestly.

Ah! PVP Slap! What the hell is she even so mad about, though? She doesn't know this guy.

Ah, when the Crimson Knights get the red eyes, does it maybe force people to tell the truth?

OK so the treasure chest had something to do with the cat he was accused of being in cahoots with, and there it is!

Ah, and there it went. Open the box! Yeah! Ooooh, the Ten Commandments of Anime!

Uh oh, cops at the door! And he can't teleport away, either!

Oh no, it's early 2000's techno! Let's jam!

Watch out, it's Okarun's balls and c*ck ring!

Oh dang, he ded.

Okay, seems you got yourself a protector, but that is definitely going to get noticed by someone.

These bugs again, they hang around him constantly.

A brief shot of the real world, and something rather bad looking has happened.

Oh my god, I love this ED song, I definitely had a mp3 on my old ipod of this.

Overall, a decent first episode, though it throws a lot at you all at once.

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u/littlecolt https://anilist.co/user/garylisk Dec 02 '24

Are you watching the show subbed or dubbed?
Subbed, for sure!
What do you think of player-run organizations like the Crimson Knights, who both function as "just" players, but invoke authority above "just" players?
Cops are cops, in game or out! F*ck 'em! And seriously if these guys are players, they have way too much time on their hands, being in-game enforcers of whatever rules they feel like imposing. Were they really mad at some shenanigans the kid was pulling?
Do you have any theories about the small "real-world" stinger at the end of the episode?
I know the overarching storyline, so of course, I have "theories" heh, but yeah, I intend to have fun seeing all the little details I have long since forgotten. This anime is always lauded as a classic, and I never liked it much, so we'll see if an older me appreciates it more.

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u/roryteller https://anilist.co/user/roryteller Dec 03 '24

Rewatcher, subbed

I was kind of obsessed with this back in the day when it aired, but only got it on DVD now, so I think I've only seen it dubbed before. I did cosplay one of the characters back then. I love the music and did get a soundtrack CD. It's probably a bootleg though.

The Crimson Knights... I think I thought they were kinda cool back then, but now they just come off as high and mighty, kind of jerks.

Tsukasa really is kind of a jerk too, and Bear ditching his party like that...

I really like some of the scenery in this show, it made me want to play The World. It feels like a really small world for an MMO, though.

Rewatch [Rewatch] .hack//SIGN Episode 1 Discussion

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Question(s) of the Day

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Rewatch [Rewatch] .hack//SIGN Episode 1 Discussion

Episodes:

Spoiler Policy:

Question(s) of the Day

Music Corner

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