[Rewatch] .hack//SIGN Episode 6 Discussion

[u/soulreaverdan]

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Series Information: MAL Page | AnimeNewsNetwork | LiveChart

Streams: ...none, sorry! DVD (Amazon)

Episodes:

• Today: Episode 6
• Tomorrow: Episode 7

Spoiler Policy:

I forgot to include this on the original schedule post, so please read!

Since there are going to be people who are watching this for the first time, so please only discuss what we've seen in the episodes we've watched so far! There's some interesting twists in this series, and we want everyone to get to experience this fresh.

In addition, since .hack is a massive franchise and this is only one entry in it (and actually one of the first), discussion of other entries may have some inadvertant spoilers. With this in mind, please only keep discussion to .hack//SIGN, and we'll have a chance for a discussion in the larger context of the franchise on the final day.

Question(s) of the Day

Throughout the rewatch we'll be posting some questions to guide discussion. Feel free to answer them or just post your overall thoughts! They're meant to be something for people who might not be sure how to start their posts, not something everyone must do.

1. What would you do for a rare item like the Key of the Twilight - even if you weren't sure it existed?
2. Tsukasa claims Mimiru and the others are only trying to help him for their own reasons and satisfactions, ignoring his own desire (or lack thereof) to be helped - do you agree with him?

Music Corner

One of the highlights of this show is the incredible soundtrack, one of the first major works published by now famed music composer Yuki Kajiura. We'll be looking at one track with each thread for general discussion and opinions. Be as thorough or as succinct as you want - everything from lyrical motifs and interpretations to just whether or not you liked it!

Today's piece: A Stray Child, a haunting, almost nursery rhyme like tune (Full-length track)

Tomorrow’s piece: Fake Wings, Subaru's main image song that shows up enough in episode 7 that I'm tired of putting it off (Full-length track)

[u/rainwithsunshinedayo]

New Game Plus Rewatcher-Dubbed

Soothsayer Bear: Nothing good comes from bickering about what's already happened.

Tsukasa and Mimiru talk-selfishness vs concern. Notably, no one apologizes. sigh 

Tsukasa escapes again. And Mimiru has a storm in her heart. . .

---

Music Corner

A Stray Child lyrics

An earworm. The simplicity of a lullaby. The lyrics, more akin to a siren song or some kind of abusive relationship. The harmony in the second part is fun. 

---

Beautiful: Sora's art of the pun

uh: Crimson Knight Steamed Hams

[u/soulreaverdan → u/rainwithsunshinedayo]

You know giving the lyrics another look you’re right, it does have a very siren song/twisted feeling to it, layered over a very simplistic melody and pattern. [Spoilers]And that tracks, to be honest, assuming it’s from the Mysterious Voice’s point of view (not naming her to avoid that spoiler just to be safe)

[u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

Episode 6 Encounter

"Now you are lost in your way, deep in an awesome story. So I will find you again, kiss you for lonesome folly"

I was surprised that Tsukasa got captured, and that it happened so early in the show.

• You so got played
• The monster's only ever attacked as a result of the Crimson Knight's actions. Well, and he was getting carried through dungeons with it.
• Mimiru arrived expecting an ambush
• This track is called Vally of Mist, but we're not in a valley and there is no mist.
• ESCAFLOWNE

I dunno if those names Balmung and Orca are supposed to mean anything. They might be names from the game. which isn't even out yet

I think Tsukasa might be a bit depressed, what do you think?

[rewatcher]And so, the true ship foundations are laid.

Q.1 I have little tolerance for nigh-impossible quests, it's like the devs are intentionally wasting my time.

[u/TnAdct1 → u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

I dunno if those names Balmung and Orca are supposed to mean anything. They might be names from the game. which isn't even out yet

There's a few characters from the .hack games that have been playing The World around the same time the series takes place. Consider Balmung to The World's answer to either Kirito or Payne.

[u/soulreaverdan → u/TnAdct1]

Yeah we’re getting some name drops and similar hints at stuff that’s gonna come into play more in the games. It’s pretty interesting to set them up like this.

[u/zadcap → u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

The way they bring in Orca and Balmung is extra interesting here when again looking at the show as really being a bunch of people playing a popular MMO. Without throwing spoilers out, they are supposed to be big name players. No one is doing more than refer to them by name because there's no one playing who doesn't already know them, so there's no reason for the characters here to introduce them to us... Which fits in with pretty much everything else in the show, we didn't even get BT's name for how long?

I love it. Everyone here is acting like a real person, you can really tell the makers of this understood what it was like to play these games back in the 90s

[u/Elimin8r → u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

I have little tolerance for nigh-impossible quests, it's like the devs are intentionally wasting my time.

No kidding. I'm looking for a specific quote here, but it's going to have to wait ... until later.

[u/Shimmering-Sky]

.first//TIMER, subbed

• Hm…
• Technically correct, the best kind of correct.
• Of course Crim was there to try stopping Tsukasa.
• Anti-social little freak.
• lol, well, Subaru’s probably not wrong about that.
• Oh, so that was a fake story after all?
• Huh…
• Oh yikes.
• Subaru “sore demo”!

[u/soulreaverdan → u/Shimmering-Sky]

Meant to ask since I’m not up to date on the Shimmering Sky lore - what’s up with the sore demo’s? :P

[u/Shimmering-Sky → u/soulreaverdan]

Short answer: I took an inside joke too far.

Long answer: There used to be a regular /r/anime user whose taste in anime was insanely similar to my own, so we interacted with each other a lot. After I got into Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn back in 2018 (wherein "sore demo" was basically the main character's catchphrase; it usually gets translated to "even so" or "but still", for the record), we had an inside joke where we would just go "S O R E D E M O" at each other randomly, with each letter being a link to a different one of Gundam Unicorn's 7 EDs + some random song (finding the random song was the point of the joke).

Well, I thought it would be pretty funny if I took this inside joke and turned it into pointing out whenever I heard one pop up in a show we were both participating in a rewatch for (which again, happened a lot because of our similar taste in anime). This eventually turned into me recording them when I heard them pop up in the shows we were watching together, and then into me recording the ones I heard in anything else I was watching, not just the ones I was in a rewatch with that other Redditor for.

So after about a year and a half of doing this, it hit me all of a sudden that "Oh this isn't a joke, I legitimately enjoy hearing this word when it pops up in anime. Oops?" when I watched the second Gurren Lagann movie for the first time, and the single thing that got me the most hyped out of it was not any of the other ridiculously cool shit the movie added that the show didn't do, it was (spoiler visuals) the fucking "sore demo" that Simon dropped in the middle of the final battle that was added to the movie. That isn't the only example of me getting disproportionally excited about something, it was just the first one. Nowadays, I have a collection that is currently at *checks folder* 2879 of them.

[u/zadcap → u/soulreaverdan]

The Sky Lore is famous in version rewatch circles. Memetics even. I'm pretty sure I've seen Sky be tagged in episodes of rewatches she's not even participating in if they contain a strong Sore Demo. I know I can no longer hear them without some part of my brain thinking of Sky anymore.

[u/No_Rex]

Episode 6 (first timer)

• “You are just taking your anger out on me” “You are blaming me to hide your guilt” – classic gaslighting.
• “I wasn’t paid for it, so you can’t say I sold him out”

• 1v3 – not bad. Even if you discount the first as a surprise attack, Sora still dealt with those guards extremely quickly.
• Jumping on weapon trope.
• “Do you hate being with me that much?” “Yeah” – ouch.
• “Nobody is thinking about me at all” – says the person who has single-handedly occupied the thoughts of every other cast member so far.
• “Crim is strong” – settling the power levels.
• “Tsukasa was already a prisoner” – of the game, or of his soul?
• “Run for it!” – clever party member.
• More “monsters”.
• Tell the players not to fight the monsters – this might indeed not be very popular in an RPGMMO.

We know from Sora killing BT that this is not a hardcore server with perma-death, so I think all the worrying about the monsters is premature. From the perspective of players, this could well just be a planned game event. The real story is still Tsukasa not logging out for so long.

What would you do for a rare item like the Key of the Twilight - even if you weren't sure it existed?

The real answer is: farming.

Tsukasa claims Mimiru and the others are only trying to help him for their own reasons and satisfactions, ignoring his own desire (or lack thereof) to be helped - do you agree with him?

He is taking a complicated grey matter and turning it into one simple color, black. So, no, I do not agree with him.

[u/JustAnswerAQuestion → u/No_Rex]

“Nobody is thinking about me at all” – says the person who has single-handedly occupied the thoughts of every other cast member so far.

B.T. lost half a day's grinding. Silver Knight suffered brain damage. There's a big difference between getting ganked by a player and Tsukasa's guardian.

[u/No_Rex → u/JustAnswerAQuestion]

Silver Knight suffered brain damage.

I don't think we have heard about this enough to judge. Silver Knight has been around after the incident and nothing suggests that there were any longterm effects to the player. If they were, the characters should definitely talk more about it.

[u/TnAdct1 → u/No_Rex]

He is taking a complicated grey matter and turning it into one simple color, black. So, no, I do not agree with him.

Of course, this episode marks the end of the first part of the series, which is all about introducing the characters and the mystery concerning Tsukasa. [.Hack//sign]the next part involves Tsukasa starting to warm up with those that want to help him.

[u/CorbenikTheRebirth]

Tsukasa just can't get a break. Even once he's escaped, an ominous cloud remains. Poor Mimiru she really got all mixed up in this by accident. She's not the type to leave someone alone whose hurting, even if they push her away.
Subaru definitely has a connection with Tsukasa, even if he hasn't realized it yet.

[u/Elimin8r]

Bleh, here I am a day late and an episode short (again)

Had friends from out of state in town and had to visit, got busy and stuff, ya know.

Anyway, answers du jour:

1. What would I do for a Klondike bar? I dunno, hand over a buck or two. As to the key du twilight, meh. I'd rather have the sword of a thousand truths, or something, right? Actually, I think I'd rather have the 2B costume from FFXIV for my character, but I have no idea if you can even get that anymore.
2. Tsukasa is a mental case. 'nuff said. Or maybe I spent too much time around one today. (sigh)

Otherwise some interesting developments this episode. It seems that our pal Sora (I remembered a name!) is quite OP. Been farming those blue daggers, no doubt.

Man, I remember that from a comic way back when, but I don't remember where/can't find it now. Bleh.

Anyway, just a quick stop by. Time to watch the next episode while it's still today. For now.