#.hack// legend of the twilight

[kudotsurugi]

One random day, on a bridge in Mac Anu, a popular meme was re-enacted.

For Those of you unaware, the original .hack//(pronounced "dot hack") games by CyberConnect2, starred the character Kite, a new player to the in-universe MMORPG "The World". There have been many iterations of The World in the .hack// franchise, and also as many character expies of Kite. So much so they made their own visual guide to tell you who's who.

So, I decided to take 5 'Kites' from the franchise and recreate the Spider-Man pointing meme.

From top left to bottom middle, we have:

Kite, protagonist of the original .hack// games(Infection, Mutation, Outbreak and Quarantine, "IMOQ" for short)

Shugo, the protagonist of the anime and manga .hack//Legend of the Twilight

Sakuya, the lead character in the anime OVA .hack//Quantum

Sora/Kite, aka Sora Yuuki, the protagonist of the Feature film .hack//The Movie: Beyond the World, and guest character in the PSP game .hack//Link.

"Tri-Edge"/Azure Kite, the initial antagonist of .hack//G.U.

[nyaa]

[japanese-movie-god-at-yahoo]

[jetix]

.hack//Tasogare no Udewa Densetsu

[lunchboxart]

Okay what was your first manga The Old People (TM) edition....trying to put these into categories also blegh use your own judgement as to what falls under where! Also what are you guys reading nooow aha???

Except I'm not a True Oldie (TM) so lend me your wisom in the comments, elders!!!

[alpaca-clouds]

I sure miss .hack/

One anime series - or rather multimedia franchise - I have an immense amount of nostalgia for, even though it was never as big of the thing, as some others, is .hack/

Given it has been a while, since the franchise released something new, let me quickly explain:

.hack/ is a multimedia franchise, that features stories set in a VR MMORPG called The World. Originally the story featured the conceit that some players for some reason got "stuck" in the game, unable to log out, while their physical bodies fell into a coma. Just as there was a mystery featuring the AIs, that for some reason had evolved in the game's mainframe - and a mysterious artefact called the Key of Twilight.

I honestly do not know what it was about this, that spoke to me so much. But I was early on very fascinated by the idea of a VR MMO - even though we of course know today that it is something that is probably not easily achievable. (In a weird way, franchises like .hack/ kinda had the right idea by having the physical bodies turn into a near comatose state while playing, which would probably help the motion sickness...)

It was one of the first anime I pirated back in the. xD Even though I did not get to play the game until I was an adult, given that I was not allowed to have a game console as a child.

I know a lot of people, who found .hack/SIGN, the first anime series of the franchise, rather boring as it has a really, really slow pacing. Like, wow, the pacing is really slow. But... to me it really worked. There was an intrigue about the series and how it explored The World. (Not to mention that from today's perspective the main character is easily read as a trans guy.) And yes, of course the Yuki Kajiura soundtrack played heavily into it.

See, one of my big first online memories is playing the browser based game, that Bandai was hosting back then. A game mostly frequented by Japanese players, so I was trying my very best to keep up with where the chat was going. And when we were "playing" (it was not so much of a game, really) together, it was always a headache to find a timeslot, where me and the Japanese folks could meet up.

Most of all, I think, the series weirdly captured that early 2000s online culture quite well. This is especially true for the more comedy heavy and cutsy "Legend of the Twilight" series. (Man, I need to rebuy that manga at some point.) Which just very much captured the feeling of just meeting online with friends from all over the world, who you might never meet, and... yeah. Just hang xD

But also the plot so often kinda had this undertone of "The World belongs to the players, not the company". Because especially in "Legend of the Twilight", but in the other entries too, one of the central conflicts comes from the company hosting The World trying to control the mysteries - especially the AIs. While the player characters are fighting against it and ending up siding with the AI.

Something, that feels strangely accurate to the modern internet, where the big, near monopolistic companies try control the user experience more and more, rather than letting users decide about their own experience.

The franchise of .hack// seems to be long dead and forgotten by Bandai and development studio CyberConnect2. The last game that released was .hack//Link, the last other media was the .hack// movie in 2012, that apparently passed everyone by either way.

To put it differently: It has been 11 years, since some new media released for that franchise. And it does not seem that anything is in the works to keep up with it. Especially as Bandai has taken the official international website off the net in 2020.

Technically, of course, a Switch Remaster of the .hack//GU games released in Japan last year for the franchises 20th anniversary - but it does not seem as if there are any plans to release it worldwide.

Maybe the franchise had its perfect moment in time in those early 2000s, when the internet really felt like an entire World that was there for us to explore.

But man, I miss this franchise. I had so much fun with it. And I just... love The World.

Also I need to leave this banger opening for .hack//Link with you. Because darn, I love this thing.

PS: If any of you went like "That kinda sounds like Sword Art Online" at this... Yeah, I to this day have the slight suspicion that Reki Kawahara was "lightly" inspired by .hack//. Because really, the entire SAO stuff to me is ".hack// but with less interesting characters and world building".

[nnavi]

found from ❤︎

[mckesson]

Source

[skittlesskittycat]

[descentintosiblingcon]

Data Bytes

The whole story takes place in 2014, which means the Michael Bay TMNT reboot was in theaters when multiple people were falling into a coma.

Sanjuro was from the original .hack IMOQ games. He was a side character who required a non-plot related mission to recruit that you can skip over.

A Drama CD released only in Japan revealed that Hotaru is a crossplayer. Since she was referred to as female throughout the entire series with no objection from her, I will continue to refer to her as such.

Mireille is 4 goddamn years old. Ouka in real life is her tutor who's apparently super shy and lives out her power fantasies via .hack. So yeah...she's MMORPG She-Hulk.

Fuck it, group shot. Notice that Balmung's fave remains unrevealed. He could be Scorpion for all we know.

Thanks for playing, losers.

[marabarl-and-marlbara]

some unfinished sketch + more BL fanfiction stuff, from naruto / ragnarok online / boogiepop / .hack, written over thanksgiving week

can be read @ https://demon5equal10birth5day3equal8.substack.com/p/week-end-bl-fanfiction-catalogue

[queststhroughduality]

.hack//legend of the twilight/sign/GU remained with AI

[psychicxhearts-blog1]

I was re reading one of the dot hack mangas and I swear. I have been going back on this thought for almost over 10 years now. I could be tripping, but it feels like the manga took this iconic image from Chobits and the artist just took it, change some things about it, and put the character nearly in the same pose. The more I look at the art from the manga the more wrong I see from it.

[japanese-movie-god-at-yahoo]

[4akross]

[liminalepitaph]