#.hack//link

[chanchimi]

Lady Subaru

[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.

[saikaamagireborn]

.Rippon -Saika Complementary Story- Translation (translated by KazeTrigger)

(Translated by Kazetrigger, commissioned by Me)

Before we jump into this, I must explained this to you all. .Rippon is a doujinshi and unofficial artbook by Kikuya Megane, the illustrator and designer for .hack//Link and .hack//Link -Twilight Knights- (Manga).

This book contains anthology manga, art design archives for .hack//Link & .hack//XXXX, some from other series, and finally, we got an major pages story dedicated to characters of .hack//Link, Saika Amagi.

And now let's get to her story that were never been told in .hack//Link. This story written by Ryou Suzukaze.

#1 Novel Part

The story took place after the event of Tokio attaining his Xth Form, but before the event of Alternate Record timeline of .hack//G.U.

This story tells about how she got catch a cold as it shown during that time in Link.

#2 Manga Part

This story might be non-canon, it's still indicates that it leads to the canon story.

The story took place after the ending of .hack//Link, surprisingly Tokio inviting Saika for a date.

And that's for the story. It took much more while to find this doujinshi book, just to enjoy undiscovery Saika's story. I run through all sorts of trouble to find it and finally it got in my hands now.

So grateful for this opporturnity to resolve one of this story that never gets told in .hack//Link.

I also wanna thank you to Kazetrigger for translating this story for me. It's a life-time opporturnity and I can't miss this chance. As part of thank you for him, you can also enjoy a finished English Translation Project of .hack//Link which is now on his website.

That's resolve for that. Hope you all enjoy this tiny, but rare story of Saika.

P.S. Actually, I don't know if there's still book to support, because this doujinshi is very rare and cannot be get anywhere, so this is life-time opporturnity to do this.

[gentlehands]

[nuderobotbeach]

Assorted .hack dragons for your viewing pleasure

[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".

[4akross]

lol with all the controversy around AI art here is art of a literal AI Artist

[wrenderart]

I made this a couple of months ago but. hack your 3ds. do it right now.

[ben-the-hyena]

WARNING TO ANYONE USING FURAFFINITY, PASS IT ON!!!!

[pitagain]

#365DaysOfVGM Day 120:

LieN - Stairs of Time (.hack//Link [2010])

During my research on franchises featured in Project X Zone, two IPs in particular caught my interest:

.Hack//, and Little Tail Bronx, the former IP being because of a different version of this song I 1st heard when I played the Demo A of Project X Zone in the mid-2010s (Remember when the 3DS EShop still accepted purchases? Yeah, its only been a month, yet feels like a memory of a forgotten past). With it being featured here, you can already tell that even the watered down “Stairs of Time” I heard back then was impressive enough to grab my attention!

I’ve featured the latter IP before, via Little Tail Story’s “To the Other Side of Light” song 79 days ago, but didn’t elaborate on it, because the Twitter character limit was a thing back when I had an account there. I’ll get to that later, but if you browse my Cohost, you’ll already know part of why I love Little Tail Bronx. Reason I bring all this up, is because of my plan to play and watch the .Hack// multimedia franchise in full someday, with prior knowledge of what shared company CyberConnect2 is capable of when they’re at their best.

At the core of this phenomenal song are an impactful Piano and well-placed Bells for the relaxed portions, with the rest held tightly together by sick Guitar melodies and epic singing from Tomoyo Mitani, the vocalist half of CyberConnect2’s regular music duo LieN, with Chikayo Fukuda putting in her own effort as the composer half.

LieN are also responsible for the aforementioned “To the Other Side of Light” song, where their common choices for String instruments can also be heard. Ending it off is a Piano roll with tons of reverb, to make it sound all mystical, I love it when music pieces do that! Even without knowledge of the franchise yet, you might get emotionally attached to this track like I did, it’s really that powerful!

Perhaps when my experience with the .Hack// franchise truly begins, I’ll also have more cool things to say about the song itself. I’ve given a special spot to this track for this very day, marking a moment to go back to and expand upon, for when I’ve finally shaped my own history with .Hack//

(Length: 4+ minutes)

[charlietheepicwriter7]

"Grandfather."

Ra's knew who the boy was the moment he'd snuck into the room. He'd allowed the child--more man than child now, but everyone was a child compared to him--moments to steel himself while Ra's refrained from acknowledging his presence. The boy's breath was barely audible but unsteady, and a drop of something fell to the floor.

His grandson was injured. "Danyal," he greeted and finally gazed upon him for the first time in seven years.

Danyal had grown into his father's height, yet stayed lean in regards to his musculature. His black hair had grown out of the League-regulation haircut, held back in a messy braid. He held himself as strong as he could, but kept an arm wrapped around his stomach. His shirt--standard American teenage garb, he dismissed--was spotted with blood and he could see bandages poking out from under the cloth.

With great care, Danyal knelt before the Demon Head and recited the Oath of Loyalty.

Ra's watched.

The boy's tongue, fat with English, spoke the League's variant of Arabic with the grace of a mace to the head, yet his words were clear. He took his time speaking the oath, carefully sounding out words, working hard to avoid mispronunciation. The Oath in question was the older version, from before Deathstroke's insurrection, but Danyal spoke it with a calm certainty that it would be accepted.

And without a doubt, it would be accepted.

Talia's eldest son had been born from her body instead of through science, a mistake that nearly cost her the child and damaged him upon birth. While the best doctors in the world saved his life, Danyal Al Ghul would always be weak in a fight, always prone to illness, always struggling to excel. When it became clear that the boy couldn't become the next Demon Head, Ra's sent Talia to create a replacement while arrangements were made for her first child to be taught business and science, for the betterment of the League. Danyal, very much his father's child, thrived in his intellectual pursuits while Damian grew and developed into a budding assassin.

But Danyal was more like his father than he'd ever knew. Ra's couldn't miss the signs of one of his family turning away from the League. Not the mission--Danyal had written several university level papers defending the environment by the time the boy was 10--but Ra's methods...

Ra's had a conundrum. Danyal was a dedicated conservationist; once the boy was an adult, Ra's was certain he'd take the world by storm and bring the League to new heights. But if he forced his methods onto Danyal, he could create an enemy of him, just as his father was.

Ra's gave Danyal an offer; Danyal would be allowed to leave the League and live a normal life if and only if he faked his own death in such a way that reinforced Damian's loyalty to the League of Assassins.

Danyal had been hesitant at first, but past his test with flying colors. Instigating one of the more unstable assassins into organizing a coup, cutting the insurgents off near immediately, but "dying" protecting both his younger brother and mother. It was a masterful performance. Even Talia hadn't known about the deceit.

And yet, here he was, on his knees, pledging loyalty. Danyal knew what that meant, knew what he was returning to, which morals he would be allowed to keep.

"And what do you bring with you, child of no one?" Why should the League accept the return of this child, who left once before?

Danyal met his eyes. "I bring with me, my team, who are loyal to me and me alone. I bring with me, research surrounding the Lazarus Pits, in origins and further uses for the waters." Ra's raised an eyebrow, and Danyal smirked. "I bring with me, my knowledge, nurtured within this very home and sharpened in the world outside. I bring with me, my weapons, built with my own hands. I bring with me... my body, finally healthy and whole." He brought his head down to the floor, trembling with pain. "I bring my whole self to the Demon's Head, for Him to accept or reject."

Ra's smiled. "By the shadows that guard our order and the blood that binds us, I accept this oath. From this day forward, you are an instrument of the League, a harbinger of justice, and a weapon in the hand of Ra's Al Ghul."

Danyal returned to his feet, swaying percariously. He needed immediate medical attention. Despite this, he continued, "Long live the League of Assassins. Long live Ra's Al Ghul."

And he collapsed onto the floor.

[saikaamagireborn]

Beautiful😊😇🥰😍

[gentlehands]

[doctorcanon]

So ocarina of time goes to great lengths to show that the Hero of Time doesn't kill anything that's not a monster. If you shoot a patrolling Gerudo, you knock her out. One of the ones that ambush you even says that he hit her with the flat of his sword. He doesn't (can't?) kill the Skull Kids that attack him as an adult in the Lost Woods. This continues into Majora's Mask when he moves to restrain the Skull Kid rather than attack him even thought he has a sword. And even in Twilight Princess. Even though it's only briefly mentioned in the manga and hyrule historia about how careful The Hero's Shade is with the Hero of Twilight.

ALL I'M SAYING IS: The Hero of Time is actually an incredibly gentle person and Zelda bound Ganon at the end to protect Link from having to kill him a second time.

[thottybrucewayne]

Another James Somerton lie that's super egregious to me is his lying about Janelle Monáe having to come out of the closet when Pynk came out because "Everyone got confused and thought the song was a girl power anthem when it was really Janelle's coming out song." and making a big deal about erasure and what not but it's like A. None of that is true the second that music video came out everybody and they mama said, "Janelle Monáe gay?????????????????" That was the primary reading of the music video, and it's very well-documented B. It could be argued that the music is somewhat of a "girl power" anthem too and I doubt Janelle would have an issue with that interpretation given that Pynk has a very "owning your sexuality and taking up space" message. C. Funny that James Somerton would make such an impassioned defense of an artist being "forced" to come out because he literally lied on a bisexual writer who was forced to come out after people assumed that she was some gross straight woman obsessed with gay men. James, who supposedly did alllllllll this research, lumped that author in with the "Straight woman who writes gay men's stories." in his video and proceeded to get pissy with her when she left a pretty mild comment of "Hey, after a whole harassment campaign against me forcing me to come out of the closet it kinda sucks that people are still calling me straight." Then, after very gently being called out over him erasing her sexuality to fit his narrative, he proceeded to omit the title of that author's work in his later videos and make up a lie about her being mean to him on Twitter when his audience questioned him on it. LITERALLY TALKIN OUTTA BOTH SIDES OF HIS MOUTH

This whole situation reminds me of a TikTok creator who's been called out for stealing from Black women all the time and how every time it's brought up, it's met with silence. Once, He just straight-up read out a Black trans femme's tweets without properly crediting her or asking her for permission to use her work. Making the excuse of "Well, I screenshotted the tweets and put them on the screen so..." then his fans spent days bashing her for calling him out on using the work of other creators without asking and making fun of her for having a donation up which I don't think he ever addressed outside of the occasional stray comment.

This way of "building a progressive brand" through stealing the work of marginalized writers is actually common in left circles and academia and has been an issue, particularly for Black trans femme essayists, for a while. Black MaGes (people of marginalized genders) will come out and say, "Hey! This really popular essayist ripped me off word for word bar for bar" and get paid dust because their platform isn't large enough to speak out and because their platforms are smaller, people are less inclined to care when they get ripped off. Like, it's easy for us to point at James and say, "Omg? How could he get away with stealing this much for so long?" when the answer is simple, nobody cares what you have to say if you don't have a big platform, thus nobody cares if you get stolen from and unfortunately, we're all complicit. Look at how much this situation has blown up just because a super-popular guy brought it up. If Hbomb and Todd in the shadows didn't speak on this story and these small creators made a bigger stink about James biting their shit, yall would have ignored them at best or crucified them and accused them of trying to tear down the body of work of a gay man and probably throw in something about them secretly being a kiwi farms troll trying to sew discord in the community (I know how yall get down...) at worst. To address this issue more substantially, WE have to be better about learning slowly and taking time to pour over materials ourselves and not fall into the trap of letting whatever video essayist we like the best at the moment shape how we think and feel about whatever topic they're covering. Ismatu Gwendolyn and their threadings essays on substack have really helped me personally start removing myself from the "quick learner" rat race and the need to digest as much information as possible that video essays fulfill and reintroduced me to learning slowly and with intention and reading sources for myself first without depending on the thoughts and feelings of a creator I like and agree with to color my view of things. If we work towards getting used to treating video essayists like essayists and not our parasocial besties being our beginning and end to learning on a topic, we can A. Mitigate the amount of misinformation and plagiarized work circulating by being able to identify them easier and B. Improve our personal relationship to learning so we don't have to rely on some stranger with "bisexual lighting" to make us feel smart.

Edit: Please rb the typo-less version,,,,