.hack//Sign (trademarked as .hack//SIGN) is an anime television series directed by Koichi Mashimo and produced by studio Bee Train and Bandai Visual, that makes up one of the four original storylines of the .hack franchise. Twenty six original episodes aired on TV and three additional bonus episodes (Intermezzo, Unison, and Gift) were released on DVD as OVAs. The series features character design by Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, known for his work on Evangelion, and screenplay by Kazunori Ito, who penned Ghost in the Shell. The score was composed by Yuki Kajiura, marking her second collaboration with Koichi Mashimo.
.hack//Sign is influenced by psychological and sociological subjects such as anxiety, escapism, and interpersonal relationships. The series focuses on a Wavemaster (magic user) named Tsukasa, a player character of a virtual-reality massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) called The World. Tsukasa wakes up to find himself in a dungeon in The World, but he has no recent recollections as he wonders where he is and how he got there. The situation gets worse when he discovers he is not able to log out and is trapped in the game. From then on, along with other players Tsukasa embarks on a quest to figure out the truth behind his abnormal situation.
The show premiered in Japan on TV Tokyo between April 4, 2002 and September 25, 2002. It was broadcast across East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Latin America by the anime television network, Animax; and across the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom by Cartoon Network, YTV, and AnimeCentral (English and Japanese) respectively. It is distributed across North America by Bandai Entertainment.
The storyline moves at a leisurely pace, and has multiple layers the viewer is often fed false information and red herrings, potentially leading to confusion until the true nature of events is unveiled towards the end of the series. It relies on character development and has little to no action scenes; most of the time character interaction is presented in the form of dialogue. While the English language reception to .hack//Sign has been generally positive, it has received negative criticism from some sources as a result of the slow pacing and character-driven storyline.
