#Sora dot hack

[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.

[hellyeahdothack]

Happy New Year, .hackers!

2024 is the year .hack//The Movie: Beyond the World takes place. Sora Yuuki, a 14 year old middle school student, reluctantly begins playing the wildly popular game The World FORCE:ERA. On her first day playing, she meets a mysterious woman dressed in white.

Strange things begin happening in The World. What part will Sora play?

[gentlehands]

Artist  @prankstar_ih

[asterlizard]

I just rewatched Dot Hack Sign and I couldn't help but laugh at some of Sora's antics

[wantonglances]

So I watched dot hack sign on your recommendation, but I don't get the ending. Who are those characters that show up and join the party? Why is Sora magically free? I'm confused ;_;

ASKDL;KL I'm so glad someone actually watched it on my rec. the last episode (maybe the last two? idr if it's just the one or both) technically take place after the events of the games this anime is a sequel to. since you said you don't get the ending, let's say that it's just the last episode that has these new characters. episodes 1-25 are the first part of the story, then the .hack// quadrilogy, referred to for ease of discussion as IMOQ, then episode 26 of .hack//SIGN. teeeeechnically there's another subseries in there called .hack//LIMINALITY but the narrative has it told in four parts, interspersed in-between the game installments. and that series can only be found 1) on the individual discs that came with the PS2 games, 2) on pirating websites. which is to say, it's not uninteresting, just not mandatory watching imo. SIGN is mandatory for understanding IMOQ, and kiiinda also vice versa. the last game, Quarantine, introduces previously anime-exclusive characters like Tsukasa, Subaru, and Sora, but they're not important to the story, just easter eggs for the SIGN watcher.

ANYWAYS, the events of Quarantine have Kite (blue haired guy in orange clothes at the end of SIGN) and friends saving Sora from Skeith, the entity that absorbed him in SIGN. Mother, the entity communing with Tsukasa, is defeated and The World is saved, so everyone has a party to celebrate. the white haired winged guy, and the red haired Blademaster who were with Kite at the end of SIGN, are actually Balmung of the Azure Sky, and Orca of the Azure Sea, the Descendants of Fianna that Bear and Subaru both mention in early episodes as being defenders of The World. Kite becomes the third Descendant, Kite of the Azure Flame, not just because of his role in defeating Mother (known in IMOQ as Morganna) but also for triumphing against an in-game boss known as The One Sin, a threat similar in scale to Mother/Morganna (but with less irl fuckery)

hope this helps to clear some of it up!!

[braveryhearted]

More obscure muses ( Introduction ) series.

Fandom: Dot Hack GU.

Muse #1- Haseo / Ryou Misaki ( also known as Sora during Dot Hack IMOQ which took years prior to all GU events ).

Age: 17-19 ( anime, manga, light novels and games )

The main protagonist of the Dot Hack GU games and other forms of the GU media. Haseo initially was very friendly when joining The World R:2, until being tricked by a group a PKers who took advantage of his naivety. After this event, he becomes cold and self-centered, although he holds a soft spot for Shino. He finds it hard to get close to people, as his previous experience with the PKers resulted in him being betrayed.

When Shino was attacked by Tri-Edge, he stopped at nothing to find out what happened to her and tried get his revenge. As he progressed, Haseo learned to trust his new friends and grew as a person. Though not as warm, he is a great leader and is willing to risk everything for those he hold dear. Also, despite his profession as the PKKer "Terror of Death" in Roots, Haseo hates rumors and forums, disdainfully calling it "idle chatter". His preferred sources for information are PKs and "professional victims" like Bordeaux and Midori, respectively, as they are far more likely to encounter the mysterious PKer, Tri-Edge, than the rumor-mills on the BBS.

Ovan mysteriously vanished during a major fight before the events of the games. Without its leader the guild that Haseo belonged to, Brigade, soon collapsed. Haseo decided to remain with Shino as not to abandon her like the leader did. However, without warning Shino was forcibly taken away from him. The culprit was an infamous PKer named Tri-Edge. He had PKed Shino while she was alone at the Hulle Granz Cathedral and somehow had placed her into a coma in reality. With only his name and a short description to go on, Haseo began to hunt Tri-Edge, hoping to find a way to bring Shino back.

Wanting more power, Haseo entered an event known as the Forest of Pain. At the center, a brief encounter with Harald Hoerwick gave his character tremendous power. With this power he began ruthlessly hunting PKers, acquiring the title "The Terror of Death" after killing 100 PKers at once. Eventually he succeeded in finding Azure Kite, who he thought to be Tri-Edge, but was defeated by his Data Drain attack. His character was reformatted and sent back to level 1, forcing Haseo to start all over again.

"Haseo" is an alternate reading of the characters in a Japanese poet's, Matsuo Bashou's, name. His disciple, Kawai Sora, was the inspiration for Sora's name. Haseo's player, Ryou Misaki, is a sophomore student attending a famous private high school. He lives alone in Tokyo, and his dad owns a major company. He visits Shino, who is in a coma, at the hospital everyday. He decided to play The World R:2 after talking to a friend who used to play its previous version, The World.

He was once the player behind Sora, but lost all memory of it and The World after being Data Drained by Skeith. Meanwhile, Sora's data continued on as a vagrant AI and eventually reunited him as Skeith. Being an Epitaph User, Haseo acquires a Lost Weapon as part of the main storyline: a rare Scythe called "Ticking Death", which is renamed to "Shadowy Death" once evolved to its final form.

Fun facts: Haseo's Japanese voice actor, Takahiro Sakurai, is also known for voicing Cloud Strife, from Final Fantasy VII. Both of Haseo's game voices are the same as Suzaku Kururugi from Code Geass. Takahiro Sakurai in Japanese and Yuri Lowenthal in English.

[frosteee]

Poor Kid (Thoughts on the end of .hack//SIGN)

I’ve always felt a bit weird about the ending to .hack//SIGN (counting UNISON as the ending). This is because of the the fact that none of the players get involved (beyond cameos) in the following events (//INFECTION etc.), and how it affected my favourite character from that series.

Yeah, it was a happy ending for everyone - except Sora. You know, the child who was put in a coma for A YEAR (according to the series timeline - from 2009-2010). 

[LONG, 17-YEAR LATE RANT AHEAD]

[JESUS, 17 YEARS?]

The Problems

Tsukasa and co. had to have heard about it. The infamous PKer who was always around suddenly isn’t not around anymore. The infamous PKer who bought them time to escape Morganna, who told Tsukasa he was going to be ‘right behind’ them, never appeared.

The last place anyone saw him was in the domain of a crazed, homicidal God A.I bent on murdering them all. 

Nobody put two and two together?! Nobody looked at one another and asked, “Hey, where’s Sora?” 

Did nobody give a shit? They moved the world for Tsukasa, another child they barely knew and who gave them more than enough trouble, but not Sora? They managed to find out the state of Tsukasa’s player, but not Sora?

Sora might have annoyed and inconvenienced people, but he was a stupid kid. A ten-year-old kid in an online game where you can do anything you want. He didn’t deserve a fate worse than death. Not even Silver Knight, who despised him, would hold such a grudge to say that Sora’s player deserved to lay comatose for a year, his consciousness sealed into a monster’s weapon, and a fragment of himself condemned to wander The World as a A.I. 

But who saves Sora? A total stranger, who reacts to his thanks with confusion (basically ”Uh, you’re welcome? Who are you??”). Kid didn't even know Sora existed or what happened.

I love the show and the series to pieces, but it would’ve been nice for the games to have the SIGN players return and help Kite in the name of helping Sora, someone they know who is still affected by the shit that went down back then.

Really, with all that considered, Sora should really be angry with Tsukasa and the rest. As far as he’s concerned, they left him to suffer alone for a full year before some rando kid saved him by accident. Nobody bothered to make sure he survived the face-off with Morganna - the crazed, homicidal God A.I. Not even Tsukasa, who had promised to be his friend.

Never mind dancing with them - the first words out of Sora’s mouth at the Unison party should have been: “WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK, YOU MOTHERFUCKERS?”

In all seriousness, there’s a definitive lack of development and investment in Sora’s character that makes his inclusion in Unison seem... wrong. He should be angry with Tsukasa and the others for forgetting him. He should be sad because the one friend Sora thought he had made never reciprocated the help he had given - nobody he knew did. 

No, they weren’t bosom buddies, by any means, but the entire SIGN series showed us that these people - Bear, Mimiru, etc. - were not people who would sit idle while knowing someone was suffering and in danger, especially someone they knew.

The problem lies with the games, I think, and how the characters and events of SIGN were treated as cameo fare rather than something to weave into the main plot.

THE FIX

The first game, INFECTION, could have easily done away with this problem. The Wandering Sora A.I and the SIGN cast’s hunt for Skeith could have been incorporated easily into Kite’s mission, without taking over Kite’s story. They could have been cameos/NPCs in the following games after Skeith was defeated and Sora returned. Useful allies in the fight against evil, all that.

ENDGAME

This would have made UNISON so much more powerful, because we, the audience who have seen SIGN and played the games, know that these people are friends and have fought together, and that Sora is alive and well here because of their efforts.

Sora would know that too. Always found it weird how some people return from comas with their memories intact and pop right back into the game for more (looking at you, G.U!), and others, like Silver Knight and Sora, get their memories completely wiped. Convenience, probably, Haseo had to be a blank slate, so no SIGN baggage for him.

Anyway, Sora, with his memories intact (because ow the feelings) would be a (slightly) older boy who has went through so much suffering and seen people come to his aid, even though he pissed them off 99% of the time. That shit would stick. No more PKing - he has friends now! Yeah, he’s still a kid, but he’s not nearly as reckless or immature.

I’m just dreaming now, lol, but even when I first watched UNISON, having watched SIGN and played the games (well... two of them, gah), it felt weird to see Sora just... doing his regular thing, like nothing happened, and then suddenly all pally with everyone at the end because Tsukasa happened to notice him crying (as touching as that scene was, not going to lie I wanted to hug him).

It all felt a bit... hollow? Strange? 

This is the end of everyone’s story here - and the end of Sora’s story too (unless G.U was in the works by this point). Its purpose was to show how far everyone has come, how the turmoil and support has brought them all together. 

UNISON should have demonstrated Sora’s change from a reckless, lonely, stupid kid to a kid with friends, who values those friends, and doesn’t need to shift his own suffering onto others to make himself feel good for five seconds. 

He’s gone through so much shit, we as viewers/players know that - yet UNISON wraps it up without there being much to wrap up because the games didn’t bother.

Instead, Sora is the same as before. Sora owes Mistral and everyone at that party his life - or he should - yet he continues his regular PK schtick and challenges Silver Knight to a fight. Everyone around him reacts as if that is the case. What was the point of all the hell he went through? 

Really everything except that scene with Tsukasa should be different. Perhaps, despite everything, despite growing as a person, Sora still fears rejection, fears - like a little boy would - that the people who saved him only did so out of obligation and don’t really like him. So he hides. Tsukasa notices that Sora is missing from the gathering, so he goes to find him. Tsukasa finds Sora hiding and upset, assures him his fears are unfounded, and brings him out to dance.

Poor kid, he deserves it!

(LOOK AT HIS SMILING FACE DAMNIT. WOULDN’T YOU PROTECT THAT SMILE? PROTECT THAT SMILE AT ALL COSTS.)

[eightyuh]

allow me to express my opinion in a language you’ll understand:

[artificervaldi]

Quick n dirty edits of Link Haseo to give him a skintone more akin to G.U./Roots, since I like Link but Haseo’s skintone always bothered me a bit.

(Originals under cut for comparisons)

[pupusukka]

Member address please uwu

[hellyeahdothack]

The .hack official Twitter has posted nine pages from the .hack//G.U. Begins comic titled “Encounter”, featuring Sora, Tsukasa and the Crimson Knights from .hack//SIGN.

Remaining eight pages are under the read more. 

[omegablacky]

Kingdom hearts vs Dot-Hack GU,which do you think is better? 

[otakween]

Digimon Adventure (Blind Watch) - Episode 19

Okay I watched this one twice too because I fell asleep the first time LOL. Although this episode was kind of slow and boring, it definitely contained some interesting lore so I was making sure to pay close attention the second time around. Honestly, I feel like they over-complicated the explanation, but basically they're in a digital world that's parallel to Earth. It feels kind of crazy we're only coming to this conclusion now on episode 19. I mean, they're called DIGITAL monsters, what else would the explanation be lol.

Digimon introduced: Nanomon

Notes:

-IF YOU DIE IN THE GAME YOU DIE FOR REAL! Lol oh no, I'm back in Dot Hack hell again. I kinda knew instinctively that that was the premise, but I guess this is set apart from the other video game isekai because they're in "the network" rather in a specific game. I feel like they're in like the 90s idea of what the internet was ("a series of tubes" lol)

-With the network map Koushiro used in his explanation, it made things kind of confusing. They're inside the "shadow network" of the Earth, but then within the digital world Etemon has a network as well which I guess is unrelated. Lol what if there was a meta digital world inside of Etemon's network? -brain explodes-

-Taichi has been a dumbass one too many times at this point. Honestly getting fed up with his character. I feel like he was just written to create conflict and drive the plot forward. (I know he's like 10, but I feel like he keeps learning the same lessons over and over again)

-Takeru got his crest so fast that I blinked and missed it both times. Those scenes started out all dramatic and now it's just like "yay, I guess"

-Really enjoying the dub more than the sub at this point, despite some of the characters grating voices (Mimi, Tai, and Agumon in particular). Sometimes you just need the dumb jokes to get you through a boring episode.

-Etemon continues to be a lame villain, although it was nice to see him fight for himself for once instead of just tooling around a caravan

-Nanomon kidnaps Sora and Piyomon to "harness their power." Seems like a weird choice to me. Not sure how much power he's going to get from a little girl and a tired, rookie level digimon.

-With the revelation that this world is digital, I feel like I would rethink the whole "We have to stay here until we defeat the evil in this world" thing. If I was Koushiro, I'd wonder if you could just program your way out of things or go back to the real world and solve stuff from there somehow.

[quetonteria]

Sora was one of my favs despite his fugly outfit!!

[doedipus]

What if Sora got added to smash but it was actually that chuuni kid from dot hack sign

[frosteee]

Look at his baby smile! <3