is .hack//SIGN the first anime of .hack??

[Duck Zero]

hey, i just started watching .hack//SIGN. and it's pretty good. but i have one problem. i don't understand s**t. there's tons of different .hack anime out there, and i was pretty confused on what to choose. since i havn't seen the very first episodes/beginning of .hack, i was looking for the first anime in the series. i've previoulsy read the .hack//legend of the twilight manga and read the .hack//AI Buster novel, but those were just sequels and prequels. i wanted the BEGINNING. so i remembered a friend telling me he watched .hack//SIGN and i figured maybe this is the beginning??so i gave it a try. but i didn't really understand much. like the whole plot. it's just to convoluted. it starts out with ( if i'm right ) a character called Elk ( as far as i'm concerned ) and there's this character called Mimiru ( which uses the Black Rose avatar ) and it just starts off like that. but the problem is Elk can't log out ( cuz of the Pluto Kiss virus??? ) i havn't gotten any explanations this far either. i havn't seen neither Balmung, Orca or Kite. why is that so??? have i got the wrong anime?? anyway, what i'm looking for is the story which is mentioned a lot in the //legend of the twilight manga. the story of "The .Hackers" and Kite, Black Rose, and Balmung of the Azure sky. if u even understood anything of this, and think u know what i'm looking for, plz post it here, and give me the name/link to the series  

[Destry]

If you wanted the beginning as in anime, it's .hack//Sign. However, the AI Buster novels came first, but they are more related to the manga. Not everything that happened is handed right to you and it's a little confusing at first I guess. It's Tsukasa, not Elk, and yes, he's trapped in the world. 3nodding Pluto's Kiss had nothing to do with that-- that was a virus that overswept the internet before Sign. It basically shut down all of the systems in the world... and was the repsonsibility of a ten year old boy.

If you're looking for the .hackers, they come after Sign in the PS2 games (Infection, Mutation, etc.) and that's where you'll see Kite and the gang, though Orca and Balmung are mentioned a few rare times in Sign and make an appearance like... once I think. XD

This timeline should be helpful for the order events and well, since that's .hack//Wiki, it also has a bunch of other stuff pertaining to the series.

But yeah! Don't give up on the anime. Sign is where it's at. <3  

[Bittersweet SymphonyXL]

.Hack//Sign is the first anime and to clear the confusion I suggest reading up on it abit I didn't have to do that though since I followed the series almost religiously. It obviously takes place before the first games and GU/Roots =/

 

[Duck Zero]

aha...thx for the clariation ppl 4laugh the reason i maybe thought it was the Pluto Kiss shut-down, was because in episode 2 of //SIGN, u saw, in the ending of the episode, a girl lying on the ground unconsious, in the real world. and there were something about a shutdown or something wink well, whatever. thx anyway smile  

[a n g e l i c o r p s e]

It was my first .hack show to me, me and my friend were up one night and we watched it, it was around 5 am and i looked on the Directv guide and it was called .hack//sign. Ever since i loved it and watched .hack//roots and .hack//Gift and played games Vol. 1 Rebirth which was cool but i need Vol. 2 and Vol. 3.  

[[[- Midori -]]]

Duck Zero

aha...thx for the clariation ppl 4laugh the reason i maybe thought it was the Pluto Kiss shut-down, was because in episode 2 of //SIGN, u saw, in the ending of the episode, a girl lying on the ground unconsious, in the real world. and there were something about a shutdown or something wink well, whatever. thx anyway smile

The girl lying on the ground was Tsukasa (in real life). That was when she fell into a coma and her concious mind got trapped in the game.  

[Meliu]

Destry

If you wanted the beginning as in anime, it's .hack//Sign. However, the AI Buster novels came first, but they are more related to the manga. Not everything that happened is handed right to you and it's a little confusing at first I guess. It's Tsukasa, not Elk, and yes, he's trapped in the world. 3nodding Pluto's Kiss had nothing to do with that-- that was a virus that overswept the internet before Sign. It basically shut down all of the systems in the world... and was the repsonsibility of a ten year old boy.

If you're looking for the .hackers, they come after Sign in the PS2 games (Infection, Mutation, etc.) and that's where you'll see Kite and the gang, though Orca and Balmung are mentioned a few rare times in Sign and make an appearance like... once I think. XD

This timeline should be helpful for the order events and well, since that's .hack//Wiki, it also has a bunch of other stuff pertaining to the series.

But yeah! Don't give up on the anime. Sign is where it's at. <3

that time line is cofusing me...  

[Angel Delaestella]

.hack//SIGN is the premordial soup of all things project .hack. though AI busters is taking place during SIGN, their situations would not have taken place if not for the activities done by the busy bees that was the cast of SIGN.

.hack//SIGN was also my first and I was hooked on it. Though it was confusing, you have to re watch things and come to the understanding that it is a play on of psychology more than a beat-um-up run of the mill anime. I'm sure any fan of .hack knows that. However, It is a character study, so the way to look at things is to realize indevidual character's imput on a subject or conversation and let that guide you to how these characters are and how they interact. You will then see how they evolve as the series goes on. Also the emense amount of trivia in the series leaves you with much fill in the blank, but it's an oppertunity for you to get caught up in the chase for Tsukasa and the Key of the Twilight yourself. This is such a great anime because it allows you to get personally involved with all aspects of it making you question you intention fro getting so attached like Bear or Mimiru. When you get attached you tend to care a little too much and get caught in the web that Morgana herself spun and Tsukasa tangled.

That's a small tid-bit on my take of analyzing .hack//SIGN, personally to me the best of anything project .hack has ever p[ut out. nothing will ever come close.  

[The Propagation - Magus]

You probably got so confused BECAUSE Sign wasn't the first one you watched and you got the characters and events confused with one another. :/  

[Ben The 9 Tail Fox Demon]

is it still on