History Anime / DotHackSign

* InactionSequence: There are substantial stretches of dialogue in this series which can come across as filler. But because of the nature of the story, players are just trying to explain what is happening outside the scope of the game.

* WidgetSeries: There are enough qualities of ''The World'' to make it qualify, such as an HonestAxe quest featuring a water fairy with a deranged accent instead of Mercury, and an emo Grunty that runs away to be [[TheEeyore an Eeyore]] somewhere if you force it to grow up.

* UnbuiltTrope: .hack//Sign could practically be considered a deconstruction of Isekai stories such as ''Anime/SwordArtOnline'', except it came out years before they received anime adaptations and became the megahits they are now.

Airing back in 2002, ''.hack//SIGN'' is a 26-episode {{anime}} with 3 bonus episodes centering around a [[KidHero teenaged boy]] named Tsukasa who wakes up InsideAComputerSystem, an {{MMORPG}} called The World, with little memory of RealLife. Around the same time, a number of strange anomalies begin to occur in the game, causing a number of other characters to investigate the events surrounding Tsukasa and his strange connection to the game.

The show is notable for taking place inside an MMO yet featuring very little action. Most episodes consist of tense conversations between the various characters about the state of things, and [[SpeechCentricWork the show is largely dialog driven.]] It does not suffer from this. Also note that, while the show's character arcs are all resolved by the end, it's also partially made to set up the .hack games; thus, parts of the plot aren't resolved in this series.

See Franchise/DotHack for information about the franchise as a whole.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: There are player characters like Sora running around with green hair. [[spoiler: It's revealed that Subaru's player has blue hair in real life. Although, this might just be a stylization of the dark black hair some Japanese have that can almost have a blue sheen to it.]]

* HairColors: For the same reason as the FacialMarkings.

** Not immediately noticeable, but the unnamed long-arm mentor Mimiru has in the special OVA "Intermezzo" looks almost exactly like Gardenia from the main IMOQ games down to the starting weapon Gardenia has.

* ParentalSubstitute: Bear becomes one for Tsukasa.

* WorldOfCardboardSpeech: [[spoiler: Tsukasa at the end of the series.]]

** It's even a deconstruction of Isekai thematically: While most Isekai revels in escapism, .hack//SIGN's themes nearly all revolve around mental illness, and overcoming it through ''rejecting'' escapism.

* InternalReveal: At the end of the [[FirstEpisodeSpoiler first episode]], there is a [[FreezeFrameBonus ten second]] {{reveal shot}} of [[spoiler:Tsukasa's real self, An Shoji, collapsed in front of her computer]].

** As an added punch, [[spoiler: even the idea of a G.I.R.L. (Guy In Real Life) is deconstructed; Tsukasa is a girl offline, but plays using a masculine avatar. Most others she meets assume she's a guy due to her avatar, and Tsukasa herself is subject to so much MindRape over the series it's not hard to fault her when she forgets her real gender and refers to herself as a guy up until the final third.]]

** Interestingly, with the game included, this trope ''does'' apply to the protagonists! Tsukasa shares his appearance with Elk, Bear with Orca, and Subaru with Black Rose. In the OVA, the latter two even have an argument about who picked the look first.

* WomanInWhite: Aura and Helba.

* NoEnding: In the end, [[spoiler:nothing about Morgana gets resolved and the only real conclusion is that Tsukasa's player finally escapes to the real world, where Subaru is waiting for her. Except as they run towards each other, everything freezes with the world around them disolving. We are left to wonder if Tsukasa really escaped as the final scene is Morgana restating what she told Tsukasa at the very beginning over a shot of a desolate virtual landscape.]] Admittingly, since it's a prequel to ''VideoGame/DotHack'', it all basically sets up the game, but we don't learn [[spoiler:Tsukasa's true fate until the OVA that wraps up both the anime and the game's storylines where we learn Tsukasa did indeed escape.]]

* SchoolGirlLesbians: Tsukasa and Subaru.

* UnbuiltTrope: .Hack//Sign could practically be considered a deconstruction of Isekai stories such as ''Anime/SwordArtOnline'', except it came out years before they received anime adaptations and became the megahits they are now.
** You have Tsukasa, the socially awkward loser who gets trapped inside an MMO, except he's such a jerk to everyone he meets that few people can stand to be around him for more than 5 minutes and those who do eventually become his friends make it their mission to make him stop being such an ass.

The show is notable for taking place inside an MMO yet featuring very little action. Most episodes consist of tense conversations between the various characters about the state of things, and [[SpeechCentricWork the show is largely dialog driven.]] It does not suffer from this. Also note that the entire thing is just a setup for the .hack games, so large chunks of the plot aren't resolved in this series.

* JerkassWoobie: Tsukasa is a rather HUGE ass to everyone initially, but considering what he, [[spoiler:or more accurately she]], has gone through, its no wonder he deliberately pushes everyone away.

* WhyCouldntYouBeDifferent: Tsukasa's father doesn't like her for being a girl.