# .hack (2002)

> Young players in the vast online game The World discover that its mysteries may trap them inside it.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/8209

## Facts

- Seasons: 3
- Episodes: 64
- Episode runtime: 25 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: animation, science fiction, mystery
- Network: TV Tokyo, TV Aichi, TVQ, TV Osaka, TVh, TSC
- Cast: Kazuhiro Nakata, Akiko Hiramatsu, Junko Minagawa, Mai Nakahara, Yuki Matsuoka, Yuki Kaida, Megumi Toyoguchi, Ayako Kawasumi
- TMDB rating: 6.8/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0361140/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: measured
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: layered
- Violence: mild
- Tone: somber, atmospheric, melancholic, tense

## Synopsis

Hack (2002-2006) is a Japanese animated science fiction series produced by BeeTrain, set within a fictional massively multiplayer online role-playing game called The World. Several young players, voiced by Kazuhiro Nakata as Bear and Akiko Hiramatsu as BT, navigate its vast landscapes while uncovering a mystery that makes the game sometimes impossible to leave. Across three seasons and sixty-four episodes, the story follows the players through quests, fights and encounters that gradually reveal the hidden nature of the virtual world, while the group balances friendship with growing danger. The series builds its engine around the question of what is real inside a digital realm and how far its players can be pulled into it. Its tone is somber and atmospheric, with cyberspace imagery and a melancholy sense of unease. Fans of Sword Art Online, Serial Experiments Lain and Log Horizon will find resonance in its blend of online game adventure and psychological virtual reality tension.

## Shows like .hack

- [Kuma Kuma Kuma Bear (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/82345)
- [Log Horizon (2013)](https://ember.film/tv/54289)
- [And You Thought There Is Never a Girl Online? (2016)](https://ember.film/tv/58211)
- [Den-noh Coil (2007)](https://ember.film/tv/12379)
- [A.I.C.O. -Incarnation- (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/67225)
- [Accel World (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/39382)
- [Serial Experiments Lain (1998)](https://ember.film/tv/1020)
- [Sword Art Online (2012)](https://ember.film/tv/41520)
- [GOOD NIGHT WORLD (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/149366)
- [Shangri-La Frontier (2023)](https://ember.film/tv/127786)

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