List of .hack//Sign characters
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
This list contains the primary and notable secondary characters in .hack//Sign, a Japanese anime series.
The characters' names as officially defined by Bandai and CyberConnect2 are listed first, followed by the name in Japanese. The romaji rendering of the Japanese name is given as an aside in certain cases (most notably that of Silver Knight, whose name was translated literally).
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[edit] Main characters
Tsukasa (司?) is a Wavemaster and the main character. At the start of the series, he is seen waking up to find himself in a dungeon in The World, but he has no idea why he is there or who he is. Not much time passes until Tsukasa discovers he is trapped in the game, unable to log out. He is initially depicted as a cynical loner who tends to avoid others as much as possible, but his character development shows how he grows to realize there are people who care about him.
Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga (Japanese), Brianne Siddall (English)
Subaru (昴?) is a female Heavy Axeman introduced as the leader of the Crimson Knights, a player organization designed to fight injustice in The World. At times she is the only character preventing the Crimson Knights from running wild; she knows that they must restrain from abusing their power. She eventually joins in the search of a way to help Tsukasa, and builds a strong relationship with him.
Voiced by: Kaori Nazuka (Japanese), Kim Mai Guest (English)
Mimiru (ミミル?) is a Heavy Blade, described on Helba Gate as a tough-it-out-through-anything, devil-may-care fighter who is poor at planning things out and following through on them.[1] She is the first player to meet Tsukasa, and later forms a bond with him and vows to protect him. She usually hangs out with Bear, trying to solve the mystery of Tsukasa's inability to log out.
Voiced by: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese), Amanda Winn-Lee (English)
Bear (ベア Bea?) is an older player of the game and plays a Blademaster. He appears as cool and collected, always willing to help out newbies, giving off an experienced air. He also conducts research in the real world on Tsukasa in the attempt to try to figure out who he really is; he is in fact the first character who discovers Tsukasa's real life identity. Bear is usually seen hanging out with Mimiru and BT. In an interview, Kōichi Mashimo acknowledged similarities between Bear's design and Mel Gibson in his role as William Wallace.[2]
Voiced by: Kazuhiro Nakata (Japanese), Paul Mercier (English)
BT is a Wavemaster, considered by Helba Gate as a plotting and scheming character who forms friendships just to achieve a goal.[1] She rarely ventures out to fight monsters, but she appears to be good with both offensive and defensive magic.[1] BT teams up with Crim to find the Key of the Twilight, a rumored powerful rare item. Her quest leads her to the upside down dungeon, where she discovers the AI Harald.
Voiced by: Akiko Hiramatsu (Japanese), Donna Rawlins (English)
Sora (楚良?) is a Twin Blade player killer who enjoys hunting players down, especially attractive female ones, and demanding their Member Addresses in exchange for their lives. He sees Tsukasa as the strongest link to the Key of the Twilight, and starts to work with BT in the quest for the item. He also helps BT and the others to contact Helba. In the English dub Sora is given lines in leet-speak, a feature not present in the original Japanese version.
Voiced by: Hiroshi Yanaka (Japanese), Dave Wittenberg (English)
Silver Knight (銀漢 Ginkan?) is second-in-command of the Crimson Knights. As described by Frank Ellis he possesses a strong sense of justice (becoming overzealous at times),[3] but is extremely naïve, leading him to end up as more of a tool to be used by whoever is in control.[4] He is extremely overprotective of Subaru. Silver Knight's PC is an edited version of the standard Crimson Knight design.
Voiced by: Isshin Chiba (Japanese), Douglas Rye (English)
Crim (クリム Kurimu?) is a powerful Long Arm, friend of Subaru who founded the Crimson Knights organization with her, but afterwards left it as he found it did not match his personality. Amiable, easygoing and sociable; he prefers to keep the real world and the game separate. Crim's stated goal when playing is simply to have fun,[5] although he never turns down a chance to help somebody in need.
Voiced by: Shinichiro Miki (Japanese), Lex Lang (English)
[edit] AI (Artificial Intelligence)
Macha (マハ Maha?) is a cat-like NPC who is sent by Morganna to lure Tsukasa into her trap.[6] Although she comes from Morganna's own program,[7][8][6] eventually she grows closer to Tsukasa, and ends up defying Morganna for his sake.[1] It's unclear whether she uses text or whisper mode to communicate as she is shown moving her lips but having no speaking voice.[1]
Morganna (モルガナ Morugana?) is the core system of The World; introduced in .hack//Sign as an omnipresent AI that was created to help Aura develop.[9][6] Eventually she realizes that once Aura is born, she will lose her purpose.[10] Thus, Morganna links Tsukasa to Aura, which put Tsukasa's real life self into a coma, and attempts to push him into utter despair to feed only negative thoughts to Aura in order to stop her development.[11]
Voiced by: Rie Tanaka (Japanese), Valerie Arem (English)
Aura (アウラ?) is the ultimate AI, created by Harald Hoerwick to serve as his "daughter".[9][10] She appears as a young girl clad entirely in white floating above a bed. She becomes directly linked to Tsukasa through the actions of Morganna, to the point where Tsukasa's mood alone dictates her development.[11]
Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese), Lia Sargent (English)
Harald Hoerwick (ハロルド・ヒューイック Harorudo Hyūikku?) is the creator of The World. He created Aura, the ultimate AI, to serve as the "daughter" he never had with Emma Wielant, and left Morganna to watch over Aura and help her develop.[10] .hack//Mutation reveals that he gave up his flesh and became an AI himself to talk with Morganna.[12] Around the middle of .hack//Sign the AI version of Harald is shown in an upside down dungeon, where he is met by Tsukasa and other characters who are looking for the Key of the Twilight.
Voiced by: Takumi Yamazaki (Japanese), Crispin Freeman (English)
Skeith (スケイス Sukeisu?) is one of eight Phases of the Cursed Wave. Once Aura awakens, Morganna forms her own data into physical beings inside the game; monsters that takes the form of the eight Phases of the Epitaph of the Twilight (an epic poem used by Harald as the basis for the prototype of The World), and sends them to hunt Aura down.[8] Skeith is the first of the eight Phases, introduced at the end of the series, after Tsukasa, Subaru, and Mimiru run away with Aura to Net Slum.
[edit] Other characters
Helba (ヘルバ Heruba?) is a genius hacker of the Wavemaster class who even controls her own hidden fields in The World. She serves as a guide for the other characters on their quest to save Tsukasa. In the .hack//Games, she is Kite's guide to Virus Cores and Gate Hacking.
Voiced by: Yumi Tōma (Japanese), Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (English)
Balmung (バルムンク Barumunku?) is one of the main characters in the .hack//Games, Balmung is mentioned several times in .hack//Sign but only appears in episode 22 as well as the additional episodes Unison and Gift. He is a regarded as a legendary character and holds the title "Balmung of the Azure Sky" (蒼天のバルムンク Sōten no Barumunku?).
Voiced by: Nobuyuki Hiyama (Japanese), Crispin Freeman (English)
Orca (オルカ Oruka?) is also regarded as a legendary character. He bears the title "Orca of the Azure Sea" (蒼海のオルカ Sōkai no Oruka?). He is mentioned several times in the show but Orca only appears in the episode Unison and the parody episode Gift.
Voiced by: Yasunori Masutani (Japanese), Kirk Thornton (English)
A-20 is a young female Twin Blade in The World whose carelessness and motivations for playing help Mimiru to realize her own reasons for playing the game. A-20's reasons for joining the game are revealed to be its popularity among her classmates and her desire to complete a difficult dungeon to prove her valor. In real life, "A-20" is her student number at school, along with A-1 through 19; her classmates who are only mentioned. After getting a rare Golden Grunty item (which she describes as "ugly"), she decides to collect them. After this, she continues adventure with Mimiru in The World on occasion.
Voiced by: Atsuko Enomoto (Japanese), Sandy Fox (English)
Kaochin (カオちん?) is a female Heavy Axeman whose resemblance is that of Subaru's. The differences include an alternate color pallete for her clothing, eye and hair, and the marking on her forehead (a green reverse question mark). Kaochin encounters Subaru in a field shortly after the Crimson Knights are disbanded. Realizing she is speaking to the real Subaru, she pesters her to become friends, but quickly grows hostile at the rejection she receives. When Subaru stands her ground and refuses to give in to her threats Kaochin attacks her in a blind rage, leaving her badly beaten, but not able to humiliate her as she wanted.
Voiced by: Sara Nakayama (Japanese), Brianne Siddall (English)
[edit] Notes and references
- ^ a b c d e The Helba Gate: .hack//Sign character guide. Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
- ^ Iyadomi, Ken (2002). Anime Expo: Interview with Kōichi Mashimo. Retrieved on 2007-03-03.
- ^ Ellis, Frank. Epinions.com: .hack//Sign Review. Retrieved on 2007-02-03.
- ^ BT: "His simplicity is his only merit." Sora: "Because he is so simple, he can be used as a pawn." .hack//Sign, episode 20, Tempest.
- ^ Crim: "I have enough obligations and duties in the real world. I come here to play." .hack//Sign, episode 19, Recollection.
- ^ a b c Hamazaki, Tatsuya (February 28, 2006). "Wotan's Spear", .hack//AI buster 2. Tokyopop Press Inc. ISBN 1-59-816407-4.
- ^ CyberConnect2. .hack//Quarantine. Bandai. Playstation 2. Level/area: Ω Hidden Darkside Holy Ground. (January 14, 2004)
- ^ a b CyberConnect2. .hack//G.U. Vol.1 Rebirth. Bandai. Playstation 2. Level/area: End of The World. (October 24, 2006)
- ^ a b Hamazaki, Tatsuya (January 1, 2006). "Area.4 Memory", .hack//AI buster. Tokyopop Press Inc. ISBN 1-59532-869-6.
- ^ a b c The Helba Gate: .hack//Liminality Review. Retrieved on 2007-01-26.
- ^ a b Animetique: .hack//Sign episode 24, Net Slum, summary. Retrieved on 2007-01-24.
- ^ CyberConnect2. .hack//Mutation. Bandai. Playstation 2. Level/area: Λ Pulsating Worst Core. (May 7, 2003) “I must... speak with Morganna. To go where she is... the living flesh poses a hindrance. But I must... I must go. For our Aura. Emma, please give me a little more courage.”
[edit] External links
- (Japanese) Official character list at CyberConnect2
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