.hack//GIFT
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Hackgift.jpg
.hack//GIFT is part of the .hack franchise: a one-episode omake that could be received in Japan if all four PlayStation .hack games were purchased. It was included for free on the fourth game disk in the U.S.
The episode is a ridiculous, silly farce poking fun at most of the .hack franchise (most of the jokes require knowledge of the video game and show as different characters from both appear). It is not meant to be taken as a serious part of the .hack franchise and is more of a novelty episode instead. The art style used is quite unique, with all the characters being rendered with triangular heads and bare-bones detail, overall appearing similar to the super deformed art style, yet being quite distinctive. This episode is considered part of the .hack//SIGN series. Being such, it even lampoons the opening and ending sequences; the characters in the opening flash between their designs in //SIGN and those they have in //GIFT, and the ending shows a picture of Mimiru, Subaru, and BT (in their //SIGN forms) in the nude at one point.
Plotline
The episode opens with Helba, a hacker character within the series, breaking the fourth wall by thanking the viewers for purchasing the .hack games and announcing that a secret area, the "Tasogare no onsen" (Twilight Springs), has been created as a present. However, this area is difficult to reach, and role-playing is forbidden there.
Balmung teleports into an area and is shocked to find the grayed-out corpse of Orca's character (or Bear's; the episode is making fun of the fact that Bear and Orca look similar except in color) lying nearby with the word "GIFT" written in blood. Other principal .hack characters, including Kite, BlackRose, Tsukasa, Mimiru, Subaru, Crim, and Ginkan (Silver Knight) appear on the scene and suspect that Balmung killed Bear/Orca. Noticing the word "GIFT," the characters suspect that perhaps it was a setup by Helba and turn the search for the Springs into a race to get there first. Subaru and BT each go solo, Tsukasa teams up with Mimiru, and Kite joins with BlackRose. The remaining characters mostly get into one awkward situation after another, and Balmung wanders about trying to figure out just what in the world is going on.
Numerous sight gags occur in the process. Subaru bludgeons Ginkan with her axe and kicks him into the Mac Anu river; Crim and Sora get into a wire-guided mid-air fight that spoofs movies such as Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon; the characters' weapons are replaced with silly things like tennis rackets and baseball bats, and so on.
Categories: Anime | .hack