Anime Special! - .hack//SIGN

This is the first of the .hack// series where we get to know "The World", the players and the possibilities and impossibilities that are related to it. The story mainly follows Tsukasa, one of the players that experienced something unimaginable, a transfer of conceusness directly into the game. At first emotions were running wild, especially negative ones as well as the thoughts and fears about whether to leave "The World" and go back to reality or not. After a series of events Tsukasa finally managed to return to reality, but also continued playing the game with the friends that were made along the way. .hack//SIGN is part action, part egzistential anime with the emphasis that "The World" is more than just a game, but also a heaven, a safe place where you can escape the pressures & stress of reality. It's kinda nice, the idea, I mean. Sometimes we all need to escape the real world and have some fun at the same time which is not easy at all. Well, anyway, check out the anime, it's quite good.  

Plot

A young wavemaster, only known by the alias of Tsukasa, wakes up in an MMORPG called The World, with slight amnesia. He does not know what he has previously done before he woke up. In The World, he is suspected to be a hacker of the Crimson Knights, as he was seen accompanying a tweaked character in the form of a cat. Unable to log out from the game, he wanders around looking for answers, avoiding the knights and other players he meets along the way. 

Directed: KMichi Mashimo
Written: Kazunori ItM
Music: Yuki Kajiura
Studio: Bee Train
Network: Animax, TV Tokyo
Original run: April 4, 2002 – September 25, 2002
Episodes: 26 (List of episodes) + 2 OVA (.hack//Unison and .hack//Intermezzo)