.hack/Characters

Characters that have appeared in the .hack novels, Anime, manga, and Video Games. Players of a virtual reality MMORPG called "The World" that keeps mind raping them; but they keep playing.

WARNING! There are unmarked Spoilers ahead. Beware.

This page is under construction.

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Pre-.Hack//SIGN

Harald Hoerwick

Voiced by: Takumi Yamazaki (Japanese); Crispin Freeman (English)

World Identity: Numerous AI avatars in The World's Black Box areas, cryptic at best, and incomprehensible at worst. It's possible that one or more of them represent his actual living consciousness. Morganna destroys them as she becomes aware of them.

Real Identity: Harald is the original programmer of the game Fragment, later "upgraded" by CC Corp as The World. He wrote it while studying the human consciousness in order to create Aura, a true AI: a testament of his love for Emma Wielant, and their daughter in spirit.

Appears in: .hack//Sign, the four R:1 .hack games, .hack//Liminality. What appear to be the very last remnants of him also appear in Roots, before the area he inhabits is deleted... until its remains come back in the GU games as 100-floor dungeon

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot/Creating Life: Harald's goals: To immortalize his beloved's poetry through The World, to create a true artificial intelligence, and to create the daughter he and Emma would never have. He unwittingly achieved his second goal as early as the creation of Fragment, and his last was achieved posthumously.
• Black Box
• Cryptic Conversation
• Evilutionary Biologist: The only thing that keeps him from embodying this trope completely is his good intentions.
• Designer Babies/Replacement Goldfish: Wishes to create one to replace a child who wasn't even born.
• Dummied Out: Much of the bizarre elements in The World are partially written code from the original Fragment. The current programmers don't know how to deal with them, and sort of write around them instead.
• Love Makes You Crazy/Stalker with a Crush: His obsession with Emma Wielant - even after his death - has nearly crashed the Internet numerous times, and has placed people into comas.
• Mad Engineer
• The Muse/Unrequited Love: Emma Wielant took inspiration from Harald's work in neurotheory; Harald was interested in her, but she was romantically involved with another man during her and Harald's friendship, and showed no romantic interest in Harald.
• Virtual Ghost: Possibly.

Emma Wielant

World Identity: Emma does not appear in The World, although fragments of her poem appear in places.

Real Identity: A German poetess who wrote "The Epitaph of Twilight", the poem that Fragment was based on, shortly before her death. It told of the end of the gods in a battle between the "Twilight Dragon" and "The Cursed Wave." The original text has been lost, leaving only recovered fragments of the original and various rough drafts.

Mentioned in: .hack//AI Buster .hack//SIGN, the four R:1 .hack games, .hack//Liminality

• Cryptic Conversation
• Gaia's Avenger Was a member of an Extremist Eviromentalist group, "Mama", along with the founders of ALTIMIT, dedicated to halting mankind's activity on earth in order to preserve the planet.
• Ill Girl: Was prone to this, due to stress and overwork.
• Non-Idle Rich: As a young heiress to be, Emma worked as a nurse and was involved in enviromentalism.
• The Muse: The inspiration for The World.
• Muse Abuse/Oblivious to Love Possible interpretations of her ambiguous relationship with Harald Hoerwick; she was intrigued by his theories of neurobiology, but ambivalent to his affections.
• Shrug of God

Albireo

World Identity: Captain of the Cobalt Knights; a group of system administrators. Albireo is tasked with removing Vagrant AI and other irregularities that are the result of the previous games. He witnesses Balmung and Orca's defeat of the One Sin which made them legends. His hunt of a prototype to Aura named Lycoris led him to the discovery that there is far more to the game than he realized; and that the AI are people. This realization led to his deteriorating health and withdrawal from the game. His distraught assistant later becomes Kamui.

Real Identity: Kazushi Watarai, an employee at Cyberconnect, or "CC Corporation" and head of its debug team, the Cobalt Knights; was blamed for the Twilight Incident and forced to resign.

Appears in: .hack//AI Buster, cameos at the end of .hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet, .hack//Link

• Cryptic Conversation: Really, had he just explained things better to his assistant; a lot of problems in .hack//Legend of the Twilight Bracelet would have been avoided.
• Faustian Rebellion: Averted, Albireo was unknowingly given his spear by Morganna, which had the power to delete AI. Trying to use it on Macha resulted in its destruction. Tried to save Tsukasa during the events of .hack//SIGN, but was prevented by being Data Drained by Macha before he could come close.
• Meaningful Name: "Albireo" is the name of a binary star in the constellation Cygnus the Swan. Many captains are named after stars in .hack, his eye color represents this.
• Mismatched Eyes
• The Scapegoat: In the eyes, of CC Corporation, at least. Despite being hospitalized prior to the beginning of the Second Network Crisis, Watarai was held responsible by the company for letting the situation get out hand, leading to his forced resignation.

Orca of the Azure Sea

File:Orca Avy13401.jpg

World Identity: One of the so-called "Descendants of Fianna", who defeated a supposedly Hopeless Boss Fight called "The One Sin." Orca was actually the original person chosen to receive the Key of the Twilight from Aura; but Skeith got to him first and Data Drained him.

Real Identity: Yatsuhiko, a high school boy, and friends with Kite in real life. His going into a coma is Kite's entire motivation for Kite's quest in the games. He just wanted to show Kite a cool game.

Appears in: .hack//AI Buster, .hack//R1 games, .hack//Unison

• Right Man in the Wrong Place: He was supposed to get the Twilight Bracelet, but being comatose kinda wrecked that.
• Screaming Warrior
• Mentor Occupational Hazard
• Walking Shirtless Scene

Balmung of the Azure Sky

File:Balmung.jpg

Bomb diggity.

Voiced by: Nobuyuki Hiyama (Japanese); Doug Erholtz (English, Infection); Crispin Freeman (English, Mutation onwards)

World Identity: The other "Descendant of Fianna," who was rewarded with customized wings on his character model for dealing the most damage to "The One Sin." He takes his status as a legendary player of The World rather more seriously than Orca does.

Real Identity: A high school boy as of SIGN and the R:1 games. Formerly a beta-tester for Fragment, he's been a gamer his whole life. Becomes a system admin for The World between the games and Legend of the Twilight Bracelet.

Appears in: .hack//AI Buster, .hack//R1 games, .hack//Legend of the Twilight, .hack//LINK

• Character Development: Legend of the Twilight sees a complete 180 of his character: he becomes a goofy, fun-loving admin with a penchant for making really weird events, a far cry from the dead-serious player of the R1 games.
• Chaste Hero: Balmung's real-world player apparently has girls all over him, which he can't understand.
• Feather Motif
• Knight in Shining Armor
• Lawful Stupid: In the R:1 games, as his trust is difficult to earn.
• Large Ham: Thank you Crispin Freeman for the support.
• Promoted Fanboy: By Legend of the Twilight, Balmung's become an administrator for CCCorp.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy: Why of course! And fangirls are falling for it!

Lycoris

World Identity: An AI prototype of Aura. Looks very similar to Aura, but with shorter white hair (With red accents based on Whooper Looper) and dressed in red.

Real Identity: None.

Appears in: .hack//AI Buster

• Cute Mute: Until regaining her voice.
• Driven to Suicide: Considers herself a failure because she cannot become Aura, and so eventually deletes herself using Albireo's spear.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Survived the first attempt at deletion by scattering various parts of her program. One of the pieces that got lost was her memory.
• Meaningful Name: After her death, lycoris blossoms begin appearing in the game; it's hinted that her code was recycled into this scenery.

Hokuto

World Identity: Hokuto is a newbie Albireo meets while he is in Mac Anu with Lycoris. Childish and restless, she gives Albireo a bit of grief as she forcibly tags along with him on his quest. This personality is eventually revealed as a fabrication; she is actually secondary character of one of the game community's poets and long-time players, W.B. Yeats.

Real Identity: Haruka Mizuhara. Due to her behavior, Albireo assumes that she is a young girl roughly around the beginning of her teen years. She is actually a professional translator several years Watarai's senior who plays online with Hokuto just so she wouldn't get caught by her boss, who knows her main character.

• Manic Pixie Dream Girl: In a sense. It's part of the act.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Again, the stupidity is part of the newbie persona of Hokuto.

.Hack//SIGN

Morganna Mode Gone

Voiced by: Rie Tanaka (Japanese); Valerie Arem (English)

World Identity: An AI designed to be Aura's guardian until she was complete, but she becomes resentful of her role and actively resists Aura's development in a bid for independence. She manifests as a godlike being; a disembodied voice and psychic presence. Until Aura's birth she's the core of The World and as a result, as she breaks down, so does the game.

Real Identity: None.

Appears in: .hack//SIGN .hack//R1 Games

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot: She's basically GLaDOS with Data Drain instead of Deadly Neurotoxin.
• Abusive Parents: On both ends. Harald created her to compile Aura and was willing to let her cease to exist once she finished. Needless to say, this didn't foster positive feelings for either her "father" OR daughter.
• Big Bad: Of SIGN and the R:1 games.
• Despair Gambit: Tsukasa's despair is all she needs...
• Deus Est Machina'
• False Reassurance
• God Is Evil
• God Save Us From the Queen: Word of God has it she was originally based the Queen of Hearts.
• The Faceless
• Meaningful Name / Rule of Symbolism: If you consider Aura as the Christ analogue and Morganna as the Old God, their power struggle suddenly makes a lot more sense.
• Load-Bearing Boss
• The Nameless: Never named in series, although the credits do reveal her identity.
• Nothing Is Scarier
• Self-Made Orphan
• Offing the Offspring: Her ultimate goal.
• The Voice

Macha

World Identity: One of the eight Phases (see below) of Morganna. Looks like a humanoid cat wearing a witch's hat and patched clothes, floating in mid-air. Later appears after getting Data Drained by Morganna as Mia in the R1 Games, where she is now much taller, has a more human-like body, and acts like a Player Character rather than an AI as well as no memory of her time as Macha. Once Kite starts defeating the phases she realizes what she was and turns into her True form as the 6th Phase, Macha the Temptress

Real Identity: None.

Appears in: .hack//sign, .hack//R1 Games

• Cute Is Evil: Subverted. Sure, she was summoned and shaped by an evil being for an evil purpose, but she is definitely not evil by the end.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Macha was simply a tool through which Morganna could manipulate Tsukasa... at first. After Tsukasa shows Macha a bit of kindness, Macha saves him and is Data Drained by Morganna in the process, prompting her transformation into Mia.
• No Pronunciation Guide: In written works, anyway. It is pronounced "Ma-Ha". No, this isn't a misspelling. Obviously, this is less of a problem in the anime and games, although the spelling might still confuse some people at first. Ironically her name was misspelled as Maha in the Japanese Games.
  • She's named after an Irish goddess of War and Horses.
• The Trickster
• The Unintelligible: Played with. Macha speaks in text-only, which is viewable by characters, not the viewer. Once she becomes Mia, she gains a voice
  • Her text becomes readable in some of the novels.

Aura

File:Aura (Unison).jpg

Voiced by: Maaya Sakamoto (Japanese); Lia Sargent (English)

World Identity: The ultimate artificial intelligence, the child Harald Hoerwick and Emma Wielant would never have, and the entire purpose for The World's existence. She appears as a young white-haired girl in a simple white gown. By the G.U. games, Aura has left The World entirely to exist elsewhere in the worldwide network.

Real Identity: None.

Appears in: Everything but Roots. And she's referred to in that one, too.

• Angelic Beauty
• Big Good
• Crystal Dragon Jesus: She was even "born" on Christmas Day.
• God Is Dead: Seen this way in Roots and G.U.
• Instant AI, Just Add Water: More like Just add players to the game. If Morganna hadn't rebelled she would have been born using data collected from players.
• Messianic Archetype
• Our Gods Are Greater
• The Messiah
• The Paragon
• Replacement Goldfish: A unique example as there wasn't an original version, rather Aura was what "could have been."
• Woman in White: It's actully a pale lavender as shown in the image. The exact shade varies between media between Lavender, White, Silver and slighty prismatic.

Tsukasa

File:B666996832697d40d8d13c95f9ddb490-1.jpg

Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga (Japanese); Brianne Siddall (English)

World Identity: An antisocial Wavemaster, his only associates being the enigmatic Macha and a Guardian that attacks anyone threatening him. He's the central character of the SIGN series, as his ability to fully experience The World, and inability to leave, is the mystery that drives the plot.

Real Identity: An Shoji, a high school girl who retreats to the game to escape a miserable home life with a deceased mother and abusive father.

Appears in: .hack//SIGN, .hack//LINK

Remnant data appears in the fourth Game and is fashioned into an AI by Helba and can be added to the party after the game is cleared. Not the real deal of course.

• Abusive Parents: Having a psychopathic daddy is but one of the reasons for Tsukasa's angst. He even tries to kill her in the real world in the hospital where she's in a coma.
  • Topped with Parental Abandonment thanks to her mother's death.
• Broken Bird / Troubled but Cute: Due to Parental Abuse; and then heapings of Mind Rape from Morganna.
• Cross Player: Due to being Data Drained, not only has amnesia, but doesn't remember that True Self is a girl. Data Draining has resulted in Tsukasa's mind "feeling" everything in The World; so for all extents and purposes a Gender Bender.
• Defrosting Ice Queen
• Expy: An Shouji, in addition to being subject to a Gender Bender, is quite literally a GenderFlipped Expy of Ikari Shinji. Though her given name is written with the kanji for Anzu, it is read as An, which can mean either "copy" or "rough draft". Her surname, Shouji, can mean "devotion"... and so can another Japanese word, Shinjin. Add in the abusive parents, the depression, the escapism, and the inability to connect with people, and recall that Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, who worked on Evangelion and .hack, talked Hideaki Anno out of his initial female character concept for Shinji...
  • Also interestingly, her real-life self ^{[dead link]} looks remarkably like Mana from Girlfriend Of Steel; a spin-off game of Evangelion.
• Finger-Twitching Revival: Happens to Tsukasa within the first two minutes of the first episode.
• GIRL (Inverted)
• Heroic Albino
• If It's You It's Okay / Schoolgirl Lesbians: Tsukasa became the "Most Important Person" to Subaru; "despite being a girl." 10 years later, in the manga of .hack//Link she is living with her. This off-hand comment was dropped in the commercial translation of the manga.
• Ineffectual Loner: The entire point of hir character.
• Jade-Colored Glasses: Tsukasa is quite rude at first, and it takes a lot to get past the defenses. S/he gets better.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Tsukasa is not very nice, at least at the start.
• Lost in Character: Thanks to Morganna.
• Sugar and Ice Personality / Not So Stoic
• Mind Rape: Morganna to Tsukasa when zhe starts misbehaving.
• Myself, My Avatar: Tsukasa's main problem is this and being Trapped in Another World.
• Samus Is a Girl See above.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Her Dad seems to resent her not only for being a girl, but for being alive: Tsukasa's player's father took severe issue with An (Tsukasa) showing any feelings or even wanting a bra.
• World of Cardboard Speech

Mimiru

File:Resize 6200.jpg

Voiced by: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese); Amanda Winn-Lee (English)

World Identity: A brash, energetic, and happy-go-lucky Heavy Blade, and the first person Tsukasa meets after becoming trapped in The World. Unlike many other characters in the series, she plays purely for the fun of it.

Real Identity: Her name is never given. She's a high school student who we can safely assume is much the same in real life as she is in the game.

Appears in: .hack//SIGN, .hack//LINK

Like Tsukasa an AI appears in the fourth game.

• Breast Plate
• Catch Phrase: Fond of "roger that" and "what did you just say?" in the dub.
• The Ditz: Believes herself to be this, but truthfully isn't all that dim. Bear notes this on occasion.
• First Girl Wins: Averted; and there are people still bitter about this.
• Only Sane Woman: Seriously, Mimiru is one of the only people who is even remotely normal in the Anime, everyone else is coming from Dysfunction Junction.

Bear

Voiced by: Kazuhiro Nakata (Japanese); Paul Mercier (English)

World Identity: A Blademaster of respectable power who considers himself a friend to n00bs throughout SIGN. He's very much a parental figure (Mimiru has a habit of calling him "Old Man"), giving his adolescent friends sage advice for their personal lives along with help in the game.

Real Identity: Ryo Sakuma, a father, divorcee, and successful author in his late forties. He plays for creative inspiration and to mentor younger players.

Appears in: .hack//SIGN, .hack//LINK

• Badass Bookworm: In the game, anyway. At one point, he seems to resent that his real-life self is less badass.
• Cool Old Guy
• Gentle Giant: Large as he is, he is one good man.
• Intergenerational Friendship: With Mimiru. More of a parental figure to Tsukasa.
• Replacement Goldfish: Bear makes up for his failed relationship with his son by meeting and helping other young people. He eventually adopts Tsukasa's player and puts her through college.
• The Shepherd
• Walking Shirtless Scene

Subaru

File:Ba5dacd0c607c3e8b81003cee1f229ce4ff.jpg

Voiced by: Kaori Nazuka (Japanese); Kim Mai Guest (English)

World Identity: A strong-willed yet waifish and soft-spoken Heavy Axeman who commands the Crimson Knight guild in SIGN. With an unwavering sense of fair play, she and Crim founded the guild to stop player-killers and hacked characters from ruining others' fun.

Real Identity: Mariko Misono, a high school girl whose legs were paralyzed in an accident years before, a secret she's kept from everybody but Crim. She plays the game to experience a sense of freedom.

Appears in: .hack//Sign, .hack//Link

Like Tsukasa and Mimiru, she has an AI copy that appears in the fourth game. Notice a pattern?

• Authority Equals Asskicking: Interestingly averted, considering it's an online game. Subaru's character isn't particularly strong, since she spends so much of her game time governing instead of playing.
• Battle Ballgown
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Even in a game, she just has to help everybody.
• Last Girl Wins: See below.
• Les Yay: Due to If It's You It's Okay (or maybe Bi the Way?). Subaru becomes romantically attached to Tsukasa, and the fact that "he" is a girl in real life doesn't deter Subaru in the slightest. It's suggested that after college, they began living together.
• Meganekko: Mariko, the player.
• Not So Weak: Subaru. It's considered a major turning point for her when she disbands the Crimson Knights after putting up with their bull for too long and then getting rid of a stalker fan by herself.
• Slowly Demoted Woman: Subaru starts off as a headstrong leader of the Crimson Knights, but after Crim left as co-leader, she found her grasp of power slipping while Silver Knight slowly asserted himself over the first half of the series. He tells her that she's not cut out for leading the guild and takes control, but she later puts her foot down once and for all by disbanding the guild.
• Sexy Backless Outfit: The in-game persona.
• Shrinking Violet: Subaru isn't outright Shy, but she begins show the common signs associated with one over the course of the series. She finds comfort and happiness with her friendship with Tsukasa though.
• The Chains of Commanding
• You Are Not Alone

B.T.

Voiced by: Akiko Hiramatsu (Japanese); Donna Rawlins (English)

World Identity: A Wavemaster more known for being an information broker rather than an adventurer. She's initially detached and somewhat condescending, treating only older men like Bear and Crim as friends and equals. Of the main characters, she's the last one to fully join in with Tsukasa and friends.

Real Identity: Machiko is the only name given, apparently a single businesswoman in her late '20s, and a former model. Appears to resent her experience in high school, and her attempt at dating Crim's player went poorly.

Appears in: .hack//SIGN, .hack//LINK

• Break the Haughty
• Death Is Cheap: Justified since this is a MMORPG. Doesn't make her being a magnet for P Ks any less noticeable. Lampshaded in GIFT when Mimiru mentions she's used to dying.
• Defrosting Ice Queen: An entire episode showed her interacting with various characters in the show, as she realizes she doesn't have many-if any friends, online or offline. This realization, combined with Tsukasa showing up to help her when being attacked made her decide to start acting more friendly.
• Meaningful Name: Averted. It turns out "B.T." is the name of her favorite sandwich. Hint, she doesn't like lettuce.
• Trademark Favorite Food
  • Does not like Lettuce
• Satellite Character: Somewhat by her own choice.
• Squishy Wizard: She doesn't actually level up much, as she uses the game more for gossip. As such she is very very very frequently attacked by player killers.

Silver Knight

World Identity: A Blademaster and Subaru's second in command of the Crimson Knights through much of SIGN. He works relentlessly to identify and hunt down player-killers and hacked characters. His passion for justice and fair play is matched only by that of his role as Subaru's knight.

Real Identity: His name is never given. He works in a video store, and is apparently in his early twenties.

Appears in: .hack//SIGN, The Legend of the Twilight Bracelet, .hack//Roots, .hack//LINK, .hack//Quantum

• Blind Idiot Translation: Many early fansubs gave him the name "Ginkan." This led to some confusion when his name was officially translated as "Silver Knight," which is what "ginkan" means. Which side is being the blind idiot depends on how literally his name was meant to be read.
• Continuity Nod: Silver Knight (and his player) are the only ones who appear in all three .hack anime series. In particular, at the end of Roots, he's already familiar with Haseo's situation and sympathizes, possibly referring to his own experiences with data draining and player-killers. This could be extra-interesting if he knows who Haseo's player is.
• Knight Templar: What he is at first.
  • Knight in Shining Armor: What he becomes after realizing what a jerk he's been.
• Lawful Stupid: His personal vision of justice has little room for empathy or individual judgment, at least until he stops taking it all so danged seriously.
• Unrequited Love Lasts Forever: Of the "declaration of loyalty" variety. He obviously has it bad for Subaru, though he apparently never tells her (and if she knows, she never acknowledges it).

Crim

World Identity: Crim the Red Lightning is a Long Arm and one of the game's most powerful characters at the time of SIGN. He's a carefree role-player, an over-the-top wandering warrior of chivalry. After helping Subaru, they founded the Crimson Knights, which he later left once it stopped being fun.

Real Identity: No name or age is given, but likely a corporate businessman. He plays purely to blow off stress, and believes in keeping reality and the game separate, though he did try dating B.T.'s player, and gave Subaru his phone number as a gesture of support.

Appears in: .hack//SIGN, .hack//LINK

• The Dulcinea Effect: Again, it's the way the character's played.
• Honor Before Reason: Not that Crim's stupid... but in a game, he doesn't care.
• Large Ham: When Crim's "in character."
• Warrior Therapist: Has a fondness for lecturing people while kicking their asses.

Helba

Voiced by: Yumi Toma (Japanese); Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (English)

World Identity: An infamous hacker, named for one of the principal characters in the Epitaph of Twilight. She plays a heavily-edited Wavemaster, and possibly comes closer than anyone to understanding the secret purpose of The World. Luckily, she uses her talents to help our heroes in the fight against Morganna.

Real Identity: Unknown, and for good reason: after the "Pluto's Kiss" incident, hacking has become a capital crime.

Appears in: .hack//SIGN, .hack//R1 Games

• Ambiguous Gender: Its unknown if Helba is a guy or a girl in real life
• Anti-Hero / Token Evil Teammate: She's a criminal hacker working with the good guys. Where she falls depends on which of the other characters is speaking of her.
• Enemy Mine: Reason for her team-up with Lios, though they seem to get along fine afterwords.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Proof that Helba is as good of a hacker as is claimed? When Helba becomes recruitable (after defeating Corbenik in .hack//Quarantine, she's at max level and all of her stats maxed (which a player will note isn't possible without hacking). She literally broke the game and allows the player to break the rest of the game with her.
• Playful Hacker
• Stripperific: Her outfit can be accurately described as a sexy space-pope.
• The Faceless/She Who Must Not Be Seen Her online avatar and real life self respectively. The Upper half of her avatar's face is obscured at all times apart from one non-canon manga. Her player(s?) is (are?) never seen
• Woman in White

Sora

Voiced by: Hiroshi Yanaka (Japanese); Dave Wittenberg (English)

World Identity: A Twin Blade player-killer, and the strongest character in SIGN aside from Crim. Wild and immature, he loves nothing more than screwing up other people's plans just because he can, though he's also fond of assaulting female characters and demanding their contact information.

Real Identity: Ryou Misaki, a fourth-grade student. Seven years later, he'll create the character of Haseo in The World R:2, with ironic consequences.

Appears in: .hack//SIGN, .hack//LINK

• Blade Below the Shoulder: The only Twin Blade in all of .hack who uses spring-loaded blade gauntlets instead of just holding his weapons.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The obvious and unsubtle way he goes about that eventually reveals to the others he's not just an immature jerk. He's a little kid in a world with no restraints on him.
• Heel Face Turn: And he suffers for it.
• Jerkass Facade: Whaddya expect from a ten-year-old able to thrash teens and grownups, but has no friends?
• Loveable Rogue
• The Rival: Eventually seems to regard the "old school" Crim as a nemesis.
• Too Clever by Half: One of the World's most powerful characters and skilled players, with maxed-out level and attributes, and he's fully aware of how good he is while being insufferably immature about it all.

.Hack//R1 Games and .hack//Liminality

Kite

File:Kite 7135.jpg

Voiced by: Sayaka Aida (Japanese); Mona Marshall (English)

World Identity: A newbie Twin Blade, and the main character of the R:1 games. He's introduced to The World by his best friend Orca, who soon gets data-drained by Skeith. Kite receives the Twilight Bracelet from Aura before Skeith catches her, giving him the power to fight Morganna and her agents, and save Orca and Aura.

Real Identity: A junior high school boy and best friend of Orca's player. Enjoys soccer and sci-fi literature.

Appears in:

• Chick Magnet: If BlackRose, Natsume and Ryoko Terajima are any indication . . .
  • Cello in .hack//LINK shows signs of having a crush on him after he saves her from a monster in X'over mission #3.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: He takes time to help a lot of different people during his quest to save The World. On the plus side, it does get him a small army of grateful allies for the final battle.
• Legacy Character: So far we have Kite himself, Shugo, Azure Kite, and Kite (Sora). The last we know nothing about as all we've seen is an early bird cameo in Link.
  • She'll appear in an upcoming movie.
  • And now we have Sakuya, who, like Kite (Sora), is a Distaff Counterpart.
• The Unchosen One: Aura meant to give the Twilight Bracelet to Orca.

BlackRose

File:BlackRose Avy35267.jpg

Voiced by: Masumi Asano (Japanese); Wendee Lee (English)

World Identity: An aggressive and confrontational Heavy Blade. She's new to the game, and after meeting Kite and hearing his story, quickly allies herself with him.

Real Identity: Akira Hayami, a young high school girl whose little brother also went comatose from playing The World. She's exceptionally talented at tennis, which got her placed on a team with jealous upperclassmen who bully her.

Appears in:

• Breast Plate
• Expy: Of Mimiru, their characters are based on the same MMORPG template. She even shares some of the same lines as Mimiru in an Ironic Echo; however the meaning behind them are completely different in context.
  • She and Mimiru bicker about their characters ressembling each other in Unison.
• Heroine of Another Story: The point of the "Another Birth" novels in a nuttshell, they show the events of the first four games from her point of view.
• Official Couple: In the G.U. games, Haseo can obtain a copy of a very old e-mail from Blackrose that was sent to Kite, where she confesses her feelings for him.
• Meaningful Name: She chose it based on a recurring dream she'd been having.
• Phony Veteran: BlackRose tries to pull this on Kite, but gets almost immediately shut down.
• POV Sequel: A series of novels known as Another Birth retell the games from her point of view.
• The Lancer to Kite.
• Tsundere: A ferociously tsuntsun type.

Elk

Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga (Japanese); Brianne Sidall (English)

World Identity: A Wavemaster who looks nearly identical to Tsukasa. He is very shy and socially withdrawn, and the only real friend he seems to have is Mia, without whom he is rarely seen.

Real Identity: Kaoru Ichinose, a middle school boy. Just as socially awkward in real life as he is in The World, he mainly plays to make new friends. Later creates the character of Endrance in The World R2.

Appears in: .hack//R1 Games

• Expy: of Tsukasa
  • Possibly why Mia is so attached to him, given the connection between Tsukasa and Mia's past incarnation, Macha.

Mia

Voiced by: Minami Takayama (Japanese); Debra Rogers (English games); Kari Wahlgren (English Unison and End of the World)

World Identity: A Blademaster who takes the form of an anthropomorphic, purple, female cat. Due to this unique character design, many believe that she is a hacked PC. She is very good friends with Elk, and has a fondness for a completely useless item called "Aromatic Grass". Is in reality Macha, reincarnated after being Data Drained in Sign.

Real Identity: None, as she's an AI disguised as a PC

Appears in: .hack//R1 Games

• Back from the Dead: Aura recreates her after the end of Quarantine.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: she remembers nothing about being Macha. Additionally, after she is reborn at the end of Quarantine, it is shown that she remembers Elk and nothing else.
• Mind Rape: Want to know why she's absent from GU? She was used as the template for the eight Epitaph PC's by Project GU... which meant that she underwent the digital equivalent of vivisection, and the Mia personality was Killed Off for Real. She still exists in the form of the Avatar Macha, however.

Mistral

File:Mistral Avy29340.jpg

Voiced by: Atsuko Enomoto (Japanese); Sandy Fox (English)

World Identity: A very cheerful and somewhat childish Wavemaster who likes hunting rare items. Initially ignorant of the real purpose behind the conflict (even after fighting Skeith), she's just in it for fun and for seeing Kite use the Bracelet, by which she is fascinated.

Real Identity: Mayumi Kurokawa, a housewife pregnant with her first child. She and BlackRose form a friendship in the real world, after she stops playing out of fear for her baby, the future Mirielle.

Appears in: .hack//R1 Games, .hack//Another_Birth

• Cheerful Child: Her online persona.
• Hidden Depths: Her offline self is touched upon more in Another Birth, which is a Retelling of the games from BlackRose's point of view. The two strike up a friendship and later meet offline, leading to her becoming a mother/big sister type to BlackRose. She's shown here to be mature and dependable, a contrast to her online persona.

Wiseman

Voiced by: Steven Jay Blum (English)

World Identity: A powerful Wavemaster who is well-known as an information broker and trader of rare items. After getting caught up in Kite's quest, he becomes one of the strategists of the group, often coordinating their plans with Lios and Helba, though he will fight on the front lines if asked to.

Real Identity: Takumi Hino, an elementary school student, in stark contrast with his very mature, knowledgable online self. Plays soccer and collectible card games, and does not like carrots. Later goes on to create several characters in R2: Naobi, Yata, and Nala.

Appears in: .hack//R1 Games

• Knowledge Broker: Has a great deal of information contacts, including Helba, and quite possibly knows more about the Epitaph of Twilight than any other single person.
• The Strategist: It's him who comes up with the ideas for the group's offensive tactics against the Wave.
• Wise Beyond Their Years

Lios

World Identity: The head system administrator of The World. His avatar is an NPC shopkeeper, although, being an admin, he has numerous powers unavailable to anyone else, such as the ability to outright delete AI and character data. He is highly distrustful of Kite and especially Helba, but very reluctantly joins them after he's convinced that they are working to fix the problem, rather than aggravate it.

Real Identity: Unknown, although it is known he is an employee at CC Corp.

Appears in: .hack//R1 Games

• Enemy Mine: Although Lios is definitely on the heroes' side, he sees his partnership with Helba as this, since she is an illegal hacker and exactly the kind of person he's supposed to oppose.
• Meaningful Name: "Lios" is derived from the King of the Light ("Lios"), Apeiron, in the Epitaph. Apeiron and Helba, the Queen of the Dark, team up to oppose the Wave in the Epitaph. The coincidence is noted by an amused Helba when she meets Lios.
  • He seems unaware of this meaning until Helba tells him and it is hinted that CC Corp assigned the name to him.
• My Name Is Not Durwood: Helba seems to take great delight in taunting Lios, often referring to him as "the pig-head". Other characters (including, hilariously, Balmung) start calling him this from time to time as well, to his consternation.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: He's naturally suspicious of anything in the game that isn't under his control, but once he realizes the situation proves to be one of the greatest allies the heroes could ask for.

Sieg

World Identity: A powerful and popular Blademaster seeking to surpass the "Descendants of Fianna" in fame. While showing the game to his girlfriend, he's attacked and data drained by Skeith.

Real Identity: Tomonari Kasumi, a high school boy. He runs his school's gaming club, and appears to be a fairly ordinary kid. He later goes on to create Kuhn in The World R:2.

Appears in:

• Meaningful Name: He named his character "Sieg" to express his intent to dominate Balmung - in Ring of the Nibelung, Siegfried is the hero and Balmung is his sword.
• Unknown Rival: Balmung's one of the few high-level characters who's never heard of Sieg.

The 8 Phases

File:Morganna Phases.jpg

Your guess is as good as ours.

World Identity: The Eight Phases as spoken of in the Epitaph of Twilight are the agents of the Cursed Wave that threatens all. For whatever purpose Harald originally created them, Morganna has usurped them to serve as her own agents. Each takes the form of an unbeatable game monster, some with literally indescribable appearances. In order, they are:

• Skeith, the Terror of Death
• Innis, the Mirage of Deceit
• Magus, the Propogation
• Fidchell, the Prophet
• Gorre, the Machinator
• Macha, the Temptress
• Tarvos, the Avenger
• Corbenik, the Rebirth

• Real Identity: None.

• Appears in: Sign (Macha, and Skeith, briefly), Games, Roots (sort of), GU, Link

• Alien Geometries: As stated above, these are just about the most bizarre-looking things ever. Skeith isn't too bad, looking like a rather thin golem, but Innis is a wall, Fidchell is... sort of... mask-like, and Tarvos is a snake coiled around a spike that is driven through its head.
• Badass Boast / Boss Banter: Fidchell likes declaring things like "All will tremble beneath my terrible will!" when he uses his strongest attacks.
• Climax Boss: Skeith, he has the most lead-in of all the phases, and is the final boss of the first game.
• Defeating the Undefeatable: Literally, in the games, since all of these guys have infinite HP. Yes, there's a way around that.
• Department of Redundancy Department: Skeith means "shadow". Taken literally the first line of the epitaph to speak of the eight phases reads: "Riding the wake is Shadow, the Shadow of Death, to drown all that stands."
• Monster of the Week: Aside from Skeith, and to a lesser extent Macha, all the phases are like this.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: "The Terror of Death"? And even Skeith's basic name means "shadow".
  • He's also known as the "Shadow of Death" in the epitaph. And to go one further, the area he resides in has the keywords "Chosen Hopeless Nothingness." Must be a nice place, right?

Cubia

File:Cubiabeta.jpg

Nightmare Fuel at its finest.

World Identity: An inexplicable destructive phenomenon often taking the form of a massive skull-faced, somewhat shapeless monster. Called an "anti-existence," it's a shadow born of the light of the Key of the Twilight, with proportionate power. Cubia is created from the use of the Twilight Bracelet in the R:1 games, and from Haseo's Xth form with fully-powered Avatar in the G.U. games. Takes a player-character form in both XXXX and LINK.

Real Identity: None, though Cubia's existence wreaks havoc throughout the internet.

Appears in: .hack//R1 Games, .hack//GU, .hack//XXXX. .hack//LINK

• Bigger Bad: In GU.
• Eldritch Abomination: Cubia, aka Cybernetic Cthulhu, aka D-Reaper on digital steroids. While many things in the .hack// series look bizarre, Cubia has a definite Eldritch feel to it. Just look at the thing.
  • And that there is just one of several forms it takes. Some are alien, and others are just plain wrong.
• Heel Face Turn: As his PC form.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: "The Anti-Existence"
• Nigh Invulnerability: It cannot be killed. Period. Not while the Key of Twilight exists. Problem is, the Key is usually what the heroes are relying on to solve whatever crisis is afoot this time.
• Sinister Scythe: In his PC form in LINK.
• What Do You Mean Its Not Symbolic: Many of Cubia's attacks have religious names, such as "Jihad" and "Chaos Gehenna".

Junichiro Tokuoka

World Identity: none known

Real Identity: A former programmer for CC Corp. He decides to investigate The World on the outside when people start falling into comas playing it. Specifically his daughter - see Carl.

Appears in: .hack//Liminality

• Bunny Ears Lawyer: Was very eccentric when working for CC Corp: habits included going to sleep and eating whenever he felt it regardless of the time of day (his colleagues dubbed this "Tokuoka Time"), constant smoking, always eating fast food, and wearing Hawaiian shirts. He was also a brilliant programmer, and was almost single-handedly responsible for the success of the Japanese version of The World.

Mai Minase

File:ImagesCAL98LVZ5813 jpg 100.png

Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi (Japanese); Michelle Ruff (English)

World Identity: Sieg(2), a copy of her boyfriend's character (see above) as well as her own unseen character

Real Identity: A high school girl with no interest in videogames, she was nonetheless convinced to give The World a try by her boyfriend. She went comatose along with him while playing, but woke up several days later. She joins Tokuoka as they search for clues about the coma victims in the real world.

Appears in: .hack//Liminality

• Chekhov's Hobby: Her training as a musician allows her to discern a tone that sounds whenever a Phase is about to show up. It was hearing this sound that forewarned her of Skeith's approach and allowed her to avoid the worst of the Data Drain.
• Purple Eyes

.Hack//Zero and .Hack//Legend Of The Twilight

Carl

World Identity: A female Heavy Axemen who runs into Aura and Skeith/Sora, who eventually Data Drains her for protecting Aura.

Real Identity: Junka Nimura, Junichiro Tokuoka's daughter. She lives with her mother and grandmother and her father is only referred to as "Mr. T"

Appears in: .hack//Zero

• Gender Blender Name
• No Export for You: The series she was featured in has never left Japan. Finished only through supplementary material.

Shugo

World Identity: He retains his real name even in The World; he's only in it for fun...at first...

Real Identity: A middle school kid who gets roped into playing the game by his twin sister, Rena. He finds himself whisked into a plot set by by Aura near the end of R:1 after he finds Aura's daughter, Zefie, and is acused of being an illegal player.

Appears in: The Legend of the Twilight Bracelet.

• Ascended Fanboy: In his backstory, he did say he always wanted to be a hero... To Aura. Who set the whole situation up to fulfill this and to keep herself from getting bored.
• Chivalrous Pervert
• Expy: Of Kite, which is obvious since he won Kite's character design.
• Flanderization: In the manga he makes a one-off comment on how he was uncomfortable that his sister was playing a character in such a revealing outfit. In the anime they make him enamored with her.
• Got Volunteered: It's not like he wanted to play the game at first...
• Jumped At the Call

Rena

World Identity: Retains her real name. She plays what appears to be a chibi-fied version of Blackrose She just wanted to spend more time with her brother. And then Zefie came into the picture... Unlike Shugo she's an experienced player, having previously played a Blade Master named Bridget.

Real Identity: A middle school kid who gets her brother to join The World after she wins limited edition costumes of the dot hackers Kite and Blackrose. See Shugo for more details.

Appears in: The Legend of the Twilight Bracelet.

• Ascended Fangirl
• Clingy Jealous Girl: In the manga, she seems a bit teed off that her brother's hanging out with Zefie...
• Damsel in Distress: In the anime adaptation, when she falls into a coma.
• Expy: Of Blackrose, which is obvious since she won Blackrose's character design
• Genki Girl
• Tsundere: Type B, toward Shugo.

Mireille

Voiced by: Yuki Matsuoka (Japanese); Sandy Fox (English)

World Identity: She's a wavemaster who takes on her mother's avatar and joins Shugo and Rena on their adventure; she provides the two a hangout for them to meet and discuss in. Because she looks like her mother's avatar, Wiseman mistakes for Mistral on one occassion.

Real Identity: She's the daughter of Mistral. She's actually about 4 years old.

Appears in: The Legend of the Twilight Bracelet.

• Expy: Of her mother Mistral, which is expected as her character is her mother's account with a name change.
• Genki Girl
• Kid Genius: She's a preschooler, but you wouldn't know that if you met her online.
• Mobile Shrubbery: The first time she's seen, she's following Shugo and Rena while hiding inside a barrel.
• Randomly Drops: Her hobby; collecting rare items. It doesn't matter if it's useful or not; even if your reward is clothes; if it's rare, she wants it.

Ouka

File:Ouka1.jpg

World Identity: A powerful player who enjoys fighting monsters and believes that people should get stronger the honest, old fashioned way, rather than resorting to cheating. Is famous among other players and called "Ouka the Divine Fist". She plays a "Werewolf" class charcter which is mentioned as a speical class added for high-level players in an expansion pack. Originally she was a un-named fist using class that was added in the same expansion pack.

Real Identity: She's is in fact Mireille's babysitter and Tutor, and is somewhat of a withdrawn mousey woman in reality.

Appears in: The Legend of the Twilight Bracelet.

• Bare Your Midriff
• Boobs of Steel
• Going Fur a Swim
• Ms. Fanservice
• Our Werewolves Are Different: Ouka can transform into a straight wolf if she desires.
• Screw the Money, I Have Rules
• Sexy Mentor: Ouka helps Shuga level up and learn the game along with Mirielle and Rena. She doesn't seem to mind Shugo's developing horomones, and plays along with it.

Komiyan III

World Identity: A "handsome prince" who goes everywhere accomponied by his loyal Grunty, Oscar. He is obsessed with winning Rena's heart and despises her brother Shugo.

Real Identity: Komiyama, a geeky 14 year-old boy who attends Shugo and Rena's math class. He and Shugo are rivals, though ironically enough, neither of them are very well-liked by others in their class.

Appears in: The Legend of the Twilight Bracelet.

• Heel Face Turn: He joins Shugo's party in the manga.
• Jerkass: Though he seems to become a Jerk with a Heart of Gold after his abovementioned Heel Face Turn, actually defending Shugo and Rena from the administrators at personal risk.
• Large Ham: He loves to make long-winded introductions, giving himself an assortment of titles.
• The Rival: To Shugo.
• Sissy Villain
• Stalker with a Crush
• Smug Snake

Zefie

World Identity: The daughter of Aura; she gets seperated from Aura in The Legend of the Twilight Bracelet and asks Shugo and the others for help. Despite being so adorable, she can really be a handful, constantly teasing the gang (she even went as far as giving them afros at one point).

Real Identity: n/a

Appears in: The Legend of the Twilight Bracelet. Link

Kamui

Voiced by: Sakiko Tamagawa (Japanese); Melodee M. Spevack (English)

World Identity: Leader of the Colbalt Knights after Albreio and Lios, and a ruthless AI killer who believes all anomalies in The World should be destroyed, even Zefie and Aura.

Real Identity: Little is known about her real self, except that she worked with Albireo and was upset that he got fired, believing that the A Is were to blame, hence her reason for wanting to destroy them. She serves as the Big Bad for The Legend of the Twilight Bracelet. Her real name is Saki Shibayama.

Appears in: The Legend of the Twilight Bracelet. Minor appearance in .hack//AI Buster but only offline.

• Badass
• Big Bad: Of The Legend of the Twilight Bracelet.
• Gender Blender Name
• Heel Face Turn
• Mismatched Eyes: In the manga, her character has the same-colored heterochromatic eyes as Albireo in homage to him. This does not apply in the anime due to a redesign.

Magi

Voiced by: Asako Shirakura (Japanese); Amanda Winn-Lee (English)

World Identity: Kamui's second in command.

Real Identity: A CC Corp Employee named Asako Saito and Kamui's personal assistant.

Appears in: The Legend of the Twilight Bracelet.

• Cross Player: Her avatar is a standard male CC Corp avatar. She is known to be female and refered to as such however.
• Meganekko
• Punch Clock Villain

Reki

Voiced by: Soichiro Hoshi (Japanese); Derek Stephen Prince (English)

World Identity: Balmung's assistant.

Real Identity: A young CC Corp Emplyoee.

Appears in: The Legend of the Twilight Bracelet.

• Butt Monkey
• Face Heel Turn: In the anime; a stark contrast to in the manga.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: With Balmung.

.Hack//Roots and R:2 Games

Haseo

File:13c63e50541ac61238a5ba7f48540ea671615acf.jpg

Voiced by: Takahiro Sakurai (Japanese); Yuri Lowenthal (English, video games); Andrew Francis (English, anime)

World Identity: The main character of Roots and the G.U. games, an aggressive and self-centered Adept Rogue. He finds a mentor in Ovan and a love interest in Shino, but when Ovan disappears and Shino is PKed and put into a coma, Haseo begins a personal quest to find and beat Tri-Edge, the name given to Shino's killer. Holds the avatar of the first Phase, Skeith, The Terror of Death.

Real Identity: Ryou Misaki, a high school student and the same person who played the player-killer Sora back in SIGN. Though he's older, his general personality has changed little.

Appears in: .hack//Roots, .hack//G.U.

• The Atoner: Not on purpose, thanks to his Laser-Guided Amnesia.
• Badass: There's a reason why he's known as The Terror of Death.
• Bare Your Midriff: A very rare male example of this trope.
• Bishonen
• Character Development: Haseo has probably seen more character development than any other character in the franchise when you take Sora's personality into consideration. In the R:2 timeline alone, he went from a hopeless beginner to a revenge-obsessed jerk in Roots, then started the GU games as a Designated Hero, evolved into a Type 2 Anti-Hero, and eventually made pure hero status by the end of the series.
  • More specifically, he goes from being slightly Emo (start of Roots) to being a complete and utter asshole (G.U. Volume 1) to being a Jerk with a Heart of Gold (G.U. Volume 2) to being a generally nice but still fairly blunt and sometimes sarcastic guy (G.U. Volume 3). Overall, he becomes much, much more likable as the series goes on.
• Chick Magnet: Even though the game has Relationship Values that justifies this, he still canonically has 2 fangirls and 2 fanboys.
• Dark Is Not Evil: Yes, he looks all shiny and heroic in the picture over there, but the costumes he wears for most of the story are almost completely black and adorned with things you'd usually see on villains (like spikes). For example. Not to mention his Meaningful Title...
  • Though dark also isn't very nice for most of GU.
  • Here's his evolution: 1st Form, 2nd Form, 3rd Form, and finally, Xth Form.
• Deadpan Snarker
• The Dreaded: Let's just say he got his nickname for a reason. Most Player Killers are generally terrified at the sight of him.
• Expy: Gets one in the form of Asura, another silver haired man with Red Eyes, Take Warning and Anger issues. Helps that game is also made by Cyber Connect 2.
• Face Palm: He does this fairly often, in both comical and serious situations.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: Get's these frequently in .hack//GU Trilogy whenever Skeith is exerting influence over him, i.e. moments of pure Rage. it's pretty unnerving, to say the least, if not Pure Nightmare Fuel.
• Heroic Albino
• Hey, It's That Voice!: Can you believe that his Japanese voice is Cloud Strife? On the English side of things, we have Yosuke, the main character and Simon.
  • And that transforming guy with the magic bracelet.
  • He is also Suzaku Kururugi in both languages
• Hot-Blooded: "OOOOVVAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNNN!!!"... and sooo much more.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Thanks to Skeith's data drain back in SIGN, he remembers nothing about being Sora.
• Large Ham
• Lightning Bruiser
• Literal Split Personality: In the scene where he achieves Xth Form.
• Madness Mantra: "It's here, it's here, it's here, IT'S HERE!"... and see above.
• Meaningful Name: As a PKK, Haseo is known by the same title applied to the Phase Skeith.
  • Haseo itself is a reference to the Japanese poet Matsuo Bashou (via Alternate Character Reading) who's disciple was named Kawai Sora. In other words, a subtle clue to Haseo's player also being Sora's player
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast / Red Baron: "The Terror Of Death"
• Pint-Sized Powerhouse: Not him, but among the Avatars, Skeith is possibly the smallest.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Haseo delivers an epic one to Ovan before he goes into a coma.
• Red Oni: To Ovan's Blue Oni.
• Screaming Warrior: "SKEEEEIIIIIIIIIITH!!!"... and see above. Yet again.
• Second Love: Atoli.
• Super-Powered Evil Side: JESUS CHRIST IT'S BST FORM, GET IN THE CAR!
  • Skeith is a lot scarier, and serves as somewhat of a canon Super-Powered Evil Side (B-st form was only in the movie, and turned out to be fairly useless anyway).
• Too Many Belts: 52 belts total in his first form. God damn. That's possibly worse than anything from Tetsuya Nomura.
• Troubled but Cute
• Tsundere: Male, type A, full stop.
  • To be more specific, he's more of a Jerk with a Heart of Gold to most people (and just plain Jerkass in Volume 1), but when it comes to... whoever is his love interest (Shino or Atoli depending on the time in the story), he has a habit of acting rather... dere. More tsun with Atoli, though he still shows his moments of softness around her.
    • In one scene in Volume 3, he denies ogling Atoli when she notices him staring at her (and he was clearly thinking very fondly of her). Of course, Atoli's naivete prevents her from noticing, and she just thinks she screwed up again.
• Unstoppable Rage: Subverted. His rage is very stoppable and his Super-Powered Evil Side is a pushover (albeit a freaking scary one) compared to his Xth Form.
• Warrior Therapist: Literally. Kind of. He doesn't use it in his battle style, and he doesn't seem to be doing it on purpose, but pretty much everyone with major issues in the game come to him to talk about it.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy
• The Worf Effect: Level 133, took on a hundred player-killers at once... and yet Tri-Edge , actually Aura's Knight, Azure Kite who is not Tri-Edge hands him his ass without a scratch.

Ovan

File:Ovan.jpg

Voiced by: Hiroki Touchi (Japanese); Jamieson Price (English, video games); Michael Kopsa (English, anime)

World Identity: A famously powerful Steam Gunner, easily distinguished by the massive cylinder locked over his left arm. He's the founder and leader of the Twilight Brigade, a guild dedicated to finding the Key of the Twilight, which most other players have long since discounted as pure fantasy. Holds the avatar of the eighth Phase, Corbenik, The Rebirth, and keeps a powerful AIDA trapped in his left arm, which is the true "Tri-Edge".

Real Identity: Masato Indou, a young man, and the older brother of Aina's player. According to one of the Newsbreak segments in the G.U. games, CC Corp has accused him of creating the AIDA "virus," resulting in mass protests by players in his defense.

Appears in: .hack//Roots, .hack//G.U.

• Anti-Villain: Ok, so he is going around manipulating everyone and putting them in comas, but he really doesn't want to, and his intent was to revive Aina.
• Badass Longcoat: A white coat, too.
• The Captain
• The Chessmaster: One way or another, almost everything in Roots and the G.U. games was planned or anticipated by him.
• Dead Little Sister: Or rather, a comatose little sister and his first victim who Ovan hopes can be saved with the Key of the Twilight.
  • It's much worse in the novels, where Aina is his daughter who lived with her mother when she divorced Ovan, who didn't even get visitation rights. The World was the only way the two could interact, and, on Aina's birthday, Ovan presented her with the only complete copy of the Epitaph of Twilight in the Creator's Room. And then Tri-Edge infected and consumed her from within. Ovan, also infected but not comatose thanks to his Epitaph, desperately searched for a way to revive Aina. However, his efforts fail, and, shortly before Shino is PK'd by Tri-Edge, Aina dies.
• Heroic Sacrifice: More of an Anti-Villain sacrifice, but...
• Jekyll and Hyde: The AIDA infecting him sometimes takes over and kills those close to him.
• Large Ham
• Let's Get Dangerous: Not that Ovan's weak ordinarily, but you really don't want to be around when he unlocks that cylinder...
• The Obi-Wan
• One-Winged Angel: Both his fights are followed by a tough Avatar battle.
• Perfect Play AI
• Redemption Equals Death: "Become stronger, Haseo. Strong enough to kill me..."
• Restraining Bolt: Ovan's AIDA arm forces him to act as Tri-Edge against his will. He very much wants it gone.
• The Reveal: Ovan unlocks his left arm to reveal a second arm made of AIDA, and his identity as the true Tri-Edge.
• Scary Shiny Glasses: The shinier they are, the more scared you ought to be.
• The Stoic

Shino

File:Shino 831.jpg

Voiced by: Kaori Nazuka (Japanese); Kari Wahlgren (English, video games); Kelly Sheridan (English, anime)

World Identity: A Harvest Cleric and second in command of the Twilight Brigade, she's an all-around wonderfully pleasant girl who's almost as affectionate toward Haseo as she is admiring of Ovan. Halfway through Roots, she's PKed and put in a coma by Tri-Edge. She was originally the holder of Innis, but it left her and moved to Atoli when she was PKed.

Real Identity: Shino Nanao, a seemingly lonesome young college student. She doesn't reveal much about herself, save that she lives in a small apartment with a lot of books and not much else.

Appears in: .hack//Roots, .hack//G.U.

• And I Must Scream: Shino was lucky enough to get a front seat to Ovan's carnage thanks to her mind being trapped in his arm.
• Damsel in Distress
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy
• Nice Hat
• Stepford Smiler: She might seem composed to the casual observer, but inside her mind is a very depressed young woman.
• White-Haired Pretty Girl
• Woman in Black: During the second half of Roots until the end of G.U..
• Woman in White: During the first half of Roots and a few flashbacks in G.U..
• Yamato Nadeshiko
• Zettai Ryouiki

Sakisaka

Voiced by: Ryotaro Okiayu (Japanese); Alistair Abell (English)

World Identity: A Steam Gunner fond of mysteries, wordplay, and good old-fashioned adventure. One of the first members of the Twilight Brigade, he becomes increasingly frustrated by their apparently fruitless quest, but remains loyal until its disbanding, and quits the game soon after.

Real Identity: A young man who says he lives in a bachelor apartment with few windows. He quits The World to join his friends in a new online game called Riot Gun.

Appears in: .hack//Roots

• Catch Phrase: In Japanese, Sakisaka is fond of particular puns and wordplay the Brigade calls "the Sakisaka catchphrase." The translators couldn't (or just didn't) render this in English, so it became "I'm perplexed at X and I'm surprised at Y."
• Cool Teacher: Tabby likes to think so.
• Expressive Mask: His goggles even flash words or symbols, especially when he's surprised. Possibly by Sakisaka's command, but more likely just a visual gag.
• Hidden Eyes: On the rare occasion he's being sincere and serious, we can see regular-looking eyes behind his goggles.
• Improbable Use of a Weapon: He always uses his bayonet as a melee weapon, never as a gun.

Tabby

Voiced by: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese); Stephanie Sheh (English, video games); Maryke Hendrikse (English, anime)

World Identity: A Tribal Grappler designed to look like a Cat Girl, complete with cat ears and a ponytail that looks like a cat's tail due to being a member of Lei Tribe. Tabby is fairly naive and new to the experiences of The World. Despite her lack of experience, she always tries to find the best out of any situation and is always cheerful and perky. She only uses her "Feline Soul Gauntlets" weapon and nothing else because Shino gave them to her as a gift.

Real Identity: Moe Kubo, age 16. Her parents admit they named her Moe after a "popular anime craze when she was born." Being the younger of the two sisters in her family, she often has to compete for attention. It makes it hard that her sister is smarter and better than her in school. Tabby's encounters in "The World" soon helped her gain self confidence. She is studying to become a nurse so that she can help Shino in real life, or others who fall comatose from similar situations.

Appears in: .hack//Roots, .Hack//G.U. 3: Redemption

• Absolute Cleavage: Her profile picture
• Bare Your Midriff: Complete with a green jewel in her navel.
• Boobs of Steel: Even though she has a long way to go before she's considered strong by the game's standards.
  • She joins in Volume 3 at a fairly high level. Haseo will probably still be much higher than her, but...
• Catgirl: You think?
• Genki Girl: There's a reason why she's so energetic. It's not like she wants to be. She's medicated in order to deal with depression from family issues.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Justified. Given her family problems, she thinks that nobody ever believes in her, but Wool and Kuhn helped her overcome that issue when they befriended her.
• I Want My Friends To Be Happy: She just wants to help Haseo and try and help Shino in any way she can, in the game or out. Naturally, Haseo doesn't care and thinks she just gets in the way. That's his problem though, and it's usually never her fault for anything.

Phyllo

File:ImagesCA0EI4MY481 jpg 100.png

Voiced by: Junpei Takiguchi (Japanese); Russel Roberts (English)

World Identity: A small Harvest Cleric who's almost always seen sitting at the bridge of Mac Anu, simply watching people go by, and striking up conversation with anybody who's interested. Considered an excellent source of advice and wisdom by anybody who knows him.

Real Identity: An old man, widowed and owning two cats who like to meddle with his gaming. As he tells Haseo, he's just there to kill time. He dies of cancer at the end of Roots

Appears in: .hack//Roots, .hack//G.U.: Reminiscence

• Badass Adorable
• Cool Old Guy
• The Obi-Wan
• Too Cool to Live

Naobi

Voiced by: Takumi Yamazaki (Japanese); Paul Dobson (English)

World Identity: A hulking Macabre Dancer, and the guildmaster of TaN. Has a rivalry against Ovan and appears to be using the guild only for its resources, with which he can monitor and oppose the Twilight Brigade, delegating TaN's daily business to Tawaraya.

Real Identity: See Yata.

Appears in: .hack//Roots

Ender

Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi (Japanese); Lisa Ann Beley (English)

World Identity: A Blade Brandier and player-killer, working against the Twilight Brigade at the behest of Naobi. Whatever her motivation is, she really loves her work.

Real Identity: See Pi.

Appears in: .hack//Roots

• Knife Nut

Tawaraya

Voiced by: Kenta Miyake (Japanese); Mark Acheson (English)

World Identity: A Shadow Warlock dressed as a traditional Japanese merchant. As the public face of TaN, he runs the guild's routine business: trading everything from rare items to information. When the guild is dissolved for illegal activity and his account banned, he later manages to return as Tohta, playing essentially the same character with a different appearance (and trying unsuccessfully not to be recognized as his former self).

Real Identity: A young man in college, eventually getting the opportunity to study overseas. Apparently considers his work in The World as good practice. Even while doing TaN's dirty work, he takes his role as an honest and ethical businessman very seriously.

Appears in: .hack//Roots

• Catch Phrase: "Come again!"
• A Day in the Limelight: The episode Return takes a break from Haseo and focuses entirely on Tohta.
• Meaningful Name: Both his characters are inspired by the Japanese folk hero they're named after. Phyllo immediately figures out they share the same player because of this.
• Spell My Name with an "S": The English dub of Roots calls him "Tawalaya," probably just because it's much easier for an English speaker to say.
• You Are the New Trend: Intentionally. TaN must stay on the cutting edge.

Saburo

Voiced by: Shizuka Ito (Japanese); Rebecca Shoichet (English)

World Identity: An Edge Punisher enlisted by Pi and Yata to observe and occasionally interfere with Haseo. In the end though, she does exactly what she wants to, and nothing else. Very fond of baffling and nonsensical metaphors.

Real Identity:

Appears in: .hack//Roots

• Cross Player

Kuhn

File:Kuhn GU.jpg

Voiced by: Shinichiro Miki (Japanese); Johnny Yong Bosch (English, video games); Louis Chirillo (English, anime)

World Identity: A member of G.U., Kuhn is a Steam Gunner who is friendly to newbies and fond of hitting on girls at every opportunity. Holds the Avatar of the third Phase, Magus, The Propagation.

Real Identity: Tomonari Kasumi, a 24-year old who has been trying, and failing, to join CC Corp proper. He is the player behind Sieg from the original games.

Appears in: .hack//Roots, .hack//G.U.

• Big Brother Mentor: Silabus, Gaspard and Haseo.
• Big Damn Heroes: His first appearance in Volume 1.
• Bunny Ears Lawyer: His online persona, at least.
• Chivalrous Pervert: There's actually a reason for this behavior. His girlfriend dumped him in between the first games and G.U.
  • "Girls I like: All kinds! Girls I don't like: None!"
• Faking the Dead
• Hey, It's That Voice!: What's Vash doing playing The World?
• The Leisure Suit Larry: Confesses to Haseo that although his skirt-chasing personality makes him a hit on The World, he has trouble forming relationships offline and hasn't had a serious girlfriend since high school.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy
• Not What It Looks Like: In the sidequest where a girl Kuhn insists on "helping" turns out to be grade-school age. He's thoroughly scorned by Haseo and Pi (though they might have just been teasing), but his chivalrous nature persists nevertheless.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: He's a generally silly person that does a few really stupid things, but he actually has a pretty strong will and sense of justice.
  • Also, it's a bit surprising that the founder of a newbie assistant guild was formerly the vice-guildmaster for a guild full of PKs and people who harass newbies. He didn't really like the part though.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Yata

File:Yata-GU.jpg

Voiced by: Takumi Yamazaki (Japanese); Steve Blum (English, video games); Paul Dobson (English, anime)

World Identity: Yata is the mysterious leader of G.U.. He is observing the AIDA phenomenon for CC Corp, but his amoral stance on player safety earns him Haseo and Kuhn's disrespect. Also plays Nala, an officer of the Moon Tree guild, and Naobi, former Guildmaster of TaN. Holds the Avatar of the fourth Phase, Fidchell, the Prophet

Real Identity: Takumi Hino returns, having previously played the character of Wiseman. In real life he is a 17-year old stock broker who lives on his own in Tokyo.

Appears in: .hack//G.U.

• Dual-Wielding: He's a Macabre Dancer and dual-wields fans.
• Crowing Moment Of Heartwarming: After Tawaraya comes back to The World as Tohta in "Return" Yata passes by him and greets him with the voice of Naobi.
• I Just Want to Be Special: Yata confesses to Ovan that he spent all of "The World R:2" frustrated that despite his determination and conviction neither AIDA, the invasive god, nor Aura, the absent god, had shown him any favor.
• Improbable Weapon User: The aforementioned twin fans of doom!
• Manipulative Bastard: And he's damn proud of it.
• The Red Mage: His job allows him to learn many of the spells used by Harvest Clerics and Shadow Warlocks (including debuff/bad status types) but he doesn't gain the high-level spells of either class. He is the only one, however, that gains a very useful party-wide +50% speed/movement boost spell.
• Refused by the Call: The reason he resents Ovan so very much. See above.
• Scary Shiny Glasses
• Younger Than They Look: Though we've never seen his offline self so...

Pi

File:Pi Dot Hack GU.jpg

Voiced by: Sanae Kobayashi (Japanese); Jessica Strauss (English, video games); Lisa Ann Beley (English, anime)

World Identity: Pi is Yata's assistant, and a field agent of sorts for G.U. Pi is a down-to-earth, no-nonsense woman who is focused on the mission at hand. Unlike Yata, however, she is genuinely concerned for the safety of the players of The World. She is also the player behind Ender during the events of Roots, working under Naobi (Yata) in the TaN guild. Their actions during this time are are of questionable morality, as TaN was shut down and many members banned as a result. It's unknown if CC Corp is aware they were the same player. Holds the avatar of the seventh Phase, Tarvos, The Avenger.

Real Identity: Reiko Saeki is 24 years old, and a former programmer. She quit her job suddenly to work for CC Corp in order to find out information about her half-brother Jun Bansyoya.

Appears in: .hack//GU

• Action Girl
• Big Brother Attraction (She may have some form of this trope, although it seems for the most part more like Big Brother Worship. The fact that she responds to Haseo asking what her "type" is by saying that she follows in the footsteps of her older brother is a bit suspicious, though, especially since that card is generally reserved for asking what kind of person someone is looking for in a romantic relationship.)
  • She says the only gentleman allowed to ride in her car is her cat. Of course, it's likely that that's not what she meant.
• The Baroness - A strange, protagonist version of the trope. She definitely has the dominatrix overtones in her insistence on obedience and her B&D avatar, and she is fanatically devoted to Yata who protagonist status is quite questionable until Vol. 3. Her outfit's pretty Stripperiffic too, even if it lacks the black leather/vinyl fashion normally associated with the trope, and she's got the coldness and refusal to actual make use of her sex appeal that's common to this trope. Lastly, she's a villain and The Dragon for Yata/Naobi in .hack//Roots. Despite all this, she's one of the good guys.
• Boobs of Steel
• Cool Big Sis
• Dead Little Sister - Her older brother is implied to be dead at the end of the journal that he sent to her.
  • Pi's Player will give the character's measurements if asked. They are 37-22-33. She also lists her height as 5'8" (175 cm).
• Stripperiffic
• You Gotta Have Pink Hair

Tri-Edge/Azure Kite

File:Azure Knight Kite.jpg

Voiced by: Saiyaka Aida (Japanese); Mona Marshall (English)

World Identity: A player-killer named for the three-line scars he leaves in the background graphics of places where he's taken victims, who go into comas in the real world. Little is known of him, but most players believe he's a small Twin Blade wreathed in blue fire, who never speaks.

Real Identity: Exactly who or what Tri-Edge is remains a mystery through Roots and most of the G.U. games... but it turns out he's an AI made by Aura to protect the system. The true Tri-Edge is Ovan.

Appears in: .hack//Roots, .hack//G.U.

• Expy: Tri-Edge looks like a zombified Kite. This is intentional, as he was created from Aura's memories of Kite.
• Implacable Man: Nothing will stop him. No matter how many times he's beaten in combat, he'll regenerate and return soon after.
• Incendiary Exponent: He's called Azure Flame Kite for a reason.
• One-Winged Angel: His "Azure Flame God" form.
• Power Trio: Tri-Edge is later joined by zombified versions of Orca and Balmung.
• Power Floats/Mid-Air Bobbing: After gaining Azure Kite as a party member, he follows Haseo around like this if you take him with you into dungeons and fields. Presumably he's too cool for walking.
• Secret Character: After destroying Cubia in Redemption, Aura gives you the member addresses of Azure Kite, along with Azure Orca and Azure Balmung. They can't change equipment but you can raise their affection for Haseo like any of his other party members. Haseo can even do the Promise Ending with them.
• Shoot the Hostage: Not the brightest or most moral AI, Azure Kite fires a Data Drain straight through Haseo to get Ovan, who had been secretly been hiding right behind him. Of course this doesn't hurt Haseo all that much (compared to the last time where he fell into a Coma), but it does undo his grueling eight months of level grinding by making him go from level 133 to level 1.

Aina

Voiced by: Atsuko Enomoto (Japanese); Rachel Hirschfeld (English)

World Identity: A Shadow Warlock, seen on rare occasions. Yata reveals toward the end of Roots that he'd seen her talking with Phyllo, because it was through her that Phyllo met Ovan. She later appears and spends some time with Sakubo in Redemption, while somehow also attracting the attention of Piros the 3rd. She was Ovan's first victim as Tri-Edge, and the whole reason he wanted to find the Key of the Twilight.

Real Identity: Ovan's younger sister. Already sick and hospitalized, she lapsed into a coma when Ovan PKed her as Tri-Edge. After he apparently dies to activate Corbenik's Rebirth ability, she returns to normal, but resents Haseo for separating them, believing it was better to be trapped with her brother than to be apart from him completely.

Appears in: .hack//Roots (sort of), .hack//G.U.: Redemption

• Black Magician Girl: She is a Shadow Warlock, after all.
• Cute Ghost Girl
• Elegant Gothic Lolita
• Girl In White
• Ill Girl

Atoli

File:Atoli GU.jpg

Voiced by: Ayako Kawasumi (Japanese); Bridget Hoffman (English)

World Identity: A Harvest Cleric who just wants everybody to get along. She has an obsessive loyalty to Sakaki, her immediate superior in the anti-player-killer Moon Tree guild, but quickly attaches herself to Haseo in order to "fix" him. Holds the avatar of the second Phase, Innis, The Mirage of Deceit.

Real Identity: Chigusa Kusaka, a young high school girl. Being constantly bullied in school and oppressed by her parents - who believe girls should be quiet and unnoticable - led her to browsing suicide websites where she met Sakaki's player, who invited her to play The World.

Appears in: .hack//G.U., .hack//LINK

• All of the Other Reindeer: She is constantly bullied in real life.
• Animal Motifs - Bird.
• Ayako Kawasumi
• Badass Adorable - She can fight Haseo on even terms when she awakens her Epitath. Also, out of the mage classes, Harvest Clerics are only outmatched by Macabre Dancers in usefulness, and you don't get another one of either until late in Vol. 3.
• Beneath the Mask
• Beware the Nice Ones: In Volume 3, you can unlock a series of parody videos based on the spinoff comic .hack//4koma. In one of them, Atoli brutally beats a rather cute-looking monster, and when Haseo restrains her at the end of the video, she's giggling maniacally. Granted, this is an exaggeration of her personality overall, but this comes into play quite seriously in Volume 2, when she gets infected with AIDA and turns out to not be as nice as she seems, summoning her Avatar to attack Haseo.
• Break the Cutie/Broken Bird: By being on the receiving end of Kick the Dog her whole life.
• Bungled Suicide: In real life, her left wrist has marks from failed suicide attempts, at least as shown in the non-canon manga. She has stopped trying to take her own life after meeting Haseo.
• Character Development: Not as extreme an example as Haseo, but pretty close. She starts out fairly diminutive, with a naive, sweet, overly trusting and submissive personality that annoys Haseo to no end. Later, after showing her True Self relentlessly in Volume 2 (and being infected with AIDA), she becomes somewhat of a Determinator, standing up for herself to the point where Haseo can't tie her down (to make a point, she summons her Avatar in front of Haseo to try and convince him to let her join his team in the Sage Palace arena tournament, and when he stubbornly refuses to let her in out of concern for her, she basically forces her way onto his team). Even before that, she's still chewing out Sakaki for betraying her (see "The Reason You Suck" Speech).
• Curtains Match the Window: Hair of Gold + Eyes of Gold.
  • May also apply for her offline self, although we don't actually know due to lack of coloration.
    • Actually, her character's eyes are more of a green-yellow color. They don't really match her hair.
• Driven to Suicide: She's actually tried and failed a few times to commit suicide.
• Expy: Of Shino
• Fan Girl: Definitely towards Sakaki until he crosses his Moral Event Horizon. And quite a bit for Haseo.
• Friend to All Living Things: Although her favorites are birds, she apparently likes all sorts of other animals. In The World, this manifests as her finding Lucky Animals and Chim Chims incredibly cute, to the point of restraining Haseo from kicking one in an early quest.
• Generic Cuteness / Informed Deformity: One of the reasons she is bullied by her classmates in real life is because she is "unattractive", but when we see her offline self in G.U.+ manga, she's actually rather cute. Of course, it's also possible this is more due to who are bullying her rather than her being "unattractive" by nature.
• Genki Girl: A timid one, but definitely upbeat. On the outside.
• Hidden Depths: ...where should I start? One of her Epitaph's primary abilities is deceit, allowing her to create a perfect facade for her True Self. As such, she's probably the best example of this trope in the entire series.
• It's All My Fault: More or less her mindset after she is attacked by AIDA and has her Epitaph stolen. And then Sakaki proceeds to Mind Rape her using this argument...
• Love Freak: To the max. Love is all she wants, partly thanks to bullying in her school and detached home life. Then we find out where she met Sakaki. And then G.U. Vol. 2 happened...
• Magical Girlfriend: In some ways, Atoli is a deconstruction of this. She latches onto Haseo when he's at his nadir and tries desperately to be his friend despite all the anger and abuse he heaps on her. But rather than be some unrealistic saint, it's more of a manifestation of the incredibly low self-worth that drives her seek to please people in spite of or perhaps because of abuse.
• Meaningful Name: Her name is derived from "Atori", which means "brambling".
• Mind Rape: That damn Sakaki...
  • Mind Control Eyes
• Nice Hat
• Obfuscating Stupidity: Possibly applies, as she acts rather silly, ditzy and naive, but she can actually be fairly intelligent sometimes (and that's not even taking into account how she acts underneath the mask).
• Official Couple: With Haseo if the ending of G.U., the ending of G.U. Trilogy, the side story Peaco's Story from 4koma & the G.U. mission #19 from LINK are anything to go by.
• Replacement Love Interest: To the letter. Instead of being the same actress with a different haircut, it's the same character design with a different color scheme. They even both had the Avatar Innis. Justifed due to the setting.
  • It's worth noting Haseo was initially repelled by Atoli because she looked so much like Shino.
• Shrinking Violet
• Stepford Smiler: As imposed by her parents.
• Stocking Filler: She has fairly notable garters. Shino too.
• Supreme Chef: One of Atoli's few sources of pride is her cooking ability. She's also a bit of a Picky Eater, though.
• Technical Pacifist
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Yes, she actually delivers one of these. To Sakaki. Who had just betrayed her and used every method in the book to crush her mind and spirit. And then proceeded to whoop his ass afterward. Granted, she did it in her own special way, but it was still awesome coming from her.
• Why Couldn't You Be Different?: Her parents harassed her for her failing grades and her attitude, as they believe girls should be quiet and unnoticed.
• Zettai Ryouiki

Sakaki

File:280px-Sakaki 8737.jpg

Voiced by: Katsuyuki Konishi (Japanese, PC); Junko Minagawa (Japanese, player); Crispin Freeman (English, PC); Mary Elizabeth McGlynn (English, player)

World Identity: One of the Seven Council of the Moon Tree guild, and among the most influential of them. He's seen as an inspiration by most of Moon Tree and an annoying, preachy busybody by everyone else. Becomes a major antagonist in Volumes 2 and 3 after he is given control of AIDA by Ovan.

Real Identity: Toru Uike, a precociously intelligent young boy who desires to be taken seriously despite his youth.

Appears in: .hack//G.U.

• A God Am I: His plan in Reminisce is to use AIDA to rule the digital and real worlds and make it a paradise under his rule.
• All Take and No Give: Of the controlling giver type. Oh dear lord, poor Atoli.
• Asshole Victim: It's seriously nice to see him begging Ovan for AIDA seeds on his hands and knees, getting cornered by the Azure Knights, screaming for help like a coward, and being finally killed for good by Azure Kite.
• Ax Crazy: Any good intentions he might have had in the beginning are gone by Redemption, as he's been infected with AIDA himself and desires nothing more than to make Haseo suffer for the "crime" of defying him.
• Break the Haughty: His final scene in Redemption is one hundred percent distilled break. And it is awesome.
• Enfante Terrible: When infected by AIDA, although this may apply even before he is infected given his relationship with Atoli. In real life, he even orders his classmates to attack their homeroom teacher.
• Expy: Listen to his speeches about the "ideal world" and tell me he's not channeling Light Yagami. "I am Sakaki! The god of The World!"
• Manipulative Bastard: For God's sake, he recruited Atoli as his personal cheerleader after finding her on a suicide site.
• Mind Rape: What he does to Atoli through AIDA, in an attempt to gain control of her Epitaph.
• One-Winged Angel: His AIDA infested form, figuratively and literally.
• Smug Snake
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: What he is at first...
• Wise Beyond Their Years: The issues of morality and ideology he's grappling with are far beyond what most kids his age spend time thinking about.
• You Gotta Have Green Hair

Sakubo (Saku)

File:Sakubo-1.jpg

Bo (left) and Saku (right)

Voiced by: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese); Erin Fitzgerald (English)

World Identity: Saku is a bratty and aggressive Shadow Warlock who is one of Endrance's most rabid fangirls. She is a member of a rumor-maniac guild called Trifle. She shares her PC with her younger twin brother, Bo. They hold the Avatar of the fifth Phase, Gorre, The Machinator

Real Identity: Sakura Nakanishi is the elder twin sister of Iori, the player behind Bo. They are both 10 years old. Saku actually does not exist in the real world. The "real" Sakura was stillborn. Saku is Iori's alternate personality that came to be when Iori heard that his mother wished that his sister had lived instead of him.

Appears in: .hack//G.U.

• Bratty Half-Pint
• Clingy Jealous Girl
• Hot-Blooded: Has shades of this.
• The Napoleon
• Sparkling Stream of Tears
• Split Personality
• Stalker with a Crush: ENDRANCE.

"Haseo... You... You've come here to steal Master En from me, haven't you?! Ohhhhhhh no you don't! No you don't! No you don't! No you dooooooooon't!!!"

• • It's worth noting that Saku was infected by AIDA during that scene.
• "The Reason You Suck" Speech: Dear Lord, she utterly rips Negimaru apart at the end of a quest.

"I'll say it again! Guys who are.. losers offline.. are big losers.. online too!!!!"

• • Followed by brutally blasting the hell out of him as he runs away in tears.
• Tsundere
• Tsurime

Sakubo (Bo)

Voiced by: Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese); Erin Fitzgerald (English)

World Identity: Bo is a timid boy who shares his character with his sister Saku. In contrast to Saku's outgoing nature, Bo is shy and withdrawn. Through the events of the game, he comes to view Haseo as a big brother of sorts. They hold the Avatar of the fifth Phase, Gorre, The Machinator

Real Identity: Iori Nakanishi is Sakura's younger twin. He is physically frail, often having to stay home from school due to illness. This is a source of strife for his parents, and it was his frustrated mother's anger that created the alternate personality of Saku.

Appears in: .hack//G.U.

• Child Mage
• Cross Player
• Ill Boy
• Morality Pet: Arguably one for Haseo. Note that when he's still quite a jerk to everyone else, his treatment to Bo is much nicer.
• Shrinking Violet
• Split Personality: The original half.
• Tareme
• You Should Have Died Instead: His mother wishes it was Sakura who lived instead of him, which is why he creates Saku.

Endrance

File:Endrance.jpg

Voiced by: Mitsuki Saiga (Japanese); Liam O'Brien (English)

World Identity: Endrance is a famous Blade Brandier who is the Emperor of the Demon Palace Arena in the beginning of the games. His beauty and aloof attitude attracts many fans, but he shows no interest in anything but the small cat on his shoulder that he calls "Mia". Fittingly, he holds the avatar of the sixth Phase, Macha, The Temptress.

Real Identity: Kaoru Ichinose is a 20-year old hikikomori who was behind the character of Elk from the previous games. Despite his reclusive lifestyle, he supposedly has the looks of a fashion model.

Appears in: .hack//G.U. Link

• Big Damn Heroes: Once each of the Just in Time and Changed My Mind, Kid variety, followed by an awesome put-down.
• Bishonen
• Dude Looks Like a Lady: Taken Up to Eleven with his Xth Form in Link.
• Fake Defector / Reverse Mole: Pretends to side with Sakaki in Redemption, followed by a Crowning Moment of Awesome.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: He doesn't care at all whether Haseo returns his affection or not.
• Lord Of War
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy
• Mr. Fanservice
• Single-Target Sexuality: First Mia (sort of), then Haseo.
• Something About a Rose
• Stalker with a Crush: Not nearly as bad as Saku, but he does appear to scare the hell out of Haseo. Leads to something of an unrequited Love Triangle in which Saku hates Haseo because she thinks he stole Endrance.
• You Gotta Have Blue Hair

Alkaid

File:Alkaid GU 8535.jpg

Voiced by: Masumi Asano (Japanese); Erin Fitzgerald (English)

World Identity: The former Emperor of the Demon Palace, before Endrance took the title. She at first hates Haseo for "cheating" to defeat her in the Inevitable Tournament, but after getting to know him better, she quickly warms up to him and becomes one of his allies. She is PK'ed and put into a coma by an AIDA-possessed Bordeaux late in Reminisce, and his failure to protect her is something that weighs heavily on Haseo for some time afterward.

Real Identity: Chika Kuramoto, a high school girl and something of a bookworm. She's highly fond of Romance of the Three Kingdoms.

Appears In: .hack//G.U., .hack//Link

Tropes Associated With:

• Action Girl
• Bare Your Midriff
• Cheryl Blossom: Alongside Atoli and Shino, who both can interchangably be the Betty and Veronica.
• Demoted to Extra: In the games she's fine however... both G.U.+ and G.U. Novels she shows up simply to get beat by Endrance and in G.U. Trilogy only to stop Haseo's winning streak in the Arena in either case she never shows up again.
• Dual-Wielding: She's a Twin Blade.
• Fiery Redhead
• Genki Girl: After Haseo manages to befriend her.
• Idiot Hair: More a sign of being a Genki Girl than with being dumb or naive, though.
• Lethal Chef: Possibly - Haseo is skeptical of her cooking abilities from the start, and she definitely sucks at cooking ramen. Although, it's not outright proven, considering the lack of information regarding the subject.
• Love Triangle: Subverted. One seems to be forming between her and Atoli (over Haseo, naturally), but the two reconcile and become good friends fairly quickly.
  • She fully acknowledges that Haseo likes Atoli more, but that won't stop her from trying to win him over. She still likes Atoli, though - it's more just her competitive spirit.
• Proud Warrior Race Guy: Certainly acts the part. She's dismissive of anyone whom she considers weak, and absolutely despises cheaters. But earn her respect and she's one of the most loyal and dependable friends you could have.
• Red Headed Heroine
• Romance of the Three Kingdoms: Alkaid's player is a huge fan as revealed if you send her the right greeting cards.
• Ship Tease: Holy crap, is there ever. Haseo even Glomps her at one point!
  • If it doesn't make you cry, it will make you laugh. It's a bit narmy as well due to the somewhat over-the-top voice acting on Haseo's part. Not quite as bad, though, as it's still dramatic enough to qualify as a Tear Jerker.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Delivered straight when you meet her in a quest after your tournament fight.
• Tomboy
  • She admits that it's more just her online persona and she's actually a slightly introverted bookworm offline.
• Tsundere: (Type A).

Zelkova

File:280px-Zelkova 1691.jpg

Voiced by: Akiko Kimura (Japanese); Wendee Lee (English)

World Identity: A young-looking Flick Reaper, and the leader of Moon Tree. Though he is kind and seems carefree, he is actually one of the game's most advanced and powerful players, and is much more aware of what's happening than he lets on. He takes a rather lax attitude toward governing Moon Tree, allowing Sakaki to build up support against him. When he isn't acting as Moon Tree's leader, he spends his time as the caretaker of the Net Slum, further hinting that he's far more than he appears.

Real Identity: A complete mystery to everyone. There are hints that he may in fact be an AI.

Appears In: .hack//G.U., .hack//LINK

Trope Associated With

• Badass Adorable
• Cute Bruiser / Pint-Sized Powerhouse
• Eyes of Gold
• Hidden Depths: He seems a lot more naive than he actually is.
• Nice Guy
• Replacement Goldfish: Sort of plays this role for Kaede, whose son died in a car accident.
• Sinister Scythe: His weapon of choice as he's of the Flick Reaper class. Very, very much a good guy though.
• Unusual Horns

AIDA

World Identity: Artificially Intelligent Data Anomalies, appearing as clusters of undulating black spots. How they were created and what they want is unknown, but they've recently become hostile toward humans, infecting players and compelling them to pursue their natural - usually negative - impulses beyond reason.

Real Identity: None. AIDA victims, however, become little more than lifeless drones in reality, serving the will of AIDA and exhibiting superhuman power on one occasion.

Appears in:

• Exclusively Evil: Averted, actually. GU Returner reveals that the hostile AIDA that were causing all the problems had discovered aggression and went a little crazy with it. The Rebirth didn't wipe out all of AIDA... just the aggressive ones. The rest of AIDA is peaceful and non-interfering, prefering to remain hidden in the background rather than interact directly with humans.
• Emotion Bomb: AIDA's effect on people. AIDA is curious about human emotion, so it bonds itself to people's consciousnesses to experiment with it. It often amplifies those emotions in the process, to disastrous levels.
• Red Right Hand: Or, more specifically, black left arms.
• Theme Naming: AIDA variants are basic human names (Anna, Helen, Victorian...), and a lot of their attacks are named after programming languages.

Midori

Voiced by: Satsuki Yukino (Japanese); Saffron Henderson (English)

World Identity: A "Professional Victim" who lets people fight and killer her in return for payment. Her Class is Edge Punisher and she used to be a PKer.

Real Identity: Midori was born from a "virtual cell" in a medical computer. The cell was taken from a girl named Midori Shimomura who was suffering from a mysterious degenerative disorder. In an attempt to understand her condition, the doctors used a blood sample from her to create the virtual cell. However, the cell took on a life of its own and escaped into the network, where it grew and became sentient. "She" eventually arrived in The World R:2, where "she" created the PC Midori. With the exception of the blood sample, Midori does not exist outside of the worldwide computer network and the electronic devices attached to it. She is, however, able to use those devices to observe and interact with the real world. The original Midori creates an identical character once she recovers and it is unknown which of them appears in Link

Appears in: .hack//Cell, .hack//Roots, .hack///Link

• Foil: To Bordeaux.
• Meaningful Name / Punny Name: Midori usually translates to "green", but it's written as "blue" for her case, which is her color scheme.
• Tomato in the Mirror

Carlos "Salvador" Aihara

Voiced by: Masashi Ebara (Japanese); Daran Norris (English)

World Identity: Kazubolo, a random player who doesn't do much.

Real Identity: A reporter well-known for his aggressive "Will not take no for an answer" approach to journalism, he is very interested in finding out the truth of things. He runs a webshow called "Online Jack", during which he investigates the mysterious mental illness "Doll Syndrome" that has recently been spreading worldwide, and his investigation keeps coming back to one topic: The World.

Appears In: .hack//GU (specifically, the Online Jack section of the News)

• But Not Too Foreign: He's Japanese, but was born in Brazil... explains his name, at least.
  • Which is not that strange, considering that Brazil has the largest concentration of Japanese descendants in the world (outside of Japan itself, of course).
• Chivalrous Pervert: Never misses a chance to hit on a woman.
• Distracted by the Sexy: "Samba, samba!"
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Portuguese
• Intrepid Reporter
• Large Ham: Oh, so much...
• Nosebleed: Online Jack Episode 5. Michiru is not pleased.

.Hack//Link

Tokio

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World Identity: Himself.

Real Identity: Ordinary High School Student

Appears in: .hack//Link (game), .hack//Link: Twilight Knights (manga)

• Anime Hair: While this isn't a new thing to the series and is also justified due to the MMORPG setting it has most of the time, Tokio is notable for having anime hair in the real world in a series where most of the actual players behind the characters tend to have more realistic appearances.
• Butt Monkey: Watch the Cross Rengeki with Tokio and his party members. Over half the time, he gets injured or looks like an idiot during the process.
  • Some examples: when he gets used as a stepping stone by Hasseo to get to the enemy; gets accidently zapped (along with the enemy) by Atoli, nearly turned into colateral damage by Azure Kite's attack, and B-st Haseo turns to attack him at the end of their "combo" attack.
• Character Development: Tokio does start out acting rather stupid, but later on, he matures dramatically. Of course, the fanbase refuses to look past his initial idiocy.
• Crisis Crossover: Brings all of the .hack series characters together. ALL of them. Even some of the ones in Alternate Continuity.
  • They're all A Is.
• Genre Savvy
• Idiot Hero: Hooh, boy.
• Time Travel: In game, Tokio is able to and from the different .hack eras; and bring people with him. Yes, that would include people like Sora and Haseo. At the same time.
  • He does so by using the "Akashic Records" built into The World, and he's clearly not actually traveling through time, as a lot of what happens is completely different from what actually happened (and this is pointed out). Also, Sora isn't playable. Unless you count the Early-Bird Cameo, who is a genderswapped Expy of Kite and not the same Sora as past Ryou.
• Trapped in TV Land: Is either a copy of his physical self mentally pulled into the World(s); or has been physically pulled into the World.

Princess AIKA

World Identity: A mysterious princess in Tokio's dreams who looks like Saika.

Real Identity: A variants of AIDA that fused with the princess of a different online MMORPG that Tokio once played. It followed him to The World; and wanting to help, took the physical form of Saika.

Appears in: .hack//Link

• Everything's Better with Princesses

Saika Amagi

World Identity: "Panzer Saika", a heavily armed version of her real self with a really big gun and a German Uniform. (Although, it apparently exists only in the manga.)

Real Identity: Cousin/adopted sister of the man who went crazy and nearly destroyed the World with the Aura Reclamation Project that turned R:1 into R:2.

Appears in: .hack//Link

• Badass Normal (She's completely and utterly awesome in every feasible way. She also doesn't play The World (in the .hack//LINK game, at least) and is not a playable character as a result.)
• Mission Control
• Tsundere

.Hack//Quantum (UNDER CONSTRUCTION- SPOILERS AHEAD!)

Sakuya

Voiced by: Kana Hanazawa (Japanese) Trina Nishimura (English)

World Identity: A newbie to "The World R:X", she is a Twin Blade modeled after Kite, who sets out to try and conquer "The One Sin" special Christmas-time event along with her friends Mary and Tobias. When things start to go wrong for her and her friends, they get chased by monsters and end up accidentally springing traps on other players in the area, they tend to get into some hot water because of it.

Real identity: Asumi Aida. Asumi is a bright and cheerful high school student in Aomori Prefecture. She plays The World with her actual personality. Unlike Eri and Iori, she's bad at studying.

Appears in: .Hack//Quantum

• Cheerful Child
• Curious as a Monkey: Her curiosity is part of the reason why her and her friends ended up ACCIDENTALLY setting off a ton of traps on the Yata Raven guild who were also participating in the event.
• Expy: Of Kite.
• Genki Girl: Think Sakuya as a hyperactive version of Kite.
• Pettanko

Mary

Voiced by: Ayumi Fujimura (Japanese) Lara Woodhull (English)

World Identity: An Edge Punisher modeled after BlackRose. She is considerably kind to her friends, but she is not to be crossed when you push her too far... Especially considering when she has to clean up the mess her friends make, be it literally or figuratively.

Real identity: Eri Etou. Eri started playing The World after she was invited by her long-time friend Asumi, who she is constantly looking out for. Every morning she comes to get Asumi, who is always on the brink of being late for school.

Appears in: .Hack//Quantum

• Beware the Nice Ones: Her kindness has its limitations.
• Expy: Of BlackRose
• Turn the Other Cheek: Her kindness almost places her at The Messiah levels.. Almost.

Tobias

Voiced by: Miyuki Sawashiro (Japanese) Anastasia Munoz (English)

World Identity: Tobias is a Blade Brandier modeled after Balmung. He is an experienced player of The World who befriends Sakuya and Mary. He is commonly known as "Tobias the Information Merchant", taking into selling information much like Wiseman did.

Real identity: Iori Ikuta. Iori is classmates with Eri and Asumi. Her sense of fashion in The World is not reflected at all in the real world. Her family owns one of the best and oldest hot springs resorts in Aomori.

Appears in: .Hack//Quantum

• Bishonen: Only in the World
• Cross Player: Yeah, she's a female playing a male character.
• Expy: of Balmung

Hermit

Voiced by: Yui Ogura

World Identity: A strange character with an illegal appearance modeled suspiciously after both Mia and Macha. Whether Hermit is a PC or NPC is unknown, but it appears to be looking for something... Hermit befriends Sakuya after she managed to escape some pursuers chasing her through town.

Real identity: Touha Tanagami. Touha Tanagami was an American citizen of Japanese descent, hospitalized as a child with an unspecified disease, possibly some form of immunodeficiency.

Appears in: .Hack//Quantum

• Big Bad
• Expy: of Mia and Macha.

Shamrock

Voiced By: Sanae Kobayashi

World Identity: Shamrock is a Shadow Warlock and the guildmaster of the Yata Mirror guild. She and Smith try their hand at The One Sin special event, but end up chasing after Sakuya, Mary,and Tobias after they accidentally spring a bunch of traps on them.

Real identity: Reiko Saeki, the owner of Pi.

Appears in: .Hack//Quantum

• Expy: of Aina
• Foreshadowing: The name of her guild Yata Mirror, while seemingly named after one of the 3 treasures of japan, is likely a subtle reference to her identity as Pi due to her obsession with Yata
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: With Smith, she is the tiny girl
• Pettanko
• Token Mini-Moe

Smith

Voiced By: Masami Iwasaki

World identity: Smith is a Lord Partisan and the second-in-command of the Yata Mirror guild.

Real identity: Shamrock's butler.

Appears in: .Hack//Quantum

• Expy: of Piros the 3rd and Moonstone
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: He often lets Shamrock ride on his shoulder.
• The Quiet One: He doesn't talk much.