It was common knowledge that the popular MMORPG ‘The World’ was just a game- at least until some of the people who played it started falling into comas in the real world. And as viruses and disruption continue to spread within ‘The World’, the chaos starts to leak out into the real world. Determined to get to the bottom of it all, a man named Tokuoka enlists the help of three young women in a search to uncover the truth.

Available only in the form of bonus discs included with the .hack games, .hack//Liminality focuses on the real world events running to parallel to those of the videogames. The first three episodes each feature a different protagonist, each of whom is affected (directly or indirectly) by the chaos resulting from the problems in ‘The World’. All three of them end up helping Tokuoka, and the final episode sees them coming together to get incontrovertible proof of what is happening.

As the only part of the .hack franchise so far to take place primarily in the ‘real’ world, .hack//Liminality makes for an interesting extra, but sadly, it just that isn’t that strong a series in its own right. Tokuoka, the character intended to tie all the disparate threads together, is the least developed of the main characters, and we never really find out why he is trying to expose the truth about ‘The World’ or indeed, why we should even care. Even the conclusion of the relatively action-packed final episode may leave you wondering exactly what the point of the whole exercise was.

Nonetheless, the series does provide a few interesting snippets of information for .hack fans, including some details about the creator of ‘The World’. There are also some subtle crossovers with the games that observant viewers will pick up on- including a number of onscreen keywords that can be used to unlock secret areas in-game.

Visually, the show lacks the distinctive animation style that characterises other some subtle crossovers with the games that observant viewers will pick up on- including a number of onscreen keywo Bee Train productions, opting instead for a more stylised and simplistic look. While this makes for an interesting change of pace that certainly differentiates Liminality from the other .hack anime series, it doesn’t quite measure up in terms of quality. There are no such concerns when it comes to the music, however- Yuki Kajiura has composed another excellent soundtrack that, perhaps surprisingly, turns out to be the strongest aspect of this OVA.

In Summary

.hack//Liminality is a curiosity that will be purely of interest to fans of the franchise- and that is exactly what it is marketed as. Those who have the games will no doubt enjoy this extra, along with the chance to see a little more of what goes on outside of ‘The World’. For everyone else, however, there is no need to worry- you won’t be missing out on much.