.hack//Liminality

.hack//Liminality is an OVA series directly related to the .hack video game series for the PlayStation 2, with the perspective of Liminality focused on the real world as opposed to the games' MMORPG The World. Liminality was separated into four volumes; each volume was released with its corresponding game. The initial episode is 45 minutes long, while subsequent episodes are 30 minutes long. The video series was directed by Koichi Mashimo, written by Kazunori Itō with music by Yuki Kajiura. Primary Animation production was handled by Mashimo's studio Bee Train which collaborated for the four games as well as handled major production on .hack//Sign.

Releases

The games were packaged with DVDs featuring episodes of .hack//Liminality, an original video animation (OVA) series that depicts events that occur concurrently with the games. The OVA series was meant to give perspective on fictional events happening in the "real world" outside the game.

.hack

.hack (pronounced "dot-hack") is a Japanese multimedia franchise that encompasses two projects; Project .hack and .hack Conglomerate. Both projects were primarily created/developed by CyberConnect2, and published by Bandai. The series is mainly followed through the anime and video game installations, and has been adapted through manga, novels and other related media.

Project .hack

Project .hack was the first project of the .hack series. It launched in 2002 with the anime series .hack//Sign in April 2002 and the PlayStation 2 game .hack//Infection in June 2002. Project developers included Koichi Mashimo (Bee Train), Kazunori Ito (Catfish), and Yoshiyuki Sadamoto, (Gainax). Since then, Project .hack has spanned television, video games, manga, and novels.

Games

.hack (video game series)

.hack /dɒt hæk/ is a series of single-player hack and slash developed for the PlayStation 2 console by CyberConnect2 and published by Bandai. The series of four games, titled .hack//Infection, .hack//Mutation, .hack//Outbreak, and .hack//Quarantine, features a "game within a game"; a fictional massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) called The World which does not require the player to connect to the Internet. Players may transfer their characters and data between games in the series. Each game comes with an extra DVD containing an episode of .hack//Liminality, the accompanying original video animation series which details fictional events that occur concurrently with the games.

The games are part of a multimedia franchise called Project .hack which explores the mysterious origins of The World. Set after the events of the anime series .hack//Sign, the games focus on a player named Kite and his quest to discover why some users have become comatose as a result of playing The World. The search evolves into a deeper investigation of The World and its effects on the stability of the Internet.

Eduard Hackel

Eduard Hackel (born March 17, 1850 in Haida, Bohemia – died February 2, 1926, in Attersee, Upper Austria) was an Austrian botanist. His father was a veterinary in Haida. He was married and had one son.

Hackel studied at the Polytechnical Institute in Vienna, and became substitute teacher at a high school in St. Pölten in 1869. He became full professor of natural history there upon obtaining his teaching certificate in 1871 and remained in this position until his retirement in 1900. He published his first papers on grasses in 1871 and soon became known as a world expert on the grass family (Poaceae). While he himself undertook only a single collecting trip – to Spain and Portugal, he was charged with working up collections of grasses mainly from Japan, Taiwan, New Guinea, Brazil and Argentina. Apart from systematics, Hackel also contributed to the morphology and histology of members of the grass family.

The genus Hackelochloa (Poaceae) is named for him.

Important works