.hack//SIGN Volume Five is best described as the calm before the storm. It opens with a rare sight, that of Tsukasa enjoying a quiet, happy moment with Subaru. We learn that he and Subaru had been spending a lot of time together. A girl had found her way into Tsukasa's heart, and against all odds, begun to bring him happiness. But if Tsukasa were happy, the show could not meet its regular angst quotient. So as we all know, that could not last. Morgana takes it upon herself to "fix" everyone's favorite virtual Shinji Ikari. And how do you punish an angsty teenager for daring to hope for happiness? Why, by sending him on an acid trip comparable to the last twenty minutes of 2001:A Space Odyssey, that's how.

With Tsukasa out of commission, too mentally crippled to whine at us for once, the rest of the volume focuses on the rest of the cast, and their own doubts and uncertainties, as the series begins to move towards its conclusion. Bear and Mimiru weren't sure how to help Tsukasa. And Subaru, having formed a bond with him no one else could come close to, stuck with them, when she couldn't be by Tsukasa's side. Ginkan was left trying to overcome his hubris, since the end of the Crimson Knights. BT was caught between the Bear and Mimiru party, and Sora's own twisted ambitions. And Sora himself began getting into things over his head. Throw in the deus ex machina-like involvement of an ace hacker and the cameo of a certain hero of the Azure Sky, and you've got a formula leading up to the eventual assembly of all the major players, ready to face the inevitable conclusion head-on.

Meet Balmung, yet another .hack universe convenient plot device, er, hero.	When you're trapped in a video game, trying acid isn't such a smart idea.

Once again, Bandai provided us with the usual suspects in the extras department: A character art gallery, an isolated-score audio track, and yet another Japanese trailer for a DVD release in Japan. There's nothing new in the presentation department, just another well done main menu with a Chaos Gate theme, and the same simple, easy-to-navigate menus we're used to. Volume Five's cover continues the series' tradition of character-oriented covers, this one focusing on Balmung of the Azure Sky in the foreground, with Helba, the notorious hacker, standing in the background, displaying her usual untouchable countenance. Bandai continued their tradition of including inserts with each .hack//SIGN volume, and in this case, the insert featured a breakdown of the five main servers in The World in which the game is played, and their root towns that act as players' bases of operations.

In the end, .hack//SIGN Volume Five is another very strong series of transitional episodes, developing the characters a little more, and revealing some key information in making sense of the series. Why, you could almost say that watching this episode is a real Key of the Twilight to figuring everything out! The overall pacing picks up again, making the show more digestible to those who couldn't stand the slower paced episodes, and the suspense picks up, as the plotlines begin tying themselves up. It's almost the end, can you .hack it?

Distributor: Bandai Entertainment
Creator: Project .hack (Bandai)
Released: 2002

Video Quality: A+
Audio Quality: A+
Presentation: A
Content: A+
Overall: A+