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.hack//Liminality
Genre	Adventure, Science Fiction, Fantasy
OVA
Director	Koichi Mashimo
Studio	Bee Train
Episodes	4
Released	June 20, 2002 to April 12, 2003
Related works
.hack video games .hack//Sign .hack//GIFT .hack//Legend of the Twilight

.hack//Liminality is the 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.

• "Vol. 1: In The Case of Mai Minase" (with .hack//Infection)
• "Vol. 2: In The Case of Yuki Aihara" (with .hack//Mutation)
• "Vol. 3: In The Case of Kyoko Tohno" (with .hack//Outbreak)
• " Vol. 4: Trismegistus" (with .hack//Quarantine)

The story follows three girls, Mai Minase (水無瀬 舞, Minase Mai^?), Yuki Aihara (相原有紀, Aihara Yuki^?), and Kyoko Tohno (遠野京子, Tōno Kyōko^?, Kyo for short), and a former CC Corp. director of the Japanese version of The World, Junichiro Tokuoka (徳岡 純一郎, Tokuoka Jun'ichirō^?). They investigate as to why several people have fallen into a coma while playing the game.

Mai and her boyfriend, Tomonari Kasumi (known to The World as Sieg), are taken to a hospital due to both of them collapsing while playing a MMORPG called The World. Despite Mai waking up shortly after arriving at the hospital, Tomonari remains in a coma. For this, Mai is the object of rumors, especially when the clubhouse (known as G-study) is closed after the incident. It is soon revealed that she heard a certain sound (which is also present at important points in .hack//Sign) shortly before collapsing, and she later discovers that it is A in C major, which is used to tune instruments, including her violin. It was this sound that enabled her to wake up, and it was the first sound she made when she did. She meets Junichiro Tokuoka, and although she distrusts him at the beginning, as they investigate into Tomonari's coma, they soon become allies, if not friends. The investigation itself starts with Tokuoka accessing Tomonari's (Sieg's) account on The World, with Mai providing the password. Tokuoka accidentally opens the e-mail, and discovers that two users, Yukichin and Kyo, are close with Tomonari and have been harassing him with e-mails regarding his absence. It is also revealed during the course of the episode that Tomonari took the name Sieg as a contraction of Siegfried, from the German play Der Ring Des Nibelungen, which was written by Wagner. Balmung is the name of Siegfried's sword, and Tomonari told Mai that he would become the possessor rather than the sword: a reference to the fact that he aimed to surpass the player character Balmung of the Azure Sky, one of the Descendants of Fianna. Tokuoka and Mai's investigation leads them to break into G-study, in order to attempt to recreate the same situation so that they can find out why Mai and Tomonari collapsed. The sound starts up again when they enter a field, and although Mai saves herself, Tokuoka seems to be losing it. In desperation, Mai destroys the monitor and (presumably) computer that they were using, and drags him outside, where a splash of rainwater wakes him up. After that, the two pledge to find out just what C.C.Corp. is hiding, and what it will take to wake everyone up.

An interesting easter egg is if you turn on the subtitles, in the scene where Tonomari's friend is fixing the computer, for a seconds, keywords will pop up. Those keywords in the Theta server lead to where the Soul Blades reside.

Tokuoka and Mai are on their way to meet with Yuki (known to The World as Yukichin), who is in Yokohama. Tokuoka gets stuck in traffic, and Mai goes to the library in Tokyo to attempt to look up information. During this time, she hears the sound. Meanwhile, Yuki is watching a movie when suddenly THE WORLD flashes on the screen, the power goes out, and the employees attempt to evacuate the building. Yuki runs into an unnamed woman (in the episode; the credits list her name as Asaba) who works at the building, and the two try to find their way out while the crowd gets stuck on the broken escalators. The two eventually resort to climbing through a ventilation shaft to a hallway with an elevator. After an air conditioner malfunctions and starts sending out carbon dioxide, the woman rips off her shirt sleeves and makes mittens for both of them to slide down the elevator cables. At the same time, Tokuoka is finding his way to the meeting point without his car, as it's still trapped in gridlock, and Mai is using an old offline newspaper reel to look up information. She comes across Harald Hoerwick (the creator of The World), and the Epitaph of Twilight. Later, she contacts Kyo, and finds out that fires have broken out all over Yokohama, and that there is no cell phone service there either. Yuki and the woman find themselves at the bottom of the shaft, and it seems that the woman has twisted her ankle. They make their way onto the first floor regardless, and discover upon exiting the building that many cars have crashed. The woman says that it is the second coming of Pluto's Kiss. Finally, at 9:00, eight hours after Tokuoka said that he would meet Yuki, he arrives to find Yuki waiting for him. Mai finally gets through to Tokuoka, and Kyo gets through to Yuki, and it is discovered that Kyo knows quite a bit about the Epitaph of Twilight.

• Openings

1. edge
2. A Thousand and One Nights (千夜一夜, Sen'yaichiya^?)
3. The Tale You Were In (君がいた物語, Kimi ga Ita Monogatari^?)
4. Memory (記憶, Kioku^?)

• Ending: Twilight Sea (黄昏の海, Tasogare no Umi^?)

All theme songs were performed by See-Saw.

• dothack.com — Official American website
• hack.channel.or.jp — Official Japanese website
• The Helba Gate: .hack//Liminality
• .hack//Liminality at .hack//Wiki