I think .hack could become the next Evangelion. In the past years, anime series were released with the makers’ comments of those series being the next big thing, the next EVA. All of them were mecha series. I don’t think an anime has to have any sort of mechs in it to be the next Eva. The fascination wasn’t caused by the giant robots, it was because of the story that created a (semi-)plausible world of its own and this is what .hack is achieving with every new episode of .hack//SIGN that is aired, with every new .hack product being released. .hack//SIGN creates the same kind of mistery surrounding the storyline and the characters, and makes the viewers eagerly wait for every new episode, hoping more of those mysteries will be revealed.
I cannot wait for Sadamoto Yoshiyuki’s .hack manga, I hope there’ll be an artbook anytime soon, too. I own two of his artbooks (Alpha and Der Mond) and love them.