Ubu says:

Just in case you’ve been hiding under a rock, the genre is “big-breasted sci-fi horror” and despite the first hyphenation, it’s not a “dumb tits and blood” show. Essentially the writers took a damn good concept, good execution, and a great story, then slapped humongous jugs on all the girls in order to sell it.

Which is pretty much the truth. Anyway, he says that it can be viewed online now for free -- except that it doesn't work for him. Maybe for you, though, and it really is worth your while. He's got the link for it. (It doesn't work for me, either, but maybe ADV will get its act together and fix its bug.)

The whole series (including Misaki Chronicles) is available now as a thinpak for $45, which is a hell of a bargain. Divergence Eve and Misaki Chronicles are on my very short list of "shows that any real fan of anime should own".

A couple of things about it: the very first episode is actually chronologically the 12th episode, and there's (deliberately) no plot exposition, so it is (deliberately) a bit confusing. Once the real story kicks in with the chronological first episode (i.e. ep 2) it starts a bit slow. The purpose of the early episodes is to let us get to know the 4 girls who are the main characters in the show. So be patient with it. Give it time. You'll be glad you did.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Divergence Eve at 06:27 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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I noticed a lot of google hits this morning for people searching for "Divergence Eve". So I took a look, and my series review is the third hit, after Wikipedia and the ANN entries for the series.

I wonder how that happened? Probably all the Google cred I built up during the USS Clueless days...

UPDATE: There's supposed to be a way you can find out your Google page ranking, but I've never figured out what it is. I'm not sure I'd know what it meant even if I did find out.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Divergence Eve at 01:56 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Author found a post by a guy who started watching Divergence Eve in hopes of coming up with material for sardonic big-boobs jokes. Instead, he got four minutes into the first episode and decided he'd had enough.

The first episode of DE is deliberately cryptic and confusing. It's out of order, and you can't fully understand what happens in it until you reach the point in the series where it really belongs. But our hero wasn't interested in giving it a fair chance. He wanted to snark at it.

All I can do is sigh, roll my eyes, note that he's made 108 posts about Madlax, and consider the source.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Divergence Eve at 04:58 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Don's most recent order came in. The box picture for Misaki Chronicles surprised me, though it really shouldn't have. The pandering continues: Misaki's flight suit is ripped, though there's really no reason why it should be. (No reason, he says... heh heh heh)

Anyway, Don is going to be out of commission for a while, what with all that superb anime to watch. (About 16 hours of it.)

UPDATE: He thought he was going to exercise self-control and watch them slowly. Yeah, right.

He's through with Misaki Chronicles. I can understand why he wants a pause; it's a real emotional roller-coaster ride. I bet he watches it again before he goes to Shingu.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Divergence Eve at 04:06 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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Ubu Roi, in comments on his own site, compares Misaki Chronicles to Shingu: Secret of the Stellar Wars:

I probably won’t give [Shingu] an A+, because it lacked the emotional punch of Misaki Chronicles. But it was a very well done show. The characters were great, and the story kept me guessing right up until the final moments. In fact, as I say above, it also kept me guessing AFTER the final moments.

A lot of time, I was going, “Well I knew something was coming, but that’s beyond what I expected!” when hit with another twist in the plot.

Which got me to thinking: I gave Misaki Chronicles 3.5 stars and Shingu 4 stars, and I stand by that. But it's true that the ending of Misaki Chronicles affected me more strongly. So why?

My answers are massive spoilers for both series, so they're below the fold and in a spoiler box. Do not read them unless you've seen both series.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Divergence Eve at 03:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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If this site goes dark until July 1, this will be the reason why. (I don't expect it, but even so, itai!)

On to other subjects. Regular commenter Avatar, a long time correspondent, just marathoned Misaki Chronicles last night, and says:

You're right, it really turned out to be not that kind of show,
and in fact was easily one of the best SF anime I've seen.

A lot of stories where they mix science fiction and horror the SF is just a paint job on the backdrop, so that you can have vampires in a space ship instead of vampires in a castle. The heroes shoot at zombies with ray guns instead with shot guns. The ghosts are chased away with phlebotinum instead of holy water. The Divergence Eve/Misaki Chronicles series handles that much better. The science fiction elements are critical to the story.

But that's not why this is such a good series. In the end the real reason that this story works so well is the characters. At the beginning what you've got is four central girls and their commander and our main reaction is "Wow! Look at the huge tits on those babes!"

But by the end all five are distinct individuals, and they're all people we come to care a lot about. In the end this series works because the characters are well conceived and well presented. They become important individuals to us. Their fates matter.

Divergence Eve rearranged the story telling, and presented the 12th episode first. There are good reasons why they did that, and in the end I think it works, but it does have one drawback: the 12th episode, which we see first, neglects characterization in favor of action. It concentrates on the last and most important battle fought at Watcher's Nest. Someone (ahem, comment #1) who watches just that episode, for instance on a teaser DVD sent to them by ADV, will come away with an even more distorted view of the series. Not only "looka them boobs" but also a feeling that the series is disjoint and primarily about gizmos and fancy CGI. Which couldn't be further from the truth.

After you've finished watching Misaki Chronicles, what becomes clear is that the story tellers had a really good story to tell, and knew they did -- but didn't think they could sell that story on the merits, either to their studio or to an audience. So they had to hide it, disguise it, attach things to it. Like huge boobs. Things that would convince a studio to fund, and convince an audience to watch.

Things like huge boobs.

It's sad that it should be like that. But as I've said before, it did work. I myself picked up Divergence Eve because of the character art. Without my realizing it, I was actually buying a hell of a good story about amazing characters. It wasn't just a vehicle for delivering ecchi.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste in Divergence Eve at 11:59 AM | Comments (10) | Add Comment
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