January 28, 2009

Divergence Eve -- for free

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 at 06:27 PM | Comments (13) | Add Comment
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1 I just rechecked; it works now, and the video quality is good at full screen.  One more note: this is only the first half of the whole series; the rest of the story is told in Divergence Eve: Misaki Chronicles.  It's even better than the dozen episodes you see here.

Everyone's tastes differ a bit; Steven considers DE almost top tier; I consider it the best anime I've seen yet.  (Though I've still got a few holes in my view list, such as Haibane Renmei.  Perhaps in a few more months.)

In any case, it's free.  Beat that with a stick.

Posted by: ubu at January 28, 2009 09:24 PM (S7Hxr)

2 Man, you're right! That looks excellent in the full-screen mode! (It's nearly as good as the DVDs.)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 28, 2009 10:01 PM (+rSRq)

3 Yes, but it's dubbed.  (Presses handkerchief over bleeding ears again...)

Posted by: ubu at January 28, 2009 10:31 PM (S7Hxr)

4 On the other hand, it isn't censored. (Whether that's really a good thing or not I leave as an exercise to the reader.)

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 28, 2009 11:40 PM (+rSRq)

5 ????   Were the DVD releases censored?  (I have the boxed set, not the thinpak.)

Posted by: Toren at January 29, 2009 05:42 PM (BmuRg)

6 They weren't.

Posted by: Avatar_exADV at January 29, 2009 06:01 PM (pWQz4)

7

The DVDs were not censored. But on the first loose DVD there was a Japanese TV spot for the series which showed that the original TV broadcast was censored. In particular, there's an image from the second DVD which makes that clear.

That's from the TV spot.

/images/02331.jpg

And this is what we saw in our DVD release.

It's also what you'll see on ANN's online version of the series. I'm guessing that Radix didn't give ADV the censored version at all.

ADV tends to strip all the extras out of their boxed sets (presumably to punish everyone who waited for the cheap version) so likely you won't see that TV promo in the boxed set.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 29, 2009 06:12 PM (+rSRq)

8 Ah, I see.  Thanks.  (heaves sigh of relief)

Posted by: Toren at January 29, 2009 06:17 PM (BmuRg)

9 Or rather, they strip the extras out of their thinpaks. I have no clue what they might have done with the boxed set.

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 29, 2009 06:19 PM (+rSRq)

10 Rats. That should have been "the second episode", not "the second DVD".

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 29, 2009 06:21 PM (+rSRq)

11 I bought Divergence Eve/Misaki Chronicles with my Best Buy gift card from Christmas.  My roommates and I watched the first few episodes the day after I bought it.  We haven't watched anymore since.  I fully intend to watch the whole thing, but ugh, it's hard to get into for me. 

I knew about the breast sizes going; irritating but doable.  It's the awful CG that's doing me in.  I cringe every time I see it.  And yeah, the first few episodes are really slow.  Hopefully when I try again it'll grow on me.

Posted by: Arson55 at January 30, 2009 01:00 AM (6lewD)

12

I suspect one thing that annoys people about it is that it doesn't spoon-feed you.  You've got to be thinking -- with the understanding that sometimes, they're deliberately withholding the answers under the theory that if the characters don't have them, neither should you.  There's one seeming disjointed break from the end of one episode to the begining of the next that will probably leave you going "WTF? How did she....?"

It's a huge clue to a part of what's going on.

Posted by: ubu at January 30, 2009 06:23 AM (i7ZAU)

13 I think that if you can make it through ep 6, that after that you won't have much trouble continuing to watch. For those who have seen the series, that's

Posted by: Steven Den Beste at January 30, 2009 09:13 AM (+rSRq)

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