Divergence Eve

The problems start right from the first episode. The show starts with an episode that in truth should be episode 12. As such, after seeing the episode, you will say, nani? what the? It is amazing anyone stayed on past such a confusing and bizarre start to a series. Fortunately, the 2nd episode drops back to when Misaki is first assigned to the station known as Watchers Nest and in the beginning, has a flashback sequence to explain how things got started. Subsequent episodes have similar flashback sequences to explain things like the discovery of inflation holes, Ghoul, etc. These are welcome items, but they only provide just enough information to get you by. The series ends with many questions. What exactly are the Ghoul? Why are they so interested in humanity? There are more questions, but they are of a more spoiler nature so I wont ask them here. And the story always felt like it was drawing from Neon Genesis Evangelion. Instead of large EVA units, we got small rampart armor for mecha. Instead of Angels, Ghoul. There are other similarities as well, but again the spoiler factor comes into play.

One thing about the future, it is obviously run by men with breast fetishes. All of the women (except the female android who was done like a little girl to toss a bone to the lolicon crowd) have giant, football-like breasts. Their breasts are so large that it actually started hurting my back! Since the character design was done by the guy who did Amazing Nurse Nanako, I guess I shouldnt be surprised. It is done only for fan service as was the nude scenes which cropped up. 2003 was apparently a year for anime with high ecchi factors considering the new anime I saw. Anyway, this was the problem I had with character designs.

The art is hit-and-miss. The CGI is so out of date as to not be funny. I mean the pilot episode of Babylon 5 had better CGI than this and how many years ago was that? So the Ghoul never look fearful, just stupid. Most of the CGI animation is not smooth and certainly felt out of place. You do get used to it, but it never stops looking dumb. The regular art/animation is fine.

And I would be remiss if I didnt mention the end theme song Pump Up. Man, that song rocks, especially if you like really upbeat dance J-pop tunes. Heck, even my parents like this song so much when I played it in my car that they got a copy of it. I think that says something right there. :-D

Bottom line: Several problems in this combined with excessive fan service take the legs out of Divergence Eve. Still, I have to admit that I kept coming back every week just to see where the story would take me. As such, I'll give this a borderline "rent". Im surprised theres going to be a sequel, but Ill watch it hoping to get some answers this series failed to provide.

Last updated Wednesday, March 30 2005. Created Monday, August 04 2003.