I picked up the second volume of the series, Divergence Eve: Misaki Chronicles 2: Revelations to further my understanding of the show but even with a stellar cast like Kira Vincent Davis as Misaki Kureha, Christine Auten as Luxandra Frail, Emily Carter-Essex as Suzanna Bluestein, Jessica Boone as Kiri Marialante, and Shelley Calenme Black as Lyar Von Ertiana with Director Hiroshi Negishi being the original director and David Del Rio on the dubbed version, it rambled on like a drunker DVD reviewer. The story is set in the year 2315 with the first four characters as cadets in a space program of sorts. Misaki is the hapless misfit who has neither the physical stamina, intelligence, nor other skills needed to succeed in the program while the others are exceptionally competent. The ultimate goal of the training is to prove worthy of wearing something called Rampart Armor that allows them to fight beings called Ghouls. The Ghouls are extremely powerful beings that are shown in computer generated graphics (CGI) that seemed ill fitting to the otherwise colorful style of animation.

The initial gimmick of this follow up series is that the cast is fighting the Ghouls not just in the interdimensional portals but back in time during moments where critical events take place. If you've followed the series to this point, you'll know that the events ending the series previously had lots of action taking place by the space station called Watcher's Nest. Well, what had originally happened seems to have been at least partially undone by use of meddling in the time lines. This causes some distress since the temporal barrier shows Earth is in a bubble separating it from the rest of the Universe, with some of the story taking place in 2317, some in 2315 and some in 2316. Essentially, other than the bouncing around in the form of flashbacks, the story is split up into different paths that made it somewhat more difficult to keep up with. This second volume was more of the same as it kept showing Misaki as the focal point in different time periods, going even further back this time in order to see how her father, now long since dead, had been involved in a diving accident. The back cover put it like this:

"A glimpse into her father's past triggers something in Misaki, sending shockwaves through time and space. Behind the temporal barrier, the Earth suddenly phases out as Watcher's Nest phases in! The time: shortly before the exodus.
The remaining Seraphim pilots are called to investigate, which flings Suzanna head-on into a jarring encounter with reality. But her shock is only a tremor compared to the shock everyone gets upon the return of someone else: the shadowy Lieutenant Commander LeBlanc. With the Ghoul poised to invade, the ladies of Seraphim must decide whether to bend to his hidden agenda and form a makeshift alliance that may seal their fate!
A universe at stake! An irrevocable choice! Don't miss a minute of the intricate intrigue and spine-tingling suspense of Misaki Chronicles!"

Okay, the cover made the series look like it was full of fan service and babes but ended up with very little of that in favor of the usual goofy speeches by secondary characters that were never fully explained. In that sense, this entire series seems destined for the scrapheap for those of us that never saw the initial run of the show, however lame it might have been. As best I could make out, Misaki holds some secret that causes the space time rift to expand due to her presence and the enemy Ghouls were making use of it quite readily. They were left amassing for a final attack at one point but even watching it twice, once in the original Japanese and another time in English, the plot holes were not only numerous but inconsistent at the same time with the characters never seeming to stay long enough to allow the viewer to understand their motivations. On one side of the rift is an untarnished Earth, something I was led to believe had long since perished, and on the other side was the Watcher's Nest space station that had already made it clear that even they were not able to understand exactly what was going on. There was a lot of attention paid to one human enemy that appeared to offer information in a cryptic fashion though it was readily apparent that no one trusted him at his word. This led to an alliance of information if nothing else that simply added to the confusion. I strongly suggest that you either watch this series from the beginning of the first series or just Skip It based on these observations.

Picture: Divergence Eve: Misaki Chronicles 2: Revelations was a pretty show with a 1.85:1 ratio anamorphic widescreen image that was usually well handled. The anime style used for the characters was right up there with most modern releases or perhaps even slightly better but the over use of CGI lowered the quality for me more than a little. The limited amount of actual movement by the characters came off as looking like the show was low budget but I don't think it was. The transfer onto the DVD was well done with no compression artifacts but there was some minor pattern noise at times that you'll see if you pay attention.

Sound: The audio was presented with the usual choices of the original Japanese 2.0 Dolby Digital or the redone English language dub offering a 5.1 Surround track. The vocals seemed better in the original language track but the special effects and music were enhanced on the dubbed track. This has been almost standard practice with ADV Film dubs since they seem to be on the ball at taking care of business. None of the dub vocalists were bad enough to stand out in my mind and fans of either way of handling vocals will be satisfied at the outcome. In terms of separation between the channels, the dub was far better but the amount of use they got was minimal and primarily limited to the action sequences.

Extras: The show was back to the expected four episodes but had a similar package of extras including the usual trailers, clean openings and closings, and artwork. This DVD also had a double sided DVD cover and a mini-manga story line that was too tiny for me to read easily but still a nice attempt to offer up something extra where it wasn't expected.

Final Thoughts: Divergence Eve: Misaki Chronicles 2: Revelations was something of a mystery to me but not one I really cared to explore much further unless the third (and final) volume solved all the loose plot threads. In the future, I would strongly suggest that ADV Films puts such releases together as a single package (as I believe they'll do given their recent history) or at very least add in something to provide enough context to allow a fan to enjoy the second season or wave as it may be. Perhaps something on the package that informs a consumer that the show is part of a larger arc would be nice if nothing else since most shows allow you to jump in without a tremendous amount of background, using skillful direction to guide you into wanting the earlier season. The package wasn't as satisfying as the last DVD though given the fewer number of episode and limited extras but only pick this one up if you are going to watch the rest of the show first.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVD Talk's twisted cast of reviewers in their Best Of Anime 2003, Best Of Anime 2004, and Best of Anime 2005 articles or their regular column Anime Talk.