Divergence Eve / Misaki Chronicles Review (Anime)

Divergence Eve and Misaki Chronicles, despite being released a couple years apart, are one continuous 26 episode series.  Divergence Eve proved popular in Japan and plenty of loose ends were smartly left untied, so making a sequel made sense.  Misaki Chronicles is that sequel series, though it is sort of a half prequel, half sequel truth be told.  Together, they create a surprisingly good sci-fi series driven by great characters and lots of fan service.  Be warned, however, that this series is complicated and confusing as hell.  But in a good way.


The crux of the series is a discovery that lets mankind travel great distances in outer space by traveling through worm holes.  These worm holes connect our universe to other parallel universes and we can travel faster in our universe by briefly taking a little side trip into these parallel universes.  However, by using these worm holes, it opens the door for aliens from the parallel universes an opportunity to slip into our universe.  These aliens, called Ghoul, have pinpointed a specific worm hole, where humans have built a base called Watcher's Nest, and try to break into our universe at every opportunity.  That is a really basic, not entirely accurate explanation of everything.  But it is the best I can do.

The story focuses on Watcher's Nest and the fight against the Ghoul starting from the time a group of new cadets arrive on the station.  Misaki Kureha is the main character.  She is charming and funny, but unbelievably klutzy and not really much of a soldier.  She has come to Watcher's Nest mostly because it is where her father died years ago and she wants to find the truth.  It is Misaki's unique connection to Watcher's Nest and the mysterious planet and wormhole near it that pushes the plot forward.  I don't want to give the plot away, but I'll just say it is complicated.  It gets even more complicated when you start up Misaki Chronicles and it starts out like a prequel but turns into time travel and other craziness involving the surviving characters from Divergence Eve.

I do think the two series should be watched and treated as one.  They technically are separate, but I don't think you could watch only Misaki Chronicles and have any idea what is going on.  Likewise, while Divergence Eve can stand on its own, the ending is very unsatisfying.  When taken as one 26 episode series instead of two 13 episode series, the whole package is much better than the parts are separately.  If you get what I mean.  The ending of Misaki Chronicles, and thus the entire series, is really, really great and wraps things up in a great way.

One note that has to be made about this series is that the fan service is way, way over the top.  The female characters all have massively humongous breasts that bounce and sway pretty much constantly.  It is pretty hilarious, to be honest.  There is also a fair bit of nudity.  Some people don't like the over the top fan service and dislike the series because of it. Some people watch specifically because of it.  Personally, I certainly didn't mind it.

Some other notes.  The series is presented in widescreen and fills the full screen of your HDTV.  The sound is quite good overall, and the music is particularly good.  The artwork is gorgeous and the characters look great.  If I had one real complaint about the series it is the way it uses CGI for mecha and Ghoul sequences.  The CGI is completely terrible looking.  I mean, terrible like the shittiest looking PSOne game from 1996.

I also have to say that the series makes an awful first impression as the first episode is easily the worst one.  The series starts in medias res (as in you enter the series and see the "end" and then the rest of the Divergence Eve is leading up to what happened in that first episode) and is just crap.  The awful CGI is way overused, you don't know the characters or anything that is happening, and it is all just confusing.  If you can get past the shitty first episode you will be rewarded by the quality of the rest of the series.  Or, even better, you could skip to episode 2 to start with and then watch episode 1 between 12 and 13 where it actually falls in the storyline. 

Overall, I liked Divergence Eve / Misaki Chronicles quite a bit.  The story is confusing as hell, but the characters are surprisingly great and you really want to watch and see what ultimately happens to them.  And, hey, if you want to watch pretty girls with huge bouncing boobs, this is the anime to watch.  I give it 7/10, or two issues of Motor Boating magazine (cuz there are tig bitties in this series ...).

You can buy Divergence Eve / Misaki Chronicles in separate sets or in one set that combines the two.  Buying them separately is a little cheaper, but not by much so you might consider the combined set.  I'll post links to them all.

Divergence Eve: Complete Collection
Misaki Chronicles: Complete Collection
Divergence Eve: The Seraphim Collection (combined set)