#213: Divergence Eve (2003)

 

Director: Hiroshi Negishi [Chief Director], Atsushi Takada [Director]

Screenplay: Hiroaki Kitajima, Toru Nozaki and Yasunori Yamada

Voice Cast: Yumi Kakazu as Misaki Kureha; Reiko Takagi as Luxandra Frail; Sanae Kobayashi as Suzanna Bluestein; Fumie Mizusawa as Kiri Marialate; Reiko Kiuchi as Lyar Von Ertiana; Ikuya Sawaki as Wolfgang Woerns; Takehito Koyasu as Jean Luc LeBlanc; Rina Satou as Prim Snowlight ; Miyu Matsuki as Kotoko-01; Ryûzaburô Ôtomo as Luke Walker

Viewed in Japanese with English Subtitles

 

[Major Plot Spoilers (When Indicated)]

Like everyone, I saw advertising for Divergence Eve once ago when it was a new title being sold in the West, and saw the female character designs which are clearly meant to sell this thirteen episode animated series for sex appeal. Even the later collector's edition the defunct distributor ADV Films released this on in Britain, the three disc set, has the aesthetic of something fun like a Burn Up spin-off in outer space. For context, this is a reference to a show which was about selling titillation in a sci-fi female cop show, and chief director Hiroshi Negishi of Divergence Eve worked on in the sequel Burn Up W (1996). I always considered this over the years as being a softcore take on Alien (1979) or at least a fan service heavy version of Aliens (1986), with buxon female characters with guns taking on an alien life form. In mind to the one hentai take on the original Ridley Scott film, Alien from the Darkness (1996), that got a censored British DVD release in the day, I would have not been surprised, after all the anime heavily influenced by those films beforehand, if someone went for a fan service heavy take for television. Even with the more creepy touch of the cute robot girl who is clearly between ten and twelve, and you would immediately have presumed this for meant tobe sexy anime sci-fi in the stereotype of this.

We should get this out of the way immediately that, tonally out of place to what Divergence Eve actually is, the character designs and some content suggest the softcore show I have evoked, where most of the female cast, who take up most of the prominent roles, are voluptuous in their character designs from Toshinari Yamashita, whose career varies wildly in styles barring working on Burn Up W as a character designer. Our main protagonist Misaki Kureha especially, a blue haired and clumsy probationary pilot for a space colony's defence, is the perfect stereotype of the anime female lead; with a huge burst that is exemplified even in costumes that are more clothes, she is designed to be curvy and cute. With ADV Film's advertising depicting the series' world in bright colours, and mostly images (including in swimwear) of the mostly busty female leads, you would be forgiven as I was that this is a light hearted sexy sci-fi narrative. Even the end credits of the show is always a bright one, with a bright J-pop ditty, which is meant to be fun as very cute moments, like going to a cake store or trying on dresses, is contrasted by not showing nudity of Misaki but selling her as a sexy figure.

That proves to be one of the most tonally out of place aesthetics to have placed upon an animated narrative, as Divergence Eve for starters is very serious science-fiction. It is also, post Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995), a work from its first episode very alien to its marketing, where its first episode begins in media res. Set within the second to last narrative piece of all thirteen episodes, with an oblique tone and a depressive narrative at its heart, it immediately pulls the breaks on the viewer in what the show was meant to be. Humanity has found inter-dimensional travel, the show set on a space colony built around one such opening created by this technology, built around a presumed dead planet on the other side of a wormhole. A population away from Earth lives in this colony, "Watcher's Nest", lives with the knowledge kept hidden to them that they are constantly under threat by what was allowed through into our world, figures dubbed "Ghouls", horrifying and gigantic monsters we can barely defeat and can appear at any time, in any place, as they exist between dimensions. Having the huge colony built around a satellite where troops from the past sent there, and killed, existing there as undead figures under the ghouls' influence, there is only a huge laser ring built as a defence to help stop them, and those in flying mech suits in the military to help fight them off.

The tone is jarring to the point that the cute end credits animation, even if it really wants to sell Misaki's big bust, is actually needed a tonic for how bleak the show can get, its happiness and digipaint colours a sweetness to contrast each plot progression. Without spoiling everything, this is a show where a primary character's demise is by being devoured by one of the Ghouls, where nothing is explicitly seen, but enough is heard and inferred, with gore, that it is actually one of the biggest gut punches I have encountered in a while for an anime series¹. Divergence Eve itself ultimately becomes fascinating as a very serious and sombre science fiction narrative where you and the leads will be dragged through misery. It is to the point that this is not a "fun" show but a compelling one narratively, barring the potential distraction of the female character designs, and some fan service, suggesting the fun softcore show it ultimately is not. Even the complimentary mini-manga, included in the DVD sets in barely viewable form from ADV Films, present a light hearted backstory to the protagonist, having gotten into this work only because she cannot find work on Earth, and keeps being chased by the locals for stealing food by accident, which violently jars with the severity of the main narrative.

Made by a studio called Radix Ace Entertainment Co., Ltd, this was near the end of their existence, founded in 1995 but becoming defunct in 2006. Not a lot of their career actually stands out, barring some entries in the multi-media franchise Sakura Wars, originally video games, and the one exception is a big surprise, being Haibane Renmei (2003). Haibane Renmei is a cult series which is incredibly good but also very idiosyncratic; viewed by many, myself included, to be set in the afterlife, where figures "born" with angels wings live in their own camp next to a town in a timeless world, with their own rules, its idiosyncratic narrative, and its character designs and premise from Yoshitoshi ABe, of Serial Experiments Lain (1998) fame and based on his doujinshi, Renmei is an admired work but now stands out like a sore thumb as, sadly, not a lot of studio Radix's other work is talked of. Divergence Eve from the get-go has a serious vibe, much more serious science fiction with a lot of technical babble thrown at the viewer in the first episode, but fleshing out its world with many concerns at hand. Four women are brought in to train as the next member to fight the ghouls in the mech armour - lead Misaki who is a klutz figure whose apparent lack of capability raises questions of why she was brought in; Luxandra Frail, from the "United" lands of Mexico, a figure has prominent scars on her face and body, and who wishes to join to be like Lyar Von Ertiana, a female commander from Germany who is watching over their training; Suzanna Bluestein, from Britain, following her family's legacy of military service; and Kiri Marialate, who is from New Zealand, and is good in her training and general combat skills.

They are not allowed to even know they are fighting the ghouls, and despite damage the ghouls' appearances can cause in the colony, among the living areas of the population, the military cover their damage up and keep it a secret. Even if they could leave the Watcher's Nest, the population going back to Earth, which in dialogue is evoked as having its own problems in this world, is stuck within the issue of millions of refugees they will have to find a place for, and the chaos that could cause. From the first episode too it is obvious why Misaki Kureha is there too, as she is half-Ghoul; flashbacks that start most episodes, until we catch up, tell how humanity found inter-dimensional travel but also the ghouls, and Misaki is the prodigal hybrid of human and ghoul form, who can transform into one of great power under extreme emotional stress. The true villain of the show, hailing from France and the stereotypical bad guy, is Jean Luc LeBlanc, with his egotistic pout and an opening credit fact in Engrish telling the viewer he likes organ music, who plans to turn her into a killing machine with powers for his own intentions. To the point the super intelligent female assistant he has begins questioning his actions, the Swedish born Prim Snowlight, Jean will even sabotage the laser defence system later in the series to push Misaki's further, or isolate her from her friends by forcing her into the scouting missions. Post Evangelion, he follows the antagonist Gendo Ikari from the famous series as, from a mysterious group called Alchemy, Jean believes the ghouls with Misaki's help can provide the powers of a God.

Divergence Eve's aesthetic does not help at times either. Its digipaint aesthetic is of its time and I except it, alongside the electronic opening theme from Yousuke Houga being very of the time, things that you either will appreciate or will stand out from the anime made decades later. The show's depiction of the mech scenes and the ghouls is entirely in CGI however which is a huge time stamp, dating the series considerably in appearance even if I still find it compelling. It is not as basic as some earlier attempts I have seen, like the first ever anime film animated entirely in computer effects, A.LI.CE (1999), but it is not that high a bar above still. (More so as, in one scene, you see a Ghoul animated in two dimensions only once and it works significantly better for the designs). Divergence Eve is a show with a curious marketing point, what with a few aforementioned nude scenes for Misaki Kureha, usually when in ghoul form she bursts out of her uniform, and some sensual aspects, many of the costumes (even full button shirts) drawn to exaggerate the cast's figures, and even Misaki's ghoul form being sensual in appearance still. But this is an entirely adult show not about this at all. The sexy and busty female lead is psychologically isolated, encounters friends dying and is connected to a secret project that questions her own humanity. [Major Spoiler] She is even effectively killed later in the series, and even if resurrected, with clones of her existing to pilot the mech suit for a later conflict when she is being regenerated. [Spoilers Ends]. She even has a microchip planted into her brain at one point to control her when the fear and horror break her entirely. This, with the female cast but with different character designs, would be taken as a serious show without the jarring aesthetic choices that was clearly done, at this point in history, to try to sell the show with the options for merchandising of its female cast.

Chief Director Hiroshi Negishi, with Atsushi Takada as director and with far fewer credits, has a wildly varying career resume. Even if he worked on fan service work like Burn Up W as a director, his career varies between non-director roles to directing curiosities like the 1991 Judge OVA that make it difficult to judge what the creative choices here stemmed for, as with the screenwriters credited to the show. There is not a lot to really point to for studio Radix choosing this path either unless this was the only way they could have gotten the series off the ground as a compromise, later in their career before their demise. Even if they have done more fan service heavy material like the OVA Amazing Nurse Nanako (1999–2000), they have done a variety of shows in various genres and tones before their end, which makes Divergence Eve's production choices stranger. It did in many ways help the shock for how bleak the narrative becomes, clearly cribbing on the ending of the original Neon Genesis Evangelion too in its vagueness. It is not a spoiler to say that the meaning of the world is searched for, Misaki develops God-like power, and the idea that existence cannot be comprehended by a human mind is appropriate as someone's head explodes. It also presents an ending that could be perfect if sad, [Major Spoiler Warnings] that Misaki develops the omnipresent ability to alter and enter the past, returning back to everyone being alive and her training back on Earth [Major Spoilers End], but Divergence Eve has a sequel series, which sets up a further and fully resolved conclusion too.

I had never heard of the sequel, Misaki Chronicles (2004), until reading into the prequel series, and that this show ends, rather than the usual oblique end preview for the next episode, with the announcement of the next series, you set up for someone like me to see a fascinating conclusion from a show I had no expectation of, but succeeded as much from shock of not expecting a thing from its material. Unfortunately, in another aspect beyond the show's fault, ADV Films never released the second series in the United Kingdom. Thankfully, it was made available over the years in the United States - from ADV Films, from Sentai Filmworks and from the streaming service HiDive, Sentai viewed as being the distributor created from the ashes of ADV Film's bow from the industry. But like Gravion (2002), a mech show which fleshed out (literally) its fan service to make sense in the tone, where ADV Films never released the second series Gravion Zwei (2004) in the UK, they seemingly had a habit for series, maybe ones which were not worth selling due to perceived sales, to never get their conclusions released. Considering they once released a couple of episodes of The Wallflower (2006-2007), a Shinichi Watanabe comedy, only to never release anything else in Britain beyond one disc of early episodes, really emphasises this possibility alongside the eventual financial issues that ended the company.

That does prove a pain to have to negotiate around, as Divergence Eve was fascinating. Maybe I would have still liked the version I pictured, the inappropriately lewd fan service sci-fi show with horror elements, if just for morbid pleasures in how wrong headed it was or if it managed to still be good. I was not expecting something this serious which did not pull its punches at all however, and we probably got the better series as a result. The material is stock tropes of science fiction and better version of them exist but in what you get, this is interesting as a narrative, even such as the nod to the problems of trying to get an entire space colony back to Earth an attempt at good drama. Contrasting an early episode with the four main leads happy and relaxing, only the bittersweet contrast violently returned to, and a scene transpiring back in the public area when destroyed, does show an attempt in only thirteen episodes an admirable attempt at high, serious genre storytelling. Even when it could be argued to enter a concept of having cute characters traumatised for the sake of that being the vicarious viewing point, one you can argue for certain narratives with what Misaki goes through in this one, Divergence Eve still feels more serious as a sci-fi anime than this. That, yes, if you look at the DVD and screen grab images, see that most of the female cast have large cup sizes (and is sold on this than natural parts of the character designs) offers a jarring issue of the surface of this show against what it actually is. That unfortunately will make this difficult to sell, which is a shame as it was a good if bleak surprise; most will view it, as I once did, through this viewpoint of being sold on fan service when that feels pointlessly bolted on, of female characters that do not need this and are interesting characters in a hostile scenario.

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1) Considering too Divergence Eve's episodes in the United Kingdom, that the DVD disc with that episode is rated Parental Guidance by the British Board of Film Classification, that in itself adds an additional nature to what is shocking too in context. Already the nastiest moment has an additional emphasis in how, even in the 2000s, the BBFC had a surprisingly looser attitude to animation. Considering the "PG" rating is suitable to be watched with kids, whilst the other episodes are rated for twelve year olds and are likely just for the few bits of actual nudity you see, just raises questions in itself.