Overall Score: 6
Like your typical anime, Divergence EVE had an absolutely terrible beginning and end. The first couple of episodes either had me thoroughly confused/indifferent due to the all pervasive techno-babble that's apparently essential for Sci-Fi (a major reason why I, like chamomille, don't really enjoy the genre) or facepalming at the egregious fanservice. I was wondering whether I could persevere, but fortunately it got a lot better. Not to amazing levels, but enjoyable enough.
Plot: 7
Probabaly the best part of the show, bad beginning and ending aside. Once we get past the techno-babble and sixth form philosophising Divergence EVE provides quite a compelling, if completely unoriginal, plot threads. While I was watching the show I found it very one dimensional, however thinking back on it the show managed to tie a number of plot threads together, not always successfully, but well enough to be worthy of some praise.
I think what interested me most wasn't the main plot, but the underlying atmosphere of the characters' situations, enhanced the backstory. The isolation, and the hidden evil of the Ghoul and Necromancer (Anime/Manga creators really need to stop pilfering from Western fantasy without fully grasping what the terms they're using apply too) reminded me strongly of HP Lovecraft, with the flashbacks to creation of the Watchers Nest and the experiments adding greatly to that impression. Misaki's flirtation with madness, where she slowly loses touch with reality was very well done, as well as, if not better, than that of the main character of "Le Portrait de Petit Cossette", which I watched recently, and almost as good as Satoshi Kon's excellent "Perfect Blue".
Unfortunately this psychological dimension to the story often took a back seat too, and was sometimes downright undermined, by other story elements. The Machievellian scheming of Jean Luc was pretty poorly handled, trying and failing, in my view, to be more clever than it actually was. It was perhaps this angle that I found most frustrating, as the balance between keeping the viewer intrigued and battering you with endless "I know something you don't know" developments was missing in large part. This was not helped by the over-the-top dialogue and other character behaviour. I think this is perfectly exemplified by two characters, Jean Luc, who we know little about right until the very end, and seemed to delight in dropping infuriating hints about things, and Prim Snowlight, who spent half the show lurking around corners, dramatically of course, and the other half refusing to answer anyone's questions.
The rivalry-friendship between the cadets and their training to become full seraphim pilots was fairly valuable to the story, however it was focused on far too much after other story elements were unfolding. It would have been fine to use their interaction to set the scene for what came later, but the way the kept skipping back to them in the midst of much darker happenings made the show wildly inconsistent.
This show felt like it was juggling too many elements at one time, the creators seemingly unable to decide what they wanted the show to be. Had they focused on one area, preferably the psychological horror, it would have been a lot better.
Characters: 5
Fairly average, really. Certainly nothing new. You have the arrogant, conspiratorial Jean Luc, the timid but extremely intelligent meganekko-moe Prim, the incompetent but good natured central character, Misaki, the tough ambitious female commander Ertiana. Basically a bunch of stereotypes. The only real character development can be found in Misaki's and Jean Luc becoming mad. In the former case, however, it's only a temporary thing, so in one seen she'll be her normal, perky, annoyingly-retarded self, the next she'll lose it a bit. In the latter, he spends the whole show, up until the last episode, being smug and self-satisfied, then goes a bit mad when he's nearing his goal and is foiled. Oh, and Luxandra changes her outlook...after she was dead....in Misaki's mind, so that probably doesn't count.
Sound: 6
Soundtrack - Let's forget that the the vile, sugary, ecchi-filled gunk that is the ED never happened. I think it's safer for all of us that way. I was pretty impressed by the soundtrack. Its understated, which I think allows it to get the job done, adding atmosphere to the scenes without ever dominating them. It's not the kind of OST I'd buy (or download) to listen to independently, but in the context of the show it works pretty damn well.
Sound Effects - I've little to say about them really. Aside from a few cool creepy noises, I reckon the show just recycled some stock Sci-Fi sound effects. Not bad, but not memorable, either.
Voice Acting - I was watching the English dub (I know, I know, but ZMP refused to display the subtitles and fuck VLC with a pointy stick) which was pretty bad. Why oh why was Suzanna voiced by someone who's idea of a British accent comes from Dick Van Dykes performance in Mary Poppins? Jean Luc sounded a bit like a camp villain from a Hannah Barbera cartoon. Basically it was just bad. There were a couple of decent performances from some of the cast, but they were few and far between.
Artwork/Design: 4
Character Design - The ecchi, my God the ecchi. I was never fully able to get past the fact that every female character had tits bigger than their heads. Endevouring to pull myself away from the gravity those giant orbs no doubt exude, the rest of the character designs are the kind of thing I've seen in a dozen other anime. Those elements that do standout are universally bad, ecchi in the extreme. For some reason the universally well-endowed (if you can call it that) cadets have to do weight training, target practice etc dressed in thongs. What? Putting on my nerd cap, I also note that their hair is completely inappropriate for military personnel. Aside from the colours being so bright my eyes felt like they were going to start dribbling out of their sockets, they were also spiked up in ways reminiscent of Sonic the Hedgehog, making me wonder why they bothered to spend all that time making themselves look like cartoon erinaceinae when they spent much of their time in training with their heads encased in a helmet.
As for the monsters, I didn't care much more the Ghoul, they looked like fleshy, CG mecha-dragon hybrids, more frightening when you couldn't see them properly, or at all. The Necromancer on the other hand were genuinely creepy, which is quite an achievement, as most anime monsters either make me roll my eyes in contempt, or else roll on the floor laughing until a little bit of pee drips down my legs.
Backgrounds - Good in places, patchy in others, but generally good enough. They did manage to blend CG elements with 2D drawing for the ships pretty well, which deserves some respect, particularly when we consider the fact that this show is now 5 years old, a long time in technological terms. Usually blending CG with traditional 2D animation looks bizarre, but in this show I often forgot that I was looking at a mix of the two. The use of shadows was also impressive. Unfortunately, however, they weren't used consistently throughout, which was a shame. The rest of the backgrounds were entirely forgettable, with the exception of the artificial sky in the residential district and space. However, though I'm a sucker for skies and space, neither are particularly hard to draw. In fact these days you can whip together a good looking sky in about 5 minutes in photoshop.
Animation - Not something I tend to notice unless its either extremely good or extremely bad. Movement looked fluid enough, and I didn't notice any blatant examples of cutting corners animation wise.
Recommendations:
This isn't the sort of thing I'd ordinarily watch, so I can't really recommend something that would be a dead match. I guess the aforementioned "Perfect Blue", based on the elements of the show I enjoyed the most. Also some of the battle scenes of it reminded me of the end of "Voices of a Distant Star".
