Movie: Fafner: New Divergence builds on what took place before with the premise from the initial volume being: "The story takes place in the future on an island paradise known as Tatsumiya Island. Life pretty much seems to be like any other island community, with kids going to school, parents working in their shops, and little exchange between the mainlands that are hundreds of miles away. The lead character is Kazuki, a high school kid that is no stranger to a fight and generally seems slightly withdrawn. When Soshi returned from an extended trip to Tokyo, all heck started breaking loose with announcements made for the residents to go to a series of what appear to be bomb shelters. Kazuki is taken to a small military base and soon finds himself piloting a large, powerful humanoid shaped robot called Fafner with the assistance of Soshi due to a series of inter-related circumstances involving an attack on the island by a golden robot called Festum. Festum is routing all the other defenses and after a brief bit of exposition, we find out that several of the students have the right genetic code to pilot the Fafner but Kazuki is most suited. He stumbles through the fight as several initially important characters bite the big one and we find out the history of the island, with few bits of interesting facts about the devastation of Earth in recent years (that the youth of the island had no idea about)."

It's been about a year since I saw the show but I picked up pretty quickly considering the often generic nature of the series. The back cover summed it up nicely here with: "After he is taken hostage, Kazuki learns once and for all that he has been partially assimilated with the Festum. During his captivity at the Neo UN base he is reunited with his mother, but all is not as it seems since Festum assimilated Kazuki's real mother when he was just a child. He has precious little time to ponder this mystery as the Neo UN launches a full-scale military takeover of the Tatsumiya Island."

Essentially, there are three groups to the movie; the residents of a small island in the Pacific hidden away from the rest of the world under the guidance of a group called Alvis, the rest of the remaining world under the leadership (or lack thereof) of the Neo UN, and an alien force called the Festum. The Festum started attacking Earth thirty years ago, starting with a genetic attack that prevented mankind from reproducing naturally, forcing the use of gestation chambers to have children. They routinely attack cities and very little is left of the world's defenses by this time. Borrowing elements from a number of series (it looks like the Gundam Seed series and has a lot of the same themes as Neon Genesis Evangelion). The Festum have begun concentrating their attacks on Alvis and the Neo UN has grown really envious of the advanced equipment the islanders have developed, making them attack the island as well in an attempt to help advance their own forces in fighting the enemy off. Like Gundam Seed, the plot details hinge on the nuances of the character interaction rather than specific battle outcomes and reviews such as this are often forced into spoilers whereas a boxed set (coming in January of 2007) review would be much easier to write and easier to provide you with the generalities of the show (to make up your mind about buying or renting it).

The episodes this time were 13) Festum (Erosion), 14) Occupation (Awakening), 15) Welcome Home (Friends), and 16) Scream (Memory). Kazuki is given a different perspective by his Neo UN captors as he finds out he has been partially assimilated by the Festum. This seemingly small detail plays a huge role in later developments as it becomes clear that the agency not only employs a leading scientist originally from Tatsumiya Island but also has some limited ties with Festum that are observing humanity, including his long gone mother. The Neo UN decide to launch an attack on the Island as their fastest means of gaining access to the technology of the Fafner robots used to fight the enemy and that forms the majority of the basis for the rest of the volume with the Festum making plans to attack of their own. With the apparent loss of Kazuki to the Neo UN and recent losses to the Festum, the Islanders have little hope of fighting off two enemies simultaneously; especially since they refuse to fire on other humans. This was where the series seemed to diverge from previous efforts and while it used a lot of material from past series, it did so in such a way as to refresh the themes more than a little bit so I thought the volume was worth a rating of Recommended.

Picture: Fafner: New Divergence was presented in the original 1.33:1 ratio full frame color it was produced in for Japanese television. I saw no flaws in the picture with the colors looking great, the backgrounds being well handled, the overall detail being solid, and the levels of grain and/or noise barely noticeable. The anime style itself was a combination of the newer CGI and more traditional work now seeing widespread use throughout shows although the CGI was limited to some parts of the island, the shore fortifications, and the like. In all, it looked great which is no surprise considering that the show was just released in Japan.

Sound: The audio was presented with the usual choice of 2.0 Dolby Digital Japanese with English subtitles (the original track of course) or an English language dub. To be fair to both, I liked each of them for various reasons; the original flowed slightly better but the dub was as solid as I'd expect from a new Geneon release. The music and sound effects seemed to be the same this time and there were few flaws in terms of the vocals or miscast actors. There was some decent separation and dynamic range to listen to this time, particularly if you use headphones although they aren't necessary to hear the quality of the audio.

Extras: The only extras this time were the creditless (clean) ending for episode 15, some trailers, the paper insert, small trading cards, and true double sided DVD cover.

Final Thoughts: Fafner: New Divergence was a turning point of sorts for the Fafner series to me. The change in the dynamic of the characters, the elements opening up the bigger picture aspects into the light, and the overall quality of the writing seemed to gel more readily. The show wasn't reduced to a fight a new alien style of episodic mess that so many other, almost identical shows have proven to be (again, using standards like Neon Genesis Evangelion as their far better guide) so I admit that it got better. In that sense, I wish I had seen the rest of the series when it came out but Fafner: New Divergence, if watched after the previous volumes of the series, should prove to offer you a nice balance of creative writing and powerful battles to appreciate.

If you enjoy anime, take a look at some of the recommendations by DVDTalk'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.