The second volume of Divergence Eve improves a lot on the first set of shows.  The four buxom babes are still defending humanity in skimpy clothing, but the show is evolving into something more than just an excuse for fan service.  But is it enough of an improvement?

Out in the deepest reaches of space lies the space station Watcher's Nest.  Here the Ghoul, monsters from another dimension that are trying to invade Earth's dimension.  These giant beings can only enter our space though the wormhole at Watchers Nest, which soon turns this station into the first front in a war.

Four young female cadets are transferred to the deep space outpost of Watcher's Nest for advanced military training.  They don't know why they are training so diligently though, or what they are training for since the war, and the existence of the Ghoul is a closely guarded secret.

This volume sees the training for the four cadets ramped up.  They need to get ready in a hurry, and Susanna is chosen to pilot a large mecha.  In typical Neon Genesis fashion, the operator's brain has to mesh with the mecha.  Susanna has been chosen since they think she'll have the highest chance of success.  Unfortunately the first time she tries, the emotional turmoil is too much for her and she thinks about dropping out.  She knows about the Ghoul though, so if she does leave, they'll have to wipe her memory.

After Susanna's ordeal, Kureha sneaks out and goes to the core with the reporter.  There she sees the mysterious rampart armor units that roam the core attacking anyone who lands there.  She makes some surprising discoveries there, but will she live to tell anyone about them.

A lot happened in these four episodes with surprising crosses and double crosses, and some interesting revelations about just what is going on at Watcher's Nest.  Unfortunately, the show seems to be borrowing heavily from Neon Genesis Evangelion, but without that shows engaging plot and interesting characters.  The Ghoul are mysterious giant monsters just like the Angels, the commander has a secret agenda, and the pilots are being used like pawns.  .

Even if there wasn't the Eva parallels, this show isn't that great.  The character designs are really annoying.  All of the women look like they have a glandular disorder that has caused their breasts to grow out of control.  (Of course, they have thin waists and hips though.)  It's really hard to take a show seriously when the main characters look like something out of a teenagers wet dream.

The mystery has just failed to draw me in too.  Since the characters are all one dimensional, I really don't care about them, and therefore the origins of the Ghoul, or what secret (and possibly illegal) science experiment is being conducted.  There is just too much pseudo-scientific jargon too.  Every time they mentioned a quantum barrier, my eyes glazed over.

On the plus side, this volume was more interesting than the last one.  The plot is progressing at a good pace, and events are taking place that dramatically impact the main characters.  This DVD wasn't nearly as confusing as the first one, which opened with the concluding episode, and there didn't seem to be as much fan service as the first time, but it was still there.
 

Audio:

The show offers the choice of a 5.1 English dub, or the original Japanese audio track in stereo.  I alternated tracks while watching the show, and they were both very good.  The English voice actors did a great job (though one of the cadets has a horrid accent) and they were able to match their speech to the mouth movements very well.  There was a good amount of surround effects, especially during the (few) battle scenes.  The Japanese track didn't have the punch that the 5.1 had, but it too made use of the soundstage.  Hiss and other audio defects were nonexistent.  A nice sounding disc.

Video:

The anamorphic widescreen transfer looked pretty good.  The colors were nice and bright, and the lines were tight, though there was some aliasing in several scenes.  Still, this is a minor complaint; aside from that, it looked very nice.

Extras:

This disc includes a clean opening and closing, a Japanese promo spot, and a mini-manga; eight comic book pages with the dialog printed to the left side so the print is large enough to read.

Final Thoughts:

This volume was an improvement over the first disc with some good plot development and some interesting things being discovered about the secret project that's taking place on Watcher's Nest.  It was still too little too late for me, and the show still doesn't pique my interest.  If there's nothing else availably, this might be worth a rental.