| Divergence Eve Misaki Chronicles #3: Continuum |
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| Friday, 15 February 2008 | |
 Misaki Chronicles draws to its close, and manages to finally start making some sense before it gets there - and not before time, either. While this second season has focussed more on emotions and relationships than the first season did, if you enjoyed the first season's hard sci-fi feel then this volume will be right up your alley. Happy endings in store? Don't count on it...10 - The Hidden Past When disaster struck while Misaki's father and his squad were down in the Core, it was enough to turn the whole team into the unrecognizable mummies that now haunt the place - except for Misaki's father. He found himsef alive, untouched, and with nothing to do but spend his time searching the vicinity around the research base for the corpses of his comrades. Between trips outside, he had more than enough time to himslf to think over his life - and what he would have done differently with it. At the time, Ertiana was just an Ensign on Watcher's Nest, but when she learnt what had happened down at the core, she was determined to launch a search for survivors - except the station commander refused her permission. You see, events down at the Core were far more scripted than any of the participants would have believed. When present-day Misaki returns to the Core, searching for the truth of what happened down there, her father is waiting to tell her...   11 - Overlapping Times Whatever Alchemy and LeBlanc had planned for Watcher's Nest and the Ghoul, they've been planning it for quite some time - Juzoh's mission to the Core was a preliminary data-gathering mission, while Prim and (unwittingly) Misaki have both been part of the plan since they were children. After Juzoh's "ghost" breaks contact with Misaki, the Ghoul once again become active - and that's the cue for LeBlanc to begin the final stages of his plan. Following Misaki into the ruins at the centre of the Core, he plans to release the Ghoul into our Universe by destroying the version of Misaki that's holding the Ghoul back - but Misaki and her friends have other ideas...   12 - Mission 4 Back on Watcher's Nest, the data pod from Ertiana is received, and it contains a warning: that LeBlanc is trying to subvert the station's comms links to release the Ghoul. To stop him, they need to do two things: cut him off from the network, and collapse the inflation holes that he's planning on using to allow the Ghoul to emerge in a myriad of locations across the galaxy, all at once. Cutting him off from the network is left to Ertiana and her team, who return to the ruins' control room for a final confrontation; at Watcher's Nest, the key to collapsing the inflation hole seems to be to launch another Exodus - but will they be able to do that in time..?     13 - Misaki Watcher's Nest completes a successful Exodus, and finds itself in orbit around Saturn; Ertiana and Suzanna are also transported there, courtesy of Misaki - but the only person who has any memory of Misaki ever having existed is Ertiana herself. Even Kotoko's memory banks have been cleared of any reference to her. Ertiana knows what her former charge has sacrificed to save the universe, and now she's the only person who has any opportunity to save her from her self-imposed fate. When Earth refuses to accept back the 20 million inhabitants of Watcher's Nest, she gets her chance to return to deep space on board mankind's first interstellar spacecraft. 70 years later, back where Watcher's Nest once was, a much older Ertiana is reunited with her past...   Episodes 10-12 take care of rounding out the main storyline, and do a very good job of finally explaining what's been happening this series in a way that's understandable and doesn't leave you feeling overloaded with information. The biggest problem with Misaki Chronicles has been that, for a large chunk of the series, it simply didn't make much sense - but by the beginning of episode 12, that fault's largely out of the way and you can get on with simply enjoying the climax of the series. It's pretty impressive as climaxes go, too - not in an action / adventure way, as that's never really been what Divergence Eve was about, but in terms of bringing all the protagonists together and letting them do what they do best. The series also doesn't shy away from writing people off - in much the same way that Luxandra suffered a more-or-less meaningless death in season 1, there are some major characters here who are written off. I'm always please when shows have the guts to do that - although perhaps here some of the noble sacrifices didn't really need to be made. The final episode jumps forward in time, and follows Ertiana's efforts to make sure that Misaki's sacrifices aren't completely forgotten. As humanity returns to Watcher's Nest after a 70-year absence, there are some ghost to be laid to rest and some others to be raised again - and the spectre hanging over what in mostly a "happy" ending that some people may be willing to start the whole process all over again. Overall, I have to say that Misaki Chronicles takes some effort to watch, especially during the early volumes where the tone of the show is very different from season 1 and where you're left to try and figure out the story's direction on your own. Once everything begins to come together, though, this season does finally become as good as its predecessor - and that was one of the best hard science fiction shows I've seen in a long time. The end result? Well worth picking up. Just try not to let those character designs bother you...  |
