D7 Peacemaker: Revelation

Original Title: D7 Peacemaker: Revelation
Romanized: N/A
Literal:

Plot Synopsis

In future Austin, Texas, college student Ashley Tomei has a somewhat turbulent relationship with her deadly government agent mother. But when a mysterious man contacts her, it is the beginning of a series of events that threaten to spark World War III. Only future episodes will tell what, exactly, Ashley's connection to this is and who is pulling the shadowy strings.

Review

Rating: 3 / 5
Reviewer: Marc
Review Date: 2006-12-11

The original D7 Peacemaker OAV was an interesting experiment in indie anime on a low budget: Instead of resorting to CG for the animation, still-frames and stylish cuts simulated motion, and the sense of motion was supplied by the voice acting, sound effects, and a driving techno soundtrack.

Three years later, D7 Studios has done a number of commercial projects, but it's taken this long for another anime production to see the light of day. Revelation doesn't take up where the previous OAV left off, so with only a single nine-minute (seven and a half if you don't count credits) chapter finished at this point it's hard to make a call about where the story is headed. On the negative side, Revelation still suffers from some of the style overload of the original OAV. On the positive, it corrects nearly every technical flaw of the first D7 incarnation and looks to have all the makings of an interesting series.

I'll try to go easy on the comparisons, but this initial chapter illustrates that all the issues holding the original back have been addressed. Most obviously, it makes drastically better use of "pseudo animation"--quick cuts, zooms, bits of animation (moving lips and eyes)--to create a very good illusion of motion where there is little. This makes the action scenes far more exciting, and the entire thing flows smoothly. Cutting down the time each frame is onscreen may significantly shorten the runtime for the same budget, but it takes the story from being somewhat plodding to downright punchy.

If this first chapter is an indication of what's to come, then if nothing else Revelation will be attention-grabbing. There's a solid sense of excitement and urgency to it, and while the plot is far too vague to get a handle on where it's going overall, it certainly hints at enough drama and mystery to grab the attention. I'm looking forward to seeing how it develops.

Technically, Revelation has a lot going for it--it makes good use of every trick in the book to create a sense of action without using a lot of frames of animation. Many of the scenes have a jittery, handheld-camera style, the bits of animation on mouths and eyes are used just where they need to be, and panning backgrounds or fades between cels do a fine job of evoking motion without explicitly showing it. As with the original, the character art has a very good sense of dynamism to it--even though there's not much "animation," you can feel the movement in the drawings. Plus, unlike the original, action scenes make good use of quick cuts to evoke motion.

There's only one notable flaw with this technique, and that's in a couple of shots where a character is shown walking away from the camera--instead of fading between a series of still frames of the character receding, the cel is "moved away" from the camera even though there's no animation on the feet. This ends up looking like they're frozen and just sliding away from the viewer--it would have been better to either keep the shots from the waist up and bob the cel up and down or just use frozen frames with no motion at all.

The backgrounds are also a significant step up from the semi-abstract settings of the original OAV. Most of the shots keep the backgrounds out of focus or are closely cropped on the character art, so there's still something of a lack of space that I find mildly annoying, but it's not a significant issue. I certainly have no complaints about the dreamlike backgrounds in the introduction, and the locations later are established clearly enough. There's also a very good sense of light and color corresponding to each location and the moods that go with them.

The soundtrack, which uses themes from the original, is one of the production's strongest points. A combination of driving techno and more eerie pieces, it is a perfect complement to the look and feel. The sound design is also very good--echoes, footsteps, and all manner of effects are used very well to enhance the action sequences or moods.

The voice acting is, sadly, a bit of a letdown in contrast to everything else. It's certainly not bad, and there are several colorful accents, but almost all the voices are a little stiff. The drama is handled acceptably, however, and the acting is at least "good enough" if not impressive.

Overall, D7 Peacemaker: Revelation has all the makings of an interesting indie project, and being that it's the second finished product from the studio, there's actually some reasonable hope of the story continuing. I'm looking forward to future installments, and being able to watch free on the web is a nice bonus.

Related Recommendations

The original D7: Peacemaker OAV, if you can find it, involves the same characters (apparently later in time, though I'm not quite sure how the two fit together) and a very similar albeit less refined style. Another indie project with a vaguely similar technical style (though drastically different theme and story) is the epic Broken Saints. Finally, SoulTaker has something of the same sense of style overload and stylized setting.

US DVD Review

None yet exists, but when the first full episode is completed, the first disc is scheduled to go on sale.

Content Guide

The first brief chapter features one significantly violent but not at all graphic sequence; depending on your sensitivity to the sort of thing I'd call it either 10-up or 13-up, though I lean toward 13-up based on the mood and apparently dark subject matter.

Violence: 2 - Several people are killed, but completely sans-gore.

Nudity: 0 - None.

Sex/Mature Themes: 1 - Some mature themes and strong emotional content.

Language: 1 - Nothing significant.

Notes and Trivia

You can get peripheral info, desktops, view the video, or buy high-quality downloadable versions at the official website, www.d7peacemaker.com/revelation/.

According to D7's press release, each of the finished episodes will be 45 minutes long (which would imply 6 chapters in total, since each chapter is supposed to be the same 7 1/2 minutes long), and once each episode is complete it will be released on DVD and HD-DVD with extras. As of this writing only chapter 1A is finished.

The first Chapter of Revelation is available in several forms. You can watch it free in an online Flash player, which provides a reasonably high quality picture. If you prefer a download, you can pay either $2 for a roughly DVD-quality download to play on your computer (and a smaller version for iPods and such), or for an extra buck you can download ultra-high-rez versions--your choice of high-definition "720p" (1280X549 widescreen) or "1080p" (1920X824) versions. You're going to need a relatively large monitor or an HDTV to take advantage of the high-def versions, but they're of impressive quality--the highest resolution version may weigh in at 650MB for the 8-minute Chapter 1 (that's 11mbit/s of H.264 video with 128Kbit AAC stereo audio), but the lines are razor-sharp and there's essentially no compression artifacts. There is noticeable banding in some of the color gradients, but that may have been intentional (if not, it doesn't look bad at all). If you've got the TV or a monster monitor, go for it--puts DVD to shame and even outdoes all but the best HD broadcasts.

Availability

Available as a free Flash-based video on the web, or for purchase as a download. As of this writing a DVD is in the works, but not yet available.

Looking to buy? Try these stores: RightStuf (search) | AnimeNation | Akemi's a(nime)Store