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.

Quick Review

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

Three years after the release of the original D7 Peacemaker OAV, the indie D7 Studios has finally completed another part of the D7 saga. 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. It suffers from a bit of style overload, but corrects nearly every technical flaw of the first D7 incarnation and looks to have all the makings of an interesting series. Instead of resorting to CG for the animation, Revelation uses every trick in the book to simulate motion with a minimum of frames--dynamic still-frames, stylish cuts, an unstable hand-held camera style, and bits of animation where it counts simulate motion, and the voice acting, quality sound effects, and driving techno soundtrack pick up the slack. The voice acting is a little off, and there are a few mildly awkward bits, but this installment is otherwise an impressive start and a high-quality nugget of obtuse drama and stylish action.

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.

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