Kiddy Grade – Anime Review
Hello readers! Guess what happened this weekend? After four hours of feeling my brain melt as I studied for my history midterm that did a dang good job kicking my butt, I watched an anime! I mean seriously, what a great way to recoupe on a friday night, home alone. This time I skipped going to Netflix and went to Funimation videos. I found Kiddy Grade. I had heard of, but never heard what it was about or anything like that. My four feeling was armed and ready. So into the first four episodes of this show and things go boom! Yep, my kind of show already.
Kiddy Grade is a 24 episode anime, directed by Colleen Clinkenbeard and Justin Cook. The story follows Éclair (Colleen Clickenbeard) and Lumiere (Monica Rial), two girl that work as ES agents for the GOTT organization to protect the peace and serve justice of the worlds. The show has a really fun level of technology advancement. It’s loaded with humans that are no longer earth bound and have expanded their horizons and have colonized a ton of new planets that have been altered to simulate Earth.
One of the first things you will notice about Éclair is she doesn’t kiss butt with her lipstick, she whips it good. Yep. I said it. She whoops all kinds of butt with a stick of lipstick. I can’t tell if the lipstick thing is a power or severely advanced technology.
Speaking of powers, they play a huge role in this anime. Lumiere has the ability to access computer networks, and the closer she is to the object, the easier it is for her to do. Éclair has hidden powers that are just awesome. You learn more about them through flashbacks.
So what is the point? Well the GOTT is out to keep the peace, making it’s members pawns. You do what you are told and don’t question why. As you can guess, this causes a problem. What do you do when your heart tells you to do one thing and your job another? Well, if you are Éclair, you turn fugitive. If you are Lumiere, you follow your friend and do the same. If you are often accompanying them, as in the case with Galactic Union auditor Armbrust (Dameon Clarke) [German: Crossbow], you do what you gotta do to get what you need.
I found this to be one of the coolest shows with this technique of putting the people they once worked for against them. I felt that by doing this, putting them against each other, you see how the characters really feel and give them a bit of spotlight. You meet the other ES members, which gives you a chance to focus on other people instead of just the two ladies. Some play a larger role than others and some will steal your heart. You have Alv (Laura Bailey) and Dvergr (Rebecca Paige) an S class team (higher ranked than our C class heroines) that are a truly an arrogant pair. Tweedledee (Clarine Harp) and Tweedledum (Antimere Robinson) are also an S class team that are fraternal twins with a complicated relationship towards the Éclair and Lumiere. There is Viola (Alison Retzloff) and Cesario (Justin Cook), the only other C class group mentioned, who are generally on good terms with Éclair and Lumière. Un-ou (Pugs) and A-ou (Steve Sanders) are S class. They were former mercenaries with a long-standing rivalry with Éclair and Lumiere. Sinistra (Eric Vale) and Dextera (Vic Mignogna), personally my favorite pair, who are also S class and are a beautiful pair of men that seem well respected. There is Mercredi (Gwendolyn Lau), the head of GOTT’s personal assistant with a hidden agenda. The head of the GOTT is a woman named Eclipse (Scarlett McAlister), who seemed mysterious to me. Then Chevalier d’Autriche (Aaron Dismuke; boy / Chris Patton; teen / Christopher Sabet; adult), the Secretary General of GOTT whose past is intertwined with Éclair’s.
There are two characters that I notice never seem to get attention in any reviews and I don’t know why. These two are the spaceship is called La Muse [French: The Muse] and the guard robot named Donnerschlag [German: Thunderclap] generally referred to as ‘Donner’. Both have an AI system and are vitally important in the actions of the Éclair and Lumiere. In fact the saddest and, in my opinion, happiest episodes involves them. From what I can tell Donner and La Muse have been with then girls since they started at GOTT. They have personality and an effective communication with the girls. Just a little FYI, La Muse also is called Wirbelwind [German: Whirlwind] because that is the name of the AI unit within her.
So now that all that is out on the table it’s time for what I think of the story…. I love it. I really do. There were two places where I was so confused I tried to rewatch the episode before thinking I had missed something. Then I reminded myself that I was watching an anime and that it might explain it in due time. It did. So for this show, confusion is good. Totally lost confusion is no bueño, but a ‘Huh? What just went down that I feel I missed?’ confusion is good. The writers took the time to build the relationships up without losing the action. The art is beautiful (Gonzo never seems to disappoint). I give it a rating of a 8.5+ out of 10!
I enjoyed the anime and plan to purchase it. Speaking of purchasing it, you can buy the Kiddy Grade DVD Complete Collection (Hyb) – Anime Classics for $29.99 on RightStuf.com.
Sorry this one was a bit long. I got all excited telling you about everyone. Well, it’s time to get to studying!
Happy watching!
