Holy Fan Service!

I first became aware of Kiddy Grade through a preview I saw at an anime convention back in 2003. The trailer showed pretty girls, spaceships, and lots of explosions, which naturally got my attention. I took a mental note of the series and added it to my list of "Anime to Buy in the Future," which is a very long list, let me assure you! I finally managed to start collecting this series last fall, and I just purchased and watched the final episodes a couple of weeks ago. 

Kiddy Grade takes place in the distant future when man has spread throughout the galaxy, and centers around two "ES" members of the Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs, or GOTT for short. ES members are super-secret agents that enforce the GOTT's laws and protect its citizens. They always work in teams of two, and each pair's equipment includes unique large support robots and advanced space ships. Each pair of agents also has unique special abilities. For example, the team that are the co-stars of the series are named Éclair and Lumiere. Éclair has super-human strength, while Lumiere can use nanites and superior mental ability to control any machine or computer she touches. At the start of the series, the pair are sent on several missions to support GOTT policy. During the course of these missions, they meet up with several of the other teams, as well as a mysterious man named Armblast who is supposedly an auditor from GOTT sent to monitor the actions of ES members. As the series progresses, it becomes clear that GOTT is just a puppet for a shadow organization known as the "Nouvilese," an aristocratic group solely made up of native Earthlings that look down on the rest of humanity that was born on other planets. Éclair and Lumiere become outlaws when they decide to fight against the Nouvilese and GOTT, setting off a chain of events that will shake the entire galaxy.

Really though, all of that is just an excuse to have a couple of scantily-clad girls running around, shooting people, and blowing stuff up. It is slightly disturbing that both Éclair and Lumiere are supposedly under-age, although it helps somewhat that it is revealed later in the series (spoiler alert!)  they are both much older than they appear. Irregardless, this series is fairly light, and the few philosophical topics that are brought up (the dignity of all people, corruption among the powerful, etc) are dealt with in a rather shallow manner. Kiddy Grade also subscribes to the school of minimalist storytelling (similar to that of Cowboy Bebop), in that a lot of key events are left up to the viewer's imagination so that action sequences can take center stage. Given that this series has a stronger episodic progression that Cowboy Bebop, this can be frustrating at times. This show basically assumes the viewer has a grounding in the clichés of the sci-fi anime genre, which will undoubtedly create confusion among new viewers.

The animation on this show is really top-notch. The show has a very clean and smooth look to it, with plenty of detail in the mechanical designs. There are plenty of characters, and it is a testament to the design of this show that all of them are distinctive and recognizable. This series has a lot of action sequences packed into its 24 episodes, and remarkably there is little, if any, recycling of animation that I can detect. The music for the series is also quite good, with fully orchestrated tracks accompanying the animation. The opening and closing songs are decent, although they don't strike me as particularly  memorable.

The DVD releases by Funimation have come in two separate varieties. The series was initially available in 8 separate discs with 3 episodes a piece. However, the series has also been released in four 2-disc sets. Either way, the episode count per disc is a little disappointing, seeing that the show is only 24 episodes long and the extras on the disc are interesting, but not particularly mind-blowing. The extras on each disc give background information for one ES team's members, their robot, and their spaceship. Oddly, the information presented in these extras in the later discs is actually superceded by revelations made by the episodes on that disc! The dubbing done for this series is pretty top-notch, and matches the sound and tone of the Japanese originals as well as any series I've seen. Honestly though, I could do without the English version of the opening song.

Overall, Kiddy Grade is an enjoyable show, but don't go into expecting  a lot of cerebral philosophizing. This show is an action-adventure show first and foremost, and includes an incredible amount of fan service.  If you are a sci-fi or action fan, I can easily recommend this series. Best of all, collecting the show is fairly easy, as several places have the show marked down to clearance levels. Don't let the bargain price fool you, Kiddy Grade is worth a look!

By Andy Rucker