Kiddy Girl-And

[Munsu]

This is a new spinoff for the Kiddy Grade franchise. Details here:

Story set 200 years after Kiddy Grade, with director, designer returning

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The official website for the Kiddy Grade anime franchise has announced a new spinoff called Kiddy Girl-and. The story is set in the Star Century year 0379, roughly two centuries after the original Kiddy Grade anime and about five centuries after our present day. The spirited Asukūru and serious Ku Fīyu work for the galactic government known as GTO. The two girls are members of ES, GTO's finest secret agents with special abilities — or, rather, they are training to become ES.

One of the production companies for the original Kiddy Grade, gimik, created Kiddy Girl-and's story, while Hidefumi Kimura (Kiddy Grade, Generator Gawl) is supervising the scripts. Director Keiji Gotoh (Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula, Uta∽Kata) and character designer Megumi Kadonosono (Clannad film, Uta∽Kata) also return from the first series in their same produciton roles. This time around, Satelight is producing the animation for GTO, the production entity named after the story's fictional government. A manga version, Kiddy Girl-and Pure, will launch in the May issue of Kadokawa's Monthly Comp Ace magazine on March 26. Funimation released the original Kiddy Grade anime in North America in 2005 and 2006.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news...-and-announced


While we're at it, what happened to the Kiddy Grade sequel that was in the works? I've heard different things, about originally being a tv sequel, then it became a 3-part movie of some sort. What happened to that? Did it ever come out?

[Ryllharu]

This would be Kiddy Grade 2. Asukūru and Ku Fīyu (the third spelling I've seen for this one) were the characters from the Kiddy Grade 2 promo that was released last year.

The three part movie was a recap/retelling of the original series if I recall correctly. Similar to what has been done with AIR and Clannad. Those came out, but since they were largely the original series done over, no one really cared.

That said, they did apparently change Asukuru's appearance. She had gray hair before, and a different outfit. (This is assuming they didn't switch the names entirely). The update says the image is subject to change, so I guess they are still messing around with it. Ku Fiyu (which was the purple-haired one for the last promo) remains largely unchanged by the looks of things.

[Ryllharu]

Thirty second promo has been released:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pMPaJAfehQ

The series looks just as good as the original animation quality wise. I definitely recognized a few familiar faces (different, but recognizable anyway).

The two leads sound pretty good. Both are fairly new voice actresses (the same as Aya Hirano was in the first series), which is always a nice touch. Not a lot of action shown in the promo, but that will probably come later after they establish the cast a bit more.

Series airs the 22nd.

[TheBladeChild]

Episode one is here:

http://www.nyaatorrents.org/?page=download&tid=91012

[Archangel]

Does it relate much to the main story? I watched the first anime but i think i missed a couple of episodes

[Ryllharu]

You'd catch references and know the history, but so far, it doesn't matter. The second eyecatch with the director "Big Promotion" garnered a laugh, and the four ES members were recognizable (nice trick on the appearances of the latter pair by the way!).

That said, I was a bit underwhelmed. Ascoeur was like a square-peg-round-hole version of Arika from Mai-Otome. She was klutzy and dumb. She had more energy than Eclair as the lead girl, but none of Eclair's charm. Quefeuille didn't really have a prominent enough role to gauge her, or what her powers were, if she has any.

/cryptic statement
Ascoeur's ability on the other hand, had a very interesting similarity with a certain someone from the previous series, who is thus far absent (but assumed to still exist). I'm not going say who it is, but I'm mentioning it so I can can egotistically point it out that I suspected it if it somehow turns out to be true.
/end cryptic statement

Aside from that and how retarded Ascoeur was getting trapped underneath a fallen houseplant, the episode was a bit devoid of any real content, mostly an introductory episode.

But the animation is great, Quefeuille was at least a little interesting, while Ascoeur is annoying (but not overly so), her combat wasn't too bad, and the side characters were entertaining.

[Kraco]

The HQ should invest in doors made out of some actually strong material, not out of particleboard. Not to mention the walls. I'm surprised the building is still standing at all.

It was quite an airy episode indeed. Nothing much happened that made a whole lot of sense. A real introduction episode for sure. I did realise how little I remember of the old series; I hope that won't reduce my enjoyment too much seeing how this series might be offering a bit less entertainment in general than I anticipated, assuming this first episode was of any indication.

Good animation, though.

[Ryllharu]

I wouldn't say that the entertainment value would be less than I expected, the first half-dozen or so episodes of the first series also tended to be vapid, episodic, character introductions and setting establishment. After that the series went very rapidly into serious territory.

I wrote a full recap of Kiddy Grade here [spoiler warning] when this series was originally announced if anyone wants a refresher.

[Archangel]

I think i'll download the whole series again, any particular order i should watch the movies in?

Actually something's weird... according to anidb none of the movies have been subbed in english?

[Ryllharu]

The movies are recaps, weren't ever translated into English, and aren't really worth watching if you're just going to watch the whole series again.

[Ryllharu]

[Himatsubushi]​​ Kiddy​​ Girl-and​ - 02


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I get that they are trainees, but I'm really not liking this approach to the series. Comedy relief episodes are fine, but to have them all lumped at the beginning is another, and we still don't have any definite answer to what Q-feuille's powers actually are. If they want to make the franchise switch from an action series with a little comedy to a comedy with a little action, fine, but I don't think they marketed the show correctly. We knew what to expect from Fumoffu, which was great, but here I was expecting a lot more action.

Ascoeur's voice is still shrill, but she was a little less obnoxious this episode. I'm still hoping that there is a lot of negative feedback so she tones it down more in the later episodes.

[Kraco]

I couldn't finish watching this episode, it was so bloody obnoxious and meaningless. Maybe I will still have a look at the next episode (I very much doubt this ep will be needed for subsequent ones) and if it's still as idiotic as this one, there'll be not future for this franchise on my watch list.

What the hell is wrong with Ascoeur anyway? She should be attending a kindergarten, not any sort of serious job.

[Ryllharu]

[Himatsubushi]​ Kiddy​ Girl-and - 03​

It's getting better...just not fast enough. I much preferred the Criminal of the Week format of the previous season to the Ascoeur Does Something Retarded of this season, but there really isn't a way to do that given that the pair aren't even official ES members, so they'd more likely be killed doing the things that Eclair and Lumi did.

Ascoeur's voice still makes my ears actually hurt when she gets really excited, but I do think her actress is improving toning it down.

In terms of actual content, their fight was pretty funny, and finding out that Q-feuille has her own freakish obsession (hinted at in the last episode) made her a little bit more human. She's not a perfect workaholic after all. It was a bit startling to see exactly how much she was into that magical girl show. The blue-haired ES member being that much into it too came off a bit awkward in retrospect though.

Some serious parts look to be right around the corner though.

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Concerning Kiddy Grade -> Kiddy Girl-and: [heavy spoilers from season 1]
[I can't help but wonder if Eclipse, the former director, really reincarnated into...a total retard. It would make sense, but I find it hard to believe. Their base level powers are the same (teleport), Eclipse's power of quantum reincarnation must still exist because Tweedledee isn't 70 years old. I just find it a little hard to believe that if Eclipse wiped her own memory the way that Eclair always asked her to do for her, that she would grow up into Ascouer. ]
/end speculation using knowledge from season 1

[Kraco]

This episode was totally useless waste of time and idiotic beyond measure. I didn't finish watching the second episode, which was all about a cup of pudding, but I did actually finish this episode that was all about... I still don't know what. I managed to finish it because I wanted to know what it was all about and I simply couldn't believe it would be so moronic.

Unless it was all about losing viewers. I'm sure it managed to do that. It's a small miracle my vague memories of the first season are still so good that I'll likely watch also the fourth episode of this shitty season.

Edit: why -> what.

[RyougaZell]

I loled at the Card Captor Sakura reference.

Didn't Kiddy Girl also had a moronic start of season? I think the general dislike for this version is that it returned to the moronic origin.

[Ryllharu]

Yeah, but it wasn't anywhere near this bad.

There was Eclair dressing up like a waitress to deliver official papers and Lumiere pinching her in the butt for being unladylike, cyborg wrestling, and Eclair going out to dance clubs, but those were small parts of episodes that were largely action based.

Here, we just have Ascouer repeatedly screwing up and being a complete moron, and the ridiculously over the top security system that you can't possibly take seriously in any way. Sure it causes psychological damage to the average waitress-intruder, but if it was something like an emotionless cyborg or an AI robot (both of which the Kiddy Grade universe has plenty of) then it would be completely worthless.

I'm going to stick with it, especially because they haven't even told us what happened to Eclair and Lumiere, but any more episodes solely like this are going to try my patience. Think about it, this has been a whole DVD of total crap episodes.

[Kraco]

Kiddy girl and girl:

Episode 4 - Himatsubushi




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Still an idiotic episode but at least it already progressed the plot since they got a new member in the team. Despite being a little kid she certainly won't appear any less mature than Ascoeur.

The fight was completely stupid but at the same time it did make a lot of sense as nobody with half a brain would expect those two to have any decent fighting abilities. Kind of a pity for Quefeuille because she obviously could do a lot more and get promotions to real work sooner if she wasn't held back by the blistering moron Ascoeur. But whatever if she's happy babysitting her (and now another, real kid).

[Ryllharu]

I'm still struggling with what Q-feuille's actual combat abilities are. Her bombs obviously aren't that strong, even Ascoeur's needles are stronger. Her hacking skills are...average, so she doesn't really seem like much in the way of support either. She used precognition last episode, but it took her a long time to start, so it is probably only useful outside direct combat.

Dia's Power Up kiss comes off more like giving Ascoeur lessons from Railgun's Kuroko. Teleporting your own projectiles, etc. If Ascoeur got that strong full time, she could kick some serious interstellar criminal ass. Her teleport is really fast. If she overcomes the weaknesses that Ruby pointed out, I think it would be pretty close to impossible to defeat Ascoeur in close and mid-range combat.

That said, I found Dia to be a lot more annoying than Ascoeur in terms of voice and the way she speaks.

I think an important bit came from Q-feuille revealing her age. She's certainly not as immature as Ascoeur (loved the eyecatch jokes about that), but it says a few potential things. Q-feuille either has no memory prior to 8 years ago, she's a quantum reincarnation a la Kiddy Grade, or she's might be artificial, like a combat cyborg.

[RyougaZell]

Was it just me... or where the subs extra big?

The jokes in the middle of the episode were awesome.

Dia's power is probably awakening others powers... right?

And even though Ascoeur can get a bit annoying... she's done much more than Q-feuille on this episodes. So I don't really see how Ascoeur can be holding her back. To be fair we really haven't seen what Q-feuille can do though.

[Kraco]

Aside from the fact that agency indeed is stupid and naive enough to employ a walking disaster like Ascoeur in the first place, even I wouldn't want to believe they would give somebody clinically missing a brain any really important missions. Q-feuille may not excel in fights, but there's a lot more in such an organization than fighting she could be doing with her prediction and data handling powers. But being stuck to somebody who is too idiotic to do anything but basic fighting will prevent her from ever getting such jobs (because Ascoeur would ruin her performance).

But like I said, she's apparently happy babysitting kids so sticking to Ascoeur and Dia is probably fitting for her vision of a good career.