Kiddy Grade Review (Anime)

Kiddy Grade is probably the best anime that you've never watched.  It makes a piss poor first impression if you are judging it merely by the name or the cover (the name sounds positively paedoriffic and the cover art is of the two main female characters clutching each other ever so tenderly), but if you just set aside your initial skepticism and actually watch it, you'll find one of the better sci-fi anime series out there.   Kiddy Grade is fantastic and is solidly in my top 5 favorite anime ever.



Kiddy Grade takes place in a distant future where mankind has colonized much of the galaxy, but a group called the Nouvlesse secretly (and not so secretly) control pretty much everything.  The Nouvlesse are snooty, upper class, pure blood Earthlings who treat the "commoners" (non Earth borns) like dirt.  The commoners have to put up with it, however, because without the Nouvlesse the galaxy as they know it would go into financial ruin and crumble.  As you can likely guess, a main theme of the series is class warfare, which is handled amazingly well and is very interesting.  This is intergalactic politics done right, George Lucas.  You hack.

A galactic police force / bureaucracy known as the Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs keeps crime at bay and generally keeps the people happy.  The series' main characters, Eclair and Lumiere, are members of a secret shadow group of the GOTT who have special powers and pretty much serve as the muscle of the GOTT.  Powers of the members in this group include the ability to absorb matter/energy, manipulate computers and technology, special vision, ability to manipulate individual molecules, and more.  There are six of these "ES" teams, each with two people, and all of their powers are different.  Each team also has their own space ship and guardian robot.

That was kind of confusing, so I'll break it down like this.  The "ES" members all have crazy special abilities that help them do pretty much whatever they want.  Also, the spaceship and guardian robot aren't just inanimate objects and are actually characters themselves, which is neat.  I don't mean they talk or anything, but they do have strong personalities that come through as the series progresses.

To say much else about the story and setting and characters would spoil a lot of the story.  And this is a series where the story is definitely the main attraction.  Some people think that it starts off a little slow, but the first 8 episodes are there to introduce you to Eclair and Lumiere and their galaxy.  Personally, I was thoroughly entertained through these supposed "boring" episodes and really came to like the characters a lot.  Eclair in particular is just great and really, really likable.  The story overall is also very good, peaks multiple times across the 24 episodes, and culminates in one of the better space battles I've ever seen anime or not. 

The series is a mix of action, a little drama, giant robots, space battles, and some nifty sci-fi tech for space travel.  There aren't any aliens, which is sort of strange in a sci-fi story, but you do see a wide range of planets and the overall tech level is pretty awesome, so I can't complain.

The only thing I will complain about is Lumiere's wardrobe.  When Lumiere and Eclair and fighting and using their powers, their outfits change.  Eclair's, in typical anime fashion, takes full advantage to show off as much T&A as possible.  That is okay since Eclair is smoking hot and looks grown up.  Lumiere wears a sort of lingerie looking thing, that is just crazy unappealing considering that she looks like a 10 year old girl.  You do get used to it after a while, but it is such a weird contrast between sexy Eclair and just plain confusing looking Lumiere.

Everything else about the series is amazing, however.  The story is great and Eclair and Lumiere are great, deep characters that you really care for.  The other ES teams are also really, truly likable.  The visuals in the series are also very nice overall, with great looking character designs, tons of detail everywhere in the backgrounds, and well paced, well crafted action scenes that are easy to follow.  The sound is good as well, with solid English voice acting and really great sound effects.  The sound effects are some of the best sci-fi effects I've heard in a while and are completely different from what the genre typically offers.  The music also really stands out as being exceptional.  The intro and ending music sucks out loud, but the themes used throughout the series are really well done.  One episode (9) deals with a specific piece of music that is particularly well done.

I also want to note that the eye catch images (images shown before and after the commercial break in the middle of each episode) are really great looking.  The artwork of the characters is generally quite stunning and would make great desktop wallpaper.  Each episode has two images, but I can't find many of them.  What do I find?  You guessed it, hentai.

All in all, I love Kiddy Grade.  Like I said, I consider it to be one of my top 5 favorite anime, so please give it a chance.  I give it a 9/10 or one awesome image of Metallica's James Hetfield. 

You can buy the full Kiddy Grade series at Amazon for dirt cheap.  It comes on 8 discs (!) with three episodes per disc.  It is available from Amazon Marketplace sellers for about $12.  Kiddy Grade - The Complete Series (The Viridian Collection)