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TV Review

Kiddy Grade – TV Review

Having a weird concept can separate a good anime from a boring one. Of course being weird does not mean you are guaranteed a good show. Kiddy Grade has an odd premise, two girls, one who looks in her teens and the other like she is twelve work for the GOTT (Galactic Organization of Trades and Tariffs) as ES members, fighting “crimes”.

While the initial premise seems simple, it grows more complicated as the series plays out. Unfortunately this splits the audience. For the first eight or so episodes Eclair and Lumiere (the two main characters) go on missions, but after that the main story arc appears and begins to play out. If you preferred the missions and how each episode was a complete story, you will probably find the change not to your liking. If you want a series running story arc you have to sit through about four hours of non-important episodes. For those in the third category, who simply want to wait for a story to get rolling, then this series is perfect to fill that void.

One issue some may have with the series is the sexually suggestive shots of the lead characters as fade outs to commercial and fade ins to the show. While they are usually great drawings, if you find the sexual nature distasteful you may need to fast forward or give up on the show. The other source of sexuality are the numerous up-skirt shots, which while prevalent in some animes, if you have not seen a lot of them outside of what is shown on US soil, this sort of “fan service” (an odd term, but one used to describe this sort of material) is not something normally seen. The age of the characters poses a slight problem, while the story explains that they are a lot older than they look, Lumiere looks like a young child, and yet there are suggestive drawings of her.

The most important part about the series is the story, even though it takes a while to get started, it is a very fascinating one that reveals the origins of Eclair and Lumiere. There is one “feature” of stories in animes which pops up from time to time, and that is their tendency to be confusing and let the unexplained explain itself after you have already decided to just let it go without an explanation. One example of this is the mention that events are playing out the way they had before, of course the question is what do the individuals mean by that, eventually it is revealed what they mean, but by then you will have probably formed your own explanation. If the story issues are ignored, the story is actually very good and goes in a slightly unexpected direction. By the end everything is revealed and all of the confusion in the show is cleared up.

Now to rate, as anime stories go, this one is good enough that it deserves a cool, but if you are not into such an unexpected story that doesn’t start up till a good bit into the series, then it is more of a cool-. While some may consider it shite for the upskirts and odd sexual content, it is still watchable. Basically it is worth having a look at, whether you are watching it for legitimate reasons or just to comment on the “fan service” animes deliver.

Trailer

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Is it all “fan service” and “upskirts” or is there something deeper here? Let us know and give us the feedback we so richly desire!

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About The Author

Genuwine Jon Hammer

The self proclaimed "Genuwine" Jon Hammer, currently a student studying at Digipen Institute of Technology to be a programmer. I am a huge pop culture nerd, so movies, music, tv, podcasts, and games are all important to me, in fact if I often post about such topics on my twitter.

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Article Information

  • Posted: Saturday, October 17th, 2009
  • Author: Genuwine Jon Hammer
  • Filed Under: Review, TV
Tags: , , , ,

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