In a futuristic multi-planetary government, the Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs (GOTT) provides structure in dealing with economic matters between formerly warring planets. As part of the superpowered ES Force team, crime-fighting partners Éclair and Lumiere work hard to enforce the laws of the GOTT and bring justice to the global alliance. But in the wake of a botched assignment, the girls begin to question the motives of their employers and set out on a quest to both resolve their suspicions and come to grips with their own mysterious pasts.
This eighth volume includes the final three episodes of the thrilling sci-fi Animé!
Episodes comprise:
22. Demolition / Titan
23. Annihilation / Zero
24. As Time Goes By
Eight discs later, and Kiddy Grade comes to a slightly bumpy but satisfying conclusion.
Audio:
I listened to the Japanese track for my main reviewing, and continued to enjoy the performances of the Japanese actors. The actress for Alv does particularly well in this disc, with her descent into a bit of madness coming across really well. The emotions of Éclair and Lumiere also come off well, with the other characters' conflicting emotions coming through too. The stereo mix is nice, with the music sounding particularly good. I noticed no dropouts or distortions during regular playback.
I also listened to the disc in English. I really like the performances in the dub a lot, with Colleen Clinkenbeard as Éclair and Monica Rial as Lumiere being particularly good. Also putting in a great showing though are Laura Bailey as Alv and Rebecca Paige as Dvergr. This disc again gives a lot of the cast that we haven't seen so much a chance in the spotlight, which is really nice as it highlights how good the dub is for the most part, despite some liberal differences in the script at times. The 5.1 mix is pretty nice, adding a bit of directionality, though it didn't seem that great a difference over the stereo track to me. I noticed no dropouts or distortions on this track during regular playback.
As this is a FUNimation production, we also get dubbed openings and endings, and in the case of Kiddy Grade, they're very good. It's quite a feat with the opening song, too, since the original is quite nonsensical in its use of English. Dub songs really do add big brownie points in my book, especially since they're not cringe-worthy like some older dubbed themes.
Video:
With only three episodes on this disc, and coming from GONZO, you would expect Kiddy Grade to look great, and this transfer doesn't disappoint. The video continues to look crisp and clean, and colours are extremely vibrant. This is one of GONZO's typical digital looking "shiny" shows, and it looks great. There was also no artifacting that I noticed, and aliasing is pretty non-existent.
We also get alternate angles for the openings and endings. This means that you can either watch the translated, English credits in the opening, or the original Japanese opening with kanji, and the same for the ending, depending on which language you select from the menu.
Subtitles are in a nice yellow font, as opposed to the white font used on the US discs, and I didn't notice any major grammatical or spelling errors.
Packaging:
No packaging was included as this was a check disc.
Menu:
The menus are simple but functional, with a brief introduction sequence continuing to the static opening menu, this time featuring Alv and Dvergr as the characters of choice, to the right of the screen with the logo above them. There are the four choices as static buttons, with some background music looping over the top, and the volume number and title at the top of the screen. Sub-menus are similarly static with much the same use of text and buttons, and the same image on the right of the screen (except the Episodes selection). The sub-menus have no music playing, however, and like many recent shows, there's no chapter select menu.
Extras:
We don’t get many extras again for this series, with another “Image Gallery” being nothing more than screenshots set to (admittedly nice) music from the series. There’re also a couple of items labelled “Specials”, which are simply a couple of piracy warnings that, while nice to have, don’t really add a great deal of substance. The final selection is the textless songs, in which we get the opening again (unfortunately, still only the Japanese language version) and the nice addition of the textless ending for the last episode. Overall, the extras for this series have been somewhat lacking, though it seems there wasn’t really much to work with.
Content: (please note that content portions of a review may contain spoilers)
With reservations about where exactly the plot was going after Episode 21 on the last disc, I went into the final outing of Kiddy Grade with an open mind, hoping I wouldn't be disappointed. While it doesn't quite reach the same heights it had in earlier episodes where the intensity and action were turned up several notches, it nonetheless comes to an entertaining conclusion that is a lot more enjoyable than I thought it would be given where the show was going.
The first episode on the disc picks up from where the last left off, with d’Autrich having just escaped in the Deucalion, and Lumiere being left without her powers. The Deucalion is a massive ship that’s capable of travel even between galaxies, and he transforms it into a giant mecha robot. It’s an extremely important piece of kit, which naturally means nobody will let him just steal it for himself. Enter Alv and Dvergr, the first pair on the scene. But Alv isn’t exactly in the best frame of mind herself after the defeats she’s suffered recently, so when Dvergr objects to her threatening to shoot d’Autrich, Alv turns the gun on her partner. Revelations are abound right from the get-go here, some seemingly out of the blue and others providing more clarity about certain events, so if you don’t want to be spoiled, jump down to the summary at the end because it’ll be impossible to talk about the disc at all without giving anything away.
The first major revelation comes when Alv shoots Dvergr, who it turns out is her own mother. This act clearly shows that Alv has pretty much lost it at this point, and is so unstable she'll go to considerable lengths to enforce her plans. But d'Autrich isn't willing to make it easy for her, and has her sucked out into a glowing chamber which apparently will absorb her. He then lets the new La Muse through the Deucalion's defences and Éclair and Lumiere burst onto the bridge. Here we find out that d'Autrich is actually the child we've seen Éclair holding as a mother, who was taken away from her and raised with the Nouvlesse. He claims that he's doing all this for his "mother", while all the events are being transmitted across the galaxy. Éclair is unable to shoot her son though, when the defences of the Deucalion turn on him as Alv has somehow merged with the ship.
This all takes place in the first episode, and it's quite a wild ride. While I had several reservations about the way the plot was going at the end of the last disc, my fears were mostly alleviated here as this outing contains several revelations and has plenty of action to keep us enticed. Alv's transformation into the proverbial super-villain is somewhat amusing in a way, but has been nicely seeded as the series has gone on, from her last (albeit failed) attempt to this one, which is her last chance. With the revelations about Éclair's past and her involvement with d'Autrich, his purpose is also finally made a lot clearer, which is a good thing as it gives some reason for his actions.
The second episode continues the action, as Donnerschlag saves Lumiere, Éclair, d’Autrich and Dvergr from inevitable destruction at the hands of Alv. As they’re escaping though, she decides to warp to the planet that started it all; Earth. Alv catches up with the pair and throws them in the same room that absorbed her, and as Eclipse arrives on the scene with Wirbelwind, the pair disintegrate. With thinks looking bleak, the remaining ES members arrive on the scene and do what they can to help out. While they’re not entirely successful, the Lumiere and Éclair puppets also make an unexpected return.
Another entertaining episode, but also one that reuses old tricks perhaps to its detriment, to a degree. While it’s become something of a trademark for the series, the overuse of the characters put in near-death situations, only to have it look like they die and then bring them back, is a little frustrating in some ways. It’s as if the writers don’t know any other ways to put the characters in danger so resort to the same old trick. Unfortunately it doesn’t quite have the same impact it did after it’s happened so many times, and it’s a little unfortunate as with tighter scripting and a bit of variation, the episode could seem far more dangerous. I realise one of the characteristics of the show is rebirth, but there are times when such things are taken too far. Outside of that though, Alv just gets even crazier, as she’s prepared to shoot at pretty much anything to get rid of all her pent up frustration. It’s also nice to have the rest of the ES members brought into things, even if it is something of an afterthought.
Saying anything about the final episode in any great detail would be unfair, but despite what you may at first expect, Kiddy Grade does come to a pretty satisfactory conclusion. With the help of all the ES members combined, the main battle is resolved and what follows is a glimpse a few years into the future, after all these events took place. While some plot threads remain untouched, most of those pushed to the forefront in the final stretch of the show are indeed resolved, and it’s enjoyable to see what happens to the characters after everything that has taken place. It’s also interesting to see how certain characters change once again.
With the series now over, it’s hard to explain my feelings for Kiddy Grade. It’s an enjoyable show sure enough, with plenty of good action and a great cast of characters. But it remains so uneven throughout, building its pace as it flies into the latter third of the show only to slow down slightly in the last few episodes. One thing that sticks out the most is that while the characters are very good creations, most of them are disappointingly realised with little screen time. They often end up injected into proceedings at some odd points, seemingly just to give them a reason to be there. Un-ou and A-ou are a great example, though they make a notable appearance in the main episode they appear in, there’s little to see of them after that. Like most of the ES members, they just end up devolving into a group upset every time Éclair and Lumiere seem to fall.
It’s disappointing in truth, as other characters in the series get put on quite the ride. While Éclair and Lumiere get plenty of characterisation throughout, especially Éclair, Alv and Dvergr are also quite well rounded in the end. Their descent into villain and devotee respectively is quite well handled, though the end of their story is a bit lacklustre as that big revelation ends up not having the impact it perhaps should. In terms of underused characters though, the worst example of being forgotten have to be Armbrust and Mercredi, who are all but forgotten until the flash forward. It’s another example of the series’ unevenness and it’s the main reason that the series is so frustrating when thinking back.
In Summary: Kiddy Grade has been an enjoyable series, with some wonderful characters and designs, great visuals in general and plenty of action. Unfortunately it seems that the writers and director weren’t quite up to the challenge of realising the world they created, which leaves the story coming off as uneven with episodes that pack a huge punch and episodes in which barely anything of note happens at all. It’s disappointing when combined with the way many of the more intriguing characters are all but forgotten at points, yet I still would have to call Kiddy Grade an entertaining and enjoyable series. It’s a little fluffy in places, and its episode per disc ratio really lets it down when it comes to value, but I’d still give it a recommendation for those looking for a shiny, new, action-oriented series with a fair plot to back it up. Don’t expect great things, as the series is firmly engrained in the “good, but not great” category, but it’s certainly quite good fun.
Philips 28" Pure Flat Widescreen TV, Pioneer DV-464 code free DVD player, JVC gold-plated RGB SCART cable, standard stereo sound.
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