The Genre: Science Fiction

The Format: 24 episodes across 8 disks from MVM

The plot: In Star Century Zero-One-Sixty-Five, the Global Union was born. To provide an impartial mediator to the various planetary governments of the G.U., the Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs, or G.O.T.T. was simultaneously formed to settle economic disputes amongst the member planets. Existing in the shadows of the G.O.T.T., the ES Force serves as the G.O.T.T.'s primary law enforcement organization. ES Force members Eclair and Lumiere are on the front line, pursuing all manner of criminals and bringing them to justice. This is their story.

When I first got broadband, I thought I’d never pay for anything ever again.

I had a serious case of kid in a candy store and set about single-handedly trying to download every anime series ever created and fansubbed. Of course, in practical terms, I have things like a job and I like to do other stuff like sleep and eat too. And whilst I am a big fan of anime, I’m a bigger fan of manga; and I also do such antiquated things as watch stuff on TV and read magazines.

At a push, I’ll even admit to having a social life and going out for the occasional pint of beer and a chinwag. Then there’s this and my other web sites, and my pretensions of one day becoming a writer... What I’m saying is that there just weren’t enough hours in the day for me to watch all this stuff I was downloading.

It just wasn’t possible for me to see it all. And worse than that, the stuff I was actually watching was the stuff I had 100% cast-iron promised to buy. None of this “oh, I’ll download it and then buy it.” No, this was yer GitS:SAC and yer RahXephon – there was no way I wasn’t buying those.

So what was the point in downloading it all? Proving I had an enormous e-penis? How silly. I therefore resolved that I would only download three or four episodes for series I was er-ing about buying, in order to inform my less certain purchasing decisions.

Now, I like the Dirty Pair. I think they’re a great example of their genre. But I wasn’t particularly sure I was interested in watching the Dirty Pair with a bit of Paedo thrown in for good measure (yes, the ‘Kiddy’ in the title is essentially relating to the characters apparent ages).

The first 6 or 7 episodes come across very much as being the froth on top of a cappuccino. They’re all tits, arse, and sparkle, but there’s nothing much in the way of substance – no caffeine goodness to get you going in the morning. However, as you get past these episodes there is a sudden shift in the story.

It becomes apparent that the main character, Éclair, is more than she seems. Indeed, it is steadily revealed that the organisation she works for, the GOTT, her boss, her partner Lumier and even her fellow ES members are not at all what they seem. To stick with the cappuccino analogy, there is a hot, warm satisfying beverage underneath.

It was at about this stage that I ran out of downloaded episodes, so I made a note and resolved to buy the series if it ever got a UK release.

Now, this undercurrent of a deep plot thing is an old trick of course. Eva, Trigun, Lain and FLCL have used this device to varying degrees, however Kiddy Grade takes the concept a little far. In the case of those other series you can go back, watch the earlier episodes, and pick up on things you didn’t notice before. They contain clues as to the mystery beneath and repeated watching bears much fruit.

However, Kiddy Grade is more like one of those M Night Shyamalan movies. There is a twist, and it certainly makes things more interesting, but it doesn’t add a new dimension to the entire story. Iow, it’s more of a “penny drops” kind of twist than a “well, actually the series is about this” sort of twist.

I dunno if that makes any sense, but what I’m saying is you can watch Kiddy Grade through several times and it’s still the same story as when you saw it the first time. When you watch Eva, Trigun, Lain and FLCL through again you realise that they’re not quite the same story as you thought was being told.

This isn’t to say Kiddy Grade doesn’t entertain. Indeed, it’s highly enjoyable; it just doesn’t make it into the top ranks of my fave animes.

Well, if you read the details part up the top, you will have already noticed that Kiddy Grade is apparently straight out of the bad old days. There are 8 DVDs and each one has a mere 3 episodes on it. That’s a lot of disks and even if you buy them discounted or in a sale, that’s a fair chunk of anyone’s money.

So here’s the thing – is it really worth the investment?

In my opinion, yes it is. But only just.

However, there are some other issues I think need to be discussed. First and foremost is the dub.

It seems that in an attempt to continue the theme of a retro release the English dub has taken what might be thought of as a “classical” approach. Iow, they’ve changed the script. And not just in ways that allow the lip flaps to synch. Oh no. Bits have been added, bits have been taken away, the plots have been subtly altered and some story points are glossed over and/or over-emphasised.

I’ve never been able to figure out why this was ever done. I mean, it generally seems to happen in a way that is very unflattering to the audience. We get extra bits explaining what a character is doing, and details that are fully evident in the animation are included in the voice track.

An example of this comes in an episode where Éclair is competing in a sort of futuristic wrestling match. She and a character called Foxxie Fox are escaping from the facility when they are attacked by a wrestler Éclair beat in an earlier bout. In order to defeat him, Éclair whispers an instruction to Foxxie for her to kick a large box at him when she turns off the gravity. When she turns it back on, he is crushed.

She whispers it. So we can't hear it.

The other things I have to note are a variety of technical... oddities. I was going to say blunders, but I don’t know if they are really that severe. These include things like the fact that one of the “next episode” trailers is replaced with the intro song, the subtitles on the first disk are in a very small font, and the music on the original Japanese track is a lot more subdued than the English counterparts.

Now some of these could be legitimate things, but others are definite cock-ups that do tend to take the sheen off of the product. Especially when you consider the amount of cash you’re putting in MVM's hands. However, it’s unclear to me whether these are a result of something MVM has done, or if they are flaws in the Funimation original.

One last thing on this front - there are actually two subtitle tracks. One is a dubtitle, but the other is a proper translation. When you watch the Japanese you get the proper translation, but if you select English with subs, it uses the dubtitle track. It’s most odd.

So, as I say, I think this is worth buying, but it’s a close call to make.

The Summary: Although badly paced, given half a chance Kiddy Grade is an entertaining and interesting series; it’s just a shame about the disk count.

The Score: 4/5

The Pictures:

(click for larger versions)