Rating: 
Summary: Charlie's Angels in outer space!
Review: I'm just in the beginning stages of watching Kiddy Grade. I've only seen up to episode 6 and I'm VERY pleased with it. It mixes a "Charlie's Angels" mentality with an outer space theme. Many people have said that they didn't really care for the show all that much until episode 8. I'm guessing 1-7 are just individual episodes and the main storyline kicks in at 8. Regardless, I'm having a blast watching it! The English voice acting really brings home the whole essence and feel of the show. It's serious but it doesn't take itself seriously. The whole show at this point is very "tongue-in-cheek" and the English voice actors pulled off the amazing task of doing a better job than their Japanese predecessors. If you don't speak or understand Japanese, you'll probably have a VERY hard time picking up on sarcasm and voice inflections in order to understand if something is humorous or not. Thank goodness the English version hits a home run with this part.The animation is stellar. It is all done digitally by one of the world's top animation studios - Gonzo - located in Japan. There is a seamless blend of regular animated effects and CG effects. All of the music is orchestrated and sounds just spectacular. It's cinematic and pulls you right into the show. It's very James Bond-ish with a little bit of the grandeur of John Williams (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Jaws, & Jurassic Park). All in all, it's a fantastic show and almost everyone will like it. I made my friends sit down and watch it. Even though they hate Anime like it killed their family, they were begging me to try to find the next episodes because they couldn't wait.
Rating: 
Summary: A NEW ANIME SPACE OPERA
Review: Kiddy Grade is an anime with epic amibitions and has space opera written all over it. If you like lots of action, intelligence, suspense, science fiction, intrigue, and great characters then you will definately want to check this series out.
In the science fiction world of Kiddy Grade the planets of the galaxy have joined together into the Global Union. To mediate between these disparate cultures and worlds, an organization called G.O.T.T. (Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs) is formed at the same time. While it mostly is involved in economic disputes it also has ES members who carry out covert missions of all types, not all of which would be considered legal. The two main characters of Kiddy Grade are the ES members Eclair and Lumiere. Yes, let me just warn you, this series has goofy names that even Charles Dickens wouldn't come up with.
Eclair and Lumiere are not just normal ladies. All ES memebers have special abilities, what we in America would call super-powers. Eclair has superstrength and is close to invulnerable to most weapons but in terms of morality, she's a sixteen year old. I don't think she recognizes evil as such and sees her job as a type of adventure, as evidenced when she boards a hostile ship and bashes down the door to the bridge and
says she's just delivering pizza. She can also use her tube of lipstick which can also double as a whiplike energy weapon.
Lumiere, on the other hand is the picture of elegance and looks like an elementary age girl but behind that appearance she has the power to control machines with her thoughts. She can also hack into computers with just her mind and take them over. It comes in handy when you're surrounded by an enemy fleet and she hacks into their computers and makes them destroy each other. She also has an affinity for drinking wine and champagne and then using the bottles as bombs.
While all this might seem a tad over the top, it's not. This dvd was great. In the first episode, Depth/Space, Eclair and Lumiere are instructed to escort a man named Armblast to the planet of Medeia. There he will try to settle a dispute between that world and another, Planet Faunus. Armblast seems to have a history with Eclair and she never seems to trust him. It seems that Armblast has his own private agenda and has been known to make shady deals in the past. The other problem is that certain elements on both planets would rather have war than peace and will try to stop the their peace mission from arriving.
The second episode, Tight/Bind, involves a lost shipment of Hi-G, a gravitational element that could be used to benefit humanity but could also be used to create deadly weapons. Two other women ES agents are sent along with Eclair and Lumiere, Alv and Dverger. There is no love lost between them and our main characters. In fact, if they were killed in action, it probably wouldn't bother Alv and Dverger at all. They travel to a prison satellite to question the inmates who had originally tried to smuggle the Hi-G.
Prisoner/Escort is the last episode on the dvd. Eclair and Lumiere have captured the notorious crimnal Drake Han, a man who wears a bulky mechanical apparatus for life support. Now they have to escort him to the proper authorities so he can be put on trial. They can't even put him on their normal ship because he won't fit. So instead they have to take a more public mode of transportation. They have a police escort, whose chief officer seems to especially dislike Eclair. In addition there are those who will try to free their prisoner because Drake has paid good money over the years to a sorta criminal insurance fund. If you pay into this fund, you are guaranteed to be broken out of prison if you ever get arrested.
This first volume of Kiddy Grade is mostly just an introduction to the settings and characters of the series. It had some cheapskate scenes where instead of showing the action, they just show a person's reaction. I guess they didn't want to spend the money on that. Trust me, there is plenty of explicit and visible action in later volumes. The music is great, composed mostly of orchestral movements interspersed with more pop-like group music. You get the sense that there is a lot of depth here that is just barely being hinted at in this first volume. For instance, what is the real motivation for G.O.T.T and the Global Union. You sense that there are immoral choices being made behind the scenes. Eclair and Lumiere seem to be like the Jedi Knights in the Star Wars prequels. I mean in the sense that they are trying to do their job honestly the best they can within a corrupt system. I highly recommend this series. At the time of this writing, there are 4 volumes out, with the 5th soon to be.
In addition to this series, I would also recommend the animes Last Exile, and also Full Metal Panic.
Rating:
Summary: Simple Awesome
Review: Kiddy Grade is one of my favourite series/movies/TV shows of all time.
Lumiere and Eclair are special "ES" members of the Galactic Organisation of Taxes and Tariffs (G.O.T.T), which is part of the Global Union (G.U.) - a body of planetary governments who work together. A bit like the Jedi in Star Wars, the ES members work in pairs to resolve trade crisis' that affect the galactic members of the Global Union.
In the first 6 or so episodes, Lumiere and Eclair are sent out on various missions across the galaxy to resolve trade crisis and restore order to the galaxy. However, it soon becomes clear that a certain elite human body, refered to as the Nobelis, are causing havoc for the galaxy. Things begin to happen when Eclair begins to doubt the intentions of the G.O.T.T. on one of the planets she is suppose to be working for.
After this incident, the series becomes complex and satisfyingly intense. It is one revelation after another, but not too many in which you feel that you need to give up. The role of the G.O.T.T., G.U and the truth about Lumiere and Ecalir begins to surface and the fate of the galaxy's peace is threatened.
I cannot recommend this series highly enough. It is a series that you will watch, then want to watch again, simply to catch up on everything you missed on the first viewing.
Rating:
Summary: slow starter...but just wait...
Review: Kiddy Grade.
The name itself is horrible. It really stands for the level of GOTT that Eclair and Lumiere are in, but obviously doesnt do this anime any favors right away. Enough about the name, the anime itself is great thus far. Set in the future obviously, mankind has spread through the galaxy, inhabiting many planets and all united under one gigantic union. This union however, is prone to corruption, so a secretive high tech group called GOTT was formed to police it. Eclair and Lumiere are ES members of this elite group.
The anime starts off slow. Not boringly slow really, just very shallow plotwise. The first 7 episodes are filler mostly, so the first 2 discs dont seem to have much substance to them. they are very formulated into the "bad guy of the day" subplot, but do not, I repeat DO NOT assume this is how the entire series is. It will change, and very drastically, by episode 8. These first episodes are mostly fanservice and various amounts of action, including Eclair kicking @$$ with lipstick. (yes...lipstick), making them an entertaining view as they are, but the series really hasnt begun yet. Believe me, even if this volume manages to hook you at all, you havent seen anything yet. This anime starts out seemingly confused and pointless and formulated, but once more ES members get involved, things really heat up. I definitely recommend this anime, and also recommend sticking it out until at least volume 3. Thats when it takes off a whole new direction and makes this worth seeing.
Rating:
Summary: slow starter...but just wait...
Review: Kiddy Grade.
The name itself is horrible. It really stands for the level of GOTT that Eclair and Lumiere are in, but obviously doesnt do this anime any favors right away. Enough about the name, the anime itself is great thus far. Set in the future obviously, mankind has spread through the galaxy, inhabiting many planets and all united under one gigantic union. This union however, is prone to corruption, so a secretive high tech group called GOTT was formed to police it. Eclair and Lumiere are ES members of this elite group.
The anime starts off slow. Not boringly slow really, just very shallow plotwise. The first 7 episodes are filler mostly, so the first 2 discs dont seem to have much substance to them. they are very formulated into the "bad guy of the day" subplot, but do not, I repeat DO NOT assume this is how the entire series is. It will change, and very drastically, by episode 8. These first episodes are mostly fanservice and various amounts of action, including Eclair kicking @$$ with lipstick. (yes...lipstick), making them an entertaining view as they are, but the series really hasnt begun yet. Believe me, even if this volume manages to hook you at all, you havent seen anything yet. This anime starts out seemingly confused and pointless and formulated, but once more ES members get involved, things really heat up. I definitely recommend this anime, and also recommend sticking it out until at least volume 3. Thats when it takes off a whole new direction and makes this worth seeing.
Rating:
Summary: Another Galactic Union?
Review: No, this series is set in the Global Union. The characters, most of them anyway, work for the ES, a branch of the Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs. The ES deals with big time criminals, protecting trade missions and general law enforcement. Eclair, a 16 year old armed with a superhuman speed and a dangerous tube of lipstick, and Lumiere, a even younger girl who is linked to the ship and can link with almost any machine, is her partner. Together, with the other agents, they work to help the planetary governments of the Union keep the peace.
I took away a point because the first DVD only has three episodes and, even with all the extras, I couldn't give it five points. Some of it was fun, even interesting (like the launching scenes - is that a type of space elevator?), but Eclair's powers and skills seemed to rely on her TUBE of LIPSTICK. Now, that's plain silly. Extras include character files, trailers, a image gallery and even the original commercials. 75 minutes total.
In other words, the show is OK, but the DVD value stinks.
I DID enjoy hearing Lumiere's English voice, that of Monica Rial, who is also in "Noir" and "Najica: Blitz Tactics". She always sounds SO cute!
Rating:
Summary: Good now, gonna get better
Review: Well, it starts out kinda slow, but to all appearances is gonna start heating up soon. Eclair is fantastic and Lumiere isn't too annoying, and Alv and Dvrgir are just dripping with coolness. This DVD does start pretty slow and the characters don't do too terribly much yet, but from the look of things Kiddy Grade is going to be terrific after a short while! (And watching Eclair try to arrest people dressed as a pizza delivery girl [who...er, delivers cross-galaxy?] is enough to make ME buy a DVD...)
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