Kiddy Grade  Recommended
Publisher
MVM
Director
Keiji Goto
Production
Fuji TV, GONZO
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
24 episodes
Year
2002
Kiddy Grade volume 5: The Freedom of Truth
By otaku_kei
2nd Jan 05  When we last left Eclair and Lumiere they had abandoned their positions in the G.O.T.T., been declared fugitives and had a death sentence placed upon their heads. Conspiracies seem to be coming out of the woodwork at G.O.T.T. HQ, Armblast's true intentions still remain a mystery, friendships between agents are falling apart and old rivalries are resurfacing. At last this series is starting to fulfil it's potential. Since halfway through volume 3 this series has been picking up pace and in this volume the fireworks fly! With the ES forces all hunting for our elusive pair what lies in store for these cyborg agents with a conscience? Once again Kiddy Grade is providing a really enjoyable show, but whilst the early episodes felt like a guilty pleasure, this disc really shows why this show can now stand upon the laurels of tight plotting, character development, well-directed action, beautiful animation and great acting without the need for panty shots every 5 minutes! The plot moves forwards in leaps and bounds throughout this volume giving part of the history of Lumiere & Eclair's earlier career before joining the G.O.T.T. and the rivalry that they had back then with one of the other ES teams: A-Ou & Un-Ou, yes their parents were teletubbies! The second episode has the girl's AI controlled support vehicles turn on them, forcing them to take on their comrades or face death on the end of a laser beam! But this volume's finale just left me gobsmacked and itching for more, as Eclair and Lumiere take the offensive and take on the might of the G.O.T.T. This episode is not without it's tragedy as well, as a shocking death and the closing images left me questioning what was to become of our heroines' in the next volume. As we have come to expect from GONZO studio titles they have produced another class show with Kiddy Grade. Personally I like the way this show is going: conspiracies, betrayals, revenge, and all in a sci-fi set-up! What could possibly be wrong with that? In all honesty nothing that I can find. Whilst this show has previously shown glimmers of how good it could be, with this volume it did really come into it's own. The pain that some of these characters are going through, and the choices they are making really come across well, amidst all the frenetic action scenes. Some shows can do that well and some cannot, I'm quite happy to see that Kiddy Grade falls into the former category. In my opinion this volume has been some of the best anime I have watched in quite some time. The pacing of the earlier episodes as stand alone stories has really helped this show to develop its identity, so that now when the plot intricacies are slipping in it flows quite naturally around these groups of characters that we have come to know and feel for. And possibly for the closing episode of this disc alone, I'm going to give the latest instalment of Kiddy Grade: 10/10
R2 DVD Notes
Features: English 5.1; English 2.0; Japanese 2.0; English Subtitles; Image Gallery; Textless Song; Character Profiles
Release information: 10th January 2005
Notes: Once again the video and audio qualities are top notch. The extras as usual remain on the small side, but at least MVM are changing the character profiles from disc to disc now. No complaints here as the show content is what I'm after.
-- otaku_kei 2nd Jan 05
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