Kiddy Grade

The question I had prior to embarking on Kiddy Grade was “What’s with the name?” 24 episodes after, the question remains unanswered with a whole slew of new questions of which the most dominant was “Why did I watch another GONZO production?”

Kiddy Grade started well. For the first half of the series, there was progression and a sense of direction in the plot. Hidden dimensions of the critical characters (Éclair and Lumiere) were being revealed slowly together with the other facets of the dubious organization that they are working for. A socio-political background akin to a ruling aristocracy versus the ignorant proletariat was also being built up. All these elements intersected to give an interesting turn in the story at about episodes 10-12. At that point, I have thought that Kiddy Grade was going to be a good series. Then things started to go downhill. The purposeful buildup over the 10 plus episodes suddenly lost its bearing. I felt I was being bombarded with strange incoherent story tangents that were being loosely held together by the mere presence of the main characters. The story also bordered on the ridiculous for the latter half of the series. I had to switch off most of my mental faculties to endure some of the nonsense they were coming up with. It seems that the writers tried to conceal the lack of story material with plot twists, twists so unbelievable and laughable that I would have had grey matter oozing out of my ears if I had not already performed the necessary lobotomy to ensure my completion of the series.

Éclair has to be the major motivation for me to press on towards the end of the series. The portrayal of the complex multiple personas embedded in her was well done. The struggles/battles fought in her mind with the ‘other Eclairs’ were intriguing and mysterious. Unfortunately this brilliant character development was short-lived, stifled by the random storytelling.

Kiddy Grade had some sparks but when the expected bonfire did not start, it tried to ignite an inferno with ridiculous plot twists. The result: A promising anime that fizzled out and almost fried my brain-cells in the process. Watch it at your own peril, it has a plot that can shave a few points off your IQ.

Related posts:

1. Kiddy Grade 2 – A tanuki’s last stand
2. Daphne in the brilliant blue 01-04
3. Chrno Crusade 03-07