Kiddy Girl-AND

Title: Kiddy Girl-AND Genre: Science Fiction Rating: 8/10

Summary: Twenty-five years after Éclair and Lumière, (from the flagship Kiddy Grade series), rescued the galaxy from destruction’s doorstep, the GTO (Galactic Trade Organization), created after the defeat of the GOTT (Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs), act on behalf of universal peace by combating criminal activity. Their special ES division mirrored after the GOTT’s ES (Encounter of Shadow-work) force, now includes publicly acknowledged ES member candidates. The series follows three such trainees, Ascoeur, Q-feuille, and Di-air as they work their way to ES membership.

Review: Kiddy Girl-AND turned out to be what I expected after writing a first look 12 episodes in. However, it did let me down a little when it reached the end of its run. Let’s start at the beginning again and move through the series. The beginning as stated in my first look is pure fan service. It was quite comical and it left a rather interesting impression on how the series was going to turn out. At first I felt as though the producer wanted to put in a lot more comedy than in Kiddy Grade, but that quickly changed as the main story line hit. When the main enemy showed up, G-Society, everything changed. The comedy became scarce and replaced by hardcore action and story development. Even character development proved to be quite a table turner in later encounters. Although I did miss the fun, carefree Ascoeur, I was really happy how the anime turned out. It was quite refreshing to know that it wasn’t just some Kiddy Grade copy. The producers did a great job combing new and old characters and keeping a very captivating story. At least that is how I felt until it started to reach its climax. I was very hooked to the story and characters, seeing the good at bad of everyone. However, it started feeling a little strange when incest and girl on girl kissing wasn’t uncommon. I felt that there could have been a much better way to express the connection between two partners than to portray them as lovers. It was great to see that partnership meant a lot to every character, but they did lay on a bit much. The ending battle was very well done, and it felt like a climax. Explosions, intense dialogue, and world-ending situations tend to that. The art style complimented the battle scenes very well. The rich colors and definitive lines made the characters and their powers stand out from the backgrounds. The soundtrack wasn’t very memorable, but it didn’t hurt the anime in the least. I was actually pretty happy listening to the dialogue without any background music, the same atmosphere was still met.

Final statements: Kiddy Girl-AND did a great job pulling me into the story after it was done with the fan service. It also tied together the the new and old characters perfectly. I only wished that the kept the same level of suspense toward the end. With only a couple problems I found in this anime I can safely say it is a preferred watch.