As mentioned below, I finished Kiddy Grade (the DVD's, since I've already seen the digi subs at the Bloomington anime club). I liked as much as the first time.
Kiddy Grade is a good example of a basic sci-fi anime adventure. The story begins with the main characters Eclair and Lumiere on their posts as receptionists for the headquarters of the GOTT (Galactic Organization of Trade and Tariffs). As a school tour group is crossing the lobby, a group of men in large armored suits break in through the windows in an attempt to seize the building. Many robotic injuries and Eclair panty-shots later, the problem is dealt with and smoothed over by Eclair's announcement of it all being a "training drill".
Little do these people know that Eclair and Lumiere are actually two of GOTT's special "ES Members", an elite squad of crime-fighters created to take down intergalactic criminals. Each of these members has a special ability which makes them much more than they appear, from the ability to absorb any energy and make it your own to the ability to control any computer device to being able to...uh...break stuff in Eclair's case with her ability appropriately dubbed "Power", these individual powers make the ES Members a force to be reckoned with.
Throughout the series, run various power plays by various people (including the GOTT itself as well as other ES Members) most of which are dealt with by our heroines. One particular group is particularly feisty, the Nouvelsse (Nobles), which are a group of pure-blood earthlings who act like they are better than all the other people who "dirtied their blood" with cybernetic and genetic enhancements. This group of arrogant pigs try to push around the rest of the galaxy's inhabitants and finally Eclair and Lumiere are ordered by the GOTT to go and help the Nouvelsse get their subjects, on one of their terraformed planets, to obey. Eclair finally resists her programming of always obeying her higher-ups and decides to help the people of this planet fight back against the Nouvelsse's opression. Eclair and Lumiere are then labeled as criminals themselves by the Nouvelsse running the GOTT and are hunted down by the other ES Members who were once their friends. Things run their course and after another BIG problem (not to give away the entire show) the series concludes.
Final Thoughts: Good story with lots of interesting characters. Don't get used to the characters' faces since due to one of the ES Members abilities being able to switch all the others' souls into different bodies if they die, and does so...regularly! Eclair and Lumiere, atleast, go through 4-5 bodies over the course of the series by way of flashbacks to previous "lives" as well as really needing it during the show.
Finally, good job done by the show's production team, GONZO (no, not the muppet). GONZO is responsible for many great projects, anime and non-anime alike. They helped create the animes Hellsing and LAST EXILE as well as the animated portion of Kill Bill Vol.1 and the animation the Linkin Park "Breaking the Habit" music video. This design team has continued to churn out many good shows and Kiddy Grade is one of them. I would definately say it is worth seeing, if not shelling out the money for Funimation's 8 DVD's (the subs are good honest!) at least track down the digis.
That's all for now, next time: Azumanga Daioh (maybe)!
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