Forum - View topicKiddy Girl-and (TV).
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
 Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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I've been doing most of my commenting on my blog, only addressing comments on forums when brought up by others.
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Key
Moderator
 Posts: 18210 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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GA was out-and-out funny, though, whereas too much of this his just been cutesy or stupid. Certain aspects of episode 5 were interesting, however, especially spoiler[the room with all of the memorials for former ES members. Anyone else notice the "To Death" and "To Heaven" dates and how the former were nearly all the same, or how Alv's dates were different?] Given what was shown in the series' opening scenes, it makes one wonder when they will get around to explaining exactly what happened. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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spoiler[The dates and text were all the same on all of them, even on Alv's - but when they showed the close-up on Alv's the text was completely different so the placeholder text showing in the long shots can probably be ignored. The dialog seemed to indicate that only Alv and Dvergr were noted as being dead, however the death date is wrong - it states December 0238 however the destruction of the GOTT building, Alv's presumed death and the battle with the Deucalion all happened in 0329. What happened in December 0328 was the events of episodes 11-14 - Éclair and Lumière were despatched to Aure on the Christmas Eve, they encountered C-Force on Christmas Day, fought with A-ou and Un-ou on Boxing Day and La Muse Urania and Donnerschlag were destroyed on New Years Day. Her "TO heaven" date of September SC.0330 happens after the epilogue so there's no data on it. The events of the epilogue 25 years later likely happened after the building was abandoned or was possibly part of the cause of the building being abandoned - either way, the plaques would not have been updated.] |
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JohnnySake
 Posts: 582 Location: Auburn Hills, MI |
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Episode 6. Hmm... I think I could safely say that Eclair and Lumiere would accompany me in a joint *facepalm*. This episode was a little different in that it was a 2 part episode. But. *facepalms again* what two halves they were. spoiler[ First you have the chief's assistant making all kinds of moves on her. Which might be fine but he brings in our intrepid band of heroines and shows off in front of them. Why, just why? And all the double entrendres? I even gave it the benefit of the doubt first, thinking, like the girls did, that he could have been seducing her for nefarious motives, but it was just the same old motives, and then the first half ends. Next we have some sort of yaoi cafe? And one of their co-workers is a fujoshi? (that might have been hinted before) So you get voice acting jokes, some lolicon reference, and what-his-name from Lucky Star. What is going on here?! And what is it doing in a Kiddy Grade show?]
Hopefully someone else can make sense of it, Key, or another experienced commenter, because I'm still speechless. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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It may not have made much sense, but I still had a smile on my face.
Hiver and Sommer spoiler[were a couple in the previous series - Armbrust and Pfeilspitze (Mercredi), but you only really saw them together the once in the anime so perhaps this was targeted towards fans of those two to make up for it?]. It's already been shown that Alisa is s a fujoshi - there's BL posters up above her bed and a stack of BL manga behind the reception desk. The cafe sequence was a big seiyuu joke - it was a host club cafe staffed by aspiring seiyuu and all the seiyuu were played by the actual seiyuu who are in the main cast (although some of them are yet to appear in the series) Shiraishi = Mi nourose Jun Fukuyama = Tweedledum Akira Ishida =Un-ou Tetsu Inada = A-ou Nobuo Tobita = Shade/Sinistra There's also Shiraishi playing himself which stems from Lucky Star, and the joke based on the wa-wa-wa-wasuremono meme from Haruhi (which they also played up in Lucky Star - one of the end themes in particular). |
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Dorcas_Aurelia
 Posts: 5344 Location: Philly |
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What the hell!? Why is the sequel to a fanservicy sci-fi action series turning into a series of seiyuu in-jokes and otaku humor?
And really, practicing for a magic show? I can accept that Dia is naive enough to believe it, and Oscar is stupid enough to believe it, but Q not seriously questioning when spoiler[they were making out, and Hiver was naked,] is just too much. Also, why? This isn't why I'm watching the show. Even if you consider the show a spin-off and not a sequel, you still expect it to be the same genre, don't you? |
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wm4
Posts: 42 |
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I am sure it is something Keiji Gotoh learned from Nadesico and put the same style into his show. Not sure if it works for another Nadesico show (if any), but it works nicely as a filler for KGa.
if I am a serious Si-Fi audience I will obviously want the show to go more serious fro now. For fans and otakus that like service all the ways, they might tolerate many fillers coming, considering that the main plot will never be big enough for a 26-episode show, and there are still 20 to go. For the magic thing, spoiler[it is obviously a silly excuse so Ascoeur & Q-feuille would finally leave the room, all Sommer did was a reason that would stop them from digging deeper (and adding embarrassments.) As Ascoeur & Co found that Hiver & Sommer were themselves (not fake characters assumed by enemies) they have no reasons to investigate more. Note that Q-feuille was not entirely convinced when they were shown leaving.] spoiler[It is very laughable for me, when Ascoeur & Co.'s suspect is fairly valid at that time but were excused with what they were told.] |
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pparker
 Posts: 1185 Location: Florida |
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Finally had a chance to catch up on this. I know I'm going to watch it all. I'm somewhat disappointed in myself for it, but I'm such a fan of Kiddy Grade that I can't resist
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Still hoping for significant improvement, but... Ep 5's nod to GOTT was somewhat enjoyable, but I probably, maybe, missed some significant foreshadowing in there while cringing at Q's ridiculous ghost-story reactions. Please, please... these are galactic-level, super-powered enforcement agents. Can we keep just a bit of sense in their characterization? Or at least spend a little less time listening to her scream and run away? The nostalgia factor was good, and I would have been far more happy with more time spent on GOTT, flashbacks even, maybe some little revelations about the old crew. Ep 6. Just, WTF was that. As I usually fall behind and have to re-watch a prior episode before watching new ones, I'll get to see it again and maybe I'll get it. Or maybe there's nothing there to get. It was kind of funny for itself. Nothing added to the plot, that I could see. Or maybe there really isn't a plot here... (sigh). If not, then I'll be satisfied just watching the characters in their world. Now... I still really appreciate the visual quality. What they do animate, they do well. Even if the whole office romance thing takes the show too far into farce for me, A's teleporting was amusing and edited very well. The otaku cafe stuff, probably as well. But I've pretty well washed my mind of that one... Also, when Ascouer powers up and does battle, the animation is excellent and that core of badass that's supposed to qualify every member for the ES comes across perfectly. The Genetech battle again showed that there's no lack of animation skill when they want to use it. I would have preferred that Q had more clever weapons than exploding chocolate balls, but hey. They haven't done much with her precognitive skill yet, but it has potential. I can see an awesome climactic battle where clever use of it saves the day. Not BTW, where all it does is "he's above you now"  , when we already know A is quite capable of keeping track of opponents.
I suspect the Nadesico factor to be true. But if so, he isn't going far enough. KGrade and Nadesico are quite different shows in tone and theme. Trying to be both at the same time doesn't seem a good strategy, especially considering expectations set for the sequel by KGrade. |
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Dorcas_Aurelia
Posts: 5344 Location: Philly |
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I forgot to mention I'm stilled annoyed that 6 episodes in we still don't have a proper OP sequence.
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TJR
Posts: 223 |
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It's hard to get anything else approved these days. For otaku marketing, most sponsors now insist on a very limited set of specifications, such as fujoshi, moe, and otaku gag (to some extent, this has also crept into landmark franchises like Gundam and Macross, with producers insisting on fujoshi appeal and character marketing). For as "broad" an appeal as possible, Kiddy Girl-AND touches on a bit of everything, including parody. However, the problem is that Girl-AND isn't very good in any of those areas. It feels as if the creators are a mismatch for this type of content and are trying too hard to conform.
Yep, visuals have been great. It might be a waste though since the show is unlikely to delight any camp. |
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Kruszer
 Posts: 7985 Location: Minnesota, USA |
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Well I ended up only watching about half the episode until I got sick of the yaoi crap and ended up just skimming through it until the end. The first half was highly amusing though. Magic tricks indeed.
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Key
Moderator
Posts: 18210 Location: Indianapolis, IN (formerly Mimiho Valley) |
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I also had an initial WTF reaction to episode 6 that eventually settled into a "well, whatever" reaction. This series is definitely not the same as its predecessor even though it shares clear premise and more vague storytelling links. It's much more a reflection of the time in which it is being made compared to the time in which the original was made.
Kiddy Grade came along in late 2002, as anime was ascending towards its biggest-ever boom period and before moe and ardently self-referential fan-pandering trends rose to prominence. (Although it could be argued that Lumiere's design was on the leading edge of lolicon.) Kiddy Girl -and- is riding those waves and so shows their influence in its creation in an attempt to draw in current audiences moreso than fans of the original; remember, in Japan few anime series remain prominent in fandom over the long haul, and KG strikes me as a series that would have more long-term appeal to American fans rather than Japanese fans, so the big delay in the follow-up made Kiddy Girl drawing on its original fanbase largely a secondary consideration. Now, that's not to say that I'm not disappointed with the approach taken here. The original KG hid a surprisingly compelling story underneath its fluff. ("Everyone dreams of having eternal youth. The problem is how one comes to live with it once you have it.") This one has shown no sign of that so far, although admittedly the original only gave vague hints about its depth prior to episode 9. I also miss the distinctive visual style of the original; the current series, despite being better-animated than most, has too generic a look by recent standards.
THAT'S who those two really are? If true, then some things shown so far make a certain amount more sense, and I can now vaguely see the resemblance, but but what that has been shown so far indicates that this is true? |
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pparker
Posts: 1185 Location: Florida |
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Keiji Gotoh has that tendency, but I really like his distinctive designs. Uta~Kata (2004) is a nice little unsung show with some beautiful art, one of my non-mainstream favorites, but the loli fanservice is a bit squicky. Lumiere is an updated Ruri from Nadesico, just more refined design-wise and sexualized. He's so prolific, and it's interesting to follow his progression from Sorcerer Hunters/Those Who Hunt Elves through the three other shows and up to the present in KG-a. I had the same thought about the delayed or slow plot development from KG, but KG-a still appears to be 12 episodes. Any plot at this point would be a short arc at best. |
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Shiroi Hane
Encyclopedia Editor
Posts: 7580 Location: Wales |
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Mercredi and Hiver are both voiced by Kaori Mizuhashi and the first episode has an eyecatch featuring her with a "big promotion" heading. Sommer does not share a seiyuu with Armbrust but since Aoba Gou hasn't worked on anything since Kiddy Grade that was probably not an option. Both of them have the same eye colour as before and Sommer also has the same hair colour, which comes down between his eyes covering the spot where Armbrust had a mole on his forehead.
Bear in mind that the character designs for all Gotoh shows since Kiddy Grade were delegated to Megumi K while Gotoh has focussed on direction (Kiddy Grade, Uta~Kata, Gigantic Formula and Kiddy GiRL-and). |
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pparker
Posts: 1185 Location: Florida |
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I know, just didn't take the time to go there. They are married after all (still, I assume), so who knows how much of whose style we're seeing  . Rayearth's CLAMP characters she designed for the anime even hint of a style similarity back then.
She can definitely do other styles, though, e.g. the Clannad movie, so I was thinking of her designing here as more a proxy for what Gotoh would have done. Probably better to consider the current design style at least fully co-created at this point. |
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