Kiddy GiRL-AND

You know when you go to the movie knowing the movie is bad but will provide good entertainment? Well Kiddy Girl-And is exactly that.
The story takes a while to start (around ep 12) but at least there is some good and fairly extended character development with a copious amount of fan service (which slow down after). Both Q-Feuille and Ascoeur are great! I mean the bound between them makes the whole story revolve around them and keep it tied up. They complement each other nicely, exactly like Kiddy Grade.

When the story start to move, there is multiples points of view and it help understand ... the whole story a bit (although they, sometime, keep it confusing) and a some point you just HOPE the characters figures it out.

The art and sound stay good all the way through the end with minor skip here and there. I really like the effect of some of the power (like stop time) and some backdrop.

This is an easy watch for everyone, including kids since the fan service isn't all that bad.

Initial Impressions:

Kiddy GiRL-AND. First of all Kiddy GirlAnd is not Kiddy Grade. I know that when I first picked up this series I was expected it to be more of a Kiddy Grade 2. I wanted a new great series in the same vain as Kiddy Grade that I could enjoy as much as the original. Kiddy GirlAnd did not deliver. If you're a fan of the original Kiddy Grade like I am then this series might not be for you. It just doesn't compare. If you've not seen Kiddy Grade, or if you have and you're just looking for a mildly entertaining way to ... kill some time then Kiddy GirlAnd may be your thing. My initial impressions of Kiddy GirlAnd was that it was a dumbed-down, moe rehashing of the Kiddy Grade universe. As the series progressed onward I realized that it was even less than that. Kiddy GirlAnd exists almost entirely to exploit the popularity of Kiddy Grade. I kept watching the series with hopes that somewhere along the line this fact would change, and I was utterly disappointed.

Story/Characters:

Kiddy GirlAnd doesn't even give an honest attempt to make it seem as thought it not meant to be a Kiddy Grade tie in. This is clear by "plot" which can basically be summarized as this: Eclair and Lumiere from Kiddy Grade have frozen a certain area of time and space to stop a large bomb from going off. Now 25 years later, the GTO must help them diffuse the bomb before it finally goes off. The several appearances Kiddy Grade heroines Eclair and Lumiere help to cement their roles in the story. The main protagonists Ascuer and Q-fuille make it blatantly obvious from the beginning of the series that they are essentially place holders for their Kiddy Grade counterparets. Ascuer and Q-fuille's personalities and special abilities are almost exact copies of Eclair's and Lumiere's. Many other carbon copy characters appear throughout the series driving home the idea that Kiddy GirlAnd is by and large a glorified fan fic. In addition to this there is almost no character development for anyone in the series save one or two characters.

Notes:

A point to note in Kiddy GirlAnd is the "fan service." There's a LOT of it. It is fairly gratuitous and is not done in a clever or engaging manner. It's just thrown out there in a very blatant and inelegant manner. I have to say that personally this "fan service" did little in the way of bettering my thoughts about the series. That being said, Kiddy GiRL-AND is a relatively good series considering what it's purpose was: an extended "fan service" special tacked onto the end of Kiddy Grade.

I really wanted to like this series; I truly did. It has some unique and interesting jokes thrown amidst all the chaos, like the cut-to-commercial screens, the fujoshi/seiyuu cafe half-episode, and taking G-Society's point of view for a few episodes, but these miniscule innovations are undercut by the show's utter banality.

In short, this show offers nothing new, nor does it go anywhere. I'd heard that they followed this pattern for the first few eps in Kiddy Grade, but GiRL never escapes from this quagmire. At least every other episode is filler, and sometimes the "plotpoint" episodes aren't even worth watching.

For example, in episode 12 where ... you can tell the show is starting to go somewhere, all Ascouer and Q-Feuille do is go out to where Eclair and Lumiere are trapped and listen to a trite story from Ecliar's adopted son. If that wasn't lame enough, the next episode is a swimsuit ep, in which there is literally no plot development. I simply implore you not to watch this.