Summary: Maid cafe antics abound, coupled with panties jokes and slapstick. My memories of the original Kiddy Grade have been ruined.
The original Kiddy Grade was a futuristic female buddy cop anime, featuring plenty of fanservice mixed with a serious (if slow-paced) plot that addressed such weighty themes as transhumanism, economic inequality, racism and immortality. Despite a mixed critical reception, it was considered by many fans (including myself) to be a spiritual successor to Dirty Pair, as well as a fun and thought-provoking series.
Kiddy Girl-and takes that weighty legacy and throws it out the window.
Like its predecessor, the series is set in the far-flung future, when mankind has spread throughout the galaxy and formed a united government known as the Global Union. The Planet Aineias is one of the GU's central worlds, and is home to the headquarters of the Galactic Trade Organization, formerly the Galactic Organization of Trade and Tarrifs (pointless name change FTW). The GTO fields a special "shadow unit" known as the ES, which acts as a galactic police force. Each ES member has a special superpower, as well as access to all the latest technologies (even illegal ones) to aid their crime-fighting escapades. However, none of this matters, because the primary setting of Kiddy Girl-and is actually the GTO headquarters' maid cafe.
Yeah, you read that right. Maid cafe.
Here are the protagonists, Ascoeur and Q-feuille. The first thing that comes to mind when describing Ascoeur is "airheaded genki girl." The second is "moron." She has the ability to teleport at will, and wields a multipurpose hairbrush/lightsaber/tranquilizer needle gun. Her partner Q-feuille's personality is difficult to describe, since it's entirely defined by her distressed reactions to Ascoeur's antics. Her superpower is a photographic memory. These two girls are training to become ES members... and apparently, this training involves working full-time in a maid cafe run by a drag queen.
I'm going to get straight to the point: the first two episodes of Kiddy Girl-and were very disappointing. Plot and character development are pushed to the back burner in favor of maid cafe antics, fanservice and subpar comedy. The enemies they fight range from non-threatening (battle cyborgs with horrendous aim) to absurdly comical (chibi robot dolls that attack you by forming an afro on your head). When the GTO headquarters are assaulted by a massive mechanoid dragon, the ensuing battle rapidly degrades into slapstick (because Ascoeur has lost her panties, you see).
Later on, while breaking into GTO headquarters at night to steal pumpkin pudding, Ascoeur and Q-feuille run across many strange security systems, including a deep chasm spanned by two greasy sumo wrester-shaped bridges. Naturally, fanservice ensues.
The end result of all this is a show that, although merely mediocre in it's own right, will make Kiddy Grade fans cringe. As it stands right now, I cannot recommend this show to anyone. I will keep watching, just in case the plot improves, but I wouldn't get my hopes up.
What I liked:
- The battle scenes had fluid, great-looking animation
- The voice-actor gag in the middle of episode 2
What I didn't like:
- Ascoeur is annoying as hell, and Q-feuille has no personality
- Excessive fanservice
- Lack of plot
- Absurd concepts (such as the sumo bridge) make suspension of disbelief difficult
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