Welcome to Horrorview.com!: Kiddy Grade Vol. 8

Kiddy Grade-Vol. 8
(MVM Region 2 PAL DVD)
review by Blackgloves

GONZO's vibrant sci-fi anime serial "Kiddy Grade" comes to a close in this final volume which features the last three episodes. There aren't really any further plot developments or awesome revelations to be had in this volume (aside from the few mentioned below) -- this is really a mopping-up exercise, with these last three episodes consisting mainly of an almighty battle to save Earth and the Galaxy from total destruction. Cue lots of explosions and colourful neon eye-candy flashes of digital animation. As ever, the animation is vibrant, smooth and flowing: the animators particularly enjoy lots of close-ups of our heroines' faces so they can animate their limpid eyes as though they were sparkling Mediterranean oceans! After the complicated events of the preceding episodes, the GOTT's premier ES Force members, Eclair and Lumiere, have new bodies which means, in effect, a whole new character design for the duo!

The first episode on this disc kicks off with GOTT Secretary Chevalier d' Autriche taking control of the Atlas-class intergalactic spaceship Deucalion and threatening the planet Aineias with destruction. Eclair and Lumiere are dispatched to the Deucalion to try and stop him. But their former ES colleagues, Alv and Dverger (who took control of GOTT disguised as Eclaire and Lumiere a few episodes back) also arrive -- looking to steal the Deucalion for themselves. This episode gives us the last couple of crazy plot developments of the series when it emerges that Alv is Dverger's daughter! This doesn't stop Alv from shooting Dverger in order to get to Chevalier and gain control of the ship though! Her thirst for revenge against the Nouvlesse (the aristocratic race who originally populated earth, and who have abused GOTT in order to maintain their power in the Galaxy) who she blames for her immortal life as an ES member, compels her to destroy Earth! Eclaire and Lumiere arrive and here Eclaire discovers that Chevalier is really her son! This is more than a little surprising since Eclaire only looks about sixteen and Chevalier is in his sixties -- but this is all down to Eclaire's several bodily renewals, since we already know she has had many past lives!

This series seems to have got very confusing over the last few volumes -- what with Eclaire and Lumiere being cloned and evil ES members, Alv and Dverger taking on their form in order to control GOTT. Here though, once the evil Alv takes control of the giant Deucalion spaceship (which takes on humanoid form and is bigger than a planet) the series winds up as a straight space battle with all the old characters (even the Eclaire/Luimiere "puppets") returning in order to try and save the Earth. This goes on for the next two episodes and is something of a let down really. As ever, characters get killed off and then improbably resurrected and there are loads of exotic powers unleashed before the whole thing is wrapped up with a strangely cute coda. This series has always been a bit patchy but the aesthetic appeal of the animation has always saved it -- it does so again here. Not great, but quite enjoyable.