Finally after years of waiting there is more news on the Kiddy Grade sequel. And I got scooped on the news as I've been working non-stop all day. The title is now キディ・ガーランド which, according to the provisional logo, translates as KIDDY GiRL-AND (although it looks more like "Kiddy Garland" to me).
The summary, as translated by ANN, reads
The story is set in the Star Century year 0379, roughly two centuries after the original Kiddy Grade anime and about five centuries after our present day. The spirited Asukūru and serious Ku Fīyu work for the galactic government known as GTO. The two girls are members of ES, GTO's finest secret agents with special abilities -- or, rather, they are training to become ES.
The character names are the same, and the costumes are very similar, but Ascule has had a makeover - her hair is now pink and a completely different style (no longer has the long tails at the back and the beads are gone) and her eyes are now purple. They also appear to have had a role reversal since the original pilot.
gímik are returning to their usual roles (Gotoh directing, Kimura writing and character designs by Megumi) but production has moved yet again, this time from asread to Satelight (whom Gotoh has worked with recently on Macross F).
There's going to be more news in the April and May issues of Comp Ace if I read correctly.
Apparently I was incorrect - Moetron's more expert interpretation is that there is a manga serialization starting in the May issue of Comp Ace called KIDDY GiRL-AND Pure (キディ・ガーランドぴゅあ).
--updated 2009/02/27 10:20 GMT--
Gotoh has made a new entry on his blog regarding the site update, added to the links.
--updated 2009/02/27 18:45 GMT--
Added a couple more links and moved the bulk into the extended entry.
--updated 2009/02/28 12:35 GMT--
Just an FYI: I'll keep adding new links this this entry until I start the next one.
--updated 2009/03/02 19:20 GMT--
It just occured to me that I remember being confused by an image in Gocky Club 23 that came out at the Winter 2008 Comiket and checked - it showcased the new look (and the role reversal) for Ascule way ahead of this announcement - see for yourselves
Links:
Official Site
キディ・ガーランド (Gocky Blog)
Kiddy Grade Spinoff Kiddy Girl-and Announced (Anime News Network)
BREAKING NEWS: gímik To Produce New Series (Super Spong Brothers)
"Kiddy Girl-and" - Kiddy Grade Spin-off Announced (Moetron)
Kiddy Grade Spinoff Anime/Manga Announced (AoD forums)
[more after the cut]
