December 2009 Archives

After seeing someone off on a shuttle (I've already seen the credits so I'm not making any comments here), Hiver informs our heroines about a certain incident involving Hi-G. Flashback to 25 years ago, the planet in question is Azulantia (and I know that name came up somewhere in the material or novels for Kiddy Grade). The Calliope is there at the front line and the Siegerum* is there recording events with its camera balls. The planet is under fierce attack. Eclipse is piloting the Calliope while Éclair and Lumière are on Donnerschlag. Even Armbrust, normally the observer gets involved (as in the pilot), leaving Pfeilspitze to pilot the ship; when Éclair comes under attack by defenses inside the orbital shaft he assists her with the machine gun built into his case, however himself comes under attack but is rescued by Eclipse. Éclair and Lumière (who is in orbit with a broken Donnerschlag) unleash their full abilities in concert, creating a massive field that envelops the planet, freezing it and the surrounding space in time. Pfeilspitze and a dying Armbrust are reunited in what looks to be a derelict building floating in space.

It is now official that Hiver is Pfeilspitze and Sommer is Armbrust - he even flashes his mole. I'm not following the conversation about Geacht'er at all. I think they're saying that Trixie and Troisienne were the key to unlocking the planet. Looks like we're going to be seeing Mistral now, he's in dock and the trio are going on a mission accompanied by A-ou (so much for being restricted to base). He's bringing the snacks. Mistral looks pretty much like it did in the pilot, and not much like Rafale. "アスクールってば子供見たい！" - look who's talking Di-air, you should try having a conversation that doesn't involve repeating everyone else because you haven't a clue what they're talking about. They're also taking Ganador. Geacht'er is somewhere nearby watching (you gotta love their security) and Ascoeur has a funny turn and A-ou senses something. They make it off planet and into warp with no problems.

Important conversation regarding Éclair and Lumière that I am again not really following. I like the Mistral's warp out effect. There's the planet in its bubble, surrounded by a debris field. OK, does Ascoeur actually have a pilot's license? Who in their right mind gave it to her? A-ou senses something and orders her to stop. There's a river of wreaths floating in space and a small station floating nearby which they dock with. Typhon is trying to teach Ganador to あかんべい、with little success. He needs to learn some new party tricks, fast. A-ou departs on Ganador leaving them behind. Wakamoto Norio approaches in a shuttle and my what a familiar beard he has.. he's brought a wreath with him which he sends off to join the others, presumably 25 of them now. He identifies them as new GTO ES-Members and Q-feuille is quick to point out that they are only trainees to avoid getting in trouble, but he puts them at ease and introduces himself as Che (シュウ - anyone who watched the last episode of original series should hopefully be thinking of a little baby right now). It's not clear if Éclair shortened the new Chevalier's name or whether it is just a nickname. And yes, this does mean that Wakamoto is voicing two characters in this scene.

Flashback time - the younger Che is again voiced by Hiroaki Miura and is calling eclair Kaa-san despite him looking at least as old as her at this point. I'm guessing this is the last time he saw her so he'd be 25 years old. "Handies in Di-air" time again as she tries to cheer him up. It looks like the whole point of this trip was just to get them to meet in fact.

Next episode: Vacation² (バカンス² Bakansu Bakansu) - the mandatory swimsuit episode (which Kiddy Grade never actually had). Looks like they finally remembered to draw Ascoeur's tattoo for only the second time in the whole series.
Storyboard duties fall to Isamu Imakake, Takahiro Majima as unit director and Noriko Ogura as animation supervisor. Not much to be said about any of them.

* Armbrust and Pfeilspitze's ship, the シーグラム is romanized as Siegerum in Kiddy Grade Conclusion and is supposed to be the German for 攻城槌 (lit. Siege Hammer), but isn't - it is closer to English, i.e. "siege ram" (presumably meaning battering ram, which in German is Rammbock or Sturmbock; the closet I can get to in German is "siegramm" or "victory ram", which doesn't match the Japanese translation).

Links:

KIDDY GiRL-AND #12 -- Recycled Voices (Tenka Seiha)
Kiddy Girl-And (s1e1)

The title (みんな仲良くＧ＆Ｇ) is giving me a headache this month - minna nakayoku means something like "let's all make friends" but the G&G has me stumped - "GTO & G-society"?
Anyway, this month sees the manga début of the G-society; Rubis, Saphir, Torch, Shade, Geacht'er and that massive base of theirs. They've also snuck T.A.M.A in without any fanfare.

Tweedledee and A-ou are briefing Ascoeur, Q-feuille and Di-air on the G-society ES-members (I must have missed the guy with the camera going around taking pictures during the fighting). Details for Torch ad Shade as as per the last database update. Ascoeur calls Rubis a bakeneko and A-ou descrbes Saphir as a Yuki Onna. They are professional assassins who have been active as long as the GTO has been around. They referred to Pauk's Crazy Cracker as an energy yo-yo (I've always seen them as a bolas) anad surmise that the pair are siblings or at least relatives due their appearance and similar abilities. Ascoeur interrupts. A lot.

THe G-Society base is a fully-fledged colony with artificial sky and everything. The lolishota pair really are adored by everyone there. I notice their outfits are less detailed than they were in the PIlot DVD, the brooches in particular. They go to visit their Grandmother in hospital, who calls them cousins rather than twins as I have been assuming until now, which as least makes Pauk's intentions less squicky. She came with them to G-Society after Letuchaia was discovered by Geacht'er. What is clear is that we're being shown that most of G-Society are just ordinary civilians and that Pauk and Letuchaia are not really evil people.

Apparently Letuchaia and Pauk are the only Shadow Workers who are also Nouvlesse so Letuchaia looks down on the otheres and gave her maid Core (or whatever name they are aiming for in some obscure language) some camera glasses to spy on the others. Something I forgot to mention the last time she turned up - her seiyuu is Mami Kosuge, the voice of the receptionist Bonita from the original series (who was also an ES-member according to the extra material for the series). Rubis is in her underwear and Core has correctly divined that the way to her heart is through her stomache, which is par for the course for beast-type characters. Rubis tries to get Core to bad-mouth her charges (catching her between a rock and a hard place, or rather between a set of claws and some exploding yo-yos) but is saved by the entry of Saphir. Core has tidied Saphir's dump of a bedroom which rather annoys her. She starts undressing.. until Rubis points out the hickies on her chest. So she freezes her and Core executes a sharp exit.

Eyecatch: We can rebuilt her - Drill Babaa!

Core is now tidying Torch's room. She finds a hair on his bed, which Torch promptly causes to vanish... but then trips over something invisible in the floor, dispelling the illusion which was hiding the rest of the junk and mess in the room. Shade, who has been away inspecting the fleet, returns while Torch is putting the moves on her - it seems he's something of a ladies man - and possibly bi, since the guys are either a couple or Shade wishes they were. Shade goes to have a shower while Core cleans Torch's room - and only Torch's room.

There's a photo on the wall of the two of them while they were in the GCPO (the Galactic Criminal Police Organization - it was mention in the Kiddy Grade Vs manga; antagonists Viper and Virago were really GCPO agents Ace and Alpha who were working undercover). If these two really are Sinistra and Dextera they must have left the GOTT to work for the GCPO at some point after the original series, before changing allegiances again to G-Society but after changing their appearances - they were notable by their absence in the prologue battle, despite having been included in the original K-G.2 Pilot. Shade returns and has a heart-to-heart with Torch - and Core is loving the yaoi vibes. After leaving Core receives a nasty present from Shade - a vision of cockroaches.

Pauk's brooch flashes - a summons from Geacht'er. Letuchaia shows him her spy footage and gets a kiss on the hand which sends her all hanya~n. It looks like he's playing them all against each other as Saphir also shows up with a report on the other teams. On her way out she passes Shade and there's no love lost between them; she's so annoyed she causes the corridor to ice over. Predictable enough, Shade also hands over a report on the two other Shadow teams. Looks like half of every pair has the hots for him, something he is clearly using to his advantage. Alone once again Geacht'er pulls up an image of our heroines and focuses in on Ascoeur.

Meanwhile, back at the GTO.. apparently the UG is seriously considering voting G-society into power in place of the disgraced GTO; the battle has already begun but the GTO cannot be seen to move openly in their current position so Ascoeur's team will have to act, but first they need to hear about the "time freeze incident" 25 years ago.. but not until next week.

Episode 12: The space frozen in time (時間の凍りついた空間 Jikan no Kooritsu ita Kuukan). Flipping 'eck - from that last image at the end of the preview it looks like what Éclair and Lumière did was freeze that entire planet in time and they are both, presumably, still locked up in there. But not for long judging by those familiar boots.

Staff: Storyboards by Hiroyuki Shimazu, Koji Iwai as director, and Tomokazu Sugimura (aka Over Drive - NSFW) as Sakkan.

Also, my copies of the two Ending Theme CDs arrived today.

Links:

KIDDY GiRL-AND #11 -- Spies Like Us (Tenka Seiha)

The artwork for the first DVD volume has been added to the official site.

The limited edition cover by character designer Megumi Kadonosono:

And the regular/rental edition cover by mangaka Yukari Higa:

They've also added a page for the Touch & Go! Mug (I have two in the post and Aya Uchida has already got hers.)

The insert song CD was released yesterday (again, Aya Uchida has posted a photo of her copy.)

To re-post something I added as a comment previously, I recenty obtained a CD-R of colour settei sheets for the series, and it includes names for some of the background characters. I've made my best guess at translations for them since the romaji on the sheets looked dodgy, and they got Éclair and Lumière's names wrong.

The receptionist with brown twintails is Lala (ラーラ Raara)
The receptionist with straight black hair is Matsurika (マツリカ)
The waitress with short blond hair is Felicie (フェリシー Ferishii)
The waitress with short brown hair is Mia (ミア)
The waitress with the black side-pony is Jin-hwa (ジンファ Jinfa)

In the same shipment of auctions stuff I also received a promotional postcard, a wallscroll and a promotional desk calendar for the Ignition movie:

Three new G-society profiles are up in the character section of official site, and we now have the actual spelling to Geacht'er which appears to be Dutch, meaning something like "Esteemed one".

Geacht'er (ガクトエル Gakutoeru)
The handsome young leader of G-Society, he is calm and collected and supposedly of noble lineage. He claims to be acting for the good of humanity, however he has promised to restore the Neo Nobility - the Nouvlesse - to their former glory, and his true intentions are unknown.

Torch (トーチ Toochi)
A member of the executive branch of G-Society, the so-called Shadow Workers, he is cheerful and amiable. His ability, Mirage-L (ミラージュ・Ｌ Miraaju L), is creating optical illusions. He used to be a an ES-member for the GCPO (Galactic Criminal Police Organization).

Shade (シェイド Sheido)
Torch's partner, he commands the G-society attack fleet. He is handsome, serene and quiet. His ability, Mirage-D (ミラージュ・Ｄ Miraaju D), creates mental illusions.

(I assume, given their names, that "L" is for light and "D" is for dark)

Thanks to ilmaestro for translation assistance.

So we start off in that huge communal bathing area. Di-air is playing with a rubber TAMA duck while Ascoeur and Q-feuille look.. somewhat depressed. Belle and Alisa join them. I hope they remember to give Alisa cleavage on the DVDs. Touch&Go! is closed and Mi nourose (who is back in her 'original' outfit) is watching the Galactic News, who are following G-Society's party line and blaming events on the GTO, the operations of which have been suspended.
Ascoeur-tachi (now wearing black maid outfits, appropriate for those in mourning) go to view Un-ou and Tweedledum who are in recovery tanks being watched over by their partners. They all go with Hiver to her office. Due to the suspension the ES-members are forbidden from leaving - but that doesn't apply to the waitresses who are not yet full ES-members. They are asked to work in the stead of A-ou and Tweedledee, and to take the place of Trixie and Troisienne which of course sparks fresh tears.
Back in the café, which is now open, something smashes and Mi nourose starts yelling at Ascoeur automatically - but it was, in fact, the normally so composed Q-feuille. Ascoeur is also so deep in her funk that not even Pumpkin Pudding has any effect. Not even 5 pumpkin puddings. Meanwhile, Q-feuille is still destoying the crockery. This outfit doesn't half highlight the difference in their bust sizes.
Mi-nourose gives them the rest of the day off and Q-feuille and Di-air head back to their room, but Ascoeur announced she's going out and teleports away.. to a graveyard, where Trixie's headstone reads

Our third hope girl
Trixie III Eclair
To heaven/Dec SC:0379

Troisienne's says much the same thing although I can't make out if it specifically says Lumière. This creates more questions than it answers but somewhat explains Troisienne's name. You could take the "Tri" in Trixie as a three also and Q-feuille has four in her name.. other than a heart having four chambers I'm at a loss with Ascoeur's name though. They take the time to lampshade Troisienne's death flag from the previous episode for those who missed it.
Q-fi and Di come to join her - it seems she comes here every day so it wasn't hard to work out where she'd gone. Q-feuille only now realises how useless they have been up till now. Is Di-air staying cheerful to try and cheer them up or does she just not understand death? She reminds then of the promises they made when the others were dying, but they are both convinced they will fail. Dia says that she will help then and is determined to become and ES-member herself and will protect them. Di-air and TAMA see something shining on a wooded island in the distance.

Eyecatch A is Trixie anad Trois' faces in the sky.
Eyecatch B is Tweedledum and Un-ou: "Hey! We're not dead yet!"

It looks like they now have one immense bed for the three of them. Di-air annouced she's going off to become and ES-member by beating up bad people, but Ascoeur is feeling whiny and negative so Di-air leaves on her own.
She's spotted by some G-society soldiers (who have some amusing engrish on their HUD, which also includes a shoutbox) who have been sent ordered to surveil the three trainees. Q-feuille's precog triggers involuntarily again and she runs out to search for Di-air, joined by Ascoeur after a few extra seconds of sulking. Di-air, meanwhile, is being stalked by a snake mecha. TAMA senses it way before she does and steals a kiss, powering up to his turtle form to protect her. The enemy's intelligence on the GTO is so thorough that they even know about TAMA. He fires at the enemy mecha but it fires back. That's the first time we've heard Di-air scream. TAMA is down after a couple of shots and collapses leaving her open.. but he sacrifices himself at the last second but reverts to pochette form.

An enemy soldier approaches now on foot and Di-air decides to protect Ascoeur and Q-feuille (who aren't even there yet) by.. charging at him headlong. With her eyes closed. He trips her easily (cruel b*stard). He shoots her with a gas which solidifies, holding her in place. Ascoeur finally arrives and takes out the mecha with one shot. Q-feuille takes out.. another? Or did it get back up again? Their multiped tank comes out of hiding and launches four of those spheres from the first episode which draw nanomist from somewhere and transform into a bunch of Genetech beasts - dragons and lions. Di-air unfreezes, still screaming, and is surprised to find Ascoeur and Q-feuille. Their weapons are no match for them, at least not en masse, and they seem to have forgotten to smooch power-up.

Di-air is still determined to protect them.. this time by flailing her fists at a giant lion, which kicks her into a bush. I was expecting Ascoeur to teleport and catch her, but she didn't. A lion blocks her from them and then turns to attack her.. and is suddenly timelocked. Is Troisienne still alive after all? All the beasts are frozen. Now a vortex starts slicing them apart (shouldn't they be invulnerable while frozen though?) - but it is Ascoeur who is wielding it, and Q-feuille who is freezing them. Not only do they have the same powers as TnT as I had suspected, but are possible even more powerful given the number of targets Q-fi has stopped (Trois only managed one and a quarter last week). The goons make a quick getaway, which is just as well since they are already exhausted. Di-air has a rather simplified view of ES-members - like a kids view of cops and robbers.

Di-air points out that they were using TnT's abilities - something which had somehow escaped them until now. Ascoeur thinks they picked it up just by watching, but realises that they are Trixie and Troisienne legacy and need to work hard to live up to it. This finally cheers her up and she is back working again in the café, serving their two remaining customers.

They are now promoted from Associate to Warrant ES-members (who's movements are not restricted) and get their own GTO IDs. They also finally get their Guard Robot, Typhon. Since the GTO is officially suspended they couldn't order in a new one, but they repaired and renovated Triumph who greets them with an "Akanbei Ascoeur". He looks roughly the same in humanoid form as in the pilot, although he is purpler and his smiley guns are now yellow. Their ship is still in dock undergoing repairs (presumably they somehow salvaged Rafale from the GOTT building and will rebuild it into Mistral).

This is the first episode with a specific Costume Designer named - Takashi Mamezuka.

Next ep: Shadow Workers (シャドウワーカー Shadou Waakaa ).
Storyboarded and directed by Hiroki Hayashi (Sol Bianca, Bubblegum Crisis etc.) with Ryuichi Makino (Girls Bravo) as Sakkan.

In other news:
Official site has added photos from the Touch&Go! tour and an interview with Aya, Aya and Minoru.

As commented previously, database pages for Saphir and Rubis are now up on the official site also. Their powers are called "Frigidity" and "Zoanthrope" respectively.

Aya Gouda had a Trèfle à quatre-feuilles cake for her birthday.

New Newtype article showcasing the G-society Shadow Workers.

Yes Asia have solicited all the DVDs and Blu-rays - listed in the extended entry.

Links:

KIDDY GiRL-AND #10 -- Megaman XI (Tenka Seiha)
Kiddy Girl-and Discussion Thread: Episode 10 (AoD forums)
Kiddy GiRL-AND Episode 10 Discussion (MAL forums)
Kiddy -And - Episode Ten (NyanNyan)

My, this is familiar, large crowd before a stage.. hopefully they spelt their name right this time. A-ou eating pocky ^^;
Why are they wearing desk clerk uniforms? "Look, there's that haunted house!" Ascoeur really is in a world of her own ^^;
Torch and Shade are disguising themselves with.. shades, and the worrying thing is, it's working. You'd think they'd have facial recognition security in place wouldn't you?
Q-feuille's still suffering from headaches.
There's an good idea - get all the primary targets together in one place. Nothing can possible go wrong, right?
Giant holographic Gaktoel (what is that supposed to be? Possible related to that eagle-like emblem but I can't figure it out).
Ascoeur wants to go after the bad guys but Troisienne says to look after the guests and leave it to them. Tweedledee cannot get through to security. So she tries erasing the hologram with her brother, but as it is created with an ability this fails but A-ou can see who is doing it and manages to contact security somehow and send them their way. Shade injects an illusion directly into the chief's eyes like he did with Trixie in episode 7, making him see a giant beast. Then all the others, causing them to fire towards the civilians, which Gackt spins as the GTO trying to eliminate anyone who has heard what G-Society had to say and sends drop pods full of soldiers to "protect" them.
A-ou and Un-ou (still using his bowcaster) catch up with Torch and Shade who cry foul and run away theatrically. How Starwars - the good and bad grunts get colour coded laserguns.
How many years has Tweedledee been telling Tweedledum off for calling her "nee-san"? You think one of them would have given up by now.
Trixie calls for Rafale, who either has seriously good hearing (if he can hear her across a vacuum like in ep 7 or from orbit or wherever he was this time) - or a comlink, which makes the shouting unnecessary.

Another amusing eyecatch.

OK, Tweedledee's handheld lightning bolt is cool.
And.. Hiver is still just standing there on-stage, seemingly unmolested. Shouldn't someone at least be firing in her direction by now?
Saphir and Rubis make their entry by icing a squad of security bots.
Lightning whips are excellent weapons against savage beasts. But less so against ice-wielders as Saphir somehow reflects it back on her using superconductivity.
Not even A-ou's eyes can pierce Shade's illusion, but when combined with Un-ou's ears on the other hand.. becomes a liability when Letuchaia uses her Crazy Cracker like harp strings to create sound waves, while Pauk to use his to blow him up.
Ascoeur wants to go and help but Q-feuille wants to follow orders. "We may be trainees but we're still ES-Members!"
A-ou has rescued Un-ou who is at least unconscious and is facing off against Letuchaia and Pauk when Ascoeur fires some exploding needles at them, which Pauk blocks. He can also block her beam sword - but not whatever Trixie just threw at them, a spinning vortex thing which she now uses to create a cage. She also takes out Torch and Shade - but it was just their illusions.
Tweedledum is still failing to hit Rubis. And sacrifices himself when she goes after his sister, followed by her flogging his back, until Troisienne freezes him in time, followed by Rubis' arm and leg and Saphir's ice spears, driving them off. Letuchaia and Pauk also escape their trap by digging down. Troisienne is now at the limit of using her G-class powers but Gaktoer won't leave them alone now - both Trixie and Troisienne find roses protuding from their chests and fall to the ground. Followed soon after by both Triumph and Rafale, who collides with the ill-fated GOTT building.
Trixie and Troisienne are now both lying in pools of their own blood, dying, while Ascoeur and Q-feuille cry rather than trying to help and Di-air just watches silently.
Oh, Triumph steals the show with his - "Akanbei, Ascoeur".

Episode 10: (生きていた、２人 Ikiteita, futari)
(I sometimes wish Japanese didn't leave so much implicit)
Di-air bathing with a Norio Wakamoto rubber duck. And out walking in a cute outfit. To be both storyboarded and directed by Kei Oikawa, director of Minami-ke Okaeri and Betsubara.

Links update:

KIDDY GiRL-AND #09 -- Attack of the 80 Foot Bishie (Tenka Seiha)
Kiddy Girl-And Episode 9 (reno09's journal)
Kiddy Girl-and Discussion Thread: Episode 9 (AoD Forums)
Kiddy GiRL-AND Episode 9 Discussion (MAL forums)
Kiddy Girl-AND ep.9 (alpha_zulu's journal)
KIDDY GiRL-AND - 08, 09 (Random Curiosity)
Seriously? In
my Kiddy Grade -and? (The Fool)
Kiddy -And - Episode Nine (NyanNyan)

As well as the two character songs CDs for Ascoeur (Aya Uchida) and Q-feuille (Aya Gouda) due out on the 10th of February (LACM-4677 and LACM-4678), AmiAmi is now listing two new character song CDs due out on the 24th of february:

KIDDY GiRL-AND Character Song 3: Di-air (Yumeha Takahashi) & TAMA (Norio Wakamoto)
KIDDY GiRL-AND Character Song 4: Alisa (Mai Aizawa), Belle (Chika Horikawa) & Ni nourose (Minoru Shiraishi)

Don't have product codes for them yet as AmiAmi never provides them.

Thanks to AmiAmi we have the release schedule for Limited/Regular edition KIDDY GiRL-AND DVDs:

KABA-6401/KABA-6501: 2010-01-29
KABA-6402/KABA-6502: 2010-02-12
KABA-6403/KABA-6503: 2010-02-26
KABA-6404/KABA-6504: 2010-03-12
KABA-6405/KABA-6505: 2010-03-26
KABA-6406/KABA-6506: 2010-04-09
KABA-6407/KABA-6507: 2010-04-30
KABA-6408/KABA-6508: 2010-05-14
KABA-6409/KABA-6509: 2010-05-28
KABA-6410/KABA-6510: 2010-06-11
KABA-6411/KABA-6511: 2010-06-25
KABA-6412/KABA-6512: 2010-07-09

Animate provides the schedule for the Blu-rays:

KAXA-1701: 2010-03-26
KAXA-1702: 2010-04-30
KAXA-1703: 2010-05-28
KAXA-1704: 2010-06-25
KAXA-1705: 2010-07-30
KAXA-1706: 2010-08-27
KAXA-1707: 2010-09-24
KAXA-1708: 2010-10-29

Rather surprisingly they are releasing the DVDs two volumes a month so by the time the first Blu-ray volume is released in March the DVDs will be up to episode 10, and the final volume also comes out three months later.

New links:
Naoto Hosoda's Kiddy Girl-and #5 (Ani no Miyako)
Kiddy -And - Episode Eight (NyanNyan Anime Blog)
Kiddy Girl-and's Lack of Popularity Indicated by Sparsely Attended Live Event (Otaku Crush)
kiddy girl-and is definitely underrated (blog好き)

The KIDDY GiRL-AND official site database has (finally) been updated with information on some of the new characters

Di-air - 7-year-old companion of Ascoeur and Q-feuille and ES-member apprentice apprentice. Her special ability is called "A-quare" (エイ・キュア ei kyua)

T.A.M.A - stands for "Trial-type of Assemble-system & Multipurpose Automata", a Gene-tec beast that can transform into anything. A mascot character usually disguised as Di-air's pochette until transformed by her kiss.

Trixie - Ascoeur's sempai and one of the strongest ES-members, a cheerful older sister-type adored by everyone. Her ability "Power-S" (パワーズ Pawaazu) allows her to manipulate space.

Troisienne - Trixie's partner and one of the strongest ES-members. Mature and gentle but with an unexpected childish side, her ability "Particle-T" (パーティクレットpaatikuretto) allows her to manipulate time.

A proper announcement has been made regarding the first volumes of both the DVDs and Blu-rays for the series. The DVD will come in both regular and limited editions, but for reasons that I can only tribute to greed or insanity, the Blu-ray only has a regular version so if you want all the extras you need to double-dip. The release shedule for the two formats differs because they have different episode counts - the first Blu-ray disc has three episodes whereas the first DVD has only two.

http://www.kiddygirl-and.com/dvdgoods/dvd_case01.html
http://www.kiddygirl-and.com/dvdgoods/bd_case01.html

---

DVD KIDDY GiRL-AND CASE.1 Limited Edition

【Extras】
　Bonus footage
　・Advert Spots
　・Non-credit ED（Ascoeur and Q-feuille versions）
　・GTO café delivery tour（Sendai chapter, Cast: Aya Uchida, Aya Gouda and Minoru Shiraishi）
　Audio bonus
　Audio commentary
　Bonus disc
　Special anime "The search for Pumpkin Pudding ..."
　New Episode 2 ED scene dubbed video
　Visual Sound Track 1
　Caravan video special bonus chapter 1
　Mini drama "Sound Only 1"
　(re-edit of the Mini drama "Sound Only" from the Net Radio show "Touch & Go!")
　Copyright warning collection (Ascoeur version)

【Price】 6,600 yen（excluding tax）
【Release date】 Friday January 29th
【Runtime】66 minutes approx (2 episodes plus extras)
【Enclosed extras】 12-page booklet, 2 postcards, 4 mini pencil boards (eyecatch illustrations)
【Specifications】 Megumi Kadonosono illustrated jacket, 16:9 squeeze, Linear PCM, MPEG2, Single-sided, Colour, Slipcover
【Product code】 KABA-6401
【Sales agency】 Kadokawa Shoten
【Distributor】 Movic

---

DVD KIDDY GiRL-AND CASE.1 Regular Edition

【Extras】
　Bonus footage
　・Advert Spots
　・Non-credit ED（Ascoeur and Q-feuille versions）
　・GTO café delivery tour（Sendai chapter, Cast: Aya Uchida, Aya Gouda and Minoru Shiraishi）

【Price】 5,600 yen（excluding tax）
【Release date】 Friday January 29th
【Runtime】66 minutes approx. (2 episodes plus extras)
【Enclosed extras】 12-page booklet
【Specifications】：Yukari Higa illustrated jacket, 16:9 squeeze, Linear PCM, MPEG2, Single-sided, Colour,
【Product code】： KABA-6501
【Sales agency】 Kadokawa Shoten
【Distributor】 Movic

---

Blu-ray KIDDY GiRL-AND CASE.1

【Extras】
　Bonus footage
　・Advert Spots
　・Non-credit ED（Ascoeur and Q-feuille versions）
　・GTO café delivery tour（Sendai and Koriyama chapters, Cast: Aya Uchida, Aya Gouda and Minoru Shiraishi）
　Audio bonus
　Audio commentary

【Price】 8,600 yen（excluding tax）
【Release date】 Friday March 26th
【Runtime】 Approx. 90 mins approx（3 episodes plus extras）
【Enclosed extras】 12-page booklet
【Specifications】 Keiji Gotoh illustrated jacket, 16:9HD Widescreen, Linear PCM Stereo (1. Japanese, 2. Audio commentary), MPEG4 AVC, single-sided, colour
【Product code】 KAXA-1701
【Sales agency】 Kadokawa Shoten
【Distributor】 Movic

---

Also on the subject of blu-rays - CDJapan has added proper artwork for Kiddy Grade The Movie: Blu-ray edition - and very nice it is too.

Oh my, Di-air has a tail - evidently she's wasn't already cute enough, or they wanted to tick some more fetish boxes after they added lolicon and voyeurism. Well, she already had prehensile ears. And she's.. washing Tama in the kitchen sink. Doesn't look like the other two have tails, but Q-Feuille's face seems rather off-model. It's time for the 25th anniversary even that was mentioned a couple of episodes back. OK, I lied - they have tails. And we have A-ou and Un-ou in the flesh at last. Un-ou still dresses like a girl - he even has thigh-highs and elbow gloves. A-ou has mummy hands. They are working on the security details for the anniversary in the stead of the twins who are off on a mission, and are having trouble getting their RSVP from two important guests so Troisienne and Trixie offer to help out.

Lots and lots of spaceships around an immense spacestation that looks like something out of Transformers and has four warp gates built into it. Rubis and Saphir are all dressed up. What is that accent anyway? I think I just heard Nouvlesse - guess they are still around then. Loli shower scene for Letuchaia - so reminiscent of Lumière's from Day/Off. She's such an ojou-sama she has a servant to dress her. Pauk snatches her away with his finger bola things out of jealousy. They are Nouvlesse and Pauk seems to share Tweedledum's sister complex. Yes, definitely. Letuchaia has a bad habit of multiplying things as she does from the manga. And, link to Torch and Shade confirmed.
They are also referred to as ex-police - another hint to them being Sinistra and Dexera?

Pauk and Letuchaia are G-Society Shadow Workers and treated like royalty, this whole place and all those amassed ships beloing to G-Society so it is no little terrorist cell, and they are descendants of the Nouvlesse. Everyone else is wearing masks like something out of Eyes Wide Shut, and among them are the very two that A-ou and Un-ou have been looking for, Basil and Arnice. All the Shadow Workers, Torch, Shade, Saphir and Rubis get standing ovations - Isn't that Shiraishi as the MC? Letuchaia doesn't like sharing the spotlight.. but there's also some top dog that even she looks up to, ガクトエル. Gakutoeru? Gactoelle?

He's the blonde guy who we got just a glimpse of in the preview for this episode, although we don't see much more now and don't hear him speak. Letuchaia worships him. And that is a heck of a light show - the ships they lost last episode were but a drop in the ocean. Letuchaia makes an speech, about how her grandparents were thrown out on the streets when the Nouvlesse were deposed by the GOTT. The writing around the G-society logo is "Great-Earthlian, Gem of the Galaxy, Grandchildren of Gaia, Guardians's Garden". In the words of Tweedledee, they're not humans, they are Earthings.

Ooh, dissent from the ranks. He's got a short life expectancy. And a white rose in his mouth. This is clearly going to get messy - Pauk has covered Letuchaia's eyes. Now a red rose appears protruding from his chest. It exsanguinates him then drops to the floor producing a rose-shaped pool of blood. What a poetic way to go. G-Society's targets are Hiver and all the ES-members (and they have bugged the GTO), although it looks like mere trainees didn't make the list.

Trixie and Troisienne return with the answer for A-ou and Un-ou - which is somewhat concerning since we know the respondents have been otherwise occupied. Trois and Q-feuille both get a simultaneous headache.

Episode 9: Memorial Ceremony (記念式典 Kinen Shikiten) - minna faito! Looks to be a definite turning point since Gotoh is returning to storyboard this one himself. Again, a worrying face from Trixie at the end that could be foreshadowing or a red herring.

New links:
KIDDY GiRL-AND #08 -- "Big Gay Space France" (Tenka Seiha)
Kiddy Girl-and Discussion Thread: Episode 8 (AoD forums)
Kiddy GiRL-AND Episode 8 Discussion (MAL forums)

Comp Ace January 2009 brings with it KIDDY GiRL-and Pure chapter 8: Pretty Girl (ぷりてぃ☆ガール puriti gaaru), and a 7 on the anime including a short interview with the two Aya's and a picture of them in cosplay.

Di-air is suddenly already a member of the team and this chapter is mostly Letuchaia trying to get info out of Di-air, who just wants to be friends with her - she learns their real names (although I think the codenames will be sticking around still) and that they are apprentice ES-Members (they didn't even know that much?). Ascoe and Q-ueille come back and see them with the three stooges so the cat is pretty much out of the bag there and things get a little heated so the baddies make a quick getaway.

And, I guess I should have seen it coming, but Di-air is Nekopantsu ^^;

There's also some bigger versions of the ED CD cover are on the on the official site.

Details of the mystery CD due out on the 23rd of December (LACM-4683) have been revealed - it is an insert song CD featuring the two special ED songs, the insert song from the episode Di-air is introduced and the Pumpkin Pudding song (^^;)

1. Magical Sakura-chan (マジカルサクラちゃん Majikaru Sakura-chan) [ep 3 ED theme]
Lyrics by: yozuca*, Composed by: Shunryuu, Arranged by: Takahiro Andou, Performed by: Q-feuille & Troisienne (Aya Gouda & Yukana）
2. Sing a song (うたを歌おう♪ Uta wo Utaou) [ep 4 insert song]
Written and composed by: yozuca*, Arranged by: Hijiri Anze, Performed by: Ascoeur, Q-Feuille and Di-air (Aya Uchida, Aya Gouda, and Yumeha Takahashi)
3. A dream is still OK (夢でもいいさ Yume de mo ii sa) [ep 4 insert song]
Lyrics by: yozuca*, Composed by: Shunryuu, Arranged by:Takahiro Andou, Performed by: Tama (Norio Wakamoto)
4. Pumpkin Pudding Song (カボチャプリンのうた Kabocha Pudding no uta)
Written and composed by: Minoru Shiraishi, Arranged by: Tomoki Kikuya, Performed by: Ascoeur (Aya Uchida)

Meanwhile..

Decembers' calendar wallpaper from Sugimura Tomokazu on his Overdrive site (NSFW) is Di-air.
He also illustrated an onsen poster (NSFW) for January's Megami.
There's also a bikini poster (borderline NSFW) in Nyantype volume 4 (artist unknown).

The Kiddy Grade TV series Blu-ray set is already sold out at ] and CDJapan lists it as OOP.

---

KIDDY GiRL-AND Chapter 8, coming in January's Comp Ace, is entitled "Pretty Girl" (ぷりてぃ☆ガール Puriti Gaaru). There's also an interview with the two Ayas.

The other Aya has also blogged about doing ADR for KIDDY GiRL-AND at the same studio and with the same people as 8 years ago. I'm not sure whether to hope that means she's coming back or at least cameoing at some point or whether this was a late report about the line she recorded for the first episode. If she's returning it is presumably in the latter half of the series as we know they've got at least as far as recording for episode 11.

---

New links:

KIDDY GiRL-AND - 06, 07 (Random Curiosity)
What? I´m enjoying Kiddy Grade -and? (The Fool)
Kiddy Girl-and, Guilty Pleasure~ O (Megatokyo forums)