Kiddy Grade: January 2010 Archives

The manga début of Mistral and Typhon. The manga still seems to be playing catch-up with the anime since they get a sudden promotion and first official mission. Since A-ou and Tweedledee are there without their partners and looking depressed I assume they are out of action for some reason as in the anime. The enemy mecha this time is a giant girl or "Humanic Frame" (ヒューマニック・フレーム) called "Meine Schwester" (マイネ・シュヴェスター, German for "My Sister") and its weapon is an.. ahoge beam ^^;

Rubis is chasing Saphir, who is apparently getting fed up of not having enough attention from her beloved bishie. She escapes and takes off in a fancy-looking ship. Meanwhile, Ascoeur is training with Typhon. She talks to him about the imouto thing and he doesn't have the intelligence to keep up and... did he just call her emo? She clearly hasn't told anyone about what Geacht'er said as Q-feuille overhears, but Ascoeur tells her to forget it - which touches a raw nerve given her recent memory problems.

Touch&Go! has nice chinese-style waitress uniforms today. Minoru, Belle and Alisa are getting worried because Ascoeur hasn't messed up a single order - could it be love? The girls grill her about it and says she's alike an imouto to them.. which is a bad choice of wording at the moment. Ascoeur and Q-feuille have a heart strapped to their ankles but for some reason Di-air is wearing her's up near her knee. Q-feuille wants Ascoeur to confide in her, but then she is hiding her own problems as well..

The trio are called up for a "delivery" to the Chief's office. They have received a message from an environment research lab which has someone requesting asylum. Someone who knows Ascoeur and Q-feuille personally.. followed by a message from Saphir which cuts off at the end. They are worried about it being a trap but Ascoeur is desperate to go as she wants to find out more about Geacht'er.

You know those child seats for the car with a toy steering wheel? It looks like Di-air has one ^^;. Fittingly for meeting a Yuki-onna they have come to ice planet Glacies. The whole planet is owned by the "Sion-Menhei Foundation" who keep a sub-zero research lab there. Despite the planet having an orbital rim they land manually. ES-member outfits are really not suited for cold climates - or maybe they are as they have a heating function, but they're feeling the cold regardless. It not Saphir but Rubis who is there to meet them, but Saphir emerges and chases her off. It is warm inside the base, but Rubis has destroyed their transmitter. It looks like Q-feuille is still having problems with her memory. Ascoeur and Rubis are intellectual equals it would appear. Saphir recommends they delay departure till the night when it is colder, which will slow Rubis down.

Over food she tells them a little about G-Society. She tears up when Di-air blows on her food to cool it, but her tear freezes and shatters. Despite singing to Di-air after the meal, when Ascoeur offers her hand to help her up she freezes it and the room is getting awfully foggy - she's been gradually lowering the temperature and waiting for them to collapse. Rubis turns up, and obviously wasn't in on the plan. Heh Saphir is quoting Armbrust. She's just a little jealous over Geacht'er's attention to Ascoeur and takes it out on her. The facility staff have all been killed and replaced with G-Society soldiers in disguise.

Typhon comes to the rescue but the cold affects him also and Rubis attacks him while he's helpless. He calls for help from Mistral but Saphir's ship intercepts. Q-feuille gets a power up from Di-air, revealing her power to Saphir and making her a target. Q-feuille freezes her while Ascoeur get's a power-up but still collapses while fighting Rubis - oh, that's why her nails were green all of a sudden, she was using a paralytic poison. Di-air powers TAMA up also but then collapses also. Q-feuille freezes Rubis as well as she is about run TAMA through but she can't keep it up for long. Mistral is still fighting with the other ship. Q-feuille tells the others to run and finally collapses herself. Ascoeur wakes in a hospital back on Aineias and Q-feuille wakes.. somewhere else, in a White Room.

Next wpisode: "Unknown Name" (知らない名前 Shiranai Namae).
Storyboards: Naotaka Hayashi
Episode directior: Yasushi Muroya
Animation Directors: Ryousuke Tanigawa and Tomokazu Sugimura

Links:

KIDDY GiRL-AND #16 -- What a Twist! (Tenka Seiha)

So, Ascoeur is running late for school...
Hiver is the teacher, Sommer is the iinchou, Di-air's there in the front row...
(BGM is "Day x Day" from the Baby Universe Day single and I'm waiting for the shoe to drop)
As this is her fourth late in a row she has to clean the toilets. She's in the drama club with Di-air and Q-feuille - who is sat by the window with Jin-Hwa sat behind her. A-ou is in the next row being tsukkomi'd by Un-ou for being a cleaning freak - I think this is the first time I've seen in him trousers. There's Tweedledum and Felicie, and Tweedledee naturally.
Still waiting for that shoe.. Ascoeur and Q-feuille are neighbours with adjacent windows.
Time for PE.. A-ou flattens Un-ou (I saw that coming), Ascoeur and Di-air are not only in swimsuits but actual sukumizu, and Di-air even had a rubber ring. All the girls are in sukumizu, with their class (2-B) rather than their names on the front. This Tweedledee is all tsundere.
Ah, there's Belle and Alisa in the canteen, Mi nourose is service naturally.
The school festival is coming up and the drama club is doing Snow White.
Trixie and Troisienne are alive and their sempai and waiting for them in the drama club room - getting strong Clannad vibes from this place.. looks like they are former members who had to drop out due to final year exams.
Practice time: Q-feuille is Snow White, Ascoeur is a very wooden prince, and Di-air is the seven Dwarfs - just get to the kiss. Darn, Q-feuille chickens out. Half the script was ad-libbed since they've been messing around.
OK, now it's time for Buruma. Ooh, Ascoeur's pricked her finger sewing and lucks out with some finger-fera from Troisienne. They crack up every time they get to the kiss scene.
Now the actual play. Q-feuille's Snow White costume is straight out of Disney. The other six dwarves are cutouts. They finally do the kiss but the camera zooms right out. That's more like it. The performance earns them two new members so the club is safe once the T'n'T graduate - which is suddenly happening now (they switch to Winter uniform also.)
OK, now things are getting truly bizarre - TAMA is headmaster. In a suit. This is normally the point when.. yes, Ascoeur wakes up. Can't make out what the book she was reading in bed is supposed to be. Confirmed that they all sleep in one giant bed (Di-air in the middle). Ok, The book is the first volume of "Gakuen Cinderella" (学園シンデレラ) by Kanako Tachibana (橘 かなこ).

B-part.

I'd not realised that the whole GTO complex was positioned off-shore. Shade is there on one of the roofs and Torch has brought their ship to pick him up. Geacht'er is aboard also. Shade has spent the last week messing with Ascoeur's dreams. A few more scenarios flash past, including Ascoeur as CG Sakura and Harry Potter about to catch the Snitch. He's determined that Ascoeur has no memories beyond being rescued from the escape capsule 8 years ago.
Ascoeur is visiting the graveyard again. They've corrected Troisienne's headstone and given us a better view of it

Our third shinning [sic] girl
Troisienne III Lumiere
To heaven/Dec.SC:0379

Ascoeur has another brief fainting spell as Geacht'er shows up and now she's.. peeved. He disappears when she tries to cut him up and re-appears behind her, then just stands there and lets her discs pass through him. Now he's gone again. She tries to alert the guards, but they all get the flower. He has a rose birthmark like her's on his chest. He says she is his sister, Lieselotte and his real name is Alfred and she escaped from a lab. Her flashback seems to confirm this, although those could be false memories.
She teleports all the way over to the shore but he is there already.
He claims to be her true partner, with a time ability like Q-feuille. I suppose his rose trick could work by stopping time, sticking the roses in and scarpering it before restarting time - if his body isn't just a projection his dodging and apparent teleporting could be the same trick. He just flickered again and did something to Ascoeur. He says it is their abilities resonating, but it looked a lot more comfortable when she did it with Q-feuille -and speaking of the devil she arrives with Di-air on Typhon. Ascoeur produces an immense glowing vortex cutter, slicing clean through the tree behind her. He grants her time to say goodbye, but will be back.

Next episode: Cold Tears (冷たい涙 Tsumetai Namida)
Storyboard: Yukio Nishimoto
Episode director: Odahiro Watanabe / Onkou Watabe
Animation directors: Kazuhiro Oki, Naoaki Houjou, Manabu Yasumoto

Links:

KIDDY GiRL-AND - 13 (Random Curiosity)
SCHOOL GiRL-AND #15 -- Sith Lordery 101 (Tenka Seiha)

The release date for the first volume of the Kiddy GiRL-and DVDs has been changed from January 29th to February 5th. I think it is something to do with production of the extras. I can't see any mention of a knock-on effect on the successive volumes.

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

Yes Asia have also advised me of the change in expected ship date.

Update on the character song CDs:

Artwork for the first two CDs (due out on February 10th) has been added to the Lantis site:

Vol. 1: Ascoeur (Aya Uchida) - LACM-4677

Lantis
CDJapan
Amazon
Yes Asia

Vol.2: Q-feuille (Aya Gouda) - LACM-4678

Lantis
CDJapan
Amazon
Yes Asia

As a reminder, the next two CDs are due out on February 24th:

Vol. 3: Di-air and TAMA (Yumeha Takahashi and Norio Wakamoto) - LACM-4691

Lantis
CDJapan
Amazon
Yes Asia

Vol. 4: Alisa, Belle & Mi nourose (Mai Aizawa, Chika Horikawa & Minoru Shiraishi) - LACM-4692

Lantis
CDJapan
Amazon
Yes Asia

And two new CDs have been announced, due out on March 24th:

Vol. 5: Saphir and Rubis (Kaoru MIzuhara and Fuuko Saitou) - LACM-4697

AmiAmi
Amazon

Vol. 6: Torch and Shade (Kazuya Nakai and Nobuo Tobita) - LACM-4698

AmiAmi
Amazon

The official site has also been updated with the final artwork for the first DVD (Limited Edition by Megumi Kadonosono and Regular/rental edition by Yukari Higa respecitively):

Q-feuille's precog is useful when you have a dojikko as a partner, but she still seems to be getting headache twinges. Belle and Alisa ask about the name of some tea they had before but Q-feuille can't remember it. The others laugh it off but Q-feuille is seriously rattled. Q-feuille really has been around only 7.5 years but hasn't aged at all in that time.
Q-feuille goes to the archives and looks up her own records; her "birth" from something like a cryochamber, her training with A-ou and Un-ou, and now stuff coming up that she has no memory of. Sommer is alerted to what she is doing and informs Hiver who goes to talk to her. One of the pages she has up is on Eclipse:

Galactic Trade Organization
GTO headquarter office chief
(Reserve ES-member )
Eclipse
age_28
sex female
hair_blond
registered disposed
To heaven SC0322

Her plaque in the GOTT building said something similar, but this pre-dates even the original series... Apparently it was Eclipse who created her, and sacrificed herself in the process, before she could create a partner for her (we also see a flashback of Hiver sitting with Eclipse who is in a hospital bed). Since this was only 7 years ago they've clearly messed the dates up, it should be something more like SC0372.
Q-feuille is afraid to tell anyone about her failing memory in case they remove her as an ES-member. Now we get a flashback of Q-feuille from a mission during her training where she was loaned out to Tweedledee and Tweedledum. She is in her ES uniform running after and capturing a younger Ascoeur with long braided hair, short dungarees and pink-striped thighhighs. This is clearly their first meeting, although I thought they'd both been in training for around the same time. Q-feuille prevents her teleporting simply by grabbing her hald since at that point she could still only teleport herself. And small objects. Apparently chobo bonbombs can also turn into temporary handcuffs that last for 5 hours. Which is a problem when you need to use the toilet...
Ascoeur thinks she's working for Bronco of the military police but she explains it is them she is investigating. Suddenly they have a bunch of soldiers chasing after them but get away. Ascoeur is still convinced she's working for Bronco. They are hungry so Ascoeur takes them to get some hot dogs, which Q-feuille has never seen before. Ascoeur licks ketchup off her cheek, but their yuri moment is interrupted when those soldiers arrive and blow up the burger van. Their ruthless leader, Lt. Colonel Bronco, has had 30,000 people executed - and a couple of entire cities. It is Q-feuille he is after, not Ascoeur, who hasn't even heard of the GTO, let along ES-members. They escape with one of Q-fi's smoke bombs (Bronco thinks they teleported but no way that happened with two of them.. they just had around the corner).
Ascoeur realises her mistake and apologises. She also came out of a capsule it seems, making them "capsule kyoudai" (siblings), but Q-feuille thinks "shimai" (sisters) is better. Tweedledee gets a transmission from Tweedledum, who is friendlier towards her than I've seen him with anyone other than his sister. Oh.. it actually is Tweedledee who is still on Aineias - they swapped bodies using their "Austauschen" (exchange) ability so she could hack the planet's network.
He takes over once the action starts, and is a lot more competent here than he was fighting with Rubis. Bronco has already murdered all the corrupt bureaucrats and has a bomb on a dead man switch that can take out the whole city and somehow Ascoeur foretold it rather than Q-feuille. Ascoeur teleports the remote into her hand (something I thought she could do but has never been demonstrated till now). Dledee's get's back in the driving seat to defuse the bomb. Ascoeur managed to tap into Q-feuille's ability because their abilities resonated, making them ideal partners. Just as is it decided they will be parters the handcuffs expire and when they shake hands they glow.
Back in the present, Q-feuille's memory has returned. Ascoeur and Di-air come to fetch her as Un-ou and Tweedledum are out of recovery.

Next episode: A Bad Dream (悪い夢 Warui Yume)
Maiko Okada is back as Sakkan (who also did episode 8), with Takaomi Kanesaki joining for storyboards (who was key animator sakkan for a few episodes of the original series) and Daisuke Tsukushi (a newcomer to the series) for unit direction.

Other stuff:

Official site updated to advise that there will be KG-A articles in the February issues of both Newtype and Comptiq.

Links:

KIDDY GiRL-AND #14 -- Hot Dogging (Tenka Seiha)
KIDDY GiRL-AND - 11, 12 (Random Curiosity)

I don't think the OP has changed for a couple of episodes now.
Belle and Alisa arrive on vacation planet Lirio. It seems that like Aure, you have to dock in orbit and go through customs before taking an elevator down, although that might also be because there appears to be very little land mass. They are there at this exclusive resort thanks to Belle, who turns out to be a daughter of the Cole Group (a possible connection to Liquiy?) Belle is shocked that Alisa is in her swimsuit already - but swimsuits are the dress code here. Someone somewhere is watching them while typing and.. grunting?

Meanwhile, Ascoeur, Q-feuille and Di-air are receiving their first mission - and it's not hush-hush since it was actually passed on by the UG, despite it being them who shut the GTO down in the first place. By an amazing coincidence the mission is to Lirio where girls have been going missing, including former Nouvlesse, and so has anyone send in to investigate so a ES-members are required.. "Yay! Vacation!".. I mean "Mission accepted!". As only women are allowed there they needed an all-female team (but why not sent Tweedledee as backup since this is an official mission?)

Still liking the warp effect. What's with all the junk out the window? Ah, they've noticed also - it's the remains of prior rescue attempts (ouch - you have to ask why the UG hasn't prevented more tourists from visiting if things are this bad). Just spotted a URL: "http://lirioresort.lr". The Engrish on the holoposter is at least mostly spelled correctly. OK, that steel pan riff was totally ripped off Disney's Little Mermaid. All three have gone for Bikinis, string bikinis in the case of the older two. Di-air likes Ascoeur's rose birthmark (it was referred to as a tattoo in the storyboards for the pilot DVD). Q-feuille doesn't think Typhon can come as the planet is only for girls, but Ascoeur thinks he is a girl.. and seems to have been corrupting him further.. and dresses him up in one of Q-feuille's bikinis. Mysterious person is still panting away at their computer. One of them has been identified as Nouvlesse VIP, but who? Di-air?

With a planet full of girls and maid robots they could totally have gone with nudism but I guess the mandatory steam would have been hard to justify on a beach ^^; And yes, Typhon is totally corrupted. Belle and Alisa spot them and they get together for a meal. They're totally unconcerned about a couple of security bots carrying off a pair of girls. They have complete control of the planet and don't allow anyone to leave but the guests don't really mind since they're there to relax anyway. Insert song is an instrumental version of Tsuki to Taiyou with a lead guitar solo. Even Q-feuille has got carried away.. oops, she's remembered she's supposed to be on a mission. They need to access the main computer, but it is underground and guarded by security robots so only ES-members could get close. Di-air blurts out that they are ES-members to the consternation of her partners, but the receptionists don't take her seriously.

At night a strict curfew is enforced so the streets are deserted apart from security androids. Lots and lots of androids, and Di-air's loud voice attracts their attention. Ascoeur has at least remembered she can teleport this week, but.. there's security everywere. Typhon comes to the rescue this time and takes them inside wherever they're trying to get to. Ascoeur drops her comb while trying to get it out of her bikini bottoms and Q-feuille's Choco Bonbombs are melting and going off prematurely (lucky she pulled them out when she did, really). Typhon can handle a few security bots however. And a metal door. This room is full of nanomist monitors showing security cam feeds of sleeping girls in bikinis and there's someone unconscious at the console. She is Iris, one of the team members sent in previously and asks for their help as the security system has gone beserk - it was designed (badly) to increase security as more important guests arrived, and there have been a lot of Nouvlesse visiting recently which has pushed it over the edge, including one super special VIP who arrived yesterday (is that the day they arrived or the day before?)

I'm not sure if some of the data on-screen is really old, badly put together or these girls are not their true ages as the DOBs don't match up - the first two (both Marias) are OK, one was born SC0360 and age 19 and the other born 0350 and aged 29, but the next two, one was born in SC0330 and is age 9, the next in SC0342 and is age 21. Iris has been deleting the visitor records of VIPs to trick the system into lowering security, but it just restores the data from the camera feeds. The computer melts down and a fire breaks out setting of the sprinklers everywhere (just as well they're all in bikinis) but the robots still won't let anyone out.

Iris janks a metal bar from a guardrail - bending it superhuman like in the process and orders them to lay into the computer to slow it down. Ascoeur pulls off another in the same fashion and Di-air powers up TAMA who fires lasers in panther form. Not to be beaten, Typhon starts shooting also. Looks like they went to far as the system shuts down completely... but then reboots. They head off to save the guests from the security robots headed and call Mistral down also, which awakens the orbital defence system. In the struggle Alisa loses her bikini top. Typhon has no trouble with the androids but a bunch of flying robots come after him, until they are saved by the planets own defense system.. briefly since the beams are coming after them. Mistral arrives in time and deflects the beams then takes out the cannons.

One android remains and is about to shoot Belle and Alisa when Q-feuille freezes it and Ascoeur dissects it - guess the secret is out. Oops, animation glitch - Di-air moves but TAMA doesn't and suddenly there are two of him. They need to fix Di-air's face for the DVD also.

Next ep: Time of encounter (出逢いの刻 Deai no Toki)
Episode direction and storyboards: Nao Higa (episode 21 of Saki)
Animation director: Miyuki Nakayama - another début in this role.

Links:

KIDDY GiRL-AND #13 -- Melty Explosives (Tenka Seiha)
KIDDY GiRL-AND - 10 (Random Curiosity)