The news of Kiddy Grade’s sequel, titled Kiddy Girl-and, is the kind of thing that a few years ago would have sent the anime fandom in a tizzy. However, it’s been about six or seven years since Kiddy Grade finished, and I realize that there is a sizable portion of the anime fandom that doesn’t really know anything about the show or why anyone would be excited for a sequel. So I thought, why don’t  I discuss a bit of the history of Kiddy Grade from the fan perspective?

The basic premise of Kiddy Grade is a pair of girls who work for a galactic customs organization (the Galactic Organization of Trades and Tariffs to be precise) who fight crime through a mix of martial arts high kicks, creative uses of lipstick, and hacker skills. In many ways,Kiddy Grade isn’t a particularly special anime, and could easily fit in with all of the other shows which line every season of anime, but there are a number of traits somewhat unique to the show that make it memorable.

Kiddy Grade debuted in Japan in fall of 2002, around the time when Bittorrent was beginning to really take off among internet-savvy anime fans, and so it’s one of those shows that is associated with a new type of more informed otaku, one who could easily watch shows without much delay and without having to understand the arcane rituals required to grab anime off of IRC or similar programs. As a result, it just became one of those shows people knew or at least heard of, though it was usually preceded by some hesitation and questions of taste in regards to the unusual title.

The show was also a fairly early work by GONZO Studios, and their efforts on Kiddy Grade helped to define GONZO and its character and appeal for many anime fans. Kiddy Grade was known for its mix of action and cute girls, and its inconsistencies in budget, all characteristic of GONZO even today as the currently-troubled studio tries to stay afloat. Along with shows such as Full Metal Panic!, Kiddy Grade also established the concept of the “GONZO Ending,” which describes shows that start off strong or have good middle episodes, but then taper off anticlimactically at the end, a trait for which GONZO continues to be infamous.

Kiddy Grade had a very fresh and modern style, and was one of those shows that looked just different enough from a lot of the 90s anime people were familiar with to catch the attention of a lot of fans. It was a slick new world of digital animation and a changing sense of aesthetics in anime, and Kadonosono Megumi was there at GONZO to lead the charge with her character designs. Speaking of staff, the main character Lumiere was voiced by one Hirano Aya, who would later go on to play Suzumiya Haruhi.

Last but not least was the director, Gotoh Keiji, who also happens to be Kadosono’s husband. Known more for his own talents as a character designer and animation director, Gotoh Keiji at the time was probably best known as the character designer of Martian Successor Nadesico, a popular show which made an impact on a certain specific generation of anime fans, particularly due to the character of Hoshino Ruri, a quiet communications officer known for her biting wit and endearing catchphrases.

Kiddy Grade came out at a time when the absolute glut of new anime was not so overwhelming that people could latch onto a small number of shows, but it existed on that cusp of revolution that has eventually led to today’s situation of legal streaming video and the reality of being able to watch anime almost as soon as it airs in Japan. It was also pretty decent overall.

The sequel airs October 15^th, and you can watch the trailer for it on the official site.