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Being on holidays means that I have plenty of free time to do stuff. Some of this stuff includes gaming, drawing and watching anime. So having lots of free time would mean that I need lots of anime to watch during my spare time and for this sake I downloaded Kiddy Girl -and.

The premise seems to be pretty good. It’s a direct sequel to Kiddy Grade following two new heroes, Q-Feuille and Asceour (serously what?). You can’t really have two new protagonists when the previous heroes are still alive so they’re conveniently killed (?) off in the first minute of the show in a last ditch attempt to save the universe or something similar.

To anybody who asked me what I thought about Kiddy Grade, they would know I thoroughly enjoyed it. Watching the transition of the heroes Lumiere and Eclair as they go from bottom rung agents to heroes of the world is pretty exhilirating. It’s a good example of a show that takes a standard plot and does everything right to make it good. Unlike Kiddy Grade however, Kiddy Girl -and is just pure rubbish. How could such a good show like Kiddy Grade get such a bad sequel like Kiddy Girl -and? Because of the characters.

Apart from the introduction, there is almost nobody from Kiddy Grade except for Tweedledee and Tweedledum who are only given a short cameo in one episode. So with none of the previous characters, it’s up to the new characters to drive the plot and it’s suffice to say, they definately don’t do the job well.

Q-Feuille is an ok character. She seems to be the smart, calm and collective type but she acts a bit like Mio (from K-on!) in trying to be a moebomb. There really isn’t anything bad enough about her so she warrants a pass.

Director Hiver and her assistant Sommer aren’t really that great characters. They could serve more purpose later but I’m never going to get that far. Right now they seem to be shallow characters just doing their job and apart from that, don’t really have much of a personality. They’re not likeable, but they’re not hateable either.

The real problem comes with Dia and Asceour. I can’t stress my disgust of airhead and child-like characters. Personally, I think that they’re just trying to appeal to some depraved otaku audience who enjoys those kinds of characters because they’re never really shown to have any depth apart from their attitude. Asceour is just pure annoyance. She acts ditzy and childish and it seems that it’s ingrained into her character to be some kind of blockhead (like Yui from K-on! [Yes Dante. She's that bad]). If these personality traits are pulled off well they could help develop an interesting character but for Asceour, it seems that’s all there is to her character. To be a clumsy ditz for the sake of getting into stupid plot points.

Dia is a child character they pick up in episode 3 or something who eventually becomes part of the team. Being a child character, she was probably put in to appeal to the lolicon audience or something and well, she does that alright. A troubled past that isn’t elaborated yet? Check. Annoying selfish childish attitude? Check. Character design thats trying to be cute but doesnt nail it? Check. Blockhead kid that doesn’t realize danger when it’s nearby and the main characters get into trouble because of that? Check. Yep she’s a generic kid-character that you’re supposed to feel sympathy for. Sadly, she achieves none of this and only serves to be an annoyance.

Luckily Tweedledee and Tweedledum’s characters are still as good as ever, still portraying their distinct personality and wit. Oh and there’s just something charming about a swarm of little Tweedledee dolls that suffocate an intruder just to capture them.

So with all this negative talk of Kiddy Girl -and, surely there is something positive about it right? Luckily there is, the animation in this show isn’t the best but its good and consistent. The palette colours are distinct and help to paint the mood so there isn’t much bad about it. The soundtrack is good but I just have something against the opening song (baby baby universe day? Seriously what?) and I tend to skip the ending song so no comment on that. But you can’t sell a show on art alone, you also need the story, characters and depth and sadly Kiddy Girl -and doesn’t provide this.

To sum this up. This is an ambitious sequel to a great anime but falls flat as it lacks the charm of the original and only serves to induce rage at the shallow annoying sequel.

Well that’s my 2c. To anybody who wants to check this show out, I recommend you give it a pass and never regret it as 5 episodes in, there still isn’t a a concrete plot and seems to be more of a daily life of these ES apprentices.