Having been subjected to about 4 episodes, I broadly agree. The fanservice is a bit too overpowering for me. I'm assured that it develops plot around episode 12 or so. Maybe I just wasn't taken by the rather average space opera. Or it may be better for those whose tolerance for fanservice is rather higher than mine.
That said, of course, it's not much worse than, say, MahoutsukaiTai, which I find highly entertaining. I don't know what the difference is... maybe KiddyGrade takes itself rather more seriously? --AlexChurchill
[This review] does a good job of explaining why it's hard to like KiddyGrade. They appear to agree that it takes itself too seriously, as well.
hart thinks that KiddyGrade is a rather exceptional series in regard to character design, mechanical design, English voicework and esp. plot. That being said, the entire first half of the series is so sugary-sweet your teeth will rot out of your skull if you accidentally touch the shiny part of the disk. The recommendation here is to completely skip the first two disks of the series and watch it from episode 7 forward. You'll get enough of the sugary stuff to follow most of the plotline, and the last 4 disks are quite worth the effort. Just think of it as having to watch Kurumi 2 in order to get to Kurumi 1.
I tried to like KiddyGrade, I did. I tried to give the plot a chance. The characters do have some redeeming features. But really, any plot that gives main characters those kinds of powers needs to have limits on them. To preserve any shred of SuspensionOfDisbelief, there needs to be clear cause-and-effect as opposed to DeusExMachina, and there needs to be limits on the superhuman powers of the good guys (and the bad guys, for that matter). And KiddyGrade is the worst offender for DeusExMachina I've ever seen. Allowing a character to manifest a new superpower far greater than any she's shown before, at just the time in the plot when things were looking hopeless without it... Put it this way, it makes them seem like MarySues. By breaking SuspensionOfDisbelief and invoking DeusExMachina far (far) too much, KiddyGrade lost whatever degree it had got me involved in the plot. --AlexChurchill
But there wasn't a plot! They pretended there was but then they pulled the old "I forget to mention that I can bring people back from the dead - Fin" ... what about the promise of plot? what about the hours of she's not 7 she's at least 54, BS? and the actually currency I exchanged for the final 4 episodes, under the dellusion of a)Plot b)Conclusion c)Not having some 50 year old man calling the protagonist, who was by then reborn x3 and like 10!, "MUMMY"......& it wasn't even good fan service. (;n;) Actual Money! Not even an Ebay copy! Hoshi-Chan I'm done now...
hart took Kiddy Grade in the same vein as ProjectAko? - a tongue-in-cheek piece which seems to go out of its way to exemplify every classic faux pas committed by anime creators in the past. I suppose I wasn't so much interested in the characters as I was in the plot as a literal.
**Avast ye, there be spoilers here!**
I think a big part of the fun for me was the fact that suspension of disbelief was essentially thrown to the winds. For example, after the characters first death, the writers used the fact that the viewer is invested in the characters and wants to believe they're still alive to introduce the eventual antagonist. This was quite well done, and for a moment I halfway bought it despite the fact that I've watched enough anime to know that the main character isn't allowed to die before the series dies. The only thing that kept me from swallowing the bait was the way the actor behaved - the actions taken were uncharacteristic of the character I had grown to understand through the previous episodes. It was interesting to watch the writer manipulate a viewer while the viewer was aware of this manipulation - I knew the writer wanted me to feel a certain emotion, I didn't know why, and despite the fact that I knew this and am rather contrary I felt the appropriate emotion anyway.
Another aspect that I found particularly entertaining was the abuse of DeusExMachina. I've watched a lot of anime; I've seen a lot of DeusExMachina, but it's typically something that occurs once in a given series. The authors appeared to be aware of this in writing the plot. As much as I could have seen it coming, I automatically discounted deus ex after the second death because it was getting toward the end of the series and it didn't occur to me that someone would really abuse the plot device that much. Likewise, the 3rd death seemed again to be "real" because of the way it was set up - the explaination bordered on "good to see you back again, this is your kryptonite and you get to die for real now" and occurred in the last episode. I rather expected a posthumous victory with a ludicrously sci-fi explaination. The fact that deus ex was invoked so many times within the same series created a virtual suspense of disbelief - I didn't disbelieve that the character was dead, I disbelieved that the writer would abuse deus ex as much as they actually did, and thus believed the character to be dead against my better judgement.
**Now leaving spoiler territory. It is very dark. You are likely to be eaten by a grue.**