Version 5.4 ~ Haruhi gave rock and roll to you.
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Dated 9 February 2002: Kiddy Grade

Despite my initial misgivings, I've developed a fondness for Kiddy Grade. This unfortunately-titled cop show features a pair of winsome girls with superpowers as they jet around in their sleek spaceship bringing law and order to the galaxy.

Eclair
Eclair putting her radical sidearm to good use.

I'm particularly enamored with much of the incidental background music (such as during the mid-show eyecatch and the "requesting a warrant" music) which I find to be surprisingly grandiose and majestic with its heavy emphasis on brass instruments and epic chords. (Incidentally, Cardcaptor Sakura also used this type of music to great effect.)

Okay, it is true that each episode I've seen thus far appears to be a celebration of Eclair's peculiar love for cosplay outfits and it's also true that the show may be more aptly entitled The Adventures of the Panty Shot Space Police, but it's an engaging show nevertheless. (Yes, I know they're not actually cops; Eclair and Lumiere are members of the G.O.T.T.'s special forces. Work with me, here.)

Besides, both of the leads have their own cute little catchphrases. How can you lose?

Dated 5 September 2004: Kiddy Grade DVDs

FUNimation's first Kiddy Grade DVD release was a disaster. I bought the first disc, but the video quality is terrible. I didn't bother with the later discs at all after hearing about how they screwed up the audio track on the second disc. You can't release a series with such a low episode count per disc (despite spurious spin-doctoring about a lower MSRP per disc—it's still a substantially higher total cost of ownership—I can do arithmetic, you know) and expect people to buy it when the quality is also ghastly.