Hayate Kurogane
09-12-2007, 08:07 PM
(Disclaimer: This post contains NO spoilers. Actually, if you're not familiar with the Kiddy Grade TV series, what follows is actually quite lacking in useful content detail.)
At times, when my curiosity and better judgement come up against each other, curiosity wins out. One such recent inner battle led to my purchase of the first Kiddy Grade Director's Cut compilation movie, Ignition. I own the TV series and have seen it three times in its entirety, and as some folks know I don't exactly hold it in very high regard. However, I'm one of those rare fans of compilation movies, largely because I find it interesting to see what sorts of goals the staff has in mind in putting together such things (setting aside the obvious goal of extra profit with minimal additional investment), and because occasionally, simply compressing the overall amount of a somewhat lacking story with can raise my opinion of a particular property (I'm looking at you, Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny). And so, I ended up with a copy of Kiddy Grade: Ignition on my shelf.
I have to say, while 12 episodes of Kiddy Grade covered in 90 minutes does make it easier to watch, any such benefit was decisively counteracted by the fact that I have no idea what Keiji Gotoh was trying to accomplish with this compilation, since the end result is rather questionable.
It's been stated that the three compilation films were made as Gotoh's definitive version of the events in the first series, and were to override the actual TV series as canon in preparation for the second series, much like the Gundam Seed compilation movies in regards to Gundam Seed Destiny, or the original Gundam compilation movies in regards to every subsequent Universal Century story. This seems to imply changes to the story, maybe slight yet significant, and/or extra events that may relate to something in the second season. If so, such things must be relegated to the second and third movies because there's nothing of the sort in Ignition.
The movie opens with a new scene (the only new scene in the film), which runs a mere 40 seconds and appears to show Eclair's most recent defeat in battle prior to her appearance in the series. (People here, there, and elsewhere have already posted screencaps and such, but here are some anyway: 1 (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/asagiri2040/?action=view¤t=ignitionnew001.jpg) 2 (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/asagiri2040/?action=view¤t=ignitionnew002.jpg) 3 (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/asagiri2040/?action=view¤t=ignitionnew003.jpg) 4 (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/asagiri2040/?action=view¤t=ignitionnew004.jpg) 5 (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/asagiri2040/?action=view¤t=ignitionnew005.jpg) 6 (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/asagiri2040/?action=view¤t=ignitionnew006.jpg)) From there it flows into a several-minute-long compression of the flashback events shown in episode 16, followed by the movie title card. The events of episodes 1 and 2 come next, each compressed to about 14 minutes. Then, an eyecatch (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/asagiri2040/?action=view¤t=ignitioneyecatch.jpg), which serves to abruptly begin 10 minutes of montages. An Eclair montage, set to "Mirai no Kioku," covers episodes 4, 6, 3, 5, 7, and 8, with a shorter Lumiere montage following it, with footage taken mainly from episodes 5 and 8. The remainder of the montages are shorter and set to instrumental pieces, each dedicated to one of the ES-Member pairs and led off with a newly-drawn image, plus a final montage for Armbrust, Mercredi, and Eclipse. A second eyecatch then reminds you that someone was trying to make a compilation movie and you're just lucky enough to be watching it. Episodes 9 and 10 are compressed to 12 minutes each, while episode 11 gets a little more breathing room with about 16 minutes, followed by the end credits set to "Future," and a short preview of the second movie, Maelstrom.
It's obvious that there was some intent on the part of Gotoh and others to try and place more of a focus on the meatier story elements, considering the massive compression of several of the fluffier episodes, including the fan-favorite "Day/Off," in order to devote more time to the content of episodes 9-11. Events from episode 16 seem to be present to both arrange things chronologically for the sake of simplicity in a movie format, while more significantly serving to set a serious tone at the beginning. Episode 1 serves the typical yet somewhat thankless role of being the "this is what we usually do" story element, which makes the inclusion of episode 2 somewhat redundant, though certainly it should be noted that episode 2 introduces Alv and Dvergr and shows clearly what one might expect from those characters, and thus is useful in setting up later events.
That description makes an awful lot of sense, until you actually think about the film minute-by-minute. While the intent may have been to pare down the story, it seems as if very little thought was given to the actual process. Gotoh and the staff may have gone through the exact same sort of logic outlined in the previous paragraph, but then simply decided "okay, now let's figure out how we can trim this stuff down to keep the movie under 90 minutes." Rather than removing large chunks from episodes 1, 2, 9, 10, and 11 that don't do anything to service the story in any way, while leaving the important scenes completely intact and thus creating some sort of structure, it appears as if there was a compulsion to not actually remove anything, with the result being small cuts here and there at the beginning and end of scenes, and even tiny snips from the beginning and end of individual animation cuts. It feels an awful lot like you're watching some episodes with a big group of people where only about 75% of your attention is on the screen, and so it seems like it goes by slightly fast because you're losing track of it every couple of minutes or so. The montages in the middle are fun in their own way, but utterly useless, and the only good thing about them is that there's no way such things can be included in either of the other two movies since they've already covered all the characters.
Given that Ignition covers essentially half the series, there's a good chance that movies 2 and 3 are more focused. Perhaps they also feature some more new animation, or new scenes. Perhaps if we're really lucky, they'll replace that astoundingly idiotic WALKING CHASE, or animate the Deucalion so it actually seems planet-sized and imposing rather than some sort of bland and boring anime cousin to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
Whether in comparison to the R2s, or their downgraded and inadequate R1 counterparts, the movie represents an improvement in A/V quality, though in the end the value of said improvement is left to the individual viewer. None of the dialogue has been re-recorded (which sometimes happens, as with the Gundam Seed movies), but all of the sound effects have been redone, and the music rearranged, with the end result being a cleaner and crisper audio presentation than the series offers. The video, while still interlaced, is of good quality, with the only issues arising from the digital nature of the animation (gradient issues, jagged lines from an animation element rendered at slightly different resolution, etc.), and some very minimal edge enhancement. The video is still 4:3, as the TV series was.
Two extras are included on the disc. The first is a Q&A session that took place in the theater just prior to the premiere of the film, featuring Ryoko Nagata (Eclair) and Aya Hirano (Lumiere) alongside Keiji Gotoh, Megumi Kadonosono (character designer/animation director/Gotoh's wife), and Hidefumi Kimura (writing duties/Gotoh's close friend), with Mami Kosuge (Bonita) and Ikue Kimura (Liquiy) MC'ing. Very little of consequence is said, as is the norm for such things (which is why I continue to find the whole "Japanese extras are better than English extras" argument to be utterly absurd), and there's quite a bit of "oh, it's been a long five years since having anything to do with Kiddy Grade." The second extra is a five-minute sound drama with Mami Kosuge and Ikue Kimura as their characters, talking about working for the GOTT and working with Eclair and Lumiere and so on. Funny and forgettable.
The disc comes in a standard keepcase. The cover image is of Eclair and Lumiere, with La Muse behind them and Aineias and open space in the background. The back has a few tiny headshots, the GOTT logo at the top, a small summary, cast and staff lists, and technical info. Included in the keepcase is an 8-page booklet with character descriptions and a small glossary, and a large sticker. The first-press copies of the movie came with a box to hold all three movies, which features a wraparound image of Eclair and Lumiere holding each other closely like special friends do, with background colors representing the color schemes chosen for each movie's packaging and advertising (Ignition is red, Maelstrom is blue, and Truth Dawn is yellow). Shiroi Hane has posted scans (http://www.animeondvd.com/forum/showpost.php?post/505990/), apparently, which saves me the trouble of trying to describe this stuff any further.
All in all, it's not a bad way to pass 90 minutes, give or take. But Kiddy Grade fans will most likely find themselves wondering what the point is, while others will either feel like they've watched something completely forgettable, or like me will feel as if a good chance to do something interesting was wasted. Ignition does do a decent job of connecting you with Eclair, both as a fun girl and a girl with issues, but this really only comes about since she's actually a compelling character in the first half of the series and so many large portions of the first half are kept intact. Other than that, there's not too much to take away from this movie, other than a vague sense of questionable compression, and a hope that the other movies aren't just like watching the TV series while tapping the fast-forward button on the remote every now and then.
At times, when my curiosity and better judgement come up against each other, curiosity wins out. One such recent inner battle led to my purchase of the first Kiddy Grade Director's Cut compilation movie, Ignition. I own the TV series and have seen it three times in its entirety, and as some folks know I don't exactly hold it in very high regard. However, I'm one of those rare fans of compilation movies, largely because I find it interesting to see what sorts of goals the staff has in mind in putting together such things (setting aside the obvious goal of extra profit with minimal additional investment), and because occasionally, simply compressing the overall amount of a somewhat lacking story with can raise my opinion of a particular property (I'm looking at you, Gundam Seed and Gundam Seed Destiny). And so, I ended up with a copy of Kiddy Grade: Ignition on my shelf.
I have to say, while 12 episodes of Kiddy Grade covered in 90 minutes does make it easier to watch, any such benefit was decisively counteracted by the fact that I have no idea what Keiji Gotoh was trying to accomplish with this compilation, since the end result is rather questionable.
It's been stated that the three compilation films were made as Gotoh's definitive version of the events in the first series, and were to override the actual TV series as canon in preparation for the second series, much like the Gundam Seed compilation movies in regards to Gundam Seed Destiny, or the original Gundam compilation movies in regards to every subsequent Universal Century story. This seems to imply changes to the story, maybe slight yet significant, and/or extra events that may relate to something in the second season. If so, such things must be relegated to the second and third movies because there's nothing of the sort in Ignition.
The movie opens with a new scene (the only new scene in the film), which runs a mere 40 seconds and appears to show Eclair's most recent defeat in battle prior to her appearance in the series. (People here, there, and elsewhere have already posted screencaps and such, but here are some anyway: 1 (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/asagiri2040/?action=view¤t=ignitionnew001.jpg) 2 (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/asagiri2040/?action=view¤t=ignitionnew002.jpg) 3 (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/asagiri2040/?action=view¤t=ignitionnew003.jpg) 4 (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/asagiri2040/?action=view¤t=ignitionnew004.jpg) 5 (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/asagiri2040/?action=view¤t=ignitionnew005.jpg) 6 (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/asagiri2040/?action=view¤t=ignitionnew006.jpg)) From there it flows into a several-minute-long compression of the flashback events shown in episode 16, followed by the movie title card. The events of episodes 1 and 2 come next, each compressed to about 14 minutes. Then, an eyecatch (http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y119/asagiri2040/?action=view¤t=ignitioneyecatch.jpg), which serves to abruptly begin 10 minutes of montages. An Eclair montage, set to "Mirai no Kioku," covers episodes 4, 6, 3, 5, 7, and 8, with a shorter Lumiere montage following it, with footage taken mainly from episodes 5 and 8. The remainder of the montages are shorter and set to instrumental pieces, each dedicated to one of the ES-Member pairs and led off with a newly-drawn image, plus a final montage for Armbrust, Mercredi, and Eclipse. A second eyecatch then reminds you that someone was trying to make a compilation movie and you're just lucky enough to be watching it. Episodes 9 and 10 are compressed to 12 minutes each, while episode 11 gets a little more breathing room with about 16 minutes, followed by the end credits set to "Future," and a short preview of the second movie, Maelstrom.
It's obvious that there was some intent on the part of Gotoh and others to try and place more of a focus on the meatier story elements, considering the massive compression of several of the fluffier episodes, including the fan-favorite "Day/Off," in order to devote more time to the content of episodes 9-11. Events from episode 16 seem to be present to both arrange things chronologically for the sake of simplicity in a movie format, while more significantly serving to set a serious tone at the beginning. Episode 1 serves the typical yet somewhat thankless role of being the "this is what we usually do" story element, which makes the inclusion of episode 2 somewhat redundant, though certainly it should be noted that episode 2 introduces Alv and Dvergr and shows clearly what one might expect from those characters, and thus is useful in setting up later events.
That description makes an awful lot of sense, until you actually think about the film minute-by-minute. While the intent may have been to pare down the story, it seems as if very little thought was given to the actual process. Gotoh and the staff may have gone through the exact same sort of logic outlined in the previous paragraph, but then simply decided "okay, now let's figure out how we can trim this stuff down to keep the movie under 90 minutes." Rather than removing large chunks from episodes 1, 2, 9, 10, and 11 that don't do anything to service the story in any way, while leaving the important scenes completely intact and thus creating some sort of structure, it appears as if there was a compulsion to not actually remove anything, with the result being small cuts here and there at the beginning and end of scenes, and even tiny snips from the beginning and end of individual animation cuts. It feels an awful lot like you're watching some episodes with a big group of people where only about 75% of your attention is on the screen, and so it seems like it goes by slightly fast because you're losing track of it every couple of minutes or so. The montages in the middle are fun in their own way, but utterly useless, and the only good thing about them is that there's no way such things can be included in either of the other two movies since they've already covered all the characters.
Given that Ignition covers essentially half the series, there's a good chance that movies 2 and 3 are more focused. Perhaps they also feature some more new animation, or new scenes. Perhaps if we're really lucky, they'll replace that astoundingly idiotic WALKING CHASE, or animate the Deucalion so it actually seems planet-sized and imposing rather than some sort of bland and boring anime cousin to the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.
Whether in comparison to the R2s, or their downgraded and inadequate R1 counterparts, the movie represents an improvement in A/V quality, though in the end the value of said improvement is left to the individual viewer. None of the dialogue has been re-recorded (which sometimes happens, as with the Gundam Seed movies), but all of the sound effects have been redone, and the music rearranged, with the end result being a cleaner and crisper audio presentation than the series offers. The video, while still interlaced, is of good quality, with the only issues arising from the digital nature of the animation (gradient issues, jagged lines from an animation element rendered at slightly different resolution, etc.), and some very minimal edge enhancement. The video is still 4:3, as the TV series was.
Two extras are included on the disc. The first is a Q&A session that took place in the theater just prior to the premiere of the film, featuring Ryoko Nagata (Eclair) and Aya Hirano (Lumiere) alongside Keiji Gotoh, Megumi Kadonosono (character designer/animation director/Gotoh's wife), and Hidefumi Kimura (writing duties/Gotoh's close friend), with Mami Kosuge (Bonita) and Ikue Kimura (Liquiy) MC'ing. Very little of consequence is said, as is the norm for such things (which is why I continue to find the whole "Japanese extras are better than English extras" argument to be utterly absurd), and there's quite a bit of "oh, it's been a long five years since having anything to do with Kiddy Grade." The second extra is a five-minute sound drama with Mami Kosuge and Ikue Kimura as their characters, talking about working for the GOTT and working with Eclair and Lumiere and so on. Funny and forgettable.
The disc comes in a standard keepcase. The cover image is of Eclair and Lumiere, with La Muse behind them and Aineias and open space in the background. The back has a few tiny headshots, the GOTT logo at the top, a small summary, cast and staff lists, and technical info. Included in the keepcase is an 8-page booklet with character descriptions and a small glossary, and a large sticker. The first-press copies of the movie came with a box to hold all three movies, which features a wraparound image of Eclair and Lumiere holding each other closely like special friends do, with background colors representing the color schemes chosen for each movie's packaging and advertising (Ignition is red, Maelstrom is blue, and Truth Dawn is yellow). Shiroi Hane has posted scans (http://www.animeondvd.com/forum/showpost.php?post/505990/), apparently, which saves me the trouble of trying to describe this stuff any further.
All in all, it's not a bad way to pass 90 minutes, give or take. But Kiddy Grade fans will most likely find themselves wondering what the point is, while others will either feel like they've watched something completely forgettable, or like me will feel as if a good chance to do something interesting was wasted. Ignition does do a decent job of connecting you with Eclair, both as a fun girl and a girl with issues, but this really only comes about since she's actually a compelling character in the first half of the series and so many large portions of the first half are kept intact. Other than that, there's not too much to take away from this movie, other than a vague sense of questionable compression, and a hope that the other movies aren't just like watching the TV series while tapping the fast-forward button on the remote every now and then.