Being a Brief Discussion of Anime Dubs: Kiddy Grade Volume Six

By: Way Jeng
Date: Tuesday, August 31, 2004

Hello, and welcome once again to another installment of "Being a Brief Discussion..." Today I'll be taking a look at FUNimation's Kiddy Grade, volume six. Between the show's excellent dub performances and an epic cliffhanger at the end of the last volume, this is a volume of anime I've been looking forward to for some time. The disc continues the trends set by Kiddy Grade in the past few volumes. The dub performances are excellent, the mix is frustrating, and the volume ends on a cliffhanger that makes me wonder why I don't wait until the series is complete before I watch more.



What I like most about this volume of Kiddy Grade is that the dub is returning back to its roots. I've noted in the past that the voicing of Éclair, performed by Colleen Clinkenbeard, has been evolving throughout the course of this show. Éclair began the show with an infectious zest for life, and by the end of volume five we saw an Éclair who had been visually and aurally changed by the events of the show. In this volume, however, the voice changes yet again. Through the twists and turns of the plot we get to hear Éclair as she sounded in the first volume. Colleen Clinkenbeard offers an excellent performance in this regard. The energy and fun contrast well with the somber feel that dominated the previous volume, yet stay consistent within the context of the character. Fans should take special note of some particularly good semi-stuttering dialog during episode seventeen.



Monica Rial, playing Lumiere, also delivers solid work. Her voice continues to toe a careful line that expresses the high aesthetic standards Lumiere has while not making the character overbearing or excessively haughty. There were a few weak moments, a few under-emoted lines in episode eighteen when Lumiere has a helmet on that were uncharacteristic of Monica Rial's work in general, but overall it's enjoyable work. Her performance during the first half of episode sixteen, in a scene in a café, is especially enjoyable.



Dameon Clarke provides the voice for Armblast. As always, Mr. Clarke's performance is smooth and confident. His tone is a bit more serious than in earlier volumes and is emoted well, though he has an odd tendency to place too much emphasis on the ends of his sentences during the second half of episode sixteen.



Laura Bailey and Rebecca Paige voice Alv and Dverger, respectively, and are featured more prominently than in any other volume of Kiddy Grade to date. Both are good performances, and well worth listening to. Ms. Paige's performance is reserved and calm while not completely devoid of emotion, while Laura Bailey's is delightfully sinister.




Also making a much larger appearance than in earlier volumes are Vic Mignogna, playing Dextera, and Eric Vale, who voices Sinistra. Both performances are solid and portray their characters well in both dialog and foley. If there is any problem with the voices, it's that these relatively soft-spoken characters have a tendency to have their dialog drowned out by the loud background music.



Melissa Ellis, playing the part of Caprice, makes the biggest improvement in the dub. Ms. Ellis sounds much more natural in this volume compared to her performance in volume four. There's still some room for improvement, but it's nonetheless a positive note for the dub.



Reflecting on this volume as a whole, the highlight was hearing Éclair say, "Ta-daaaa!" again and being reminded of the early days when I started watching the first disc. In some sense that's a little odd, because when I began this series I wasn't very impressed with it. It was a relatively simple and generic show with good animation and dubbing but not a lot to distinguish its plot. The core material itself was lackluster and mirrored any number of other shows I'd seen over the years. Yet in the middle of the series all of that changed, finally reaching a point where after watching volume five I considered re-watching volume one to return to that volume's pleasant mood.



However, I'd like to caution fans who may be considering a similar plan. As much comfort as we might draw from returning to those simpler times, I think it's a mistake. Kiddy Grade is doing exactly what it intended to do by taking away the safe and comfortable atmosphere of the beginning of the show. As a member of the audience is drawn into a show the sympathy for the characters grows, and that's what give rise to these desires. We need to acknowledge that success and not go back to re-watch earlier volumes because to do so destroys the ambiance the show has been carefully cultivating. In the case of Kiddy Grade this would have been especially dangerous because the plot returns to that earlier atmosphere of its own accord. Had I gone through with my plan of going back to volume one to feel better, I would have beaten the show to the punch and experienced much less joy upon seeing the show revitalized.



The lesson that Kiddy Grade reminds us is that as viewers we should always have faith in the shows that we watch, and we shouldn't try to circumvent the overall experience that the show intends to create. A well-written show doesn't create stress because it can. Rather, it does so to pay off that stress at a later date. The are numerous ways viewers can try to get an instant payoff. Besides eroding the emotional wave by re-watching select episodes, a member of the audience might look for plot spoilers. Watching these shows as most do, on DVD and after the show has completed its run in Japan, these solutions can be very tempting. But fans should think twice before looking for easy answers. Instead we should look at the frustration we feel and recognize the fact that we only feel this level of yearning because we enjoy the material so much. It's a sign of success for the writers, directors, actors, animators, and everybody else who made the show possible.



If the quality of a series is judged by its ability to frustrate its viewers with cliffhangers, then Kiddy Grade is one of the best shows being released. Viewers who don't mind the dismay of nearing the end of a disc knowing full well that the plot is nowhere near being resolved should pick this disc up as soon as possible.



Copyright 2004 Way Jeng



Questions? Comments? Suggestions? E-mail me at way.jeng@gmail.com