Ask John: Where is Kiddy Grade 2?
Question:
What ever happened to Kiddy Grade 2? We got the promo video almost a year ago but there hasn’t been so much as a mention since!
Answer:
I will admit from the outset that I don’t know what’s become of Kiddy Grade 2. It’s probably reasonable to presume that only the animators of Gonzo know for certain the production status of this series. With that said, I normally wouldn’t make a lengthy response of this. However, I’ve received this identical question from two different anime fans recently, which leads me to believe that there’s definitely some remaining interest in this mysterious absent sequel. While I can’t conclusively say when or if we’ll see Kiddy Grade 2, I can provide some context for its situation.
Anime is much less expensive to produce than American animation, but it’s still a significant investment. As a result, plans to produce new anime aren’t undertaken lightly. By the time an anime production is revealed to the public, plans to actually move forward on the production are usually pretty solid, otherwise the announcement wouldn’t have been made. However, planned productions do sometimes get canceled. Even Gonzo has previously canceled the announced production of at least one title.
In February 2005 Gonzo announced plans to produce an anime adaptation of To Obukata’s award winning sci-fi novel Mardock Scramble. In December 2006 Gonzo formally announced that the planned production of a Mardock Scramble OVA had been canceled. In 2003 IMOVE, the studio behind the Pia Carrot anime feature film, announced plans to develop an anime feature titled “t.A.T.u. Paragate,” a sci-fi action film staring fictionalized versions of the Russian pop duo t.A.T.u. The film was never made.
It’s certainly more rare for a planned anime production to actually have animation produced but never finished, but that situation has occurred before as well. In 2004 veteran anime producer Kimio Ikeda revealed information, including even a trailer, for a sci-fi/fantasy anime television series titled “Shiden.” The show was licensed for domestic release early in its production by now defunct domestic distributor Anime Crash. Despite having a website and trailer open to the public, the Shiden anime was never completed. Going a step beyond just a trailer, a partially completed full episode of Urotsukidoji V: Final Chapter was produced in 1996 before work on the series was abandoned.
For comparison, I wanted to examine how much time passed between the public premier of the original Kiddy Grade promotional video and the debut of the animation proper, and the amount of time that has passed so far since the May 2007 release of the Kiddy Grade 2 pilot film. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a specific release date for the original Kiddy Grade promo clip.
It may be too early to write off Kiddy Grade 2. For example, director Yasuomi Umetsu’s feature film Kiss and Cry was initially announced back in 2003, and it’s reportedly now tentatively due for official release in 2009. So it’s quite possible that work on Kiddy Grade 2 has been slow or delayed, but not canceled. Furthermore, the first Kiddy Grade television series is scheduled for Japanese DVD re-release beginning this month. The new Japanese DVD release may renew interest in the series, or accompany a new announcement about Kiddy Grade 2. It’s also possible that Japanese consumer interest in the Kiddy Grade franchise has diminished to the extent that Gonzo no longer considers continuing the franchise economically viable. Perhaps last year’s Kiddy Grade movies didn’t perform as well as hoped.
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I should say first of all that the sequel is to be animated by asread (of Shuffle!), not Gonzo. They also animated the promotional “pilot” DVD and worked on the director’s cut movie versions of the original series.
Nothing has been said directly since the PV DVD was released, however the original series has been re-released in cinemas and DVD as three movies, Gotoh released a collection of genga art at Winter Comiket, the original series is being released again as two DVD box sets, and the original series is being re-run on AT-X in Japan.
The blurb for the box sets mentions Kiddy Grade 2, and Chara-ani goes as far on their site to point out that the PV DVD sold 8000 copies and that the movies were very successful.
All this activity tends to suggests that the sequel hasn’t been cancelled. I’d go as far as to say that a airdate of October is possible – after all the original series started it’s run in October (as did Uta Kata) and the AT-X re-runs should be ending about that time also. I should add that I was saying the same thing a year ago however, since the last movie DVD was released in September 2007, but it still gives me something to hope for 🙂
“I wanted to examine how much time passed between the public premier of the original Kiddy Grade promotional video and the debut of the animation proper, and the amount of time that has passed so far since the May 2007 release of the Kiddy Grade 2 pilot film. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find a specific release date for the original Kiddy Grade promo clip.”
I’ve been wondering about that since you said it, although I never got around to researching until now. The PV DVDs were released on the same day as the first DVD of the series so tells us nothing, and one thing I’ve never been able to determine is where the original version of the PV, the one with the different music (“If I” by Melody) originally came from. I have turned up one lead today, but I’ll come back to that later.
One thing I do know, from the little I can understand from the Continuity File EX book, is that the story was originally pitched as a three-part OVA back in 1999. I don’t believe Gonzo came onboard until 2000.
I can also place some firm dates on other points in the production process – among my treasures I have settei for the main characters dated to April 2002, and one particular drawing of a warp gate dated to 2001-12-26. Among the sheets are also materia specific to episode 21 – in particular settei for the scarred Alv and Dvergr dated 2003-01-26 – less than two months before that episode aired. Another prized possession is a couple of ADR scripts, one also containing a casting sheet for episode 3 showing a booking at Studio Gong for Friday the 27th of September 2002 from 17:00-22:00 – this was less than a month before the episode aired.
I wasn’t aware of the series myself until it was already airing and I only stumbled across it accidentally so I’m not sure precisely when the series was announced to the public, but the first of the “pre-story” novels was published in August 2001 (according to Amazon). Also included in the Continuity File EX are some short comic strips by Gotoh promoting the series (I think they were published in Newtype), the first of which is dated November 2001. I’ve made out two keyphrases from this – “Summer Charashow” and “Pilot Film” which lead me to this page – http://akenon.jp/event.html – and with gÃmik indeed in attendance at the Tokyo Character Show in Summer 2002 it is possible that this is when the promo was first shown. The next strip, dated December 2002, appears to be a summary of the event – I can make out the names Nagata-san and Hirano-san on the entry for June 1&9 so I guess their roles were annouced and there is mention of a talkshow on the 20th of July with 5 people drawn on stage. Gotoh’s self portait is easy to make out, as is Kimura’s glasses. The one on the end is the only one without a mic so has to be Megumi and I can only assume the other two are Aya and Ryoko.
This still hasn’t done a great deal other than keep me busy for a while, but it does mean that if the show were to air in October then they would probably be animating it already and start afureko a couple of months from now, so you think we’d have at least have had some sort of announcement regarding the cast, although if Ryoko and Aya were to be recast as the leads you could understand them wanting to keep that quiet and it has major implications for the plot. There’s also the fact that Gotoh is/has been working on multiple other series lately including Kurenai, Macross F and Vampire Knight.