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Kiddy Grade Spinoff Kiddy Girl-and Announced (Update 3)

The official website for the Kiddy Grade anime franchise has announced a new spinoff called Kiddy Girl-AND. The story is set in the Star Century year 0379, roughly two centuries after the original Kiddy Grade anime and about five centuries after our present day. The spirited Asukūru and serious Ku Fīyu work for the galactic government known as GTO. The two girls are members of ES, GTO's finest secret agents with special abilities — or, rather, they are training to become ES.

One of the production companies for the original Kiddy Grade, gímik, created Kiddy Girl-AND's story, while Hidefumi Kimura (Kiddy Grade, Generator Gawl) is supervising the scripts. Director Keiji Gotoh (Kishin Taisen Gigantic Formula, Uta∽Kata) and character designer Megumi Kadonosono (Clannad film, Uta∽Kata) also return from the first series in their same production roles. This time around, Satelight is producing the animation for GTO, the production entity named after the story's fictional government. A manga version, Kiddy Girl-and Pure, will launch in the May issue of Kadokawa's Monthly Comp Ace magazine on March 26. Funimation released the original Kiddy Grade anime in North America in 2005 and 2006.

Image © 2009 gímik, Satelight, Kadokawa Shoten/GTO

Update: The title logo pictured above is still tentative and subject to change.

Update 2: Voice actress Aya Hirano had announced in late 2006 that a second Kiddy Grade anime was in the works, but at the time, it would have focused on the original two main characters — Eclaire and Lumiere — after the events of the first series. In 2007, the official website had announced that asread would produce the second series, instead of Gonzo (the anime studio for the first series) or Satelight.

Update 3: The new series takes place 50 years after the first Kiddy Grade series, not 200 years. Thanks, Shiroi Hane and bulby01.