gímik is a Japanese creative group who devise original ideas, usually of a cross media nature (anime, manga, novels, and audio dramas). Consisting of Director Keiji Gotoh, his wife, character designer Megumi Kadonosono, and script writer Hidefumi Kimura (gímik comes from their names — G for Gotoh, M for Megumi, and K for Kimura), their debut work was Kiddy Grade. All three members are also animators in their own right — Gotoh does everything from key animator up, Megumi mainly does key animation and animation direction, and Kimura is less prolific, creating storyboards and occasionally doing some key animation.
Gotoh started work as an in-between animator on Thunder Cats and, prior to Kiddy Grade, was probably best known as the character designer for shows like Martian Successor Nadesico, Gate Keepers, and for the Yarudora game Double Cast. He first worked with Megumi on the Vampire Princess Miyu TV series and the three of them first co-operated on Kimura's Generator Gawl. He is also fond of the Panty Shot, featuring in all his directorial works (other than Gigantic Formula) and most of his illustrations.
Their works tend to feature guest artists — Kiddy Grade had a different artist doing the Eye Catches for each episode, Uta∽Kata had a different costume designer for each episode's Transformation Sequence (who also draw an illustration of it for the ending sequence), and Gigantic Formula had a different designer for each Mecha. Kiddy GiRL-AND went against the grain, in that all the eyecatches were by Gotoh's friend Dr. Moro — although there were multiple costume designers, and the eponymous character for the Show Within a Show "Card Getter Sakura" was drawn by Kagami Yoshimizu of Lucky Star fame.
Works include:
- Gemini Knives — a two-volume light novel set in the Kiddy Grade universe that was serialised in Megami Magazine.
- Gigantic Formula (technically not a gímik title, but the usual suspects were all present.)
- Kiddy Grade.
- Kiddy GiRL-AND.
- Uta∽Kata.
