Series: Gunslinger Girl: II Teatrino – The Complete Series
UK Release date: 16th May 2011
Distributor: Manga
Certificate: 15
Running time: 395 mins
Director: Rei Mano
Genre: Anime
Format: DVD
Country of Production: Japan
Language: Japanese
Review by: Alex Jones
Adapted from the manga of the same name by Yu Aida, the second season of Gunslinger Girl has moved from production by Madhouse and is now from the animation studio Artland (whose work includes Mushishi and Katekyō Hitman REBORN!). Following closely to the manga, series two continues the story of an anti-terrorist unit which utilises young girls with cybernetic implants, trained to become remorseless killing machines.
Set in Italy, Gunslinger Girl follows the Social Welfare Agency, a group that publicly professes to aid the rehabilitation of the physically injured, but is actually a counter-terrorist military unit. Young girls who are near death are offered the chance to live by becoming agents in the Special Ops unit – their bodies are given cybernetic implants, greatly improving their strength, speed and pain resistance. In exchange, the girls must give up all memories of their past lives. Each girl is then paired off with a fratello (or brother), who is responsible for their well-being and field performance.
Season 2 sees the Agency tackle a plot to blow up the Strait of Messina Bridge. Among the bombers is a young man named Pinocchio, raised from a child to be an assassin for the terrorist organisation the Padania Republic Faction. When Pinocchio crosses paths with the cyborg Triela, the result is a rivalry that neither will give up on until they battle to the death…
Despite the boastings of young girls that have become cyborg killing machines, there is actually very little in the series that backs up that claim. Action scenes are few and far between, and when they do occur, they rarely last more than a few minutes. Even then, the fights are often with guns, and the girls don’t really display any sort of strengths that set them apart from everyone else. It’s really only Triela and Pinocchio’s fight and the character development that follows that displays any form of fighting prowess. Their personalities are what make them really stand out – on the surface they seem like naïve young girls who just want to impress their ‘brothers’, but how they do this is through well performed missions and swift kills in battle. Along with the emotionless/detached look the girls give during combat, the end result can be rather unsettling, and certainly invokes the idea that these girls have lost a good portion of their humanity. While there are a variety of episodes each focusing on one girl at a time, their characterisation and development really is sub-par in comparison to the adults in Gunslinger Girl. An excellent stand-alone episode is ‘A Day In The Life Of Claes’ – in which the house-bound cyborg Claes slowly regains forgotten memories of a deceased partner, but out of the cyborg-focused episodes that’s really about it.
As for the adult characters, well that’s a whole different ball game. Gunslinger Girl is rare in that it’s almost impossible to determine who could be considered the main character, and gives just as much screen time (if not more) to the antagonists. Pinocchio is by far and large the highlight of the cast, his origins paralleling those of the girls’, thus becoming the perfect foil to them (or more specifically, Triela). The other main ‘antagonists’, Franco and Flanco are also presented well, their actions and intentions seeming almost noble at times. Good and bad aren’t so clear cut in Gunslinger Girl, and that’s what makes it all the more interesting.
But where this series really begins to fall short is the actual plot. With so much the character development and flashbacks, the main story thread of terrorists attempting to blow up the bridge feels like it’s taking a back seat when it perhaps should be the main drive. After their first meeting, Franco, Flanco and Pinocchio spend a good deal of time in hiding, not actually crossing paths with the protagonists again until the series’ climax. This makes any development made in the characters, as deep as it may be, feel incredibly dull and prolonging. As a whole, Gunslinger Girl: II Teatrino feels far more like a character retrospective than a developing story.
One of the few things Gunslinger Girl manages to handle perfectly is its setting. While the character designs are somewhat bland and generic, the scenery itself is beautiful. Using a large palette of colours and detailed architecture/countryside, the series really manages to capture its setting and present an authentic Italian feel. This coupled with the series’ brilliant score helps give Gunslinger Girl that unique European edge that is often lost on other anime series’ that are set abroad. This also extends to the opening, ‘Tatta Hitotsu No Omoi’, by Kokia.
Gunslinger Girl: II Teatrino is a series that really puts characterisation first. Despite the series only being a mere 13 episodes, each character feels fleshed out to their full potential and believable within the setting. It’s just a shame that much of this development comes at the expense of the actual plot, which doesn’t seem to go anywhere for the most part. At times an engaging watch, but possibly not quite what its synopsis might suggest. AJ
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