Gunslinger Girl

To the outside world, the Social Welfare Agency is a benevolent organization dedicated to helping children with life threatening injuries and severe disabilities. However a darker secret lies behind the compound walls. The young girls the Agency claims to save are in fact fitted with artificial body parts, chemically brain washed, and trained in the art of killing. They are the girls of Section Two. An elite squad of deadly assassins charged with doing the Italian Governments dirty work.

Each girl is paired up with a Handler – a male agent who is responsible for training and caring for his partner. The two together are called a fratello. The "conditioning" the girls are put through emotionally bonds them to their handler, making them fiercely loyal. The relationship within each fratello is different. Jose is very kind to Henrietta, treating her like a little sister. Hilshire and Triela seem to have a dysfunctional father daughter thing going on, while Jean treats Rico as nothing more then a tool to be used up and discarded.

Even though they kill without remorse, they still have all of the emotional ups and downs of normal adolescent girls and it's these internal conflicts that make this anime so fascinating. You truly feel for these girls as they struggle to hold on to their humanity under very inhumane circumstances.

If nonstop action is what you are looking for, then this is probably not for you. Yes there is plenty gunplay and copious amounts of blood and gore, but that is not the main focus of the series. What it concentrates on is the relationships between the girls and their handlers and each other.

I'll admit that at first I found the subject matter of this series disturbing; children being turned into ruthless killers in the name of Italian national security. However, the longer I watched, the deeper I was drawn in. It becomes a story of how the girls survive a situation that would break most adults. It becomes a story of their inner strength and perseverance.

Whether or not you are an anime fan, (I am not) you definitely should give this one a watch. I highly recommend it.

As with many good animes, the writer does not shy away from jarring contrasts. Consistently disturbing, frequently sweet. The show has action but is not ABOUT the action. It's main themes are just how human are the girls they are training as assassin? And how should their handlers treat them? The answers to the second question which the individual handlers come up with is invariably influenced by their different opinions on the first.

A lot of people were misled by the anime entitled "Gunslinger Girl" mainly due to the fact that these girls are armed to the teeth. The show isn't so much about the fact that these girls ARE killers, but about how they deal with being given a new life, being trained to kill and still having to live vastly shortened lives as little girls. Henrietta has to deal with not being able to act as most little girls should. Rico just wants to please her abusive fratello "brother". Triela just wants to be respected as a person and not a tool. Claes suffers from the severe emotional trauma of losing her fratello "brother". And Angelica is losing her memory and usefulness fast from her "conditioning". Very well done and well written and acted in the sub AND dub. Overall kind of depressing, but it's worth the purchase and stands up to repeat viewing.

Well the name is misleading, this series is more about relationships between people than Gunbunny action. It is however an awesome series, and when the actions shows up prepare to be made happy, for it is cool. The series is pretty messed up however, the whole concept of bringing girls back from the brink of death and then giving them cybernetic implants and making them fight brainwashed is quite sad.

As I said though, this series is more about relationships. Relationships between the girls and between their partners who they are made to think of as an older brother. The 'brothers' train the girls using conditioning, which is basically brainwashing and through discipline. Different 'brothers' use different amounts and approaches towards their girls, leaving them with radically different personalities. Jose treats Henrietta like a little sister for example, buying her presents, taking her places, and spending quality time with her, while his brother hit his Artificial girl.

Anyway I think that quote in the title, 'The Girl has a mechanical body. However, she is still an adolescent child.' Sums up the anime quite well, it is brutal yet beautiful. 10/10 It takes a lot to make me cry.

The title might suggest that this will be just about girls with guns going on their various missions. While there is some of that it isn't what the programme is about. It follows the lives of a group of young girls who have all been the victims of some life threatening tragedy. As part of their cure their are given artificial body parts and brainwashed to forget their pasts and become assassins working for the Italian state.

Each of the girls is paired with an adult handler who they are programmed to protect, these handlers each treat their girls in different ways one treats his like a little sister regularly giving her gifts, another it abusive and hits his when she doesn't perform to his expectations. The girls live for their handlers and for their job, we aren't given any angst filled scenes where they question the morality of what they do.

It is impossible to comment on this without praising the visually appearance as it is utterly beautiful to look at, for the most part the colours are of warm sandy shades not garish colours popular in many anime shows. When there are action scenes they are exciting but they don't seem to play up the action, it is just what the girls do and is thus shown in a fairly matter of fact way. The over all feel is sad, by the end of the final episode I was in tears, but I don't think that is a bad thing. If you haven't seen it yet I whole-heartedly recommend you check it out, I doubt you'll be disappointed, I certainly wasn't.