Review of Gunslinger Girl: Vol. 1

Introduction

Little girls with guns, it`s a subject that you would think only appeals to a small demographic on the fringes of society. An anime series about the subject would hardly seem in the best taste, and the Daily Mail will probably be running a piece on the depravities of modern Japanese animation quicker than you could say Columbine. Yet given the correct approach, the subject could work, and indeed has done so before, as the brilliant movie Leon can attest to. The sight of Natalie Portman peering through a sniper scope at the top of a high-rise building is a powerful image that resonates long after the film ends. It`s no surprise that Gunslinger Girl pays homage to that particular image in an early episode, and indeed takes the best of Leon and Nikita to tell its own story. The Social Welfare Agency is an Italian government organisation that takes critically ill young girls and turns them into cyborgs, trained in assassination. They are paired up with handlers who guide them through their missions, and are set forth to do the government`s dirty work. Gunslinger Girl is a thirteen-episode anime series that is being released by MVM on three discs. Volume 1 contains the first five episodes of the series.

Ep 1. Fratello
A stakeout sets up an attempt to apprehend a witness who is surrounded by armed guards. Only two people are sent on this mission, a teenaged girl named Henrietta, and her handler Giuse. Things go wrong when Giuse is threatened, and the scene becomes one of utter carnage. Only the one responsible, the one with the gun is little Henrietta.

Ep 2. Orione
The aftermath of the last mission isn`t pleasant, as Henrietta needs surgery to repair her arm, and Giuse must face the fact that she may need further conditioning after going berserk in the apartment. He hasn`t learned the lesson that it pays to keep an emotional distance from his young charge.

Ep 3. Ragazzo
A high level politician wants his political opponent removed. This normally wouldn`t be the sort of thing handled by the Agency, except that the politician is a staunch supporter of the cybernetics program. While surveying the next mission location, Rico meets Emilio, a boy who works at the hotel as a porter. He`s an innocent boy who is friendly towards Rico, but an assassin isn`t supposed to leave witnesses.

Ep 4. Bambola
Triela and her handler Hirscher are tracking down a retired mafia boss, but the two aren`t communicating well. Triela is overzealous in her work, and Hirscher is reluctant to increase her conditioning. With Christmas coming up, Triela is just hoping for a little thoughtfulness when Hirscher buys her a present. Meanwhile Henrietta would just be glad to spend the time with Giuse.

Ep 5. Promessa
Jean recruits an old colleague as a handler for Claes, newly released from surgery. Ravalo is taking sabbatical from the Military Police while his leg heals, and begins training Claes in weapons and tactics. However he finds that he has as much to learn as she does, and keeping a clinical distance from the child turned killing machine is hard.

Video

Gunslinger Girl gets a nice 1.78:1 anamorphic transfer, the image is clear and sharp, and the colours are consistent throughout. I saw no problems with artefacts, and aside from the inevitable NTSC to PAL telltales, the image was immaculate. The animation is stunningly accomplished, with the action scenes brilliant designed and orchestrated, all of this contrasted with the quieter but atmospheric character moments. Here the attention to detail is notable, with the lavish designs of the weapons attesting to the care taken with the anime.

Audio

You get a choice of DD 5.1 English and DD 2.0 Japanese. You should be able to guess which track I chose by now. The stereo is pretty well accomplished, with the track making the most of the Dolby Surround when it comes to action and ambience. Naturally the 5.1 track trumps this, and from what little I sampled of the English dub, I think it is one of the better and more natural efforts. The music for Gunslinger Girl is excellent, with some appropriate songs for the credit sequences, as well as a classical string score for the show itself. You also have a choice between dubtitles for the English track, or translated English subtitles for the Japanese track.

Features

An MVM disc means a jacket picture that your player displays when the disc isn`t spinning, as well as multi-angle credit sequences for the show, depending on which language you select to watch it in. You get the usual textless credit sequences to look at, as well as trailers for Kiddy Grade and Full Metal Alchemist. There is also a brief, minute long featurette, where you can see the creation of Henrietta from line sketch to final character by means of a time-lapse film.

Conclusion

Well, I won`t mince words about it; Gunslinger Girl has petite teenaged girls with big automatic weapons, blowing big holes in even bigger people. If your moral and ethical compass doesn`t swing that way, then feel free to vent some Middle England bile in the direction of your nearest tabloid. But I would have to wonder what you thought a disc called Gunslinger Girl would be about, surely not flower arranging? The thing is, the violence in Gunslinger Girl is not really the point, and it is just scratching the surface of what this show is. This show is a character study at heart, examining the people and the relationships that drive this implausible situation. It has a gentle and considered pace that gives it a thoughtful nature, and while the bursts of action are brutal and bloody, it always takes time to see how the protagonists are affected by what they see and do, and what motivates them.

These opening episodes are spent introducing the characters and setting up the situation. It is a warped morality that drives the Social Welfare Agency, after all who would suspect a young girl of being an assassin? Yet the girls they `recruit` are the critically ill, on the verge of death in some cases, and by restoring their health, they are rescuing them from lives as crippled invalids, dependent on medical care. These girls aren`t initially suited for the work, and to that end they are given cybernetic enhancements, and receive conditioning to erase their memories and make them receptive to training. The conditioning isn`t perfect, some memories remain, and repeated treatment shortens the girls` life spans.

They are assigned handlers to train and supervise their missions, and it is interesting to see how the handlers and girls relate to each other. At one extreme is the head of the project Jean, who sees the girls as commodities and tools, and is clinically brutal with his charge Rico. Rico still has memories of growing up in hospital, unable to leave her bed, and her gratitude for a healthy body guarantees her acquiescence and gratitude to the project, as well as her obedience. Henrietta on the other hand was the sole survivor of a serial killer that wiped out her family. It`s the fragmented memory of this that causes her overreaction in the opening episode. Still, her relationship with her handler Giuse is more affectionate, she dotes on him, and he finds it hard to discipline her, still seeing the child behind the killing machine. He`s not the only one who is uncomfortable with the use to which these children have been put. Ravalo tries to be distant with his charge Claes, but ends up developing a bond with her that eventually proves disastrous.

Because this is a character piece, the episodes follow a non-linear narrative, telling the girls` stories as opposed to some grand storyline. The opening two episodes cover the same events from two viewpoints, while Claes` storyline takes us to a point prior to the opening episode. It`s interesting to see the relationships that develop in the show, and it becomes apparent that the girls chosen for the agency are all damaged in some way. They may not retain any memory of the past that shaped them, but their past plays a big part on how they react and how they relate to those around them. It`s as if their innocence was lost, and the conditioning has given them a chance to regain that innocence, which of course is at odds with what they have to do for the agency. At the same time, it`s apparent that some of their handlers are having a crisis of conscience with the line of work they are in. I have only a vague inkling of how the story will unfold, the show has set up quite an intriguing premise and has begun building on that, but with just one disc out of the way, it`s fair to say that I am hooked.

I may have mentioned this before, but anime just keeps getting better and better. This new series from MVM is another prime example of the strong characters, concepts and stories that are at the pinnacle of the medium. While the premise sounds prurient, in execution it is thoughtful, moving and utterly gripping. Gunslinger Girl is another anime to add to your must buy list.