Review for Gunslinger Girl Season 1-2 + OVA Anime Classics

8 / 10

Introduction

I love Gunslinger Girl; it’s one of my most watched anime DVDs, while I’ve also developed something of a soft spot for its sequel, Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino, even if it turned out to be something of a soft reboot after the mangaka expressed his displeasure with the liberties the first series had taken with his story. But you might be wondering, why Blu-ray? After all, Gunslinger Girl is firmly from that era of digipaint shows that were created at 480 lines of resolution, SD. It’s never going to get better than DVD resolution. I could go through the usual spiel of Blu-ray’s better colour palette, the lack of compression, the lossless audio, the benefits of a decent up-scale, and also mention that Il Teatrino was actually animated at native HD resolution, and that does benefit from Blu-ray, and of course the capper to any argument, scratch resistant discs. But the truth of the matter is that I got the Gunslinger Girl Complete Series Blu-ray cheap, thanks to a momentary price glitch. Any excuse to watch the show yet again!

This is a 9 disc release, the first series on two Blu-rays and two DVDs, the second series on two DVDs, the OVA on a separate DVD, while the second series plus the OVA fits on two Blu-rays. It’s a fatpack Blu-ray Amaray wrapped in an o-card repeating the sleeve art and blurb. There is some nice artwork on the inner sleeve, and you get 8 discs either side of four central hinged panels, and one disc on the rear of the case.

Introduction: Gunslinger Girl

Thirteen episodes are spread across two Blu-rays as follows.

Disc 1
Ep 1. Fratello
Ep 2. Orione
Ep 3. Ragazzo
Ep 4. Bambola
Ep 5. Promessa
Ep 6. Gelato
Ep 7. Protezione
Ep 8. Il Principe del Regno della Pasta
Ep 9. Lycoris Radiata Herb

Disc 2
Ep 10. Amare
Ep 11. Febbre Alta
Ep 12. Simbiosi
Ep 13. Stella Cadente

Picture: Gunslinger Girl

The first Gunslinger Girl series gets an upscale from the original SD source. It’s a fair transfer, with the detail and resolution matching that of the DVD for the most part. It’s clear and sharp, and looks pretty good from my normal viewing distance. A little closer examination might reveal some stair-stepping on fine line art, and there is a hint of smearing at certain points, although nowhere near as obvious as in FLCL. But you do get the show in 24fps progressive format, and compared to the UK DVDs with their NTSC-PAL conversions, it’s definitely an upgrade. It turns out the UK DVDs also had an encoding error at the top of the image, usually hidden behind overscan on CRT sets, but visible on flat panel displays.

The show’s getting to be close to fifteen years old at this point yet the animation still manages to impress. The action scenes are brilliantly designed and orchestrated, yet all of this contrasts with the quieter but atmospheric character moments. The attention to detail is notable, with the lavish designs of the weapons attesting to the care taken with the anime.

Sound: Gunslinger Girl

You get a choice of Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English and Japanese, with translated subtitles and a signs only track. The Japanese audio is my preference as always, and we get a surround upgrade from the UK DVDs. It’s not too spectacular, a glorified upmix at best, and the audio remains front-focussed for the most part. The lossless upgrade does the show justice though, making the most of the music soundtrack, and giving Beethoven’s 9th the clarity it deserves. 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. The subtitles are timed accurately and free of typos.

Extras: Gunslinger Girl

The first Blu-ray disc autoplays a trailer for Nabari no Ou, the second a trailer for D. Gray Man. Both boot to animated menus. You only get the English credits with the episodes, so you might want to hold onto the original DVDs for the multi-angle credits.

Otherwise Disc 2 offers the same extras as the DVDs. The Building Henrietta (1:07), and Building Rico (1:07) segments, as well as the textless credits are presented here in HD format.

You get the Production and Voice Director commentaries with the Simbiosi episode.

You get text dossiers for the five cyborg girls, and you get the interviews with the voice actors for them. The latter run to a total of 21:31 and are in 480i SD.

Finally there are trailers for Dragon Ball Z Kai, Evangelion 1.11, Soul Eater, Darker Than Black, Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino, The Tower of Druaga, Murder Princess, and the Hong Kong Connection label.

Conclusion: Gunslinger Girl

Studio Madhouse made the first Gunslinger Girl series, and they created something special indeed. However, it was such a departure from the original manga, focussing on character instead of narrative that the mangaka reputedly disowned it, and Madhouse was dropped for the second Il Teatrino series in favour of Artland, which offered more of a narrative based experience. It’s a prime example that sometimes creators are just too close to their babies to know what’s best for an adaptation, as the first series of Gunslinger Girl transcends its origins.

You could have a simple action show, you could have a procedural with secret girl cyborgs and their handlers battling a separatist terrorist group in a fictional Italy, and it could be very watchable, and enjoyable. Certainly Il Teatrino is no slouch when it comes to entertainment of that vein. But the first series decided that the really interesting stuff comes in the psychology of the characters. What happens to these girls that are converted into little killing machines by the state, conditioned to be devoted and obedient to their handlers to the point of obsession? How do the handlers relate to their charges? It’s a far more nuanced and interesting take on the premise that draws the viewer in and engages the emotions.

As it is, the story tends to take a back seat somewhat as a result, occasionally to the point that it loses coherence and become difficult to grasp. That doesn’t matter, as it isn’t really that interesting to begin with. The Republic Faction’s machinations and plots are secondary to the relationships between the cyborgs and their handlers. Central to the show is Henrietta’s relationship with Giuse, with Henrietta devoted to him, and with Giuse unsettled and uncertain how to deal with that devotion. He winds up treating her like a little sister, something that his older brother Jean thinks is foolish. Jean is paired with Rico, a girl he treats as a tool to get the job done, while Rico is merely grateful to have her health courtesy of the cyborg implants. Claes has been practically invalided since her handler died, while Triela’s relationship with her handler Hirscher is as close to normal as things get in this warped organisation. Angelica, who was the prototype for the programme, is the first to suffer the downsides and deterioration of the cyborg conversion, something that her handler Marco finds hard to deal with. Finally there is Elsa and Lauro, the ultimately destructive example of the cyborg handler relationship. But all of these partnerships are seen through the prism of Henrietta and Giuse’s.

It’s a fantastic show, thirteen perfect episodes, brilliantly told stories in an interesting and well-formed world. It’s very much the better of the two shows. However, the discs are limited by the source material. I’ve seen better up-scales, but there’s only so much you can do with an earlier digipaint show. There’s just a smidge too much post-processing to massage it for HD, but by the same token, I’ve seen worse up-scales too. The real upsides of this release are the lossless soundtracks, and the scratchproof discs.

9/10

Introduction: Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino

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. In Il Teatrino, the focus shifts from the cyborgs and the handlers to the foes that they face. This time it’s about the conflict that arises between the Social Welfare Agency and the Five Republics Faction terrorist group that is looking to implement its desire for the disintegration of the Italian state by any means. This time it will be a more personal conflict, between the fratello of Triela and Hirscher, and the young F.R.F. assassin named Pinocchio.

Thirteen episodes plus the two OVAs are spread across two Blu-rays as follows.

Disc One
1. Distance Between Two: Brother and Sister
2. Pinocchio
3. Simulacra
4. Angelica’s Return
5. Evanescence and Reminiscence
6. Retirement of the Tibetan Terrier
7. Caterina and the Circle of Revenge
8. A Day in the Life of Claes

Disc Two
9. Clever Snake, Simple Pigeon
10. Flowers Of Goodwill
11. Budding Feelings
12. The Fighting Puppet
13. And So Pinocchio Becomes Human
OVA 1. The Light of Venice, The Darkness of the Heart
OVA 2. Fantasma

Picture: Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino

Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino’s transfer is presented in 1080i 60Hz 1.78:1 widescreen. It’s sourced from an HD master, but this was back when HD anime was considered anything at higher than 480i resolution, and it quickly becomes clear that there is a degree of upscaling involved to get Il Teatrino to fit. Thankfully it’s limited to a smidge of stair-stepping on fine line detail. The interlaced format means that pans and scrolls aren’t quite as smooth, although thankfully combing artefacts are absent. Digital banding is quite apparent though. It certainly looks genuinely of high resolution when compared to season 1, with greater detail, crisper lines, and strong colour reproduction. One issue that crops up at 69:59 into disc 1 is a frame with dashed white lines at the bottom of the screen, some sort of video artefact.

The major nitpicks will come once you start comparing it to the first series. It's no contest really, the first series was animated by the brilliance that is Studio Madhouse after all, with a singular, melancholy style and subdued but emotive character designs. That show just oozed budget and quality. Studio Artland (Mushi-shi) animated Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino, and the results are markedly different, with a lower budget the first thing that hits you. The artwork is simpler, less nuanced, the character designs take a major knock, the overall frame rate of the animation is lower (in the first episode particularly there are corners cut by shaking a camera in front of a static image to imply frenetic action), and the colour palette is a lot brighter and generic. Compared to the first series it is simpler, cheaper, less detailed and run of the mill. But it does do enough to tell the story, and there are still moments in the show that do stand out. Also, in a reverse to the usual way of doing things, it is the earlier episodes that suffer most from cut corners; the concluding episode of the series features some really engaging and dynamic animation.

Sound: Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino

You have a choice of Dolby TrueHD 5.1 English and Japanese, along with optional subtitles and a signs only track. As always, I opted for the original language track, which for me this time was a disappointment. The show has been recast, and there is a completely different approach to the dub, making the young androids more girly and generic anime clichés. It lacks the subtlety of the original series, and it does take a lot of getting used to. In contrast, with the exception of Hirscher, the English dub cast return to voice the same characters as they did in the first series. As their approach to the girls was initially perkier than their Japanese counterparts, you'll find a lot more continuity between seasons in the English dub. The surround is unremarkable, but effective enough.

Where Il Teatrino has the edge over the first series, and quite unexpectedly is in the theme songs. The first series had some awesome music, with 'The Light Before We Land, and Dopo Il Sogno' perfect accompaniments to the show. I wouldn't have though that they could be bettered, but Il Teatrino's themes, 'Tatta Hitotsu no Omoi' and 'Doll' actually suit the story better. The incidental music in Il Teatrino is more variable, with some themes pretty thin, and others of the same high quality as the first series. Episode 8 ends in an Engrish rendition of Scarborough Fair, but for the English dub, it was re-recorded, so both versions are on this disc.

Extras: Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino

The discs boot to animated menus.

Disc 1 autoplays a trailer for D. Gray Man Season 2 Part 1.

Disc 2 autoplays a trailer for Trinity Blood.

You get the first textless opening animation, and three textless endings.

There are trailers on this disc for Dragon Ball Z Kai, Strike Witches, Negima, Soul Eater, Rin – Daughters of Mnemosyne, Evangelion 1.11, Darker than Black, and Murder Princess.

Note that the Japanese cast Interviews with Il Teatrino are restricted to the DVD discs alone.

Conclusion: Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino

I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. If the original Gunslinger Girl series didn’t exist to compare with, Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino would be a good series, entertaining, well-written, and really quite watchable. It tells a decent story, with interesting characters, offers a bit of pathos with its world of little girls turned into cyborg assassins to fight domestic terrorism in a near future fictional Italy. The problem is that the original Gunslinger Girl does exist, and Il Teatrino’s little bit of pathos just isn’t enough compared to the original’s complex and nuanced characterisations, its superior animation, the oodles of atmosphere, and the psychological take on its characters, which tips the balance away from the narrative and towards the emotional.

Gunslinger Girl Il Teatrino is an effective action series, but one which loses the tragic heart of the original, and is further hamstrung by some rather cheap and unimaginative animation. But it does have a stronger narrative, one that really goes into the conflict between the Social Welfare Agency and the Five Republics Faction terrorist group. There’s an interesting balance in the story between Triela, the girl rescued from tragic circumstances to become a cyborg, and Pinocchio, a boy rescued in much the same way to be trained as an assassin by the separatist group. You get the story told from two perspectives then, with Pinocchio and his allies plotting a terrorist bombing, while Triela and her handler Hirscher investigate and try and track the terrorists down. It boils down to the respective personal reasons that Triela and Pinocchio have to fight, and when that is at the heart of the story, Il Teatrino is at its strongest.

The weaknesses in the show become more apparent when the story focus moves elsewhere. Henrietta’s obsession with Giuse plays out more like a schoolgirl crush, with a side story about a kaleidoscope. A day in the life of Claes seems like a rerun of a similar season 1 episode, and Angelica’s presence in the series feels like a bit of a cheat given the ending of the first season. Once again we come to that inevitable problem that it’s impossible to see Il Teatrino without comparing it to the original. I just have to remind myself that beneath the mediocre and the disappointing aspects of Il Teatrino, the story is actually better than that in the first series, and that if you stick with the show, you will be rewarded by your patience.

7/10

In Summary

Scratchproof BD discs and a compact case, containing both seasons on Blu-ray and DVD might make you consider double dipping if you’re looking to save on shelf space. The HD upgrade on Il Teatrino is noticeable but not spectacular, while the upscale on season 1 is a compromise. Less in the way of compression and a progressive transfer is better than DVD, but the upscale introduces a smidge of smearing. You do get lossless surround audio all around, though. Still, the UK Gunslinger Girl DVDs had enough in the way of issues beyond the usual NTSC-PAL conversion such that this Blu-ray release is an improvement.