gunslinger girls???

[GrubbTheFragger]

i just watched the 1 of the eps on a sample disk and i was wondering how is the series and how long is it?

[Cap'n Nick]

The series is 13 episodes long. As for how much I enjoyed it, I'm still mulling it over. The animation was decent and it had a fair share of cliffhangers, but the overall premise might just be too much to swallow.

The basic premise of the series is a covert organization that takes terminally ill girls and turns them into cyborg assassins. Each girl is paired with an older male that she is trained through brutal psychological conditioning to obey and worship. I thought this was a very promising setup. In addition to the usual guns and cute girls action we have a tantalizing moral dilemma with the potential to play out with tragic poignance in the lives of the characters. How would these people cope with a world that had its foundation in a such a dark and twisted relationship?

I should have known from the start that I was reading too much into things. Though the show does deal with the difficulty of this life, for the most part it ignores it completely. The ultimate message seems to be that the relationship between the girls and their handlers is not wrong, but beautiful, despite or even because of the dark circumstances that gave them rise. However, even this unsatisfying conclusion is little more than an afterthought. Most of the episodes squander this introspective potential in favor of gunfights and intrigue that could have been played out in any other setup.

I don't know planet they were from, but in my world having a romantic relationship with a preteen girl by taking her from her family and rewiring her brain is not acceptable behavior. I find it twisted that this show endorses and even capitalizes on these inappropriate desires.

[Kenshin17]

Hm...I got quite a bit more out of the show then that. To me the relationships seemed to be part of the tragic brutality of what was being done to the girls. To me the ultimate message of the show was, they have been given a new chance at life but at what cost. Their was quite a bit of deep stuff here. To me each handler/cyborg pair deminstrated a faulty handling of the situation. Some handlers saw their charges as mear weapons and treated them no better then a firearm. Others tryed to treat them like normal girls in an attempt to somehow make using them as weapons "better" or "acceptable". To me the romance between the handlers and the cyborgs was another way of showing the inhumanity of what had happened as those relationships would not have existed had they not been "enhanced"

I personally liked this series. I plan to buy it when the complete collection comes out. I am not trying to be argumentative just stating my opinion. No offense meant to anyone

[Kawaiikneko]

Aw man I loved this show! The first time I watched it through by myself and it didn't get me as much, but the second time I watched it with a bunch of my friends and I teared up alot.

I don't think the relationship between the girls and their "brothers" was beautiful. I thought it showed it as very sad. The end is sadly ironic, because theses girls are in such bad circumstances, and yet they're still some form of "happy". I haven't seen this in awhile, but I really want to watch it again. Since its only 3 dvds I want to buy the boxset when it comes out

[Mr. SmartyPants]

The ultimate message seems to be that the relationship between the girls and their handlers is not wrong, but beautiful, despite or even because of the dark circumstances that gave them rise. However, even this unsatisfying conclusion is little more than an afterthought. Most of the episodes squander this introspective potential in favor of gunfights and intrigue that could have been played out in any other setup.

[spoiler]I will have to disagree with you when you say the ultimate message was alwaysshowing the relationship in a positive light. Rico was constantly beatened by her owner. While it is true the girls had some feelings for their owners, that is due to the conditioning. And I did NOT see the conditioning to be seen as a lighthearted good thing. Why else did Joseph decide to never condition Henrietta? He let her live without being forced to love Joseph. It is not uncommon for a younger girl to have feelings for a much older guy as well. Plus it happens in anime a lot. (Full Moon Wo Sagashite?) Also to note it could also be sort of a sibling love. As they were a "Fratello" or "Brother and Sister"[/spoiler]

I don't know planet they were from, but in my world having a romantic relationship with a preteen girl by taking her from her family and rewiring her brain is not acceptable behavior. I find it twisted that this show endorses and even capitalizes on these inappropriate desires.

[spoiler]Romantic relationship? I think that is taking it too far. The young girls are infatuiated with their "owner" because they were conditioned to love them. As when you love somebody, you will do whatever for them without question. Recall that Josef is someone who is NOT trying to use conditioning to Henrietta. Therefore Henrietta is doing things by her own judgement, and sometimes doens't listen to Joseph. I think that was what the story was about.

Some of the owners even cared deeply for their girl. while others simply used them as a tool for assasisnation. Joseph definately liked Henrietta, and the other guy loved writing stories for Angelica. I found Gunslinger Girl to be a power anime of rejecting the norm (Not giving Henrietta conditioning) and even at times, the relationship was seen in a negative light. Recall that Rico was beatened by her owner, Jan.[/spoiler]

[Kenshin17]

Well spoken. More eloquent then me.

[Cap'n Nick]

I say the relationship is ultimately portrayed as positive because of the events of the last episode.

[spoiler=the last episode...]Why else would we have the "touching" moment in which Henrietta breaks down and says that her "love" is true and pure even though she knows full well that it was brought on by psychological conditioning? And then the show ends with the girls all singing in some huge Charlie Brown Christmas moment.[/spoiler]

In short, the gestures of the end of the show pretty much gloss over the difficulties of the situation completely. Even without that, you'd have a hard time arguing to me that the viewer is not supposed to be intrigued by the idea of a young girl following his every whim.

[Kawaiikneko]

I think the ending was meant to be ironic, as I mentioned before. If you'll recall the men with them at the time comment on how sad it all is. I think the viewer is supposed to be watching all this as a person on the outside who can sympathize with the girls. The irony of the show is that these people don't feel bad for the girls and they justify their actions one way or another, but as someone looking in on the action the viewer can see that things are not right and realize how wrong everything is. That's why the ending is so sad; because the girls don't have a perception of how bad they have it and they're going to continue to be used.

And when I was watching it I didn't ever think there was any "romantic" love going on. I always felt it was more of a fatherly or brotherly love.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

[spoiler]If I may recall, Joseph was the one who refused to give psychological conditioning to Henrietta. That's why Henrietta made so many mistake as an assassian. I think Henrietta slowly began to have feelings for Joseph by her own choice. Slowly and gradually. Now is this a good thing? Not really. But does it happen in real life? Yes, and we cannot deny that. Sometimes people fall in love with others whom it is just simply impossible to further pursue in a relationship with.

I loved the ending, it simply showed that the girls, dispite thard hardships, could unite together and be friends. Even if some were eventually going to die. They were all there together under one cause. (Whether it was good or bad)[/spoiler]

[Allegro]

Mr. SmartyPants: Perhaps it would be necessary to give *spoiler warnings* on some areas in your postings (as GrubbTheFragger has only seen one episode of the series).

Overall, I pretty much agree with the consensus here.

The girls are trained by their masters like hunting dogs - efficient and obedient government tools that are able to handle their dirty work. Given the ability to be loyal towards their masters, it sets a conflict between the girls and their trainers who see their jobs in different terms. Call it a certain "conflict of interest" in that some of their masters would hesitate in sending a pre-adolescent out in the field to kill people. It's not right and thus, a level-headed master would find pity in finding themselves caught in such a situation of doing their jobs.

But given this premise of the entire anime\manga series from beginning to end, I hardly think that any loli overtones would justify the message as anything but a tragedy; little girls are trying to fill a certain maternal\paternal void, which have been tragically lost by an agency with little moral or ethical obligation for their well-being.

[mitsuki lover]

How does it compare with Noir.As I just bought Noir I wonder if one of these days I should buy Gunslinger Girls as well.

[Mr. SmartyPants]

How does it compare with Noir.As I just bought Noir I wonder if one of these days I should buy Gunslinger Girls as well.

Gunslinger's central focus aren't battles or assassinations. Those are just subplots within an episode/a few episodes. And gunslinger is more serious I believe. It also focuses on different characters at different times. There is no real "grand plot" either.

[GrubbTheFragger]

Nior and Gunslinger girls are alot different from what i've heard (don't take my word for it i haven't fully scene either) Gunslinger girls is more violent thats for sure

[rocklobster]

How does it compare with Noir.As I just bought Noir I wonder if one of these days I should buy Gunslinger Girls as well.

both of these are on keiichianimeforver.com. Go there and watch a few episodes and decide for yourself.

[termyt]

Gunslinger Girls focuses far more on what the indivdual girls are like now than on how they got here and what will become of them. Noir focuses more on resolving the back story than on developing the characters (not say the character's aren't developed, just that the focus is on resolving the story).

So, I would say they are very similar to each other, just different on which aspect of the story they focus on.

That's just my opinion, of course. I kind of wish that the fate of the Gunslinger Girls was a little more clear. Perhaps the manga goes further.

[eva-boy7985]

It's totally different from Noir. I highly recommend it though! As far as content, the violence can get a bit intense at times, but that's as bad as it gets. The story is quite melancholic in tone, and it's also rather introspective you might say. To me, it took the whole "science vs. value of human life" framework and presented it in a unique new light. It's a 3 disc show; 13 episodes if I remember correctly. Try to score the first disc that comes with the box cuz you get this shweet cloth jumbo poster of the characters!

[Mr. SmartyPants]

Perhaps the manga goes further.

It actually does. I haven't read it though. According to sources, the manga is not finished.

[mitsuki lover]

Ok,I'll wait and see how much I like Noir then consider wheter or not to get Gunslinger Girls.
btw:I read up on Noir at the official ADV website for it and both Monica Rial and
Tiffany Grant are in it.

[Warrior 4 Jesus]

Gunslinger Girls more serious than Noir? I haven't seen GG but Noir wasn't exactly a picnic the park (great series but very dark).

[eva-boy7985]

The show covered a number of different themes to me, yes some a bit more in depth than others. One thing it excellently was portray how each one of the girls, in some fashion, or another desired what they knew to be a normal childhood and life of a young girl. While they carried out their mission objectives effectively for the most part, you could see at various points how each one of them struggles with the knowledge that they are indeed different and experience things differently compared to "normal" girls their age. I think the relationships each one of them had with their handlers was one of the ways the show expressed this struggle. I dunno......I loved the show and found it be powerful on a number of different levels. To me, considering how messed up the world is today that we live in, the show displayed the evils of exploiting children in a unique (and well yes, semi-unrealistic) way; Whatever the case, death and such things are viewed in a much more serious and dire fashion than in shows like Noir and/or Madlax; while violent at times, it isn't without cause per se'. Wonderful, show for sure and I really recommend it :-)

[Ratrace]

Sounds interesting. So far it sounds like an "everything is left to the viewers opinion" anime. I tend to find those a bit inconsistant. Is it like that?