16 November 2003: Gunslinger Girl
Gunslinger Girl is a new anime by Madhouse Production based on the eponymous manga. It is fairly serious show about young cyborg girls who work as a special forces unit, kicking asses and taking names. At least one of the girls, Henrietta, was recruited (or enslaved—depending on your point of view) by the Social Welfare Agency, which rescued and reconstructed her Robocop-style after Henrietta and her family were brutally assaulted by persons unknown.
Henrietta
Gunslinger Girl started off slowly, but wow, this show really took a turn for the better in Episode Four—easily the most interesting one so far.
And let's get this out of the way right off the bat: Triela > Henrietta > Rico.
As you probably guessed, Episode Four is the Triela introductory episode. If I understand the inferences correctly, Triela is the seasoned veteran of the group, who will be called upon to impart wisdom on the rookie(s), Henrietta and possibly Rico.
Triela
What really struck me this episode is how much autonomy each of the "brothers" has with regard to their treatment of the girls. For example, Triela's handler adopts a much colder method of instruction than the method Jose uses for Henrietta, but neither is as strict as Rico's handler.
Jose and Henrietta
There are also signs that the girls themeselves retain different degrees of humanity. Rico seems like she is practically all robot when compared to Triela, who seems the most human of all the girls introduced so far.
One thing that is bugging me is the show's bizarre 4:3 letterboxing. Why make the opening and closing credits 4:3 and then slap bars in the frame during the actual show? They should have just made the whole thing widescreen. What are the people watching this on television in Japan supposed to do if they have 16:9 televisions? Zoom in and out during the course of the show? I just don't understand.
Gunslinger Girl is being fansubbed by The Triad, and a few other groups. Downloads are available from the usual sources.
ADV Manga has licensed the original manga. The first volume has been released and is currently available for sale in the United States. Unfortunately, it's not as big as I was hoping. It's roughly the same size as the U.S. prints of the Kare Kano and Love Hina volumes. Frankly, I wanted it octavo-sized. The paper isn't particularly good, but is certainly acceptable. Thankfully, it does read right to left. Hopefully, the days of flipped manga will soon be behind us. (On a related note, I hope to God someone wakes up and re-releases the Kaze no Tani no Naushika manga printed properly.) Volume One has a cover price of $9.99. Here's a scan of the cover.
