Gunslinger Girl

Publisher
FUNimation / MVM
Country of origin
Japan
Format
Series
Running time
13 episodes / 25 minutes
Year
2003

Gunslinger Girl Volume 3: The Silence Of The Stars

By otaku_kei
11th Jul 06

I always find that writing the reviews to opening or closing volumes to be much easier than the intervening volumes, as for the most part you find yourself retreading old ground. With debuts and finales you can get to the core of first impressions, path of the show, and the resolution to character and plot arcs. So once again I find myself writing about another show that I have enjoyed since the beginning, but with this release comes to a melancholy close.

The Social Welfare Agency is a government front. Supposedly established to help children who have been orphaned, or have no hope for a happy life in the outside world, this agency is there as a safety net. In reality it is a branch of the Italian Intelligence services, speciallizing in using child assassins for all of the governments dirty work. Conditioned to love and obey their handlers these pre-pubescent girls are a moral dichotomy: heartless killers, yet innocent children. Henrietta, Rico, Claus, Angelica, Triella and Elsa and the dark side of State sponsored control, living weapons that cannot reason why they are being used and abused.

When a fratello partnership is found dead in a public park the Agency is put on high alert. As an investigation is launched into who murdered this pair, the rest of the girls are taken off active duty and sent off to protected custody. But as the findings of the investigation come to light it exposes just how dangerous a game the Agency is playing. Proof is provided that you cannot wind the springs on these girls too tight, that the conditioning is not flawless, and just how depraved an organisation the Agency is. Moving forward we get to see how different relationships between the fratello partnerships have effected both sides of the partnership. Some are distant, others close, but all have their faults and the conditioning does little than paper over the cracks.

This show succeeds due to the firm basis of character relationships that drive the narrative on. From each of the girls, their fratello partners, how they all interact and how all their actions effect that relationship. Henrietta has of course been the show's primary focus, and her relationship with Jose seems to be the litmus test for all other fratello partnerships. They are a lethal combination, and yet Jose demonstrates genuine afffection for his young charge. But some of the other fratello's are not that lucky, with guilt over how these girls are used being a constant source of conflict within these character. All of this is played out on screen in some fantastically acted scenes, the voice actors for all involved in the English dub certainly do need to be commended for their good work throughout this series.

This show continues its rather slow-moving, poignant story to the very end. There are no big set-pieces, or redemptive stories to be told in Gunslinger Girl. The horror of what the Agency perpetrates will continue and it will chew up and spit out countless young girls and their handlers. This melancholy ending is exactly what this show required, and manages to close the curtain on one of the finest shows of 2006. This never was the most typical of 'girls with guns' genre shows, but if you want anime that makes you think, and that all the drama is provided by the characters rather than ludicrous life or death situations, then Gunslinger Girl demands that you pick it up! I can only say how very highly I would recommend this show!

R2 DVD Notes

Features: English Language 5.1; Japanese Language 2.0; English Language Subtitles; Building Triela Production Art Gallery; Production Commentary; Voice Director Commentary; Textless Opening & Closing; MVM Trailers

Release information: OUT NOW

Notes: So with a closing volume that checks off all the usual quality benchmarks of a release from MVM - the high standard of A/V quality; quick and easy to navigate menus; and the standard extras that come with almost any UK anime release. But whne they include not one, but two audio commentaries you know you hold in your hands a very special release. A fitting treatment to an absorbing show.

-- otaku_kei 11th Jul 06

Gunslinger Girl Images