We find ourselves in modern-day Italy, just outside of Rome, to be precise. Out there, a government branch that is known to practically the general population, the Social Welfare Agency, has one of its buildings. What most don’t know is their true objective and agenda. The Social Welfare Agency, or just The Agency, is in reality a Counter-Terrorism and Counter-Intelligence sort of branch. It has two special ops divisions – Section 1 and Section 2, and our story mostly focuses on what’s happening in Section 2.
The Agency continually looks for heavily injured and/or orphaned girls, and brings them into their facilities. They are subjected to a number of operations, in which the girls are ‘augmented’ if you will, with all sorts of implants. This results in better reflexes, heightened strength, faster movement, be more precise overall. The government uses these augmented children in operations in the field. Each child gets assigned a “handler” as it is called, and together they are referred to as fratello – Italian for siblings.
To achieve total loyalty and obedience of the children, a certain proecdure of brainwashing is used, called “conditioning”. The level of which can apparently be increased or decreased as desired. It is, apparently, sometimes used if a child has failed to complete a job or was not good enough at it.
The show is set in a very real world with very real places and very real money – no superpowers or superstitions. The currency used in the show is the Euro (20, 50, and 100 Euro notes can be seen throughout the show). Actual places and landmarks were also used and drawn, such as the Colosseum, and Pantheon.
The show is divided into two parts. Where as the first 13 episodes concentrate more on the characters and their differences, the second part – Il Teatrino – has a story arc and focuses basically on an ongoing operation to bring down a terrorist cartel operating in Italy. As thw two parts are produced by different studios, differences in the drawing and animation is heavily visible – although it does not impact the overall experience. It should also be noted that the two parts have entirely different openings and endings. I have to say the Il Teatrino opening and ending is better than the first part.
It does raise ethical questions as to how far one can go with utilizing children for whatever purpose. At one point it is stated that ultimately The Agency tries out new things and it has to be tested somewhere, and by doing this with the children, they’d be helping a lot of other injured and ill people who could, otherwise, not be saved. Of course it is not further explained how true this is – so it is up to you to believe them and hope the kids do more good then harm.
Deep down they are children and as such have a child-like mind. They have questions, feel love and hate, wonder about things. How deep the rabbit whole goes… that’s for you to see.
It is without a doubt one of the better Animes out there, and if I should describe it in one sentence, I’d say: If Quentin Tarantino were to make an Anime, that’d be it. Watch it, you won’t be disappointed.
Gunslinger Girl
Director: Morio Asaka
Studio: Madhouse
Original run: October 8, 2003 – February 19, 2004
Episodes: 13
Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino
Director: Rei Mano
Studio: Artland
Original run: January 7, 2008 – March 31, 2008
Episodes: 13
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