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R2 DVD Reviews
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Written by maehara
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Monday, 17 July 2006 00:00 |
 The more I see of Gunslinger Girl, the more convinced I am that tagging it as simply "girls with guns" is something of an injustice - there's more going on here than trying to appeal to a particular audience, but unfortunately nobody outside those who've taken a chance on the show seem to realise that. I'm not too sure the show's making the best use of it, either...
6 - Reward / Gelato
A bomb on the underground system in Rome comes to the attention of the Welfare Agency - although given the amateur design of the bomb, there's speculation it was placed there either as a warning of future action or as a distraction from something else. The "attack" is traced back to Enrico Perdini, a radical member of the Republican Faction who has a history of other attacks, so Henrietta and Giuse are assigned to tail him in the hope of rounding up other members of his terrorist cell - but Enrico's not so easy to trail...
7 - Protection / Protezione
Rico and Jean are in the city of Firenze, where Jean's knowledge of the local artwork leads to them being roped in as tour-guide for a visiting businessman, Filippo. Also in town are two members of the Republican Faction who have been warned to be on the lookout for young girls who may be assassins - and once they realise Rico may be one of them, they begin planning to adbuct her. As it turns out, Filippo himself is also an RF target, in posession of information that could be of use to the Agency - and Jean's not about to let either Rico or Filippo down on his watch...
8 - Fairy Tale / Il Principe del Regno della Pasta
It's time for the girls' regular medical checkup, which as well as the usual physical exam includes checks on their mental state - which is just as well, as not all of the girls are entirely stable. Of particular interest are Henrietta and Angelica - Henrietta because of her well-known inability to keep her emotions in check, to the point where she can't really be trusted to follow orders, and Angelica.. well, the problem there is more with her handler, Marco, who for some reason is no longer able to see her as a useful person. The reasons for that go back to the time he first me her...
9 - Cluster Amaryllis / Lycoris Radiata Herb
Of the girls at the Agency, there's one who keeps pretty much to herself: Elsa. The rest of the girls have all tried to get along with her, but the only person she seems interested in dealing with is her handler, Lauro. They've been working on a case in Tuscany, and with some loose ends to tie up Laura has asked Giuse if he and Henrietta will help him out. Faced with having to work together, Henrietta makes another attempt to strike up a friendship with Elsa, but her initial attempts are thoroughly rebuffed - but when she sees Henrietta and Giuse working together, she begins to realise that her self-imposed isolation maybe isn't the best idea...
There's a story thread beginning to run through these episodes, where the Agency locks horns with the Republican Faction - a terrorist group with unstated aims that appears to have its own internal problems as well as having the Agency chasing them down. The RF provides the excuse for most of the Agency's operations, and helps to give the episodes some sort of common thread - although they still feel very much like standalone stories for the most part.
The real story, though, is the girls themselves - how they've been "created", the lengths that their manipulation goes to, how their various handlers see them, and the effect that's beginning to have on their emotional development. Henrietta's the big clue here, as she's the one who's already been showing signs of instability, while if you pay attention to the others (particularly Elsa) there are signs that their unnatural connection to their handlers is likely to cause problems further down the line.
While the stories on this disc are all interesting enough, pacing remains a problem - there's an awful lot of standing around and talking & very little in the way of any real action. The talking's required to explain how the girls are developing and so on, but it doesn't exactly make for riveting viewing.
I'm not as enamoured with Gunslinger Girl as I was after volume one. I still think there's plenty of potential with where the story seems to be heading, but with only four episodes to go I'm beginning to wonder how well it can all be tied up - or if the RF will become a convenient tool for an all-action ending, with the rest of the story around the girls pushed out of the way. Time will tell - but for the meantime, this is probably more of a renter than a buyer.
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