Gunslinger Girl: Complete Box Set

Gunslinger Girl: Complete Box Set
by Morio Asaka

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DVD Cover Information

Actor: Ami Koshimizu, Dave Trosko, Kanako Mitsuhashi, Sendai Eri, Yuka Nanri
Director: Morio Asaka
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo; Japanese (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo
Format: Animated, Box set, Color, Dolby, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.77:1
Running Time: 375 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2006-09-19
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Funimation Prod

Movie Reviews of Gunslinger Girl: Complete Box Set

Movie Review: Awesome Story Concept!
Summary: 4 Stars

I saw a preview for this on another Anime I had watched and I was instantly intrigued by its premise. "Gunslinger Girl" just looked phenomenal and action packed. On the back of one of the DVD's it said "Anime's answer to `The Professional'..." by Rob Bricken, a reviewer at Anime Insider. Needless to say this definitely caught my attention. "The Professional" is one of my favorite films with an absolutely phenomenal story.

"Gunslinger Girl" definitely poses a very controversial concept, but that's what makes it very good. The show takes place in Italy and primarily centers on the story of a little girl named Henrietta. The premise is based around a top secret government organization that is part of the Social Welfare Agency. It's not about giving children new homes; it's about giving terminally ill patients a new chance at life. The one catch is that, regardless of the fact they're children, they have to become super assassins for the government. The children are given new cybernetic bodies to accomplish these seemingly inhuman feats for children. However, despite these enhancements they are still children and they need extensive training, as well as re-learning how to use their new bodies. Although not everything on a girl is replaced as we later learn with Triela. Each girl is teamed up with a handler (together called a fratello (siblings)) who is responsible for training her in combat and supervising her on missions. This is where that whole line of ethics becomes heavily blurred. I know some people will dismiss the idea of training children to be assassins as just plain wrong. But the fact remains that without the agencies interference they would be dead. Not to mention these super assassins are fighting against terrorists that would further harm other innocents. It's not like they're taking little girls that could live normal lives, they are taking those that are already damaged beyond repair. The only part that makes me curious is the girls undergo something called "conditioning" to increase their obedience and docility to their handlers. It also makes them forget their tragic past. They really didn't get into the details of what they do or what its effects are. The handlers have the ability to choose how much conditioning a girl receives, which brings us into the ethics of their trainers.

Henrietta is the girl we get to know best, along with her handler Jos?. You really do like this pair, because they seem to compliment each other quite well. Jos? treats Henrietta like a little sister and truly does care about her feelings. He wants her to be happy in her new chance at life. Not all trainers are like Jos? though. Jean, on the other hand, is very demanding of Rico, but Rico seems to deal with this personal strife better than some could imagine and she's fiercely loyal to Jean. Triela and her handler have sort of an understanding, she's the oldest and most self sufficient, but she still wants her handler to be proud of her and he's happy keeping his distance. Not everything works out this well for a fratello, because in the case of Angelica and Marco things are not going so well. There seems to be some serious memory flaws because of the implants (Angelica was the prototype) and Marco has a very difficult time dealing with helping this child overcome her problems and then her forgetting. The worst case scenario is probably Elsa and her handler. He is so uncaring and cold to her that it just feels wrong; to him she is just a tool. You intrinsically know that regardless of the fact that they are cyborgs, they are still children and need nurturing. They need to feel like they're accomplishing something. Most of the girls are very grateful for a new chance at life and genuinely enjoy what they do. They even know they have been conditioned and sometimes question whether it's their brain washing talking or it's the real them.

As you can see I thought the story concept was brilliant. You go through all kinds of episodes dealing with different missions and different teams. Primarily we see Henrietta and her story, but you get to see what happens with all the other girls I mentioned, as well as Claes, who has a very interesting story. You see their handlers deal with the problems of having to essentially raise children and how they go about doing this. A lot of them can't treat their girls like any other weapon, it's tough to do that, especially when it speaks and you know there is a conscious mind behind the words! I do wish there was more of a central story to the whole series though. Watching the missions and getting to know the characters was really great, but at the end it just ended. There wasn't a huge blow out ending or anything. It makes me hope that they write another series in this universe with these girls, this one just feels so introductory.

I thought this was a very good series and I would definitely recommend it to just about anyone. Just don't expect it to be all action, like I had initially thought. It really is more like "The Professional" when I think about it because that dealt a lot with the issues and emotions of training a child in the art of assassination. One thing I do commend "Gunslinger Girl" for doing is making all the weapons real. It's funny because I recognized a lot of the guns from the video game Counter Strike, so it makes me wonder if there was some influence there! In the end I have to say my favorite character was Triela. I really thought she was the most interesting character in some ways because it felt like she had the most personality and she was also playing the big sister role. I do wish this series delved more into the technology, because they referenced that the cyborgs lived a shorter life-span, but they never say how short that is, or if they are working on technology to increase that. In the end I am left with a lot of questions and wanting more episodes, so maybe someone will read this and make more in the spirit of this first installment. This set comes in three normally sized DVD cases complete with a slipcase to package all three. This really should get 4.5 out of 5.

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Summary of Gunslinger Girl: Complete Box Set

The Social Welfare Corporation is a secret military force that has been "saving" orphaned girls by making them more machine than flesh. No longer children, they are assassins. and an even more frightening truth will change everything. Box Set Features: . Exclusive collector's box . 13 Episodes . 325 Minutes of Content . Audio commentary . 16:9 widescreen . 5.1 English audio

Henrietta, Claes, Triela, Angelica, and Rico, the adolescent heroines of the broadcast series Gunslinger Girl (2003), are orphans who have been turned into petite assassins through cybernetic implants and brainwashing. Each girl has an older, male "handler" from the Social Welfare Agency, a covert branch of the Italian government, who oversees her training and takes her on missions. The miniature murderers travel through Italy, dispatching criminals, right-wing terrorists, and uncooperative police officers with a cold-blooded efficiency Scarface might envy. The girls remember a few scattered fragments of their past lives, and the only feeling they express is a mixture of affection and adoration for the handlers. This lack of emotion makes them singularly unappealing as characters and robs Gunslinger Girl of the pathos of Saikano. None of them feels a shred of regret for their murderous actions: In episode 8, Henrietta complains that's she's only killed four people in the last month. The results suggest Key the Metal Idol re-made by Sam Peckinpah. Although Gunslinger Girl was one of the first examples of the "murderous moppet" genre of anime, it ranks among the grimmest series of recent years. (Rated TV 14: considerable violence, alcohol use) --Charles Solomon

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