With a name like Gunslinger Girl you might think this will be a high action and adventure series, but you could not be further from the truth. Gunslinger Girl is one of the most thought provoking series I have seen in a long while. It takes on the base moral issues of the use of children as weapons, along with the different manifestation of emotional love. There is plenty of action. Just picture a 10 year old girl beating the crap out of a full grown man 5 times her size. OK, now you got that picture in you head, next imagine an entire episode devoted to exploring the meaning of Scarborough Fair by Simon and Garfunkel.

Highlights
This 13 episode series takes place sometime after the Balkan wars in Italy where the government has created a secret organization made of handlers and cyborg killers. These cyborg killers are young girls that were found close to death and lacking identities. They were saved from the human slave and sex trade. After being saved and rebuilt, they had their memories wiped and lacked the basic moral repulsion to kill. The government uses them to help bring down terrorist and stop the opposing regional factions from overthrowing the powers to be.

There is a great twist in the series, the northern faction has developed their own young killer. His name is Pinocchio and he was raised by one of the leaders and current head of the organization. He also was found without an identity but was not upgraded with cyborg body part. He is a top flight killer and almost unstoppable.

A sub-plot becomes a rivalry between one of the lovely cyborgs and Pinocchio. It turns out to have a major part of the ending and depicts much of the moral struggle that this series addresses. The some of real action all comes in the final episode and it says much about how the creators of this beautiful series wanted the subject to be approached and displayed.

 

Overall

The shear quiet control and introspection of this series is at times overwhelming. I found myself dumbfounded at times and given the ability to contemplate what I had just seen, I was able to fully understand the intent of the writer and director. The flow of the series was so well planned out that I continually became relaxed and then was thrown a real slap in the face. To juxtapose the sweetness of a small girl and a violent attack and brutal beatings is hard to swallow and also makes a blatant statement about humanities inability to control the evil and horror it contains deep down inside.

The one thing that tugged at my softer side the most was the way love was dealt with in the series. It was all about platonic love and the type of love that is displayed by siblings and parent and child. These young girls are first portrayed as being somewhat devoid of emotions, but they really have very complex emotions and their connection to their older handlers, mostly 20 to 30 year-old males, is at the core of this series. Most of them struggle with the connection and the real fact that their true motivation is to be loved by their handlers, but the handlers see them as machines at a basic level. Although this is played out and the humanity in the girls does surface and begin to affect the handlers.

I was not sure if everyone was going to die in the end and I'm not going to give anything away, but this series is not ment to be a comedy or fast and furious action adventure. It is a real though provoker and should be taken in over time. If you like Anime that makes you think, then Gunslinger Girl is for you. Personally, I found it to be a real work of art with the beauty of the Mona Lisa and the horror of the Garden of Earthly Delights.

There was one very funny part of the Disc set, it was the extra that included commentary by two of the voice actors. The played Indian Poker and did some other strange things. The segment was very odd and awkwardly put together but disturbingly hard to turn off. I found myself standing in front of my TV with the remote in hand and my finger on the stop button, but unable to press it.

I would tell everyone to make the time to watch this series, but I know it is not for everyone. If you liked Last Exile and Air this one is for you.