Forum - View topicGunslinger Girl -- discussion.
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IFC_Anime
Posts: 2 |
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I came across Gunslinger Girl when I was doing pre-production for my IFC streaming documentary series, ANIME in the USA (you can see it by going to www.ifc.com/static/sections/samurai7/), Funimation stuffed the discs into a package with the Samurai 7 discs I'd requested, and I was so intrigued by the cover art I just popped disc 1 into the player and started watching.
That was all it took to hook me -- the combination of 12 year-old, cyborg assassins, beautiful art, and incredible filmmaking style (check out Henrietta's rampage in episode 1, or her way with a knife in episode 2), had my jaw on the floor. I plowed through all 13 episodes as fast as my schedule would allow. So when the Independent Film Channel asked me to help get word out about Gunslinger's debut tonight, Jan. 5, at 11 PM ET, I knew I wanted to get some discussions going, hear back about what everyone thinks is great, good, and not so good about the show. Check it out, and let's get to talking! |
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Keonyn
 Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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This is actually one of my favorite series, second really only to Haibane Renmei. I'm a little curious though, isn't it a little late to really get word out if it premiers in only a few hours?
I think what stands out the most about Gunslinger Girl is the art, fitting for a series set in Italy. I loved the style, the neutral and muted colors and the realistic look of the world around them, the detail of the guns, and the conventional clothing that was detailed and not overly simple and not outrageous. Next to the art is the music, it had a great classical score that was really well done and fit the series and tone perfectly. While the intro wasn't a classical tune it was still a very melancholy and appropriate tune and is also one of my favorite intro's. I wasn't too fond of the ending sequence but I often find I'm never all that fond of them for some reason. The story is sort of a slice of life style, it doesn't have a particular goal or ending in mind, rather it's just a troubling time in these girls lives. I like that it doesn't have a specific and and it's made apparent life goes on for the people in the series but it still doesn't really leave loose ends regarding the content of the episodes. Seems so many series either leave far too many loose ends or try way to hard to tie them all up that it leaves very little left in the way of how life will continue after the events end. Despite being assassins the girls are also very effectively portrayed and are well developed, which is good considering this really is more of a character drama than a series about assassinating cyborgs. The story was very well told and made good use of all 13 episodes, it didn't feel rushed or drawn out. Some aspects of the story can be a little hard hitting, many of the concepts portrayed can be disturbing to some. I like though that they made it obvious that it was such a bad thing and they didn't try to make light of it or trivialize it, matter of fact I'd say the series meant as sort of a look in to that darker side of humanity and what we might be willing to do or sacrifice to further our goals. It obviously wasn't just using it as a gimmick, and I liked that. My only real complaint about the series is the name, honestly everyone I mentioned this title too rolled their eyes the moment they heard it. Now every one I watched the series with, despite their reservations when they heard about it, liked it after actually sitting down and watching it. The name just drums up images of a completely different kind series, one that is the exact opposite of what it really is. |
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CGord
 Posts: 163 Location: Phoenix, AZ suburbs |
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I like it, it's a very good show. I already own the series, but I'll be TiVo'ing it anyway.
Will IFC be airing anime from sources other than ADV or Funimation in the future? |
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hentai4me
 Posts: 1313 Location: England. Robin is so Cute! |
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I really enjoyed this anime, I thought that the high quality of the animation and the attempts at being as real world correct as possible were a fresh breath of air. Most of the anime I tend to watch is Shoujo in nature and those often go for a more cutesy style to get a Moe factor in there. Gunsliger gets Moe in without needing to resort to such gimmicks.
I know a lot of people feel that what was done to these girls was wrong, or evil...I (obviously or this wouldn't have been a point...) feel otherwise. While I agree that using these girls as assassins isn't ideal you can't always judge on your morals and circumstances. Rico is a prime example, she states quite clearly that she enjoys her life at the agency and the other girls (apart from maybe Elsa) clearly don't hate their situation that much. I suppose it stems down to this 'Would you rather be happy or free?' Obviously most people would want a combination of the two. But what about the clergy? They choose to lock themselves into one of the least 'free' (depending upon denomination and faith) lives you can have in a modern Western country, so clearly 'freedom' is something these people are willing to 'give up'. I know that this situation is very different from the whole clergy thing...but what about the military? You sign your life over for a term and become essentially, as Erikson puts it, 'A violent extension of someone else's will'. Depending upon the branch of the military or the police etc you could end up performing the same kinds of jobs as these girls do. So if people are willing to sign away there 'freedoms' like this it can't be 'completely' bad to have that kind of thing thrust upon you. I know there are serious differences in my real world examples but what about historical examples? People hundreds of years ago were willing to go through the same thing with even greater restrictions on their 'freedom'. If you were mentally conditioned to enjoy you're life, no matter how bad it seems to those who haven't been conditioned is it 'really' all that bad? |
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EVA fiend
 Posts: 314 Location: Somewhere in the UK. |
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I originally bought this anime series because I was extremely annoyed by ADV's abandonment of the manga series. The anime is very pretty to look at; great animation & kawaii character designs (for the girls at least) coupled with a realistic colour palette made this a very easy anime to watch. The plot is kinda vague & slow going, & it doesn't really finish (the manga is currently at 7 volumes but the anime only covers the bulk of vols 1-3), but the characters & how they dealt with their very sad & depressing lives made up for the sketchiness of the plot. The gunplay action is also very cool, though kind of disturbing at the same time too.
And I love the opening theme "The Light Before We Land" by The Delgados, I ended up buying their Hate album for the two tracks that were featured in the anime series. 
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deltavoyage
 Posts: 6 |
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I love this series. It's definitely my favorite anime series. This is a review I wrote on the show.
Gunslinger Girl is a very tragic drama, not what you would expect from the title. I would call it one of the best animes I've ever seen. As I said earlier, this show is awesome. It is extremely tragic, but the writers manage to pull it off great. The show lacks in few departments, and excels in almost all of them. The plot: The Social Welfare Agency is a government corporation that saves lives. Or that's what the public thinks. It's actually a covert organization using cybernetic implants to enhance the patients, shaping them into effective killing machines for handling all of the governments dirty work. The patients are often young girls. Each girl has a Handler, who determines their amount of conditioning, their training style, and their name. The great: The animation in this is very interesting. This show is definitely not afraid to show blood. When people get shot, there is actually blood, instead of most TV that is pretty clean today. The details are extroadinary, and they are particularly brought out in the "Building (blank)" features on the DVDs where you see characters constructed piece by piece. The details on the guns is particularly stunning. The music in this show has a very classical feel to it. It can go from booming to very quiet. Also, the music always plays very well in the scene, especially in Episode Nine, when Elsa is shoved out of the way by Lauro. This beautiful piece is playing and then another piece which completely contrasts the other begins, symbolizing the confusement of Elsa and her pain. The opening theme is simply stunning. The Light Before We Land is one of the best songs that I've heard. It feels very much like the show itself; smooth and yet kind of rough at the same time. The drama in this show is done very well. The tragedy of it is really brought out as these girls try to cope with what they've become while still trying to hold on to their humanity. Several scenes that come to mind because of the sheer emotional intensity include these. There's Episode Three where Rico is forced to shoot a boy who she has a crush on. What is particularly tragic about this is that she is not even fazed by this later. Andother particularly tragic and dramatic scene is when Henrietta reenacts what happened with Elsa and Lauro. The scene switches between a flashback and the current time. And not the not too good: The dub on this show is not one of the better that I've heard. The girls, except for Triela, seem to be extremely quiet and reserved. I don't particularly like Luci Christian as Rico. She seems too innocent and ssweet. At first, Henrietta also seemed to be a bit too sweet. As the series progresses, her voice started to toughen a bit. Most of the Handlers' voices are well done. Eric Vale does good as the cold Jean. John Burgemeier is interesting in this show. He seems very quiet. Almost too quiet. One voice actor who stood out to me was Alese Johnson (or Watson, whatever her name actually is). When Claes slaps Angelica in Episode Twelve, Claes is very cold about it in the dub. In the Japanese version, Claes is very angry with Angelica. Both of these versions are good, and it just stood out to me as being very good and yet different. The DVDs of the show are very good. In each of them, they have a special "Building" section that I mentioned earlier. You can see Henrietta, Rico, and Triela built from scratch. There are also textless openings and endings on all of the DVDs. In the second volume, each of the voice actors for the gunslinger girls are interviewed which is interesting. However, in the third volume, there are two episode commentaries. One is the voice directors and the other is the producers. The vioce director one is drop-dead funny. Chris Sabat starts it off with this: "This is your Gunslinger Girl director commentary read along book. You will know it is time to turn the page when Laura Bailey giggles like a wiener. Like this. (she's laughing in the background) Let us begin now." Another thing that is funny is when all of the choppers are flying overhead of the two bombmakers and one of the guys quotes Arnold Schwarzenegger, "Get to the chopper! Run!" Overall, I give this show, like, a 10 billion out of ten. It is simply stunning. The dub grows on you after a while, it just seems bad at first. This is definitely a great anime and it is the best tragic drama that I have ever seen. Okay, review's over. I first saw this show with a friend of mine. She'd downloaded it off of the Internet, and I thought it was amazing. When I saw it on DVD at FYE, my eyes bugged out and I had to get it. I've got all three volumes now, and they're well worth the price. |
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Keonyn
Subscriber Posts: 5567 Location: Coon Rapids, MN |
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Interesting, I will disagree with deltavoyage and say this is actually one of my favorite dubs and I felt all the girls did a perfect job. Most reviews I've read also state the dub actors did a good job and most the complaints stem from a few instances involving the script, not so much the acting. Only weak point I found in the dub were a few minor characters in a few single scenes that were obviously just filler actors brought in to say a few one liners. The sub was good too, as far as the voice acting goes I didn't really have any major complaints about this title from either camp.
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar  Posts: 16939 |
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This show was a superb example of what great anime is. The shows biggest accomplishment was the character development between the girls. The show was very somber and filled with many serious moments that made you think. The music and dubbing were very well done and the animation was top notch. The VA who played Triella, Caitlin Glass, was at Otakon this past year. I got to meet her and talk to her for a bit outside of the panels and signings she did. She mentioned the fact that they really tried to have the VA's get into the mood for the show and that it was a very emotional work and everyone who worked on it. That's also her actually singing in German when Triella sings that song in the anime. I thought that was cool. Having been to Italy before I can say it's truly a beautiful area and I really liked the settings used in this anime. My only complaint was that is was too short. Towards the end it felt like they rushed things a bit. If the show had been a full 26 episodes they could've fleshed out some more of the supporting characters and show more of the girls pasts before they were put into the program. Over all though one the best anime I've seen.
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Randall Miyashiro
 Posts: 2451 Location: A block away from Golden Gate Park |
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This series has one of the greatest OP credits ever. I believe that it was directed by veteran Rin Taro (who I voted for on the recent ANN poll). This is also one of the Funimation DVDs that has both subtitles and dubtitles. I actually watched the series with Japanese audio and dubtitles (dub transcription) on to see how accurate the dub's translation was. There are a few points where the off screen dialog was added to an otherwise quiet scene. I find this fairly often in English dubs, and wondered if it has something to do with cultural pacing of films. Maybe American audiences (or at least the people who dub films) think that long spans of no dialog would make people uncomfortable. Robotech comes to mind where there seemed to be a narrator saying something between every scene! Maybe this is also rooted in manga and comics since comics from the US traditionally have those "meanwhile" "later" or even a full paragraph in little boxes at the corner of the frame It always seemed really odd to me.
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ManOfRust
 Posts: 1935 Location: Seattle, WA |
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I did the exact same thing, knowing nothing about the band. I have been listening to the disc regularly ever since. "The Light Before We Land" is definitely the highlight, but the whole disc is very good if a bit dark in tone (the lyrics not the music).
I completely agree. Whenever I hear "The Light Before We Land", I can see the OP credits in my mind. It's just a beautiful sequence of animation, paired perfectly with the music. As to the series itself, I too think it is one of the better shows I have seen. I agree with many of the comments made so far and won't repeat them. For me, the stories of the handlers were as interesting and as tragic as the the stories of the girls, and I think in many ways the series is as much about them as it is the assassins. Seeing the different ways the handlers decide to manage the relationship with their charges and the effect of these choices was interesting and, I thought, very well done. While there is a small part of me that wishes this series was longer, I thought it had one the best final episodes of any series I have seen. Not only did it bring closure to the series, but it did so in a powerful and well constructed episode that gave the show a very satisfactory ending even though there is not a definite conclusion to the overall story. Make sure you watch all the way through the credits, as the last scene after the credits roll is one of my favorites. spoiler[To me, the look Jose/Guise gives Henrietta as they go back to work communicates volumes. Having just witnessed the events with Angelica and Marco, he knows what is in store for him in the not too distant future. Of all of the handlers, he seems the most affected by the moral ambiguity of what they have done to the girls, and his final look reflects all the pain and uncertainty that have been building in him as the story progressed.]. Of course, I may be reading too much into that one scene, but that's how I saw it and I think it was a great way to end the show. |
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undeadben
 Posts: 1212 Location: West Texas |
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I also have to agree with everyone about the opening theme. It's my favorite in any anime I have seen. This is what I wrote in the best op theme topic in the music forum:
Reading you guys talk about it makes me want to go watch that opening again, good thing my set is on loan right now or I'd probably end up watching a few episodes right now.
I'll probably be one of the few people who will agree with you here. I also loved the ending episode. It had kind of a "we can look toward tomorrow, but we must live in today" kind of feel to it, and managed to show so much visually, figuratively, and symbolically that it still took me a few minutes to digest it all after it was over, especially with that last closing scene that you mentioned. I definitely don't think you're reading too much into it, if there wasn't a meaning to it, they could have just faded to black after the credits rolled. You just helped inspire a new avatar. Look. |
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MirageK009
 Posts: 13 |
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Luckily there is much more to this series in the Manga. I am reading Book 7 to Chapter 37. There is a lot more development among the girls and additional information about them.
If you haven't picked up the manga, I would suggest reading it. |
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Redbeard 101
Oscar the Grouch
Forums Superstar Posts: 16939 |
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As far as I can tell the rest of the manga never got translated and published here in the States. At least, any bookstore by me never got more then volumes 1 and 2 which greatly disappointed me.
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douglas2k6
 Posts: 46 Location: U.S.A. |
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Actually have this series, only seen the 3 episodes, I have to watch the rest!
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MirageK009
Posts: 13 |
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This is an OUTRAGE!!! Makes me want to cry when series don't get finished...
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