Gunslinger Girl - Complete Series with OVA (Anime Classics)

When I purchased this product, this is what I knew about it: Little girls, Big guns. That was the tag line, and that was honestly all I needed to see to drop some money on it. I crunched through the 5 discs in about a week, and overall was very satisfied with the show. As I am an avid supporter of avoiding spoilers, my review will be as spoiler free as possible.

A brief overview of the series, since the product information says very little: The Social Welfare Agency in Italy's Section 2 is composed mostly of young cyborg girls and their handlers. Girls with tragic pasts are given a second chance at life with cyborg bodies, and are raised in a "fratello" - that is, sibling-like relationship - with their handlers, who are in charge of keeping the girls in line and caring for them. Season One(discs 1-2) doesn't really have an overall plot, Season Two(discs 3-4) has a larger story going on throughout with some terrorist bombers and an assassin named Pinocchio, and the OVAs(disc 5) are more like two stand-alone episodes than a movie, which is what I had expected them to be.

With a title like Gunslinger Girls, the box art, and the product information, I expected this series to have a lot of action, shootouts, fights etc. The reality is that the focus of this show is NOT about the fighting and missions the girls of Section 2 carry out. Now, don't get me wrong, the portions of the show that do focus on the missions are very exciting and violent. However, I would not call this the focus of the show, I wouldn't even classify it as an action anime. The focus of the anime, as well as the thing that makes it so successful, is the relationships which develop between the girls and their handlers. You have these really young girls, brutally efficient in combat, but they are still relatively innocent of mind, and have to rely on their assigned handler like a parent, boss, brother, lover, what have you. The poster-child of the series, the Section 2 operative Henrietta, looks up to her Handler Jose with such honest admiration that you feel pretty bad knowing the reality of their situations. Jose, in turn, treats Henrietta like his own sister or daughter, and is always kind and loving. In contrast, other handlers treat their girls like tools, and the effect that the handlers have on their respective girls' development is explored throughout the series. In this sense the series almost takes on the genre of a psychological drama. If you think that the heavy dosage of handler-operative interaction with moderate interweaving of political action and mission-undertaking will keep you entertained, you will definitely love the series.

One more small note: I had assumed that the series would follow Henrietta and Jose as the main characters for the entirety of the show, but this is not the case. It hops around to many different characters and in many episodes Henrietta isn't even present. Just be aware that the series doesn't really present a "main character" to follow. To reiterate, this series is really enjoyable, and it contains great action, but be aware that it does not rely on the action to keep your interest.

This was another series I just didn't know much about. I brought it after checking out the reviews left by others. I'm sure glad I did. The realationships between the girls and their handlers is great. Even the ones where the handler is aloaf and attempts to act as if they aren't dealing with a young girl but a machines. It was interesting to watch how the girls reacted in different ways to how their handlers treated them. This series is another must buy for your collection.

ok guys what i have seen from this show it is a pretty good anime to watch if your into blooding acton shows then this is anime for you i plan on getting my copy this june of 2012 it be nice anime add my collection.

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