oyceter: teruterubouzu default icon (Default)
Oyceter ([personal profile] oyceter) wrote2006-09-18 10:24 pm

Gunslinger Girl, ep. 09-13

Wow, short series!

The next few episodes largely continue like the first eight did; there's a bit of a continuation between a few of the episodes, but it's not exactly a plot arc. There is, however, an understated emotional arc on the effects that the conditioning and the dysfunctional fratello-cyborg relationships have on the girls. It actually reminds me a little of Spooks/MI-5 in that way. There is a bit more of a plot in the end, since Section One (the non-cyborg section) is trying to discredit Section Two (the one with the girls), which reminds me even more of Spooks.

Spoilers

I love what they did with Elsa and her fratello, how you can see the frightening intensity of Henrietta's regard for Giuse paralleled, and what might have happened if Giuse were less kind than he is. I think he's the only fratello who has treated his partner like a person. Triela's tries, but the rest of them are treated as tools, or worse.

And oh, Angelica. And Marco. Ok, I still want to hit him, but at least he realizes what he's doing, and he's doing it to avoid his own emotional pain. It's still not excusable, but it's so much better than Rico's fratello, who simply doesn't care at all. I like Henrietta because she's cute, but really, my favorites are Triela for her snarkiness, and Angelica, because of the OMG TEH ANGST factor.

It's always hard to beat the OMG TEH ANGST factor in anime or manga. That is, unless heads in jars are involved, in which case OMG TEH ANGST merely becomes FREAK!

Oh anime, how you make me abuse capslock.

But that last scene, with the girls sitting outside singing "Ode to Joy," cut with Angelica, finally remembering some of her past, finally getting some smidgen of attention from Marco, and Marco, finally being able to care again. Ow.

On a side note, I will never be able to disassociate "Ode to Joy" with traumatic anime scenes now, thanks to this and Evangelion.

In conclusion, a series that starts out a little slow but ends up being very good and very touching in its thirteen episodes.

[identity profile] thomasyan.livejournal.com 2006-09-20 05:55 pm (UTC)(link)
The anime does a great job with the Elsa arc -- much better than the manga, which fails to fill in some the gaps, and thus is not as emotionally affecting.

Here are some posts I've made about the anime:

http://www.livejournal.com/users/thomasyan/144402.html

http://www.livejournal.com/users/thomasyan/155103.html

http://www.livejournal.com/users/thomasyan/144690.html

http://www.livejournal.com/users/thomasyan/147026.html

[identity profile] thomasyan.livejournal.com 2006-09-22 05:06 am (UTC)(link)
The manga continues. But note that the anime's ending differs from the manga storyline (or, at least, one possible interpretation is quite different), and also only 3 volumes have been translated into English, the last volume of which came out a longish time ago :(