Ranked #1747

Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-

Having being the first reviewer to actually finish the series, I'd like to say that, despite the obvious reduction in artwork due to changing production studios. They do try their best in trying to stay faithful to the manga. In which they do quite well in my opinion all the way to the final episode.

Story - (Great)
Basically the main story arc this time around is having the girls try to crack down on a radical terrorist organization. The story is simple enough to cause enough action, drama, and straight up melancholy sadness. Yu Aida does such a good job on the story that theres a high chance of having the viewer actually feeling sorry for some of the bad guys.

Art - (Fair)
The art is the obvious difference between the first season and second season. It's almost feels as if a different team was hired to do the art production, and you're 100% right. In all honesty its not the production companies fault that the quality is different. But its painfully obvious that they don't have that 1,000,000Yen per episode backing them. The Art, for the most part does its job not wonderfully, but pretty well. They still manage to hand paint a few landscape pictures of Italy and all its landmarks, they still draw the girls as cute as hell, its all just a little less detailed and polished as before. And you won't see any more brands (other than the guns and a Vespa) floating around. You can also tell money is a big factor in the first few episodes when you can see certain cost cutting techniques like "shaking" a still photo, or slow motion punches. But if you endure to the end you'll manage to see the most exciting episode in the GSG series.

Sound - Fair
Sound is another thing that is a mixed bag. All the action and other sound effects fit this show perfectly fine, but the SAME music plays over and over and over again. Once in a while a new song will appear but they go back to the same 3 songs throughout the whole series. But thankfully its not too intrusive, but its noticeable. That was my only issue with the sound. Everything else was just fine.

Characters - (Very Good)
Now the characters are just as lovable as before, but it does seem like they emit a little more emotion this time around. I can buy that since they are older and (for the most part) learn things. They do look a little different but that just takes getting used to. We do learn a little more of each of the girls and even get introduced to a new character. I was spoiled with falling in love with the dubbed version of the first season, so I never got a chance to pay attention to the seiyu's from there. But they seem to make the voices fit fine. Moe, tsundere, playful, and smart they all fit just fine in my opinion.

Enjoyment - (Good)
Overall its just like working at a big call center in America, everything is fine and smooth for the first year, and then you find out that they have to take massive cuts or send your job to India. It's the same job but, just with less money and quality. If you can keep an open mind, you can see they do their best to follow Yu Aida's dream. I sure hope they make Volume 6 (of the manga) into an OVA.
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I'm hearing so much bleating about how different S2 is to S1, I thought I'd better jot down a couple of pointers for the uninformed.

Anybody who's watched S1 will realise that Madhouse spoilt us - everything was right, the artwork, the music, the character design and most of all the story. When Marvelous commissioned S2 they, for whatever reason (I assume Madhouse had become victims of their own brilliance and had too much work - including, I heard, Satoshi Kon's new movie) they gave the job to ArtLand. This meant an entirely new crew working on the project, from the artists to the seiyuu (so, yes, the characters will look and sound different - live with it). Sadly, for whatever reason, ArtLand simply don't seem to have the budget to fill the very large shoes left by Madhouse (maybe all is not well at the production house, Marvelous.)

Let's start off with what's wrong. The artwork is generally horrible, especially the 'shakey stills' used in episode 1's fight scenes. That was nasty. However, there does seem to be a gradual improvement up to episode 3, although there still isn't enough cash to animate the fight between Pinocchio and Triela properly. (I can only hope that they're keeping funds in reserve to throw at the payoff at the end of the story). The backgrounds are good, but I have a sneaky suspicion they're merely photos that have been painted over.

That said, I want to make one thing very clear: If you're watching GSG as an action show, stop watching it now, because you've missed the point. Whatever action there is, is merely the thread that ties the main story - the relationships between the girls and their handlers within the various fratellos - together.

Character design is another weakness, as are the voices. Jose's terrible hair keeps reminding me of Satou from Welcome to the NHK, and I have no idea who decided to make Henrietta sound so chirpy - it just doesn't work. Maybe I'm nitpicking, but the OP is a bit lame too (although the words have significant meaning) but it's never going to be a 'Light Before We Land'. The ED, however, is about as perfect and suitable as you could get - haunting and evocative and a good replacement for LBWL.

So, that said. what are the strengths? Simply put, the story. Anybody who's read the manga to this point (Basically starting at Vol 3) should be more than happy with the anime. This is largely (I think) due to the greater input of Aida Yu in both the screenplay and art direction. Given his genius in weaving the overall original story, it can only be a plus that he's on board for this series. The opening episode, which rearranged certain events into a more logical chronological order, gave us a good view of the 'goodies', even all the backroom staff. It's just a shame they missed the payoff of the 'walking on the curb' scene. Ah well. Likewise, episode 2 gave us an insight into the 'baddies' and expect a lot more film to be used on their stories. The opening, with the youthful Pinocchio, was IMHO better than the manga. Likewise we're being given a deeper insight into the workings of the most complex of the fratellos - Hillshire/Triela. Her line "everything about me is fake" was not only very insightful from her, but also very sad. Add her newfound insecurity and we're in for an interesting time watching this young lady. In terms of storytelling, Season 2 is more than holding its own against its predecessor.

Yes, it does have it's faults, some of of them are sadly disappointing, especially for a rabid fan of the series like myself. However, if you can look past that you'll find there's still the same ugly/beautiful/gentle/violent/ light/dark/happy/sad and brilliant story that captured our hearts first time round.
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