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'Give me the child when he is seven and I will give you the
man.' What a shame that the Italian Social Welfare Agency decided to act
upon that quote. |
As the episodes progress though, I realised that Gunslinger Girl is a critique of the 'girls with the guns' genre and has deliberately made the protagonists pre-pubescent age to show just how disturbing children wielding weapons really is. Gunslinger Girl takes this further by remaining a drama throughout and not adding comic styling to the characters and keep the humour touching and not revolved around violence. Despite Gunslinger Girl not advocating violence it does go overboard to purely shock the viewer and to impose a sense of guilt for enjoying such violence in other 'girls with guns' |
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shows. To show such violence in every episode
though does seem excessive and made me wonder if Gunslinger Girl
contradicted itself by doing so. Critique
or not, watching young girls gun people down is not going to
encourage me to watch volume 2 of Gunslinger Girl when it is
released. |
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Volume 1 of Gunslinger Girl may not answer many questions, but it does firmly establish that it is a strong character study and that volume 1 is more concerned with this rather then a complex conspiracy that you may expect. This is definitely Gunslinger Girl strongest point as I felt incredible sympathy for the girls of the story, more so then many other anime of this ilk I have seen before, and the strong characterisation will hopefully continue into the next volume to produce a unique series. The animation and music of Gunslinger Girl |
must also be mentioned as they very effectively add to the drama
through some stunning animated backdrops which enhance the girl's
lives through the dark, uninviting decor of the Social Welfare
agency where they live. Outside the backgrounds represent the
beautiful architecture brilliantly through the representation of
winding suburb roads as well grand buildings which are always
detailed to the same quality of the characters. The
character's expressions convey emotions effortlessly throughout and
are never overstated, essential for a anime drama such as
Gunslinger Girl. The same can be said for the soundtrack
which is a gentle score which has clearly had a lot of attention
paid to it. The soundtrack effectively accompanies the plot
throughout this volume and is never out of place.
Extras |