Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino OVA - Episodes 1-2 (Completed)

While Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino never managed to scale the heights of its predecessor, or indeed the manga which came before that, it wasn't a complete disaster from beginning to end, making the prospect of a two-episode OVA by the same production team a potentially interesting affair. With around fourty minutes of screen time to play with, surely there's ample time to delve into the world of these girl assassin's and their lives in a suitably interesting fashion?


Well yes, there is plenty of time to do that I'm sure, but for some reason this Il Teatrino OVA does very little with the girls themselves, preferring instead to afford more time upon their handlers. Thus, the first episode sees Jean running into the man that would have been his brother-in-law has his fiancee not been killed, leading to an investigation into some more terrorist goings-on that takes both himself and Rico to Venice. Episode two also centres quite strongly around Jean, while also spending a little time with Jose as the two brothers take a vacation together with Henrietta and Rico.

The real problem here is that very, very little happens in either instalment of the OVA - In the first part, what looks to be building into an investigation of note fizzles out into nothingness, giving you the sense that even the script-writers got bored trying to pen such a mundane story. Similarly, the second episode picks up its vacation premise which has room for plenty of deepth thinking and dialogue, yet seems unsure of what to do with it and instead turns in a stilting effort that ends up invoking a ghost for want of any real character development from either girls or handlers. Yes, these episodes do try to cover some of the ground that mae Gunslinger Girl so fascinating in the girl place, via a nightmare suffered by Rico in particular, but again such scenes seem to be thrown together with little rhyme or reason to add to the disjointed and rushed feel of this OVA.

While at least Il Teatrino as a series managed to pick up some kind of pace and depth in its second half, these lessons seem to have been forgotten here, leaving us with a dull and vacuous offering that is best avoided - There's simply nothing worthwhile featured in either episode, even for the Gunslinger Girl die-hards.

Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - Episode 13 (Completed)

Over a year after I first started watching it, at last I've come to the end of Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino, a show that really didn't impress me for the first half of the series, but one that has in all fairness grown on me as it matured and improved throughout its second half.

Of course, this final episode takes us to the grand finale of the Pinocchio story, promising (and delivering) an action-packed instalment full of violence both dished out and received by the girls. While the main focus is inevitably on Triela's battle against Pinocchio, Rico and Angelica both get in on the action as well, mainly thanks to Franco and Franca's last ditch attempt at saving Christiano. Does their attempt succeed? Who knows, it seems unlikely all things considered, but we're left hanging on this front. Pinocchio's fate is far less uncertain however, as he pays the ultimate price in his fight against Triela.


Il Teatrino was always going to have an uphill struggle to live up to the standards set by the original Gunslinger Girl series, and you get the feeling that this pressure weighed heavily upon it a lot of the time - Particularly in the early episodes, you almost felt like they were trying too hard to recreate that special atmosphere sported by the original episodes, and in the attempt to recapture it they actually lost the essence of everything that was important to it. As the episodes went on however, Il Teatrino did manage to claw back some of those early disappointments, delivering some solid episodes that entertained and felt at least a little truer to the franchise's roots. Even if it couldn't quite recapture the emotional impact of the first season, it still delivered moments that were quite chilling to watch (with Rico in particular making for an uncomfortable subject to view in action), while pulling us through to the end of the Pinocchio storyline in a respectable fashion once it found its stride. Not a classic series then, and arguably not what you would have wanted to see released under the Gunslinger Girl name, but still a series worth watching if you're a fan of the franchise.

Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - Episode 12

Well, I predicted this penultimate episode of Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino to be an action-packed one, and although I wasn't entirely wrong, I can't really say that I was right either.

With Franco and Franca preparing to blow up the experimental bridge, and the Social Welfare Agency all set up and ready to stop them, it wasn't going to take long for the two to clash, and so it came to pass, with Henrietta and Pinocchio trading blows before all three terrorists manage to escape by boat, although not before Henrietta manages to lodge a bullet in Franco's shoulder.

Of course, with all of this going on their plan to blow up the bridge fails (although they do manage to deal it some damage), and thus Cristiano's future looks bleak. Franco and Franca have to break the news to Pinnochio regarding his uncle, which of course sees him set off to try to help and protect him. This sees him walk straight into a trap, and sets him up for a rematch against a rather vengeful Triela in the series final episode.


While Gunslinger Girl as an entirety has often done better when it's stayed away from pure, honest action, this episode actually felt rather empty aside from the two slices of action that acted as bread to the episode's sandwich - It didn't cover anything we hadn't seen before, and felt rather like it was retreading old ground despite the long gap since I first started watching this series. Still, it remains a passable attempt at story progression, and I can't pretend that I don't want to see how Triela fares when facing off against Pinnochio once again in Il Teatrino's grand finale.

Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - Episode 11

After deviating somewhat from the series' Pinocchio arc over the past couple of instalments, episode eleven returns to the real meat of Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino.

However, with Pinocchio, Franca and Franco still in hiding at some quiet vinyard, you'd be forgiven for thinking that they'd all forgotten about their terrorist ways - Picking grapes, reading and lounging in the sun, even Pinocchio seems relaxed to the point of happiness.


This enforced rest is soon broken as word reaches the group that the political situation surrounding them is shifting and changing on account of recently failed missions, making it a distinct possibility that their own mission is to be canned unless they switch allegiances. Rather than do that, Franco decides that it's time to strike at the Messina bridge immediately - Or rather, the experimental "test" bridge which has sprung up alongside it. Needless to say, the Social Welfare Agency has somehow picked up on this change, and sends the girls and their handlers to meet this threat, setting us up for a potentially action-packed episode twelve.

Overall, this particular episode was a bit of a slow burner, giving us some back story on Pinocchio, and arguably spending too much time showing him and his group lounging around for the sake of filling up the episode. Beyond the political movements in the background and this back story, there isn't a massive amount to get your teeth into, as this episode looked simply to ease us into the show's penultimate instalment. Given this slightly laborious route to its grand finale, let's hope its a suitable climax to revive the Gunslinger Girl anime franchise.

Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - Episode 10

It's been literally a million years (and by a million years, I mean last September) since I last got to watch an episode of Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino, but at last episode ten has become available for my delectation.

Although this episode doesn't really move this series plot forward to any degree, choosing to more or less eschew the Pinocchio arc almost entirely, it still somehow manages to be a pretty good episode. The focus here is split almost equally between Triela and her "handler" Hilshire - While Triela is tasked with protecting the daughter of an important person involved in a trial (who we saw earlier in the series I believe, it's too long ago for me to remember to be honest), we also get some flashbacks to Hilshire's past, as he begs to work in the field solving child abduction cases, a passion which sees him performing an off-the-record investigation that leads him to who else but Triela, a set of circumstances that directly leads towards her current situation.


So, in many ways this episode is really just scene setting and history, yet it works pretty well, especially in the case of Triela - Seeing her interactions with a normal teenage girl was fascinating in its own way and succeeded in highlighting both the similarities and differences between the two, while the flashbacks perhaps didn't explain as much as they should about Hilshire's personality but at least made for a solid "origin" story for his current relationship with Triela (which incidentally turns out to be rather carrot and stick based in this episode, as he takes her from hanging out with a normal girl to some brutal military training).

Perhaps it's just a case of absence making the heart grow fonder, but I really quite enjoyed this particular instalment of Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino... To put it simply, it just worked. With just a few episodes to go now, perhaps I can manage to finish this series before the year 2525?

Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - Episode 9

Somehow, having such a long gap without any episodes of Gunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino to watch made the eighth episode of the series all the more disappointing, as it took what was by all accounts a powerful and poignant part of the manga and somehow managed to turn it into something decidedly bland and lifeless.

Thankfully, episode nine is much, much better in virtually every way I can express said improvements. Although the episode jumps around rather a lot, and almost rushes through its main plot point much of the time, it still manages to cover plenty of ground while bringing together the disparate elements that make Gunslinger Girl what it is. We see the worries and problems of the girls handlers, specifically in the case of Jose this time around, coupled with the neuroses of the girls themselves (in particular Henrietta), while also mixing in a bit of action together with those moments that always send a chill down your spine - Seeing Rico grinng from ear to ear as she proceeds to beat a suspect senseless in an attempt to get information out of him is a disquitening experience, and exactly the kind of thing that the franchise has always managed to do so well.


Overall, this could quite possibly be the best episode of this particular series so far, feeling like just the kind of affair you'd expect from Gunslinger Girl despite its slightly off-kilter pacing. If only this kind of formula could have been applied to Il Teatrino as a whole, it might have been a rather less hit-and-miss affair than it has generally proved to be.

Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - Episode 8

It's been age since we last got a new episode of Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino to chew through, which has left me having forgotten much of what happened in episode seven. Thankfully it doesn't matter all that much on this occasion, as episode eight doesn't really deal with the main plot arc of the series at all.

Instead, the focus of this episode is firmly upon Claes, and more specifically her state of mind and how she copes with the sense of 'limbo' in which she is left by her inability to take part in any missions. I could argue that it's a slightly disjointed and confusing episode, but in a sense I get the feeling that's actually the entire point, with Claes on one hand reasonably happy with her simple life of playing the piano and tending to a garden, but on another, more fundemental level she's distraught with her relative confinement and haunted by memories that she doesn't have anything approaching a firm grip on.


Now I come to think of it, my explanation of this episode was actually more enjoyable to write than the episode itself was to watch - While Gunslinger Girl has always set to balance any action off against its deeper insights into the girls themselves, this particular episode plodded along without really telling us anything new. You could say that puts it in keeping with the rest of Il Teatrino, which has continually failed to live up to the dizzy heights scaled by its predecessor. A tough example to live up to, I grant you, but this series isn't even coming close to doing that overall.

Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - Episode 7

As we reach the seventh episode of Il Teatrino, once again we find the focus shifting away from the girls themselves, with this particular instalment focusing on the story of one of the terrorists. Thus, we learn why Franca has chosen the path that she has, as well as seeing her get into (and rescued from) a very sticky situation.

While Franca's reasons for becoming a terrorist are at least somewhat understandable, due to her father being imprisoned for a crime he didn't commit and then dying in jail before this could be brought to light, her response to this miscarriage of justice seems to be rather disproportionate. I know this has been referenced by another character in the last episode, but it must be said that much of her personality is something of a paradox - Here is a woman who will stop to help a pregnant woman, but yet has no qualms about extinguishing innocent lives as part of her vague campaign to 'change things'. Of course, we could easily drift into a deep and never-ending discussion about the roots of terrorism, but sticking solely to this series Franca's justifications and need to follow the path she has chosen seem rather weak, especially for someone so intelligent and with so much to offer - I simply can't buy her reasoning for taking such desperate measures.

Aside from that big question mark hanging over the episode, we do get to see Pinnochio at his most terrifyingly brutal, doing him justice as an opponent to be feared. Beyond that though, by the end of the episode there isn't a huge amount that has changed from how it started, and even the appearance of Section 2 feels like a rather token effort. Not a bad effort, but the continued focus away from the main characters doesn't really help the series all that much considering how the original Gunslinger Girl's true genius was in its portrayal of the internal and external struggles of the girls.

Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - Episode 6

It's been a veritable eternity since I last watched an episode of Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino, meaning that I've probably forgotten most of what has happened so far. No, wait, I remember.... Not much.

Okay, I'm kidding somewhat, and to be honest episode six of the series worked really rather well for me, blending a kidnapping plot which is part of Pinocchio and company's plan to blow up a bridge with a falling out between Henrietta and Rico and the usual opportunity to bring up the moral question of whether it's right to use these girls in the fashion they are used here. In short then, it's pretty much a classic blend of what you'd expect from Gunslinger Girl, albeit in not such a polished manner as we all remember from the original series.

While the overall plot was perhaps convoluted somewhat by making one of the terrorists an antique repairer who Henrietta and Jose visit to get her kaleidoscope fixed (a plot point which was seemingly only there to give an emotional 'bad guys have feelings too' moment to the episode, something which has happened rather a lot in Il Teatrino), the overall balance felt just about right to me, between the girls internal dilemmas with their work and each other to the view of them from the outside world and climaxing in the always slightly uncomfortable action scenes where we see the girls in action at their best as ruthless killers. Overall then, it was far better paced and planned than some of the episodes that preceded it, leaving a pretty enjoyable experience.

Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - Episode 5

After improving over the past couple of episodes, part five of Il Teatrino really lost its way somewhat, offering a rather disjointed story which revolved largely around an aspect of Marco's past catching up with him, while also placing some focus upon Angelica's continuing deterioration. While the latter would probably have made for a more interesting episode, instead we were left with Marco-related flashbacks aplenty (why would sedate flashback sequences have shaky-cam effects? I know he has eyesight problems, but really...) and a plot that virtually screamed out what was going to happen next within a few minutes of that particular scene being set.

To make things worse, the whole episode was only very loosely (and again, disjointedly) connected to the main Pinocchio arc which is the mainstay of Il Teatrino, giving it a rather filler-esque feel that was lacking any real passion where there was potential for plenty. While this wasn't a terrible episode by any stretch of the imagination, it really didn't go anywhere, leaving me with somewhat cold - a real disappointment after the series appeared to be building up a head of steam, which it is now going to need to start over with. Again, I'm left hoping for better things next time around.

Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - Episode 4

After finally starting to move in the right direction last time around, episode four of Il Teatrino has actually managed to keep the ship steady, offering up another solid episode for our delectation. Sure, it still isn't quite up there with the fantastic quality of the original Gunslinger Girl series, but it's doing enough to keep my attention and move things in the right direction, so I can't be too critical.

Episode four of the series focuses largely on Angelica, and her rather drug-addled return to action after a long period of hospitalisation. Her exact mental state was built up to quite slowly and never really pinpointed exactly, although having said that one of the positive points of this series so far is that it doesn't feel the need to moralise or state the obvious on behalf of the viewer - rather than pointing out "Ooh, that's terrible" at any particular points, it simply puts those actions or sections of dialogue out there to be considered and shocked about as you see fit. Watching two children agreeing on whose turn it is to kill their next enemy is deeply unsettling, as is Angelica's obsession with having weaponary at her disposal, which proves that Il Teatrino is getting it right in that department.

All in all, I've actually enjoyed the last two episodes of this series so far, so I'm certainly starting to get the feeling that it won't be a complete let-down for Gunslinger Girl fans. Now, if only they'd sort out that shoddy animation quality...

Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - Episode 3

After a far from inspiring start to Il Teatrino, I was beginning to fear for the integrity of the Gunslinger Girl franchise. Thank goodness then that episode three has taken the series in a far more positive direction, which felt far more like the show that so many of us cherish.

Sure, the animation remains extremely ropey, and some of the dialogue was admittedly still a little clunky, but at last we started to see signs of what Gunslinger Girl is all about, from the emotional ties and conflicts between the girls and their fratello (with Triela the focus of this entire episode), to the bursts of action when the show requires. Throw in a potentially interesting villain of the piece in the form of Pinocchio (a terrible name for a bad guy I know, but what can you do?), and hopefully now much of the scene setting has been done in those opening two parts of Il Teatrino, we can see something much better emerging - Certainly, the building blocks are now in place for a return to form, so let's just hope the improvement continues into episode four.

Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - Episodes 1 & 2

For many of you, Gunslinger Girl will require no introduction, regarded as it is as something of a classic both in its manga form, and thanks to the superb original anime series. Given its reputation, creating a second series of the show is a tall order for anyone to take on.

On the positive side, Il Teatrino has the series' creator Yu Aida on board as chief writer, which certainly gives some hope of maintaining the quality of this follow-up series. Similarly, this second season is also set to follow an arc from the original manga, which also bodes well in keeping the overall tone that has made Gunslinger Girl so popular intact.

Given these plus points, I can only hope that the opening two episodes of Il Teatrino are simply a slow start for the show. While the first episode was forgivably little more than a recap of what the franchise is all about, its focus on action over the more thoughtful and emotional side of the various 'fratello' didn't particularly fit with what Gunslinger Girl is all about. The second episode was clearly more of a scene setter for the arc that is to follow, but proved to be clumsily realised and really quite disappointing.

Perhaps the biggest hurdle that Il Teatrino will need to overcome is its animation quality. Quite simply, it's terrible - I can't think of any anime I've seen in recent times with worse production values in all honesty. Some dodgy animation I can live with though, what I'm really hoping beyond hope for are a few glimpses of the real Gunslinger Girl we know and love once this new series gets into full swing. The early signs don't look good though, I'm sad to say.