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...