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.