| Gunslinger Girl | |
 Firsttankōbon volume cover, featuring Henrietta | |
| Genre | |
|---|---|
| Manga | |
| Written by | Yu Aida |
| Published by | ASCII Media Works |
| English publisher | |
| Magazine | Dengeki Daioh |
| Original run | May 21, 2002 –September 27, 2012 |
| Volumes | 15(List of volumes) |
| Anime television series | |
| Directed by | Morio Asaka |
| Produced by | Takatoshi Hamano Mori Ōi Kazuya Watanabe Satoshi Yoshimoto |
| Written by | Junki Takegami |
| Music by | Toshihiko Sahashi |
| Studio | Madhouse |
| Licensed by | Crunchyroll[a] |
| Original network | FNS (Fuji TV) |
| English network | |
| Original run | October 9, 2003 – February 19, 2004 |
| Episodes | 13(List of episodes) |
| Video game | |
| Developer | Dimps |
| Publisher | Marvelous Entertainment |
| Genre | Rail shooter |
| Platform | PlayStation 2 |
| Released | April 8, 2004 |
| Anime television series | |
| Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- | |
| Directed by | Hiroshi Ishidori(Chief) Akira Mano |
| Written by | Yu Aida Tatsuhiko Urahata(assistance) |
| Music by | Kow Otani |
| Studio | Artland |
| Licensed by |
|
| Original network | Tokyo MX,TV Osaka,Chūkyō TV |
| English network | |
| Original run | January 8, 2008 – April 1, 2008 |
| Episodes | 13 + 2 OVAs(List of episodes) |
 Anime and manga portal | |
Gunslinger Girl (stylized insmall caps) is a Japanesemanga series written and illustrated byYu Aida. It was serialized inDengeki Daioh magazine from May 2002 to September 2012. Its chapters were collected in 15tankōbon volumes byASCII Media Works. Set in modernItaly, the series focuses on young cybernetic girls and their adult male handlers who use them as assassins under the directions of a government organization.
The manga series is licensed for an English language release in North America bySeven Seas Entertainment. A thirteen-episodeanime adaptation produced byMadhouse aired in Japan onFuji Television from October 2003, to February 2004. A sequel titledGunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- and created byArtland premiered in Japan onTokyo MX TV in January 2008. It spanned thirteen episodes, concluding in April 2008. Two additional episodes were released on DVD in Japan in October 2008.Funimation has licensed both anime seasons and the OVAs.
As of December 2012,Gunslinger Girl had over 3.9 million copies in circulation. In 2012, the manga won the Excellence Award in the Manga Division at the 16thJapan Media Arts Festival.
Set in Italy,Gunslinger Girl follows the exploits of the Social Welfare Agency (often referred to as simply "the Agency"), ostensibly a charitable institution sponsored by the Italian government. While the Agency professes to aid the rehabilitation of the physically injured, it is actually a military organization specializing incounter-intelligence andcounter-terrorism. It is composed of two independent branches: Public Safety, its surveillance and intelligence-gathering division, and Special Ops, the anti-terrorist division.
Special Ops is itself divided into Sections 1 and 2, the latter of which employs young girls who have experienced traumatic and near-death experiences fitted with cybernetic implants as agents. The implants, which consist of synthesized muscles andcarbon fiber frames, result in heightened strength and reflexes as well as high resilience to damage and pain.
Each girl is paired with an adult male trainer, or "handler", and together they are referred to as afratello—Italian for "brother". The handler is responsible for the training, welfare and field performance of his charge, and is free to use whatever methods he considers suitable. While these methods vary according to the handler, a common part of each girl's regimen isbrainwashing called "conditioning", which produces a deadly assassin with unquestioning loyalty to her handler but, if used excessively, also limits her life span.
Eachfratello exhibits a unique dynamic. Most of the handlers have police or military backgrounds and were recruited directly into Section 2. Most also chose their own cyborgs from a list of candidates, though some appear to have been assigned a cyborg. The Social Welfare Agency primarily concerns itself with dealing with thePadania Republic Faction (PRF or RF), an organization seeking an independentNorthern Italy through acts of terrorism and bribery.[3]
Gunslinger Girl, written and illustrated byYu Aida, premiered in Japan on May 21, 2002, in the monthlyDengeki Daioh magazine, and was completed with the September 27, 2012 issue.[4] The chapters are also being published incollected volumes byASCII Media Works, with the first volume released on November 27, 2002.[5] The series was collected and published in fifteen volumes in Japan.[6]
WhenADV Manga was formed in 2003, theGunslinger Girl manga series was one of the first titles the new branch ofADV Films licensed for anEnglish language release in North America.[7]
The first volume was released on November 18, 2003,[8] with the next two volumes not released until 2005. At the 2005AnimeNEXT convention, ADV representative David L. Williams said the slow schedule was due to ADV Manga feeling that they had rushed into the manga market in a period when it was too saturated with new manga titles.[9] After the third volume was released that year, the series went on a two-year hiatus.
Release of the series resumed in July 2007 with the publication of the fourth volume,[10] and six volumes were released as of April 2008.[11] On April 8, 2010, manga publisherSeven Seas Entertainment announced that it had licensedGunslinger Girl and would be re-released, with a new translation and in omnibus format.[12][13]
Gunslinger Girl was adapted into a thirteen-episode anime series based on the first two volumes of the manga. It was directed byMorio Asaka and produced byMadhouse,Bandai Visual,Marvelous Entertainment and Fuji Television, with music byToshihiko Sahashi. The song "The Light Before We Land" by Scottish indie rock bandThe Delgados was used as the opening theme. The series premiered in Japan onFuji Television from October 8, 2003, to February 19, 2004. The series also aired in Japan on thesatellite television networkAnimax, which later aired the series on its networks worldwide, including itsEnglish language networks inSoutheast Asia andSouth Asia (where the series received its English language television premiere).[14]
Gunslinger Girl was later aired in the United States on theIndependent Film Channel in January 2007. In late 2004,Funimation Entertainment licensed the rights to release the first season ofGunslinger Girl across North America via a three-volumeDVD series, releasing the last volume on September 6, 2005.
On September 19, 2006, Funimation released the completeGunslinger Girl series in a three-DVD box set, with another version released on December 11, 2007. FUNimation's release of the first season is also available for download oniTunes,PlayStation Store, andXbox Live Marketplace. A second season of the series, entitledGunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-, was officially announced in the October issue ofDengeki Daioh. It premiered onTokyo MX TV on January 7, 2008, and ran for thirteen additional episodes until its conclusion on March 31, 2008. The second season was criticized for its lackluster animation, but earned praise for its more focused story line.[15] This second season was animated byArtland and featured a new staff, withGunslinger Girl creatorYu Aida being fully involved as the project's chief writer and supervisor. FUNimation has also licensed the second season and is currently streaming subtitled episodes on its website as well as onVeoh, promising a Region 1 retail release in 2009.[16][17] Two additional episodes (14 and 15) were released on DVD in Japan on October 24, 2008. The sequel is licensed for English language release in Australia and New Zealand by Madman Entertainment and in North America by Funimation Entertainment.[18][19]
The second season made its North American television debut on October 19, 2011, on theFunimation Channel.[20]Gunslinger Girl andGunslinger Girl: Il Teatrino, the latter including the two additional episodes, were added to the Netflix library in Canada, Singapore, the United States, and Australia as well as some other countries in January 2016.[21]
A set ofvideo games have also been produced for thePlayStation 2, released only in Japan.[22] These take the form ofrail shooters in which the player controls one of the girls on her missions. The series is composed of three volumes. There is an additional roguefratello in these games, who go by the names Earnest (handler) and Pia (cyborg). Earnest and Pia do not appear in the manga or anime, nor are they ever mentioned. Pia's preferred weapons were theDesert Eagle .50AE andM16A1 withM203 grenade launcher.
On January 9, 2020, it was announced a collaboration between the mobile gameGirls' Frontline andGunslinger Girl, in which the characters of Angelica, Claes, Rico, Triela and Henrietta would become units available in the game.[23] alongside a new story event merging the world ofGunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- into the world ofGirls' Frontline, a future in which humanity suffered a third world war and environmental collapse, leading to technologically advanced tactical doll or "T-Dolls" are used in combat.
On December 21, 2005, animage album forGunslinger Girl calledPoca Felicità was released by Marvelous Entertainment. It contains various songs for each of the girls (sung by their respective voice actresses), as well as an instrumental for Pinocchio, extra songs byJosefa, and two other instrumentals. Revo ofSound Horizon wrote all the music and lyrics for the album. The cover art was drawn by Yu Aida.
As of December 2012, the manga had over 3.9 million copies in circulation.[24][user-generated source] In 2012, the Ministry of Cultural Affairs announced the winners of the 16thJapan Media Arts Festival Awards. TheGunslinger Girl manga series won an award for excellence in the Manga Division.[25]
Jonathan Clements andHelen McCarthy feel the trauma suffered by the girls allowsGunslinger Girl to show them as "submissive blank slates in the style ofChobits", feeling that while some handlers treated them like objects, those that tried to befriend them used methods that were like "the seduction of 'damaged goods' in less popular works such as theLolita Anime".[26]
