title_name=Gunslinger Girl
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Cover of the first volume of the ''Gunslinger Girl'' manga series
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ガンスリンガー·ガール
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Gansuringā Gāru
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Seinen
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Drama , Sci-Fi
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Animanga/Manga| Information
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Animanga/Anime| Information
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Animanga/Game Information
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is an ongoing
Manga by Yu Aida. It was adapted into a 13-episode
Anime Television Series (produced by Madhouse and
Bandai Visual ) which aired in Japan from
October 8 , 2003 to
February 19 , 2004.
Set in modern-day '' (
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 is brainwashing called "conditioning," which produces a deadly assassin with unquestioning loyalty to her handler.
Apart from the obvious plotlines such as murder of innocents and government-initiated elimination of unwanted elements in a democratic society, the series place a strong focus on various moral and sociological issues including
Brainwashing ,
Exploitation Of Children and general inter-human relationships, the strongest of which are displayed in the futile attempts of colleagues from friends separation and the excessive fascination of pre-pubescent girls with father-like figures. One of the main themes repeating throughout the series is the distinction of natural love and friendship from imposed loyalty through the ongoing “conditioning”, as seen in the example of
Henrietta and
Giuseppe .
See Also: List of Gunslinger Girl characters
Known as ''Movimento Delle Cinque Repubbliche'' in Italian, the
Padania Republic Faction (PRF) is a radical
Nationalist and
Right-wing group opposed to the country's increased
Globalization and dedicated to the independence of
Northern Italy . Since the Italian government in ''Gunslinger Girl'' is implied to be corrupt, support for the PRF is considerable, ranging from civilians and businessmen to government officials and elite special forces units. The PRF has influence with the local
Italian Police forces, resulting in the police overlooking some of their crimes. Acts of aggression carried out by the PRF include terrorist bombings, the instigation of violent mobs,
Drive-bys and assaults carried out by armed militants.
In volume seven, more insight regarding the PRF is given in a discussion between Alessandro and his assassin. The primary reason for the support of its separatist agenda is the unbalanced economic development between northern and
Southern Italy — as simplified by Alessandro, "The north doesn't want to feed the south." Once independent from the remaining Italy, the supporters of the PRF believe their sports and pornographic industries will no longer be taxed, and their homes will finally free from the migration problems they once faced from Africa and the Balkans. It is revealed that up to 80% of the
Milan population supported the PRF.
Alessandro maintains that what began as a separatist movement based on legal political ground became a radical terrorist group in response to a governmental campaign of suppression carried out with the support of the southern
Mafia . A local study reports that 65% of the organization's recruits joined purely for
Revenge ; roughly the same percentage of recent Italian security recruits enlisted for the same reason.
The PRF's representative color is known as Five Republics Blue, and is meant to represent the melted snow of the
Alps . Many of the PRF's supporters and lower echelon members openly adopted this color for their outfits and publications.
''Gunslinger Girl'' was adapted into a 13-episode anime series which premiered in Japan on
Fuji Television from
October 8 ,
2003 to
February 19 ,
2004 . The series, which was directed by
Morio Asaka , was produced by
Madhouse ,
Bandai Visual ,
Marvelous Entertainment and Fuji Television with music by
Toshihiko Sahashi and based on the first two volumes of the manga. The series also aired in Japan on the
Satellite Television network
Animax , who also later aired the series in its networks worldwide, including its
English Language networks in
Southeast Asia and
South Asia (where the series received its English language television premiere).
1 ''Gunslinger Girl'' was later aired in the
United States on the
Independent Film Channel .
Henrietta, Rico, Elsa, and Angelica's
Violin cases bear the brand of
Amati , a famous Italian family of violin makers, who flourished at
Cremona from about
1550 to
1740 . In episode six of the series, several references are made to the iconic film
Roman Holiday starring
Audrey Hepburn , including the scene of a scooter ride involving two lovers, and Henrietta's wish to eat an ice cream in
Rome 's
Piazza Di Spagna .
A second season of the series was officially announced on the October issue of ''
Dengeki Daioh '', which is slated to air during the spring 2008 season and will follow the Pinocchio arc of the manga.
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On
December 21 2005 , an
Image Album for ''Gunslinger Girl'' called ''poca felicità'' was released by Marvelous Entertainment. It contains various songs for each of the girls (sung by their respective Japanese
Seiyuu ), as well as an instrumental for Pinocchio and extra songs by
Josefa , and two other instrumentals. Revo of
Sound Horizon wrote all the music and lyrics for the album. The cover art was drawn by Yu Aida.
;Tracks:
#"La ragazza col fucile" - Josefa
#"Il fratello" - Revo (instrumental)
#"Lui si chiama..." - Yuuka Nanri (Henrietta)
#"La principessa del regno del sole" - Kanako Mitsuhashi (Rico)
#"Biancaneve bruno" - Eri Sendai (Triela)
#"Pinocchio" - Revo (instrumental)
#"Claes tranquillo" - Ami Koshimizu (Claes)
#"La principessa del regno della pasta" - Hitomi Terakado (Angelica)
#"Io mi chiamo..." - Mamiko Noto (Elsa)
#"La ragazza" - Revo (instrumental)
#"La ragazza col fucile e poca felicità" - Josefa
The ongoing ''Gunslinger Girl'' manga series has been serialized across MediaWorks's ''Dengeki Daioh'' magazine, while the anime series is distributed across Japan by Bandai. The series has also been broadcast across Japan, East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America and other regions by the anime television network, Animax.
The manga is published across
North America in
English by
ADV Manga , and is composed of three volumes as of 2007. ADV Manga had previously put the series on indefinite hold, though it has now been confirmed that volumes four, five and six will be released in
June ,
September and November of
2007 (respectively) in English. In other countries the translation has caught up with the Japanese volumes, so, for example, in
France Asuka is to publish volume eight in
October of 2007. The fourth volume of Gunslinger Girl is now available in July at Australia and America.
In late 2004,
FUNimation licensed the rights to release the ''Gunslinger Girl'' anime series across North America via a three volume
DVD series, releasing the last volume on
September 6 , 2005. On
September 19 ,
2006 , the entire ''Gunslinger Girl'' series was released in a box set containing all three DVDs. The anime is also available for download from
ITunes .
A set of
Video Games have also been produced for the
PlayStation 2 , released only in Japan. These take the form of
Third-person Shooters (though the gameplay is similar to
Time Crisis ) in which the player controls one of the girls on her missions. The series is composed of three volumes. There is an additional rogue ''fratello'' in these games, who go by the names Earnest (handler; name previously thought to be Arnester) and Pia (cyborg). Earnest and Pia do not appear present whatsoever in the manga or anime, nor are they ever mentioned. Pia's preferred weapons were the
Desert Eagle .50AE and
M16A1 with
M203 grenade launcher.
