Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - 01 January 7
OP Sequence
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OP: 「たった1つの想い」 (Tatta Hitotsu no Omoi) by KOKIA
Watch the OP! Mirror 1, Mirror 2
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Summary:
In a French toy store, Social Welfare agents Joze and Hilshire are looking for presents to bring back to their respective girls, and Hilshire has decided on a Steiff teddy bear for Triela. The shop owner overhears them talking about a Henrietta, so he offers something that’d be perfect for her. On the train back to Italy, Joze thinks about his own sister from a long time ago and how she didn’t want him to leave at the time. After he returns, Joze sets out with Jean, Henrietta, and Rico in Rome where there is a large protest going on, and demonstrators are clashing with police. The Agency suspects that a certain group will take advantage of this and act, and shortly after Joze and Henrietta separate from Jean and Rico, a car bomb explodes. The impact knocks Joze onto the ground, but he’s relatively unhurt, and Henrietta subsequently spots a man in a riot police uniform sneaking away during the chaos. The man flees via a waiting van, so Joze and Henrietta borrow Priscilla’s Vespa when she rides in after having seen the explosion from a distance.
While Joze and Henrietta give chase, Hilshire and Triela set a trap in an alleyway by removing a manhole cover. Before the van reaches that point though, one of the men inside starts firing his gun at the Vespa. Henrietta returns fire and kills him, however this slows her and Joze down because the man ends up tumbling out of the van and into the path of the Vespa. Fortunately, the van then drives into Triela’s trap and gets its wheel stuck in the manhole. Triela manages to kill the driver with her first shot, and her second shot ends the life of the guy who gets out of the van trying to retaliate. Two more men rush out of the opposite side of the van and run down the narrow alley, approaching a square where Rico is waiting. Not aware of who she really is, they run towards her, and this leads to her throwing one of them over her shoulder and shooting the other one in the leg. When the first guy tries to scramble away, Jean shoots him in the leg too. Triela meanwhile knows that there might be someone else in the van, and when he pops out and lunges at her with a knife, she knocks it away and shoots him in the gut.
Later that night, with the mission over, Henrietta writes about it in her diary. She decides to go see Joze, but he turns out to not be in his room. Henrietta looks around inside anyway and sees his shirt, so she snuggles up with it on his bed. She then notices the present sitting on his desk and decides to open it. Inside, she finds a golden kaleidoscope, but to her dismay, the French inscription dedicates it to a woman named Louise Antoinette Rolle. This disturbs her because she thinks that’s Joze’s lover, but when she tells Claes and Triela about it, Claes tells her not to worry because that woman died in the 19th century. Claes recalls that this was the lover of a great French writer who ended up writing about it in a novel and naming her character Henrietta. All this means that the kaleidoscope is indeed a present for Henrietta, so she goes to see Joze again, and he ends up taking her outside to look at the stars. After Henrietta is out of the room, Triela wonders if the story ended in a successful love, and when Claes says it didn’t, Triela feels that it’s a bad omen. Claes thinks that it’s okay since the kaleidoscope is probably fake due to how they were only just invented around that time. She also suggests that because that love didn’t work out, it was a fake love.
ED Sequence
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ED: 「doll」 by 多田葵 (Tada Aoi)
Watch the ED! Mirror 1, Mirror 2
Well let’s see, the animation quality left something to be desired - it was rather simplistic at times and not as good as the first series. The music was okay, but didn’t really stand out too much (admittedly I did really like the OP and the piece that played after the action scene when they were explaining the background of the show). The voice acting also took some getting used to, especially if you can remember what everyone sounded like in the first series. Story-wise, they used elements of the first chapter of volume three of the manga along with some stuff to reintroduce the characters and plot, and it doesn’t look like they’ve made any major changes with the characters themselves (though you argue that changing voice actors changes the way the characters are perceived).
Overall, it was a solid episode, but you’re probably not going to be blown away (I wasn’t) if you’re familiar with the first series. I’m interested enough in the continuation of the story to stick with this (for those of you familiar with the manga, the title of episode two is Pinocchio), and as I get used to the change in production quality and voices, it probably/hopefully won’t bother me again.
katya at 7:11 pm on January 7th, 2008
Well, I can see that the animation is a little different, the girls look cuter somehow and more ‘little girl-like’.
As a girl, I think another big plus is that the guys look hotter.
LuckyStarKAWAII^^ at 7:13 pm on January 7th, 2008
WAY better than the first season.
MOE 4 LIFE xD
katya at 7:20 pm on January 7th, 2008
On another note, is it just me? Or does Claes’s expression at the end look like she’s saying,”GODDAMNET TRIELA!! Will you shutup and go to sleep!”
lol……….
mutio at 7:22 pm on January 7th, 2008
The 1st series opening was also so wonderful, so heartwarming and full of emotions..
Hei at 7:39 pm on January 7th, 2008
the animation is leaving me rather…ugh
Sadmask at 7:49 pm on January 7th, 2008
New character designs?
Shana-ism at 8:07 pm on January 7th, 2008
Wow theres a sequel o_o i never saw this coming haha yay first series was wonderful! hope this one is
Tensai Otaku at 8:08 pm on January 7th, 2008
I´LL WATCH JUST TO ANSWER IN THE FUTURE IF SOMEONE ASKS:
” YES I HAVE WATCHED THAT ONE TOO ”
” I AM THE UPPER SUPER DUPER TENSAI OTAKUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!! ”
I AM THE BEHOLDER OF THE ANIMES…FROM MY SIGHT THERE´S NO ESCAPE!!
T_T(SOME DEEP SHIT IN HERE)
Kit-Tsukasa at 8:25 pm on January 7th, 2008
THE BLOOD IS RED!!!! IT’S NO LONGER OIL!!!
polar bear at 8:36 pm on January 7th, 2008
i really really like the VA for Jose in the previous season…i wonder how the new VA is
kiryuu at 8:39 pm on January 7th, 2008
Eyes look a bit odd in this one, but my memory of the original is a bit off. They seem a bit brighter..
RukiaNeko at 9:09 pm on January 7th, 2008
Some one told me its about kids falling in love with old guys? Is that true? >_>;
But I do like guns….
AsPHERE at 9:11 pm on January 7th, 2008
KOKIA!!! Love the OP.
The girls are all look cuter maybe because of their eyes.
setsuke at 9:25 pm on January 7th, 2008
The character design, the voice and even the animation looks different than the first series. Heck i think the first series with 13 milion yen of production cost EACH EPISODE is better. This really need some time to get used to, well atleast they still follow the manga
aya at 9:32 pm on January 7th, 2008
omg, kokia gave me chills….. but honestly? she could have done better. the episode is ok, looking forward to it more.
Kaito at 9:33 pm on January 7th, 2008
This looks rather… bland compared to the first series.
This must be the season for degrading sequels. (e.g. Minami-ke)
setsuke at 9:53 pm on January 7th, 2008
Other than bland even the guns (which i think is one of the main reason that this series is worth watching) is not that nice to see, all the guns seem rather animated. Isn’t it the guns that is the main attaction in Gunslinger?
avexmode at 10:19 pm on January 7th, 2008
Where’s my Aria?!! I hope Aria’s animation quality’s not as bad as this.
BROOKLYN otaku at 10:44 pm on January 7th, 2008
BULL-ISH!!! that opening theme was wack compared to the first AND i thought these cyborg biatches had only a limited life span!?? hell they were dropping in the last one..but i guess they all got resurrected for some love……ooohhhh how nice
Nutster at 11:10 pm on January 7th, 2008
what a letdown, they should have let Madhouse making the second season. Everything is sugar coated, yes, everything looks brighter and girls look cuter, and it must be the new technologies installed in them, cause they blush so easily and so often now. But the dark and gloomy atmospheres and emotions, which made the first series so enjoyable, are just not there in the new series.