October 24, 2003

Gunslinger Girl

I don't know what it is about girls with guns but I just love shows like Gunlinger Girl. I would liken it to Noir, Phantom of Inferno, La Femme Nikita, and The Professional. It's about some Italian black ops organization that works for the government (i think) using girls who are enhanced through some kind of implants for assassinations.

The opening song is by The Delgados and it's brilliant. It's on their latest album Hate. I loved the blurb in the opening credits about Gunslinger Girl licensing "The Light Before We Land" from http://www.mantrarecordings.com. I don't know if people notice but i hear and feel a vast improvement when a show uses a "real" song for the opening rather than one written explicitly for a show. For instance "Duvet" for Serial Experiments Lain and "Guardian Angel" for Texhnolyze. Then again maybe most shows just usually go with the lowest bidder or have to use a pre-existing arrangement within the company to tout some flash in the pan band. I also think it's really cool whoever is in charge of Gunslinger Girl took the time to create an ending song in Italian.

Checking out the opening animation, i was wondering if the animation came first or the song selection did. On first glance it seems that any song could be plugged in for the opening, but the Delgados song just works so well.

The show also puts in letterbox bars with an unobtrusive pattern for people with 4:3 TVs. I guess the producers really wanted this show to be in widescreen aspect.

I have seen the first two episodes so far and like how the two episodes go over the same series of events and show different perspectives and details. It's a nice bit of setting and storytelling.

What else can I say? I want some more. http://www.gunslingergirl.com

Posted by izumi at October 24, 2003 01:51 PM

Comments

That song was awesome. Still haven't had time to watch the show yet, but I've seen the opening upwards of two dozen times!

Posted by: Steve at October 24, 2003 09:39 PM

The song is awesome, and thank you for providing the extra bit of background info. I /have/ watched the first two Gunslinger Girl eps and I'm impressed, very. I suspect this'll kick Noir's ass. ;-)

The letterboxing "pattern" wouldn't be so bad... if the top and bottom lined up. Sadly, they don't... one's just a bit "off" from the other, and it's distracting (to somebody like me who perceives symmetry so keenly). Minor gripe about a great show, though.

Posted by: GreyDuck at October 26, 2003 03:53 PM

About the matte, looks like they rotated the pattern rather than mirroring it for symmetry. Interesting decision.

Posted by: izumi at October 31, 2003 12:05 AM

If you've watched up to episode 4 I swear you will drool. Triela is so cool.

This is a really good series, without too much unnecessary action or dialogue. They have also put in a lot of detail - note when Hilsher is putting down the cup in episode 4. You can see he's putting it down with that little bit of indignation when he puts it down. You also actually see the people in the background moving around in various scenes as well. Jose's car is also kickass... I want that car...

Posted by: person at November 15, 2003 09:16 AM

I'm very impressed so far (withs eps 1-5). I just recently discovered the Delgados, too. It was a pleasant surprise to find their music companying the intro.

I can't wait to watch more and see how the series progresses.

Posted by: q at November 23, 2003 03:37 AM

i am a fan of gunslinger girl and i am glad i have found that review on the net coz i was finding just too hard getting information 'bout it. i am in love with it and the opening song brings me to tears as the ending one makes me get with that feeling that this show is special

Posted by: SwEeT_CaNdY at January 12, 2004 01:02 AM

I just finished episode 13 of the series. Iv always been drawn to stories of this nature and was just really starting to get into it. Unfortunately they ended it on episode 13 dose anyone knows why?

Posted by: SyN at February 21, 2004 09:21 PM

There are only two manga volumes out so far and the TV series caught up to what little story there was in the books. I was actually wondering how they were going to stretch the comic stories to fill 13 television episodes. The TV series really stretched out the Elza and Raulo story a lot.

It used to be 26 episodes was the smallest amount for TV series but in the past few years this has been reduced to 13, probably due to smaller budgets and more marketing/advertisement pressure, that kind of thing.

Posted by: izumi at February 23, 2004 03:39 AM

Post a comment

Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)

(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)


Remember me?


�