A day late on this weeks Gunslinger Girl, I know. Personally, I blame the pandemic because I have lost all sense of time, stuck at home all day. Enough about my excuses though, lets talk child assassins!
This weeks episode of Gunslinger Girl was a weird. Narratively it was all rather straight forward, and we will get to that in a bit. But in terms of direction I can’t help but think it was a mess. It felt like we were watching 3 separate timelines that were cut together without any real indication of which one we were currently watching. Is the Sicily trip the present? The murder investigation? Where does Henrietta getting a present fit into all of that, or Triela calling the investigators? All of these scenes look the same, so its impossible to tell when one occurs compared to the others chronologically. I get what they were going for, trying to run these threads in parallel so they can reveal information pertinent to another thread at the same time. But without any kind of indication, it just comes off as a mess.
As far as the actual story goes, it was interesting. I had it pegged as a murder/suicide the moment the gun was revealed myself, but it was nice seeing it all pieced together. The addition of the Section 1 investigation added a lot of tension where otherwise they would be none, a nice wrinkle to it all as well. Fermi’s investigation into how the cyborgs act, who could have killed Elsa, etc all did a good job of giving an otherwise obvious mystery some weight. It also introduced more of the Section politics, as we see the head of Section 1 looking for reasons to shut down Section 2. Whether it be for personal gain or dislike of their tactics we don’t yet know, but it introduces another threat, and one our leads can’t simply shoot away.
In fact, it feels like Gunslinger Girl is building up more for this than the previous terrorist plot. As you no doubt know, one of my biggest issues with Gunslinger Girl is how it doesn’t really have a larger plot. A lot of the episodes are standalone, focusing entirely on the characters rather than progressing any larger story. This episode isn’t one of those, it is clearly progressing things, but not the ones we already had. Instead of pushing the terrorist plot forward it is instead introducing and expanding on entirely new plots elements. This isn’t bad per se, but it is very concerning since we only have 3 episodes left to go. I have no idea where this season is going to end, if we will get a satisfying conclusion, or if the whole thing is going to be one big prequel.
On a more positive note however, I do think Henrietta and Jose’s relationship is being handled really well. While the timeline was rather confusing in places this week, the moments themselves were packed. I love how the concern over Henrietta’s memories is carrying over into future episodes, that Jose is so concerned for her that he bought her a camera explicitly to preserve memories with. It’s small moments like these that I think matter the most when building a character relationship. Showing how they feel through small actions that, if you weren’t paying attention, could mean anything. But in the greater context reveal a much deeper connection and conversation between the two. That Henrietta’s first “memory”/photo is of Jose is no surprise either, and I am looking forward to a scrapbook of some kind in the future. If not in the anime, perhaps in the original manga.
All in all it was a rather straightforward episode. We saw the consequences of Lauro’s treatment of Elsa, got an expansion of Agency politics and even got some heartwarming Henrietta moments. As a stand alone episode, I enjoyed it. However nothing about it really feels like it had to be here. This episode could have happened much earlier or much later in the season and I don’t think it would effect much. Now, at the end of the day, is that such a bad thing? No, a bunch of good stand alone episodes are still good. But it does hold it back from the heights, from the level of greats, shows that I consider when asked “What are your favorite anime”. There is still time to address that, we have 3 episodes left and whatever Gunslinger Girl gives me, odds are I will enjoy it. Just some more than others.
