Gunslinger Girl – 13 [Stella Cadente (Shooting Star)] – Throwback Thursday

Here we are everyone, the finale, the end of Gunslinger Girl Season 1. This post isn’t going to be terribly long, I am saving most of my thoughts for the final review to come out soon. Thanks for stickin me through the series and remember to vote on the next Throwback Thursday poll at the end of the post! Without further ado, lets dive in.

Right off the bat I want to be clear: This was a good episode. But it felt more like a good middle episode, rather than a finale. Gunslinger Girl tries its hardest to make this a more definitive ending of course. It references all the girls, their short lifespans, etc. It focuses in on how they feel about their situation. How they could have been real girls, how they don’t regret it but the handlers might, etc. All of this is good stuff. However… none of it is particularly new. Gunslinger Girls fails to wrap it all up in any meaningful way, it fails to really end any greater story. There is Angelica of course, and we will get to her. But as a whole it feels like we just finished the prologue. And in a way, we did, since there is a 2nd season after this. But not meaningfully.

“What do you mean by meaningfully Lenlo? You’re just tossing around random words now!”. Shush you, let me explain. There is nothing wrong with a first season being just the prologue to a larger story. Naruto did it, One Piece, Bleach even last years Vinland Saga did it to great effect. So whats different here? Well I would say that while Gunslinger Girl introduced and setup everything about its world, there was no clear through line for this season. Vinland Saga has Thorfinn looking for his revenge, Naruto has the Hidden Mist mission and their first real job, etc. None of these complete their story, they barely dip their toes in the series larger narrative. But they do give a clear stopping point for the viewer. They start and end a single narrative, contained within that larger narrative. Gunslinger Girl tries to do this, but fails.

Gunslinger Girl’s attempt to do this was Angelica. We are introduced to her relatively early and she is used as the poster child of “conditioning fucks kids up”. She is losing her memory, shes obsessed with Marco, etc etc. And so you on paper her death this episode would seem like a good ending right? It effects our entire cast, either emotionally or through the condition they all share with her, it marks another major character death, etc. And yet, I couldn’t seem to care at all. For all that Angelica is the core through line of the season, she was never particularly important. She existed as a commentary, as a note about what conditioning does to the girls, and then is largely left alone. Reintroduced at the end for the gut punch. Had she been as involved as Triela, it would have carried much more weight.

This isn’t to say it was all bad, there were definite good scenes in there. Marco looking for the dog but denying it, doing his best to distance himself from the inevitable so it doesn’t hurt him despite how it hurts Angelica. Henrietta confronting Marco about how they don’t regret becoming cyborgs, how they care about their handlers etc. All of it was decent to good, for a mid season episode. What holds it back as a finale though is how few of the actual plot threads we were introduced to are addressed. This is an emotional ending, rather than a narrative one. We have no idea who the bomb couple are, or what they are doing next. We have no idea whats going to happen with the Agency or the terrorist party, etc. These were important plot points just last episode, but which are now largely irrelevant.

And I suppose that’s my biggest issue with Gunslinger Girl. For all that it succeeds with its cast, for all that its an interesting idea and executes on the “child soldier” shtick well… the narrative surrounding it all lets it down. It feels like I only have half the story. And its true, we do. However part of a good adaptations job I feel is to make that half a story, that small slice of a story, be able to stand on its own. So all in all, while the episode wasn’t bad, as ending I just feel… let down. You’ll get more reasoning in the full review, a much longer explanation on the whole thing, I promise. I definitely enjoyed parts of it. It just isn’t enough to carry it.

And with that we have come to the end of this season of Throwback Thursday! You can vote on the next show we will watch here! If you have any suggestions, droppem in the comments below and they can go on the poll next time. I’ll have this final review up next week and we will start up again on the 30th. Thanks for stickin around and see ya soon!