Gunslinger Girl – 2 [Orione (Orion)] – Throwback Thursday

Welcome all to episode 2 of Gunslinger Girl! Where last week gave us a fair bit of action and gunfights, this week we slow it down and get to know our characters. There is a lot worth talking about so strap in!

Alright let’s get the negatives out of the way first, because there was really only one. And to be frank, I really have no idea why Gunslinger Girl did this. A stylistic choice perhaps, but I could do without the 5 minute opening recap. Maybe they wanted to reintroduce us to the scene, since this episode primarily takes place in the middle of episode 1. In that sense, it’s not a bad idea to reintroduce us to how episode 1 started. However we didn’t need 5 fulls minutes of that, just give us a quick rewind or something. Considering the themes and ideas Gunslinger Girl is trying to tackle, you’d think it would trust its audience to be smart. To be able to follow along between episodes, especially considering how sudden it treats some of its flashbacks. Let’s just hope this isn’t going to be a consistent thing.

For the new content, we learn a fair bit about how the girls work. Not as characters, though that is there to, but more as machines. Filling in the space between last weeks gunfight and Henrietta meeting Triela, we see Henrietta go to the doctor for her wound. Yet here she isn’t sewn up or given a blood transfusion or anything. Rather it is implied that the girls can’t heal themselves, the skin can’t knit back together or grow more. Instead he seemingly has to remove the old and give her a skin craft. All the while talking about how they need surgery every time, and how conditioning takes a toll on the girls. Making them dependent on it and causing memory loss, like a sort of drug situation. Slowly but surely we are learning what these girls are, and the more we learn the less human they seem.

As for the ones using these girls, the organization itself, this week confirms they are in fact Government. Last week they implied it, talking about the “Social Welfare Agency”, but I didn’t fully believe it. It felt like a lie made up to get them access to the hospitals. Here we learn they are not only a legitimate Government agency with actual paperwork, but just how wide-reaching they are. Going to hospitals and taking on dying people for their “special” procedures. Turning them into machines, assassins for their dirty work, while no doubt making them untraceable. I have no idea if Gunslinger Girl is trying for any commentary on Government systems, we will see where it goes. But for now I think its safe to say that this “Social Welfare Agency” is pretty damn sketchy and I am expecting some conflict internally.

Now we come to the meat of the episode, Henrietta and Jose’s history. I’ll admit, the flashbacks were a bit difficult to tell at times. There was very little indication we had switched to the past, since even their designs stayed the same. That said though the actual content was pretty good. Gunslinger Girl worked hard to show what “conditioning” was and how Henrietta was trained. All the while juxtaposing it with her childlike nature and naivete. Take for instance the waiter, simply clearing their table, yet she takes him holding a knife as a threat to Jose. Or my favorite, watching the stars with a sniper rifle. A perfect activity for a father and his daughter, yet done in the middle of training with a weapon made to kill. That Gunslinger Girl managed to bookend the entire episode with the stars, ending on the roof as well, was great.

Meanwhile in all of this, Gunslinger Girl tells us a lot about Jose as well. How he doesn’t view her as an assassin or a robot, but a child. Going out of his way to take her to a nice dinner, not reprimanding her over the waiter and just watching her sadly. Pausing their training to try and give her a moment of joy watching the stars. Even rewarding her, not for the “failed” mission, but most likely for trying to protect him. And what helps make it all work is that even the other character notice this. Telling Jose how it’s a bad idea, and how it’s going to end badly, etc. All this frames Gunslinger Girl as more of a tragedy/character drama than an “action” show it feels like. Because for all the guns and bullets, there was no actual action this week. Just characters and foreshadowing.

Speaking of foreshadowing and Jose’s treatment of Henrietta being a “bad” idea, lets talk about that last star scene again. Because between the episode name and the constellation pointed out, it feels like Gunslinger Girl is hinting at something. Namely, the whole “Orion and Artemis” situation, except with Jose and Henrietta. It’s entirely possible this is just a tease, and it won’t go this way. But the idea of Henrietta killing Jose because of a lie from a jealous fellow assassin or the Agency is pretty compelling. As many of you know after the Princess Tutu watch, I love tragedies. So for Gunslinger Girl to hint at one this early is nice and engaging for me, even if it doesn’t come to pass. I just hope that Gunslinger Girl keeps up this character focused story telling when it dives back into the more action-packed moments.

So all in all, how was this episode of Gunslinger Girl? For all the guns, bullets and action of last episode, this was surprisingly quiet. Yet for all the lack of action, it was still a good episode, opening recap aside. We learned a lot about the characters and their relationship. Jose’s disagreement with how the Agency treats the children was solidified, meanwhile Henrietta’s attachment to Jose was explained. Between their relationship, the internal conflict with the agency and the external conflict of being assassins, it feels like all the building blocks are in place. The only question left is what is going to happen to make them all come tumbling down. Whatever happens though, I’m looking forward to it. Gunslinger Girl has successfully engaged me in it’s story and now it just needs to execute on it.