Gunslinger Girl – 9 [Lycoris Radiata Herb (Cluster Amaryllis)] – Throwback Thursday

You all know the drill at this point, its another episode of Gunslinger Girl! We got guns, we got depression, and both are delivered by this weeks new girl Elsa. So without further ado, lets dive in!

Starting off, quick call out as Gunslinger Girl brought back its animation chops this week. Elsa’s opening firefight in the hotel was chef kiss, great. I will always love how fluid the series can be with the girls movements or the bullet casings falling to the ground. It makes the rest of the series seem stilted in comparison at times. Moving on though, this episode introduces us to another sort of “bad” Handler/Assassin relationship. Until now the primary example of that was Jean and Rico, with a very “Tool/Master” relationship. It was very professional in nature, with Rico knowing and being completely OK with this arrangement. Here though with Elsa and Lauro, we are shown a relationship of extremes. One of obsession and utter disinterest, both taking elements of prior relationships to terrible extremes. To be frank? It’s pretty damn interesting.

Up until now Gunslinger Girl has shown us many different kinds of obsession from these girls. From familial in Claes to being grateful/usefulness in Rico to love in Triela and Henrietta’s case. Only one of these ended in tragedy, but more because of Raballo’s conscious than anything negative. The rest have largely functioned well and seem to play off of each other to some degree. And yet in this episode we see Elsa, who has taken the same love as Henrietta to a terrible extreme. Where Henrietta adores and appreciates Jose, Elsa loves Lauro to the exclusion of all else. Pushing away her fellow cyborgs and living her entire life thinking of and obsessing over him. It’s a very unhealthy mindset, this single minded focus without thought, and one we begin to see collapse by the end of the episode.

I am of course talking here about her failure on the mission at the episodes end. She let her obsession cloud her judgement, got nervous, and deteriorated over the episodes course. This is a stark contrast to Henrietta whom we only saw get better. Early on she is missing shots when Jose is around, but not because of nerves. Rather she clearly missed them on purpose to get more time with him training her, knowing she could do it when required. And so when the time came, Henrietta was more than able to make the shot with Jose. Sadly Elsa took the opposite approach. The more she saw of Henrietta and Jose the more jealous she became, the more she started to look at her relationship with Lauro. Until at the end she was so nervous that she failed the one thing he needed her to do.

It doesn’t help that Lauro was so dismissive of Elsa. Unlike Jose, he doesn’t reciprocate in any way, and unlike Jean he doesn’t entertain it or interact with Elsa in any way. Lauro keeps far more than a professional distance between them, even telling Jose he doesn’t see them as “colleagues”. This lack of basic respect, of any communication, forces Elsa to bottle it all up inside until it comes exploding out at the end. Had he just talked to her, reinforced her, given her the support that she so clearly needed, this wouldn’t have happened. Instead we see him turning up the music in the car to prevent further conversation, ordering her around, etc. You get the idea at this point, I thought it made for another interesting look at what exactly the Handler/Assassin relationship is like. I only wish it did more to advance the story.

Speaking of the main story, lets switch over to that and talk cops. Because hoo boy did the Agency switch gears. Up until now they have largely presented themselves as a sort of… internal anti-terrorism unit. Investigating parties, going after terrorist elements, etc. This week though Gunslinger Girl saw them actively kill members of their own countries police force, and for no other reason than they weren’t playing nice. Turns out not bending over backwards for a secret Government organization is liable to get you shot, huh? Its the start of something very concerning, of perhaps the Agency going to far even within the government. I know there is a second season we won’t be getting to, but I half expect it to end with the Government cracking down. A shootout between our girls and actual soldiers, as their Agency goes rogue. Could be interesting, if done well.

All in all, it was another decent episode from Gunslinger Girl. Every time it pulls back from whatever greater terrorist plot its building up to and focuses instead on the Handler/Assassin relationship, its pretty good! It becomes an interesting exploration of human relationships. Of dependency, of love and the various forms it can take, good and bad. The individual stories of these girls and their day to day lives in this organization are easily its best part. Maybe this is my fault for taking something from the opening episodes I shouldn’t have. But I feel Gunslinger Girl would resonate with me a lot more had it sold me on an episodic nature from the start. Instead it feels like it dangled this terrorist plot in front of me, before switching it out with these girls stories. They are good stories! Just not what I expected.

Who knows tough, maybe the finale will resolve this conflict of what exactly the show wants to be. I do always say the ending is one of the most important parts of a show after all. See you next week!