Gunslinger Girl – Il Teatrino – bad, graphic novel, cheaper, and subpar.

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Oh and don’t forget the rather generic dating-sim-turn-anime music, too.

There are a lot of dating sim graphic novels with different themes. This show could very well be one of them…Wait a minute!

Isn’t this supposed to be the anime continuation of Gunslinger Girl, the often poignant, high production quality with emotional restraint and yet often hits so hard show? Isn’t it?

But God! This just felt so…cheap and low budgeted.

The animation is nothing to write home about, the music pieces sound like they’re from a 3rd rate school dating sim, and the voice actresses…Gosh, isn’t the whole anime industry moe enough already??? Do they have to go and destroy Gunslinger Girl, too? The original wonderful soundtrack and the bitter and tear worthy ending song, gone; replaced with school drama songs that don’t touch most people’s souls any more because they’re so common place in anime.

Why not put Henrietta, Jose, and the rest of them in a Japanese high school? A high school with guns, perhaps?

Where’s the poignancy? Where’s the drama? Where’s the point where tears seems awfully appropriate but something chokes them off?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, don’t tell me this is only the first episode. This is the first episode that starts off with the wrong foot and seemingly heading toward disaster.

IT’S A BAD SHOW. If it doesn’t improve (but the animation, seiyuu, OP and ED won’t change right), then please, don’t waste your time.

Oh and, STOP EXPLAINING EVERYTHING!

Author: Ray

I'm a hardcore Anime Fan and I'm proud of it. I know so many things and I've acquired so much knowledge you wouldn't believe. But my love is anime. I've been drifting in this world for so long that I don't even know what an anchor means. I've seen so many shows that I've lost count. The only thing I'm sure of myself is that I care for the lowly and disenfranchised. I hate the rich and powerful and I love what I do, or what I can do. I like anime and I don't mind watching different types of shows. I have experience in different types of Japanese animation. I would be called an "expert" in a bizzaro world. One day, I'd like to start a revolution. I love the US, pizza, beer, sashimi, Chinese food, and steak. But I love freshly baked bread more than a well-aged steak. In reality, if I were born Japanese I'd be a real, hardcore Otaku. I love to love and I can hate strongly. I'm passionate in nature and I don't mind shedding tears. I can be reached at rayyhum777 at animediet. My Twitter is rayyhum777 at twitter.

17 thoughts on “Gunslinger Girl – Il Teatrino – bad, graphic novel, cheaper, and subpar.

  1. So this means that the plot is so unimportant and bad that if you change the visual aspect the whole anime will suck? Then I’m not really that intersted in the first season, if it’s all mood and setting and no plot.

    (Post made under the asumption that despite the desing changes, both series are faithful to the original source)

  2. x.x; I’m still waiting on a sub, but these reviews are sad to hear. Although the original series did have a terrible episode 2 (with all the recaps and explanations). Maybe for this series it happened to be ep1.

  3. @ lametastic – nope. But in this case, for me the first season didn’t have a continuous plot, and each episode was more or less a story about each girl.
    In any case, great animation, high quality soundtrack and better voice acting always make a good story great, and a bad story salvageable.
    Hmmm, I did not imply the plot is so unimportant. But animation is animation that’s the point. Crappy animation will have trouble attracting someone who has seen 300+ anime (and counting – me) :P. As for plot-wise, This is only the first episode but please, judge it for yourself if what’s going on in the first episode is good or bad.
    I would have to say that for a 13 episode OAV, Gunslinger Girl S1 really didn’t move any plots forward. I suspect the manga didn’t do any better, so yeah, you may want to look somewhere else.

  4. @ Crisu – this is only the first episode, however, what I’ve seen so far really distressed me. I think for me, the seiyuus are the worst part of it all – they simply sounded like love-sick school girls without that haunted pain behind their voices. The first episode for this one isn’t a recap, but it was subpar compared with any of the first season. Just take a look for yourself.

  5. “Gosh, isn’t the whole anime industry moe enough already??? Do they have to go and destroy Gunslinger Girl, too?”

    Exactly the question I asked myself after watching (or more precisely skimming) the first episode.
    I am beginning to feel like a stranger in a strane land with the utter dominance of moe in all that’s anime these days…

  6. Am I the only one who finds it ironic that people keep hammering on the visuals for Gunslinger Girl, and yet the show with quite possibly some of the the best production-values of the entire season (Porfy’s Long Journey) hardly ever gets mentioned?

    In any case, I didn’t mind the changes too much. I somehow suspected that the series would look different from the Madhouse-version. After all, Artland aren’t the most experieced when it comes to action-scenes.

  7. Lets face it. They screwed it up. SCREWED IT UP BAD. Even apart from season one, this wasn’t a great of an episode. With bishoujo like character designs and voices, they ruined atmosphere, and actions scenes? come on! still shots and blurs? You can’t deny they were being cheap.

  8. @psgels

    Because nobody is interested in SHOWS FOR KIDS, but more ADULT and MATURE anime like this one?
    [/sarcasm]

    In my case I find terrible frustrating that the only shows subbed so far are stuff like Rosario Vampire, H20 or AYAKASHI. It seems that the more hate an anime gets, the change it’s subbed by 3 or 4 groups gets higher.

  9. So much for the one show I was looking forward to this season. Time to dig into the backlog…

  10. http://psgels.blogsome.com/2008/01/07/some-quick-first-impressions-strait-jacket-minami-ke-okawari-and-gunslinger-girl-il-teatrino/#comments

    I wrote something about GG at psgel’s blog. Raymond i agree about the animation being crappy, but hold on a bit before trashing it all. Just read the manga, as it’s being scanlated up to vol #6, and you’ll notice that the plot develops into action and fights now. The fist 2 volumes (first season) just prepared the mood and the background, now the subsequent 4 will develop the social picture of the country. Italy is cracked up and divided in the story, on the verge of a civil war. Here the fight between the Social Wellfare Agency and the 5 republics takes place. It’s nice to see that, though you naturally would side up with the SCA, it’s not clear who’s the bad and who’s the good. The story will develop a lot, and we can expect a very good action anime to come.
    The new character design may seem bad, but it’s only a matter of habit. We all naturally compare it with the old one. Let’s forget it for now and judge the serie like it is. It’s surely better fit for an action serie like what GG is going to become.
    Let’s only hope the quelity of the animation will raise somewhat

  11. Well, yeah, I can be hasty with something. But unfortunate when it comes to action shows, I’m often correct (see my El Cazador reviews). I love action shows and I love action shows with great plots (Black Lagoon). For GG, I read couple volumes of the manga and didn’t get to later ones.
    In any case, with animation, it’s inevitable that people are going to compare the new with the old because the old was what raised the story to stratosphere greatness. Even if this first episode did impress me it’d take a few more episodes for me to get used to this style, plus the unimpressive OP and ED, and the rather lovey-dopey school girl voices behind these girls. Well, I can try to look past the music. However, the overall production value still shows cheapness.
    I do look forward to the plot development if there’s going to be plenty. But for an action-oriented show the quality of the gun fights really should be better. It’s true nobody can do Madhouse like Madhouse, but a better effort would be appreciated.

  12. Because nobody is interested in SHOWS FOR KIDS, but more ADULT and MATURE anime like this one?
    [/sarcasm]
    => Haha. Quite amusing. It’s even more funny considering that those who say that follow pure crap shows such as Rosario + Vampire or H2O. These should go watch Dennou Coil, seeing what really a a japanese kids show is about.

    About Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-, this show is doomed, the plot will probably be good, but it’s just not enough, if the graphics and music don’t match it, it’s just meaningless. I’d rather read the manga…

  13. Crisu: “Although the original series did have a terrible episode 2 (with all the recaps and explanations). Maybe for this series it happened to be ep1.”

    The first two episodes of the first season are about the very same event, narrated from two opposite point of view of Josè and Henrietta. That was a masterpiece.

    The first episode of the new season is just horribly cheap. The plot and narration is still high quality. But what you notice at the first view is the graphics, and it impressed us all bad and worse. So now we all think GG2 is crap, but that is only a wrong minsunderstanding!

    @rayhum (or raymond?) i also hope for the animation quality to be boosted up. Action anime with blurs and stills are indeed the top ones 🙁
    Pls naaa i don’t wanna read reviews!!! >..<“”

    @Windspirit: beware, anime for kids aren’t always light hearted nor stupid 😉 I suggest you to watch to some. Start with Totoro or Sen to Chihiro 😉

  14. Well, it’s anime we’re watching. It’s a 2008 anime we’re watching, so animation gotta count for something. But again, it’s only the first episode.
    But I want Nanrietta back! Not some moe school girl voice! And I want music equal to the caliber of “The Light Before We Land!” Not some school drama music! Not for GG!

  15. Opps i have some errata corriges i did notice way too late
    >Action anime with blurs and stills areN’T the top Ones. It was ironic of course 😛

    >Pls naaa i don’t wanna read reviews!!!
    “cause i’m stil watching to el cazador”

    >@ Windspirit
    Quote windspitit
    I wanted to quote him but it seems i’m picking on him >_< Too bad of me! Forgive me i screwed it all up T.T note: I noticed right now that some emote like this >_< screw up the comments!! I had to edit this comment too cause the sentence about el cazador didn't show up!!!

  16. The relationship between the girls and their handlers in GG1 was a lot more professional than in GG2. Judging from the first episode of GG2 the girl-handler relationship is shaping up to be a typical “big-brother little sister” anime relationship. I think that’s a shame. Like Ray I’m also upset that they replaced the wonderful OP song of GG1 with an awful one for GG2.

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