First Thoughts on Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino -
Posted by 0rion on January 3rd, 2008 - 9:00 pm
As a huge fan of the original Gunslinger Girl anime, as well as the ongoing manga, I’m definitely very excited about seeing how this new season will turn out. The change of studio and cast obviously means the second season will be different from the first, but for the most part I remain pretty optimistic about it. Let me take a moment to examine a few of the different factors involved.
First, the key information:
Title: Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino -
Air Date: January 7th, 2008
Episodes: 13 + 2 more on DVD
Studio: Artland
Director: Mano Rei
Music: Outani Kou
Major Cast
Henrietta: Akutsu Kana (was Nanri Yuuka)
Triela: Enomoto Atsuko (was Sendai Eri)
Claes: Mizuno Risa (was Koshimizu Ami)
Rico: Shiono Anri (was Mitsuhashi Kanako)
Angelica: Hanazawa Kana (was Terakada Hiromi)
Jose: Mito Kouzou (was Kiuchi Hidenobu)
Hilscher: Matsukaze Masaya (was Ebara Masashi)
Jean: Koyasu Takehito (was Miyamoto Mitsuru)
Marco: Yao Kazuki (was Inoue Norihiro)
Pinocchio: Kishio Daisuke
Franca: Hirata Eriko
Franco: Yasumoto Hiroki
It’s quite an overhaul, and while I have some reservations about how the new vocal cast will work out, I’m mostly optimistic. Artland is the studio that animated Mushishi, and they also assisted Bones with the production of Darker than Black, so they have a very strong track record so far.
From the promotional art and the trailer, it appears that the character designs will be different, but much closer to how they appear in the manga. The most noticeable change from the previous season is Angelica, who now has brown hair and green eyes instead of her previously black hair and grey eyes. I happen to like the manga’s character designs, so I view this as a very good first sign. Also, according to Hobby Channel (Japanese), this project will have a much greater direct involvement from Yu Aida (the mangaka) than the previous one did, which is usually a very good sign, as well.
All signs point toward this new season picking up roughly where the last one left off, with the beginning of the Pinocchio arc, and probably covering the entire arc (volumes 3-5 of the manga). I won’t give anything away other than to say that the Pinocchio arc has lots of great action, and is also very heavily Triela-centric (a good thing IMO).
Most of the seiyuu are newcomers or have only done minor roles up until now, so it will be interesting to see how they do. The most interesting of the new cast is Angelica’s seiyuu, Hanazawa Kana, who recently voiced Potemayo, Sora in Sketchbook ~full color’S~, and Anmoto Shiika from Mushi-Uta.
Mizuno Risa (the new Claes) voiced Elenora Gabrielli in the original Gunslinger Girls (she’s the lady from Section 1 who comes with Pietro Fermi to visit Henrietta and Jose on vacation). More recently she did Lia de Beaumont from Le Chevalier, Saihashi Yuma from Code-E, and Saori from Shion no Ou.
Although Shiono Anri (Rico) hasn’t had any major anime roles, she’s done a fair amount of video game work, including one that stood out to me - she’s the system voice in the popular Japanese arcade game the Quest of D. To people who have never been to a Japanese arcade that probably doesn’t mean much, but it’s an interesting tidbit for those who are familiar with the game.
Jean’s new seiyuu, Koyasu Takehito, is an industry veteran who’s done hundreds of roles. Notably, he’s played Il Palazzo in Excel Saga, Ryousuke Takahashi in Initial D, Mu La Flaga from Gundam SEED, Shinsuke from Gintama, and Negi from Negima.
Kou Outani is the same composer who did the music for Haibane Renmei, so the score should be similarly epic.
Really, of the old cast probably the only one I will really miss is Koshimizu Ami as Claes, who also did Tenma from School Rumble. Koshimizu’s Claes voice was really spot-on, so Mizuno Risa has some big shoes to fill in that role. Nanri Yuuka, who voiced Henrietta (and later Ichijou Karen from School Rumble), also did an excellent job, but rumor is that she’s gotten away from the seiyuu business to pursue a singing career.
The rest of the old cast was good, but not particularly memorable, so while I’m sure it will be a bit awkward at first, I imagine I’ll become accustomed to the new voices quickly enough. Really, since this upcoming season will most likely be centered around Triela, it’s Enomoto Atsuko’s performance that will really make or break the series.
Finally, here’s a videocam recording of the trailer taken at Comiket. The quality isn’t so hot, but hopefully you’ll get the idea.
Artland did Umisho. They should turn GSG into a fanservice anime lololo
Thank you god for the Triela we will soon recieve.
KANNNNNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!! KYOURRRRRRRCHANRNR.
Hmm, more changes than I expected. That said, they don’t seem to be inherently bad ones from what you’ve outlined here so my hopes are still quite high too. The idea of making Triela more central isn’t a bad idea at all - Henrietta had her fair share of the limelight in the first series and Triela’s tomboyish gutsiness makes her interesting enough to take centre stage I think.
Artland did a fantastic job of Mushishi but I must admit I’ll probably end up missing Madhouse’s polish just slightly. Hopefully I won’t. The seiyuu changes won’t faze me much because I’m not savvy enough with the language but the mention of Kou Otani really made me sit up and take notice - his work on Haibane Renmei was nothing short of superb.
Hmm… a new studio? I didn’t think about this… but I hope it turns out well. I never watched any of Artland’s works, so I can’t really say much, but some of the other news makes me hopeful.
And Triela FTW.
to me, vol3-5>>>>>>>vol1-2 so i’m really looking forward to it
i’m ok with the new art,i’ll miss the delgados but i can deal with the j pop that you hear on the trailer.
My main concern is the animation,the action scenes better be well animated like in season 1.
The day Gunslinger Girls becomes a fanservice anime is the day my monitor goes through the window.
Amen!
Yeah, I’m really excited to see what he will do with the score for this series. Hopefully it’ll really add a lot of depth and emotion to the story, something he’s very good at doing.
Yeah, I’ll admit that that’s one of my concerns as well. Artland has a very strong track record so far, though, as I’ve mentioned, so I’m pretty confident that they’ll do this right.
CHRIS;
The only changes that I loved about Gunslinger Girl il teatrino is the way they changed Triela. I love the new look they gave her. But they did way to many changes on the girls, handlers, and everything else. That I admit. But Gunslinger Girl is my fav. Anime so I still have some hope about the series. I do hope it gets better. {even though I haven’t watched it yet :]} But the way people are saying its bad that gives me a feeling of it being bad. I do think having Triela being in the limelight is fantastic. She is my fav. character.