Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- 01 - Meh
Posted by 0rion on January 8th, 2008 - 7:30 pm
Meh is indeed my overwhelming reaction to the new season of Gunslinger Girl.
It’s not terrible, certainly, but I expected much better than mediocre from both Gunslinger Girl and from Artland. The art style is noticeably similar to Mushishi (which Artland also animated), particularly the shading style and the way they favor simple, clean lines for the characters. Now, that I don’t necessarily have a problem with, since the GSG manga also uses this style… but WTF happened to the budget for this project??
I know Artland is capable of much, much better, because the consistency and attention to detail in Mushishi was fantastic (episode 20 “Sea of Brushes”, for example). The animation in this first episode of Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- was just terrible, though. Where to start?
Here’s the old Henrietta and P90 combo…
And here’s the new one…aside from the gun looking meh, WTF happened to her face in this shot? And what’s with the misshapen hand?
The character models are inconsistent, the automobiles are just plain terribly drawn, lots of shakycam action is used to make the show look fluid while still only animating every third frame, and above all the firearms look terrible. The guns are one of the series’ selling points, or at least they should be. The series is known for its amazing attention to detail and realism in the firearms and the way they are handled.
Whoever drew those cars is so fired.
Generic SMG is generic looking.
Overall the tone of animation is much brighter and happier - a total night and day difference from Madhouse’s desaturated, high-contrast film noir style which helped give the series such a distinctive, gritty look. Admittedly, this is very similar to Yu Aida’s style in the manga, so you can’t blame them too much, but it’s really changed the whole vibe of the story.
The new Rico.
The old Rico. I know which one I prefer.
The music also seems a bit weak this time around. “Tatta Hitotsu no Omoi” is a poor replacement for the awesomeness of “The Light Before We Land”, for one thing. While I do like the new “battle theme” music, I also miss the wonderfully melancholy piano & strings pieces that accompanied the slower sections of the story last season.
That said, I do think the voice acting is very solid this time around. With the exception of Henrietta, the girls all sound fairly similarly to how they did previously. Mizuno Risa in particular did a great job as Claes, which was a relief, as I was worried no one would be able to live up to Koshimizu Ami’s excellent voicing of Claes last season. Triela doesn’t sound quite as mature as she used to, but all in all I’m pretty satisfied with the way Enomoto Atsuko is handling the role so far.
Mizuno Risa’s voice for Claes is great.
Akutsu Kana as Henrietta, on the other hand…
As Kurogane pointed out, Henrietta sounds far too “chirpy” now, and is really missing the quiet, almost whisperlike shyness Nanri Yuuka lent her voice.
Didn’t get to hear Hanazawa Kana this episode, but perhaps her awesomeness will help salvage the series later on.
Another disappointment in this season is the amount of censorship present. Several times, bullet impacts take place off camera or the view is conveniently blocked, particularly for Triela’s shotgun kills. On the other hand, wow the blood is actually red! No more Nice Ink!
Also, to be fair, Rico’s action scene was pretty cool, too.
The old Giuse looked pretty GAR and had manly chest.
The new one looks like Howl, or some wimpy harem lead. Also note the difference in the head to body proportions.
Honestly, the highlight of the episode was Triela rocking that manhole cover. That’s pretty sad, really.
Ahh well, at the very least I’ll keep watching because I love the Pinocchio arc. I can only hope that the animation team remembers the Gunslinger Girl motto before it’s too late:
“If we can hold on, we can fix what is wrong.”
The main reason why Artland has no budget for GSG 2 is because all the good staff is working on the Eva movies.
Maybe it’s because it’s one of my favorite shows ever and that I haven’t seen the new season (and won’t until it comes out on dvd), but these screencaps fill me with dread. Why the hell is Guise now the boy from homeroom class three?
Triela looks like Liru sans the skimpy outfits and Wolf features.
I remain optimistic though, GSG is to good for a studio to let this lack lustre style continue.
I had assumed the worst seeing the video and promotional art for GSG S2 and this seems to confirm my suspicions. Regardless of Artland’s previous work, this is an unforgivable waste of one of the better properties in all of anime. I don’t know what Artland intends to do storywise, but if this is all they can pull off artistically, I’m not sure I’ll be able to watch it. I’ve seen teenagers draw better (and in proportion!). I’m rather saddened. GSG was one of my favourite shows ever.
Ugh. Just…damnation.
“The Light Before We Land” was a superb opening. Exchanging it for a song of lesser quality was a highly questionable decision.
The dark and realistic animation style was great at conveying the intense nature of the series. What would possess them to change such a thing so drastically? I mean, they did Mushishi for God’s sake! MUSHI-FREAKING-SHI.
And yes, the lack of meticulously accurate gun drawings has indeed left me in despair.
Zetsubo-shita.
I’m still planning on watching the series, but I do so grudgingly.
That manhole is where the budget went!
My hubby and I enjoyed the first season of Gunslinger Girl.
Now I think I’ll wait for more reviews before I look for this one. I mean, Giuse looks like.. a teenybopper!!!
Ha, the horrible cars remind of the really bad car from the lastish episode of fate/stay night. Actually, they’re probably better
WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO MAH GUNSLINGER GIRLS? ZETSUBOU-SHITA!
I haven’t got around to watching the first season as off now. This hasn’t stopped me to watch it, But my god. It can’t be that bad. I was looking forward to it.
Damn that manhole.
OMG, thats shocking! The cars look like those awful car caricatures you see in second raet shopping centres!!
Excuse me for a moment…
…OH NOES, how could they have done this? How can it be possible to mess up Gunslinger Girl? Why is Giuse suddenly fifteen years younger?…
…ah, that’s out of my system now.
@ Link
I sincerely hope that’s the reason for it, although it’s still no excuse, certainly.
@ Everybody Else
ZETSUBOU SHITA!!
Ok, ok…I’ll definitely still watch it and keep my fingers crossed that the quality picks up, but just…grr…fdkshaehvs… *facepalms*
it seriously isn’t that bad…..
I just don’t think the animation is terrible,i associate terrible animation with something like zombie loan or air gear.
I actualy preffer the new rico,believe it or not,but agree about henrietta.
I hope they saved the good animation for scenes that are actually part of the plot and not random filler.
Arrr, so i was right to state that the voice seiyuus are different. No wonder Henrietta feels so different from how I remember her to sound like ~_~
I actually like the darker feel of GSG, but somehow, this feels much more disturbing when Henrietta wrote in her novel chirply, “I helped Jose kill a guy” without even realizing any fault at all. Quite ironic and painful.
“Generic SMG is generic looking.”
not true, it is a beretta 12S..an italian weapon, i’m italian i know about it^_^
http://www.berettaweb.com/Militari/Beretta_PM12_Ins.htm
it’s a submachinegun used by “carabinieri” (a military corp between army and police http://www.carabinieri.it/Internet/Multilingua/EN/default.htm).
about the other things, you’re right, it’s a real bad copy of the first series. it has lost all its noir feeling:
http://xs223.xs.to/xs223/08022/0016665.jpg
and.. ops. about the cars, the right one is a FIAT Multipla first series, 1998..known as the ugliest car ever. i don’t know about the left one, but the design is similar to FIAT or Autobianchi.
I think I’m going to cry.
And that’s exactly the kind of vibe that Yu Aida wanted to create, so it’s understandable that they would go that route; it’s true to original tone of the manga. That said, it still doesn’t excuse the horrible animation quality.
Yes, I’m well aware of what kind of gun it is; that doesn’t change the fact that it’s lacking any kind of detail or realism, not to mention the horribly inaccurate geometry.
< "and.. ops. about the cars, the right one is a FIAT Multipla first series, 1998..known as the ugliest car ever. i don’t know about the left one, but the design is similar to FIAT or Autobianchi.">
The car infront of the green Fiat Multipla appears to be a mutated Mercedes C-class Estate.
Fiat Multipla: http://img236.imageshack.us/img236/9420/fiatmultiplarl0.jpg
Mercedes C-class Estate: http://img176.imageshack.us/img176/4940/cclassestatevw2.jpg
“And that’s exactly the kind of vibe that Yu Aida wanted to create, so it’s understandable that they would go that route; it’s true to original tone of the manga”
Yeah, I just feel that the scene didn’t come out the way it was supposed to. More like robot girls trying to find their hearts instead of real human girls seeming like they’re losing theirs, which was the vibe that I got from the manga/first season. I’m annoyed at how less realistic this one seems compared to the first season.
“I’m annoyed at how less realistic this one seems compared to the first season.”
True, the 1st season was more realistic.
(they seem stiff in the 2nd season and it looks like Artland cut corners by using shaky still shots)
I also love the way the girls handled their weapons in the 1st season, that too was relaistic and the movements during the actions scenes were more fluid.
I guess the attention to detail seeeen in the 1st season is something we could expect from Studio Madhouse, who later did the anime version of Black Lagoon.
I guess Artland Inc animation studio has a smaller budget.
I’ll still watch it since I like Gunslinger Girl, but its obvious that the animation quality and the directing isn’t as good as the 1st season(at least based on the 1st two epsiodes of season 2).
I really hope it improves in the later episodes.
The big mystery is why on the earth the project would have such a seemingly small budget! I mean, the first season was fairly successful, and the manga continues to be wildly popular, so I can’t imagine why they wouldn’t have a fairly sizable budget to help make this new adaptation successful.
Doing it in a half-assed way is only going to irritate the loyal fans and destroy the potential for good DVD sales.
Ahhh…Gunslinger Girls what’s happened to you??
I’m very disapointed with the second season really… It’s far away from “mediocre”! Comparing with the first season it SUCKs!!!! :/
I guess you really don’t know what you have until it’s gone. The emotional depth of the first season was truly fantastic and subtly conveyed to the audience through the actions while I often feel as I watch S2 that they are trying to tell me why little girls murdering people is sad.
In my opinion what made the first season so great was definitely the realism, but more specifically how you felt the pain of all those involved. Specifically the screen shot of Rico you used is from a scene where she kills a boy she had had a conversation with the previous day with a simple gomenasai. In season two I really am receiving the message that the girls, and their brothers, often times don’t want to kill (or even worse like they have a choice) which in many ways messes up the series for me.
The plot seems to be getting better, perhaps you should just separate S1 and S2 and your mind as completely different series and that will make it easier to enjoy both for their different approaches.
They ruined the whole fanchise. I can’t believe that they changed the whole cast. I hated Henrietta’s voice in S2, it makes me wanna rip my ears off. They also changed the characters. I loved how they looked and their styles in s1. Especially Rico….God what happened to her…
SHAME ON YOU! Yu Aida for letting this happen. Redeem yourself in season 3.