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.

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??

True, the 1st season was more realistic.
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. (they seem stiff in the 2nd season and it looks like Artland cut corners by using shaky still shots)
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.

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.

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

Impz: “…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.”

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.

rosachinensis: “not true, it is a beretta 12S..an italian weapon, i’m italian i know about it^_^”

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.