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.”

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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.

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