By Susan Kemp
If upon picking up a graphic novel, you opened to a scene of a young girl giggling down the streets of Italy with a violin case in hand, you might assume you picked up just another slice-of-life comedy. When it turns out this violin case actually contains a pistol, and the girl in question is a ruthless assassin for a government-funded top secret organization, then you have the basic premise of “Gunslinger Girl.” And naturally, the story that unravels is anything but light and fluffy.
The Social Welfare Agency is a government-operated counter-terrorist organization which guises itself as a nonprofit aiding in the recovery of young girls who’ve undergone traumatic life events. However, in reality Section 2, as it’s referred to within the agency, specializes in high-end medical experiments that transform young girls into lethal fighting machines known as cyborgs.
The cyborgs’ memories are wiped clean of previous lives. All they know is that they’ll do anything to please their “fratello”—the military agent that each girl is paired with on missions. But unlike most 10-year-olds, making their “brother” happy has nothing to do with doing well in school, but rather how well they perform as the government’s most deadly secret weapons.
Needless to say, it’s a story of disturbing juxtapositions: adorable kids who at home enjoy photography and kaleidoscopes but in battle will do anything for the kill. The power of a graphic novel is the ability to construct panels side by side for both visual and conceptual effect, thus scenes which might go by in an instant in animation, hit hard in “Gunslinger Girl,” begging the reader to go on, even if it all might be just a little twisted.
Of couse, when a story casts little girls as assassins, there’s bound to be a bit of controversy surrounding the ethicality of its premise. The best sought defense is that the excessive violence is in aid of some larger message, in short, that reader and author aren’t spending hours reveling in the sadistic scenario for no larger purpose. The first omnibus of “Gunslinger Girl” (containing volumes 1-3) may very well be well-paced shock value, more so meant to hook readers to the tragic tale of each of the four main female characters than to propel the plot, but the second omnibus (volumes 4-6) really does begin to get into the big questions, in a way that manga rarely does.
Even for fans familiar with franchise (this summer’s omnibus releases come eight years after the release of the anime series), the manga is worth picking up for its commitment to developing both theme and character in a way that begs the reader to question the very basics of what it means to be human. One downfall of the anime is that the original season focuses only on the girls. This is better laid out in the manga where the antagonists (a group of terrorists known as “Padania”) are introduced much earlier, and the flow of the narrative alternates between both plots simultaneously.
Developing the stories of the terrorists is important because the leading antagonist of the series up to this point, Pinocchio, serves as foil in the graphic novels—a boy “saved” from his circumstances by an uncle who often treats him poorly, but nevertheless Pinnochio builds an unbudging allegiance toward him. The fight scenes between Pinocchio and the girls, primarily pig-tailed Triela, are compelling because within the backdrop of this war on terrorism, neither of the characters actually fighting care about politics or the economic state of Italy. They fight because it’s what they’ve been programmed to do.
While readers will surely feel engaged in the plight of the girls, as they seek to find acceptance from their handlers and come to terms with their insatiable loneliness, Pinocchio is the one, on rare occasions to question if he should follow through with the kill. The girls never think twice, which begs the question: who is more human—terrorist or adorable little girl?
The question becomes complicated even further when a new girl, Petruska (the end notes indicate her name is based on a Russian ballet about a puppet) is introduced near the end of the second omnibus. Now readers are handed the variable of a cyborg whose history as a human is actually known.
Yet, even though the narrative is gripping, the intricate plot does lend itself to an unusually large cast of characters in its first six volumes, which at times may be confusing for readers. Since the narrative is constantly interweaving new stories (apparently everyone in Italy is in some way involved in everyone else’s lives), it’s sometimes hard to remember who is new and who has already been introduced. Most characters do end up having some sort of back-story uncovered, revealing his or own personal tragedy, but it weakens the more poignant moments if readers get lost in the overabundance of characters.
Another conflict arises from dialogue bubbles, which often represent the comments other than the character being represented in the panel. The intention behind breaking up text to slow down the pace of the story and add drama is apparent, but it still doesn’t completely resolve the frustration of not being able to immediately recognize who’s speaking.
Yet with those small complaints aside, “Gunslinger Girl” offers one of the more thought-provoking narratives available in a manga title. The omnibus editions released in the U.S. by Seven Seas are well worth the retail price ($15.99 for a collection of three volumes). “Gunslinger Girl” Omnibus Collection 3 is scheduled for release on Oct. 25.
