anime: Gunslinger Girls, Full Metal Panic and Get Backers
Yup, been in anime mode lately. Watched "Full Metal Panic" a few weeks back(or more recently...may have finished it last weekend), "Gunslinger Girls" earlier this week(it's short) and am currently 16 episodes into "Get Backers."
"Gunslinger Girls" is about a government organization that takes young girls who have been abandoned in one way or another and molds them into cyborg assassins. Each girl is conditioned to be utterly faithful to her handler, who is usually referred to as her brother, and all the brothers treat their girls differently. Jose, the handler of the main girl, Henrietta, treats her as if she really were his younger sister. My favorite, Triella, interacts with her handler as if they were a really smart and witty but emotionally burned girl who suddenly got dumped with her bachelor uncle or estranged father and he's absolutely clueless about to do with her. While Henrietta and Jose are meant to be the closest pair, Triella and her handler(I didn't learn most of the handlers' names, unfortunately) strike me as having the healthiest relationship. Then there's Rico, whose handler I THINK was named John(either her's or Elsa's) She's the least effective of the assassins, but tries hard. Her handler actively tries to disassociate himself from her. It's obvious that he does care, but but forces himself to treat her as a a weapon and a subordinate rather than as a girl, though he does slip occassionally. Angelica was the first of the girls, and she wasn't conditioned until later because the agency was trying her out without it. But in the end, they went with conditioning, and conditioned her without telling her handler, Marco, who basically viewed it as not only a waste of months of hard work, but also as "killing" the original girl, o he hasn't let himself care since. Next to last is Clais, a bookworm. Clais's handler basically got a better job and left the agency, and left her his huge library of books. They told her he'd died in a car accident, and instead of reconditioning her with a new handler, they decided to see what would happen if one of the girls never got new parts, as happens a lot when they're on the field. So she never leaves headquaters and they run tests to see how her parts hold up. I suspects she knows the truth about her handler, but the lie is easier. She's probably my favorite after Triella. Least fortunate is Else, whose handler is what Rico's handler tries to be...a complete jerk who thinks she's stupid when she acts like a girl and views her as a machine devoid of humanity.
It's a very good series, mostly cerebral, and with lovely animation and great music, but not quite my thing. Still, well worth the watching.
This is the first of the 3 FMP series. (The other 2 are officially on the list) It's more mecha than I like(I have a very low tolerance level for mecha, and the fact that I really liked this even though it regularly exceeded my limit should stay a fair bit about it) It's essentially about Sosuke, who lives in one of those fictional Japanese worlds where teenagers are the bestest soldiers ever and are given really big robots to pilots, and where teenaged girlsdesign, build and captain giant submarines. Sosuke is sent undercover into high school to be bodyguard to Kaname, a "Whisper" who is subconsciously able to communicate with and understand "black techonology." The most interesting and funniest patrs of the series are about Sosuke trying to act like and sound like what he thinks a normal teenager is, and failing miserably. (As I understand it, that's what the second series, Fumoffu, focuses on, so I'm looking forward to that) I liked the parts focusing on the military too(and, by necessity, the mecha as an extension) but not as much as the school part. Between FMP ans GG, I liked FMP more, but GG was probably the better.
But then, so far, I'll take "Get Backers" over both. It's about a pair of guys, Ban and Genji, who have powers(I've seen this series, as well as "S-cry-ed," as X-Men for anime, and it's fairly accurate, as it seems to be "some people have powers and others know about it, but don't understand it. With the exception of Shido, who has hereditary powers, how the others got their powers hasn't really been explained, aside from a few who have either undergine experimentation(like a couple of guys in the Limitless Fortress) or extreme training in one area, like Kazuki and Himiko. Ban and Genji run a recovery service, which basically means that if it's lost, they'll find it, one way or another. Their missions are always successful, but they manage to always be broke(they're rather like Train and Sven in the also-excellent "Black Cat" manga in that regard) Ban is of the "dark mysterious past" variety and rather badass for an anime good guy(of the top of my head, only Kyo in "Samurai Deeper Kyo" and Kiba in "Wolf's Rain" get to claim superiority in that regard.) He is by far my favorite character in the show--see my post yesterday--though Shido occassionally challenges his status, only to have Ban reestablish his claim less than 5 minutes later. Genji is a former gang leader, but is often emotionally and behaviorally 10 or so, the the point where I often wonder if Ban is his partner or his babysitter. I like Genji, but I figure that half the reason Ban hangs around him is because Genji talks enough that no one will notice Ban doesn't talk unless he wants to. They operate out of a bar run by Paul, who strikes me as eternally patient, and a former client, Natsumi, is the waitress, and get most of their assignments from the absurdly busty but rather cool Hevn.
The rest of the main supporting cast so far includes Akabane, (who pulls off disturbing and creepy better than most anime characters this side of Darcia from "Wolf's Rain" and cares more about how much fun he gets to have killing people while on an assignment than how much he gets paid. He's with Ban and Genji pretty much because it's entertaining...and because he probably wants to fight them again and kill them...) and Himiko, who's Ban's ex/enemy/friend/younger sister figure/etc and is rather like Cheshire from DC comics with her poisons only, you know, not an evil assassin who has an odd tendency to choose hot redheaded guys with connections to Green Arrow to father her children...Akabane and Himiko are transporters who've worked together in the past.
The other two are Shido and Kazuki, old friends of Genji who left the Limitless Fortress after he did. Kazuki is quite fun, but I have to keep reminding myself that he's not a girl(a different shirt did wonders in that regard, but the boy needs to just get a new hairstyle...a nice, normal ponytail would do...) He seems rather sheeplike in his devotion to Genji at times, but really, there just isn't anyone else he's felt like following. Shido is even more of the "angsty loner" type than Ban(or even Kiba in "Wolf's Rain") and like Kazuki, never found anyone else he cared to follow. He's also the only one to have any luck romantically so far, having fallen pretty hard and fast(and understandably) for the blind violinist Madoka, who seems to be very understanding about having a boyfriend who not only brings hordes of animals to her mansion, but also takes off a lot. Incidentally, if we get to see more of them as a couple, I suspect Shido may steal the "best anime boyfriend" title from Ayumu in "Spiral"...maybe. Shido started up his own returner service, partly to annoy Ban and partly because he thinks he needs to pay Madoka rent for some reason, while Kazuki seems to mostly be drifting.
I haven't gotten much of a feel for the guys in the Limitless Fortress yet, though so far, I rather like Emishi and Juubei.
*notes that the main reason she keeps comparing characters to character in other animes is because she's been wanting rewatches lately*
"Gunslinger Girls" is about a government organization that takes young girls who have been abandoned in one way or another and molds them into cyborg assassins. Each girl is conditioned to be utterly faithful to her handler, who is usually referred to as her brother, and all the brothers treat their girls differently. Jose, the handler of the main girl, Henrietta, treats her as if she really were his younger sister. My favorite, Triella, interacts with her handler as if they were a really smart and witty but emotionally burned girl who suddenly got dumped with her bachelor uncle or estranged father and he's absolutely clueless about to do with her. While Henrietta and Jose are meant to be the closest pair, Triella and her handler(I didn't learn most of the handlers' names, unfortunately) strike me as having the healthiest relationship. Then there's Rico, whose handler I THINK was named John(either her's or Elsa's) She's the least effective of the assassins, but tries hard. Her handler actively tries to disassociate himself from her. It's obvious that he does care, but but forces himself to treat her as a a weapon and a subordinate rather than as a girl, though he does slip occassionally. Angelica was the first of the girls, and she wasn't conditioned until later because the agency was trying her out without it. But in the end, they went with conditioning, and conditioned her without telling her handler, Marco, who basically viewed it as not only a waste of months of hard work, but also as "killing" the original girl, o he hasn't let himself care since. Next to last is Clais, a bookworm. Clais's handler basically got a better job and left the agency, and left her his huge library of books. They told her he'd died in a car accident, and instead of reconditioning her with a new handler, they decided to see what would happen if one of the girls never got new parts, as happens a lot when they're on the field. So she never leaves headquaters and they run tests to see how her parts hold up. I suspects she knows the truth about her handler, but the lie is easier. She's probably my favorite after Triella. Least fortunate is Else, whose handler is what Rico's handler tries to be...a complete jerk who thinks she's stupid when she acts like a girl and views her as a machine devoid of humanity.
It's a very good series, mostly cerebral, and with lovely animation and great music, but not quite my thing. Still, well worth the watching.
This is the first of the 3 FMP series. (The other 2 are officially on the list) It's more mecha than I like(I have a very low tolerance level for mecha, and the fact that I really liked this even though it regularly exceeded my limit should stay a fair bit about it) It's essentially about Sosuke, who lives in one of those fictional Japanese worlds where teenagers are the bestest soldiers ever and are given really big robots to pilots, and where teenaged girlsdesign, build and captain giant submarines. Sosuke is sent undercover into high school to be bodyguard to Kaname, a "Whisper" who is subconsciously able to communicate with and understand "black techonology." The most interesting and funniest patrs of the series are about Sosuke trying to act like and sound like what he thinks a normal teenager is, and failing miserably. (As I understand it, that's what the second series, Fumoffu, focuses on, so I'm looking forward to that) I liked the parts focusing on the military too(and, by necessity, the mecha as an extension) but not as much as the school part. Between FMP ans GG, I liked FMP more, but GG was probably the better.
But then, so far, I'll take "Get Backers" over both. It's about a pair of guys, Ban and Genji, who have powers(I've seen this series, as well as "S-cry-ed," as X-Men for anime, and it's fairly accurate, as it seems to be "some people have powers and others know about it, but don't understand it. With the exception of Shido, who has hereditary powers, how the others got their powers hasn't really been explained, aside from a few who have either undergine experimentation(like a couple of guys in the Limitless Fortress) or extreme training in one area, like Kazuki and Himiko. Ban and Genji run a recovery service, which basically means that if it's lost, they'll find it, one way or another. Their missions are always successful, but they manage to always be broke(they're rather like Train and Sven in the also-excellent "Black Cat" manga in that regard) Ban is of the "dark mysterious past" variety and rather badass for an anime good guy(of the top of my head, only Kyo in "Samurai Deeper Kyo" and Kiba in "Wolf's Rain" get to claim superiority in that regard.) He is by far my favorite character in the show--see my post yesterday--though Shido occassionally challenges his status, only to have Ban reestablish his claim less than 5 minutes later. Genji is a former gang leader, but is often emotionally and behaviorally 10 or so, the the point where I often wonder if Ban is his partner or his babysitter. I like Genji, but I figure that half the reason Ban hangs around him is because Genji talks enough that no one will notice Ban doesn't talk unless he wants to. They operate out of a bar run by Paul, who strikes me as eternally patient, and a former client, Natsumi, is the waitress, and get most of their assignments from the absurdly busty but rather cool Hevn.
The rest of the main supporting cast so far includes Akabane, (who pulls off disturbing and creepy better than most anime characters this side of Darcia from "Wolf's Rain" and cares more about how much fun he gets to have killing people while on an assignment than how much he gets paid. He's with Ban and Genji pretty much because it's entertaining...and because he probably wants to fight them again and kill them...) and Himiko, who's Ban's ex/enemy/friend/younger sister figure/etc and is rather like Cheshire from DC comics with her poisons only, you know, not an evil assassin who has an odd tendency to choose hot redheaded guys with connections to Green Arrow to father her children...Akabane and Himiko are transporters who've worked together in the past.
The other two are Shido and Kazuki, old friends of Genji who left the Limitless Fortress after he did. Kazuki is quite fun, but I have to keep reminding myself that he's not a girl(a different shirt did wonders in that regard, but the boy needs to just get a new hairstyle...a nice, normal ponytail would do...) He seems rather sheeplike in his devotion to Genji at times, but really, there just isn't anyone else he's felt like following. Shido is even more of the "angsty loner" type than Ban(or even Kiba in "Wolf's Rain") and like Kazuki, never found anyone else he cared to follow. He's also the only one to have any luck romantically so far, having fallen pretty hard and fast(and understandably) for the blind violinist Madoka, who seems to be very understanding about having a boyfriend who not only brings hordes of animals to her mansion, but also takes off a lot. Incidentally, if we get to see more of them as a couple, I suspect Shido may steal the "best anime boyfriend" title from Ayumu in "Spiral"...maybe. Shido started up his own returner service, partly to annoy Ban and partly because he thinks he needs to pay Madoka rent for some reason, while Kazuki seems to mostly be drifting.
I haven't gotten much of a feel for the guys in the Limitless Fortress yet, though so far, I rather like Emishi and Juubei.
*notes that the main reason she keeps comparing characters to character in other animes is because she's been wanting rewatches lately*