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Description
From ADV: Henrietta barely survived a brutal attack that killed her family. 'Rescued' by the Social Welfare Agency, her injuries were repaired with robotic components and she was brainwashed. Lost with the memory of her family's deaths was almost every trace of her own humanity. Now, she is an extraordinarily lethal cyborg assassin, obediently working with her handler Giuseppe to carry out her deadly tasks. Despite her conditioning and programming, Henrietta still has the heart of a young girl. She has not completely forgotten how to love, yet the very emotion is contrary to her training and programming. Can the Gunslinger Girl survive? Can she find peace in a struggle against her very nature?
My problem is that there wasn't that much development for main character, Henrietta. Maybe I missed something but I don't see myself getting much affected by her story. Same with Rico.
I love how everyone is linked to each others. I love how everyone has a reason to kill. You really don't know who's the bad guy or who's the good guy in this manga (at one point the character even questioned that in the manga itself). It's tearjerking. Tragedies all around. Made me cry so much that I got hiccups ;^;
I don't feel like spoiling anything after finishing the manga because I feel dull and tired after crying so much. Most repetitive pattern in the manga is the vicious killing cycle due to revenge. Revenge sucks.
you know, the characters that the mangaka has painstakingly develop is being killed in recent chapters. my experience says, when the the thing which atmosphere being build upon is started to get killed, there is no hope for other to live on. i hope you understand my english (its syntax turns complicated recently)
gunslinger is drama. about children that has no other choice but to live as killing machine. the good thing is, the drama is built slowly, sometimes light-hearted, sometimes mellow. It made us enjoy the story development even more in following chapters. not just "oh, she now doing this."
honmono_no_saru, it is clear you hold grudge against simplistic approach naruto has taken. but they are intended to be read by children. not grown up. which make us, yes, you and me, who inclined to read challenging theme feel a bit disgusted with such unsophisticated development. but i, at least, don't throw flames against its fan. they might haven't taste the delight of well-built complication of storyline.
Okay both of you, since when Naruto and Gunslinger Girl came up in the same box? Naruto is shonen, and Gunslinger Girl basically is more like seinen. The same thing is, they drag to much in the story, both in whack-pow-whack or intensely sad tragic hero. I just want some ending to the manga....
even if you are correct in most of what you say Monyet_Sejati the story is generally sad innocent killing machine who sit and think about how much she 1.loves her master 2.thinks killing is wrong 3.dont like what she does but do it anyway 4.MORE loving her master 5.looks sad and depressed then she goes out and kill alot of ppl end of chapter/repeat there is a little more to it but that is pretty much what is going on
The art is nice and even if the story is questionable in alot of ways its entertaining the main problem for me is that the childassassins are not really needed in the story the situations could have just as easily been solved with grownup agents who gets paid a shitload of money to do just these kind of jobs the children is just there to make us care about them and feel sorry for them and read about them
and that mods allow you to hate on naruto for no real reason on this comment section of gunsliger girl is very strange Naruto is one of the 3 best selling manga and have been since it started you might not like naruto but the vast majority do
Don't listen to the Narutard below me. I've bought [yes bought, not downloaded] more than 500 mangas, and Gunslinger Girl easily one of the best, if not the BEST manga I have. Believe me, uthred doesn't have any clue what he's talking about. I even doubt he read anything other than the title.
There's no self-pity scene in Gunslinger Girl. The girls never use their life to justify their killings, I repeat, EVER! Instead, they accept their life with a smile, though they fully understand that their lifespan is short, plagued with severe memory loss, and eventually will be discarded like a used napkins by the Agency.
Aida Yu is smart enough not rush the story. Instead she builds the chemistry between the girls and their agent rather slow, in multiple chapters. It gives us, the reader, enough time to connect with the characters. The main reason why most Shonen -Naruto- fails, is because it spend 2 pages for character developments, and 2131209762 pages for mindless ego-fight, only to end with lame scene, like for friendship, or world peace, or I love you, or something nauseating like that.
If you like brainless manga with zero character exploration and self-righteous main leads, go read Naruto, or Flame of Recca, or something like that. If you like manga with deep character developments and genuinely tragic storyline, read Gunslinger Girl.
Update: LoL, Naruto is one of The *Big 3 Manga*. Oh wow, that is Gold. Narutard never fails to make me laugh. It proves Narutard only read exactly 3 mangas in their life. Look here. They actually have the nerve write comments about manga which they don't even read. Shows us how much credibility a Narutard have.
It starts of good, but there's no real progression. Every chapter is the same "Girl kills someone, reflects on depressing life, ooh adults are complicated, meh". Any emotional impact is robbed by the continuous pathos.
I CRIED. I ACTUALLY CRIED. Wow, my shock is immeasurable. I didn't shed a tear, I broke down and cried. This manga is amazing. I'm speechless. Maybe when I'm done composing myself, I'll be able to write a better review, but as of now, three words: READ. THIS. MANGA.
Its a definitely nice manga. Some may see it as depressing others may feel that its heartwarming etc, i'd say its a mix of all the comments mentioned here. But the bottomline remains: Every character on Gunslinger Girls is literally a broken soul.
Such a bittersweet story. A tale filled with tragedy and hope. Yu-sensei is masterful with manipulating the emotions of his readers. One cannot be helped but be fascinated by the daily struggle that all the cyborgs face, the question of whether their emotions are truly their own.
The way Yu-sensei can portray them to be so normal, so much like an ordinary little girl, that one truly wonders whether they could really have been 'conditioned'. Their seeming innocence is captivating, as they regard the slaughter of others as merely part of life.
One wonders, when the cyborg protects its handler, is it because of their conditioning, or maybe, could genuine feelings really be there.
when this starts, the characters resemble "emma" and "blood alone". understated crushes are not my thing, but i liked it more with the addition of pinocchio and petruschka. the story itself was never poorly fashioned. enjoy.
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Revenge sucks.
