Re: Gunslinger Girls through ep.4 (including spoilers)

> The series is developing more or less as I expected - a dark
> tragedy.  However, I was shocked to see Rico with blood on her face from
> her handler's beating.  I had thought the Jose-Henrietta relationship
> (big brother, little sister) was typical between the handlers and the
> assassins.
>       I don't know how dark this series will get but the Rico incident
> implies pitch black...
> 

On the one hand, we have an almost absurd premise for the show to
begin with.  Despite what Anime would have us believe, real life
schoolgirls do not tote P90's, AK's, or random semiautomatic pistols,
much less execute people at the behst of mysterious government
organizations.  (Well, I suppose they might be out there, killing
people every day, but if so, I assume they do it very quietly and
efficiently since *I* at least don't notice it.) :-)

But Gunslinger Girls isn't trying for the whole over-the-top thing. 
It's not an obvious parody, it's certainly not a sports show, and
cybernetic bodies aside, I'm pretty certain it's not sci-fi.

Unless I miss my guess, this probably isn't a shoujo romance,  nor a
shounen fighting anime. :-)

That leaves us with a good old fashioned drama.  Not a bad thing by
any means.  But I'm not usually affected quite this way by dramas.

Is anyone else out there as disturbed by this series as I am?  I mean
after watching the same incedent referenced here, I found myself
physically uncomfortable.

It's the same feeling I got from Narutaru from the summer season. 
(which I haven't yet finished watching, in no small part due to said
discomfort.)

The innocent little girl / ruthless killing machine dichotomy is
particularly set off by thier clinical attiudes towards some of these
abusudities also disturbs me.


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Rico complains matter of factly about having cramps and an irregular
period.  Henrietta (as of 4 episodes seeming to be the most child like
of them all) responds with "I don't have my uterus, so I almost want
to switch places with you.", not with any meanness, but in a
commiseratorial sense.  And yet somehow Henrietta comes off as
indifferent towards this fact, as if the's pointing it out only to
comfort her friend, and could otherwise case less. Now I'm not a
woman, nor a little girl assassin with a rebuilt body, but from what
little I've gleaned from women who aren't able to reproduce, not
having a uterus is more than just a little disturbing. (Usually ranks
up there with all those other things that put one into the care of a
psychologist, yes?  Tell me if I'm assuming wrong here ladies.)

Part of it could be the keenly clinical attitude with which the
characters approach thier situation.  Rico says she was being
"scolded" rather matter of factly, with neither remose (at having
deserved punishment) nor rage (at not having deserved punishment). 
She's so indfferent about the whole incident.

With only 4 episodes under my belt, I can't say that I really feel
particularly attached to any of these girls.  I suppose I do feel some
small bit of sympathy for them considering how they all supposedly
came to work for this organization, but I find it hard to actively
"like" any of these characters.  Thier constant indifference is in
fact a little hard to swallow.

And yet, for all that I still find myself a little ill every time I
see one of them "abused".

I understand why I was uncomfortable watching Narutaru.  

Shiina is a nice, happy, energetic girl, who tries her best in every
situation.  She's got her problems, but she tries to overcome them. 
And for me at least, she was an easily likeable character.  Sympathy
and empathy came very easily to me with regards to her.

The events I saw in Narutaru (and only up to ep. 5!) were disturbing
both because I didn't want to see bad things happen to Shiina-chan,
and because of the percieved "inhumanity" displayed by the "villains"
of the show (ranging from somewhat cold indifference, to out and out
misanthropic psychosis).

It was in a way like wating for the next shoe to drop.  You want
everything to go well, but you can just see that the character is
gonna take another nasty hit.  And you are disturnbd, because you want
it to go well; you care what happens to this character.

Which is why I'm kinda puzzled by why I'm quite so bothered by this
scene in Gunslinger Girls.  While I don't hate any of them, I can't
really say I care about any of them one way or another.  So why am I
so unnerved by seeing rico with a little blood on her mouth?