Another anime review. Skip this if you’re not into anime. Yeah, I know it’s not aid work, but I do have a little leisure time you know.
Okay, and I’m a geek too.
In Il Teatrino, the follow-up series to the original Gunslinger Girl, the characters of the first season are back, with handful of extras, most notably the boy-assassin Pinocchio. While the first season focused primarily on the girls of the Social Welfare Agency and their stories, this second season becomes more plot-focused and splits its time evenly between the girls eponymous with the title, and a small band of terrorists against whom they are pitted. Picked up by a different production team, Il Teatrino isn’t the artful, subtle story that the first season is though dealing with the same sombre subject matter, so can hold its own, but with some disappointments. Read the full review here.
The Social Welfare Agency ostensibly saves the lives of children on the verge of death using cutting-edge medical technology. In fact, it takes them and turns them into deadly government assassins with cybernetic implants. Devoted to their handlers, these girls are at once deadly machines, yet retain the personality of the children they are under the surface. Artful, sombre, subtley told and full of dark notes and interesting contrasts, this series is a high-quality piece of anime as it tells the stories of half a dozen of these girls. 
