| Summary
| - The death of Angelica hits the handlers harder than the cyborgs, as they come to realize their charges are mortal. Triela chafes under Hilshire's desire to keep her from harm, since she believes her purpose is to protect him. They return to Naples to see Mario Bossi, and Triela learns the truth of what brought her to the SWA and the sacrifices Hilshire made for her in doing so. When he leaves her behind on a mission and is injured, she is torn between conflicting emotions of fear and love, especially as she feels her own life will end soon. For Christmas, Jose takes Henrietta to the opera, but she is frightened by her inability to remember what they had done the previous Christmas. On New Year's Day, Alessandro and Petrushka trail Aaron Cicero, a person of interest in the killings of the prosecutors who are trying the terrorists that killed the Croce brothers' family in a bomb attack some five years prior. Jean, Jose, Rico, and Henrietta capture Cicero and learn that the person who led the killings is back in Italy and planning to bomb Fiumicino Airport.
- Claes experiences a normal day, though events result in some abnormal reactions. Triela deals with her loss to Pinocchio and makes a surprising new friend in Naples. A first generation cyborg, Beatrice, and her handler, Bernardo, help the SWA eliminate a rogue military group smuggling weapons to the terrorists.
- As winter continues, Claes and Beatrice move herbs inside to protect them from the cold while the Medical Staff develop a new form of conditioning which they hope will not be so hard on the girls' brains. Also, a new skin implantation process has been acquired via a technology swap with the United States. However, all these new treatments have almost exhausted the SWA’s budget. While undergoing the new treatments, Henrietta dreams of the attack on her family that sent her to the SWA. Giacomo Dante returns from exile to take control of the Five Republics movement. He demands the release of Aaron Cicero and other imprisoned terrorists and places a cruise missile warhead in the Bell Tower of St. Marks in Venice, which he threatens to detonate if his demands are not met. The SWA and GIS arrive in force and storm the tower, but Giacomo is ready for them and both sides take heavy casualties in the attack, though the Bell Tower is saved from destruction. As the SWA recovers from the events of Venice, the story moves to the past and focuses on Enrica Croce, sister to Jose and Jean, and the courtship of Jean and Sophia Durante.
- Marco's ex-girlfriend Patricia launches an investigation into the truth behind the Social Welfare Agency with a colleague. Franca is captured by Public Safety, but is rescued by Franco and Pinocchio. Jose and Henrietta arrive at the location where they were holding Franca to find their comrades dead. Franco, Franca, and Pinocchio escape to Franca's farm in Frascati and Pinocchio returns to the home of Christiano Savonarola just before the SWA launches an operation to arrest him. While Triela gets her revenge on Pinocchio, Franco, Franca, and Christiano make a break for it.
- Alessandro's past before he joined Section 2 is explored, including his recruitment into Italian Intelligence by the spy Rossana and his relationship with her. Alessandro sees Rosanna for the first time in almost four years and he learns she has a daughter by a northern separatist. They extricate Rosanna and her daughter before the separatists can kidnap or kill them. Alessandro invites Petrushka back to his apartment and she confesses her love for him.
- Jean visits the grave of his fiancé. Later, Jean and Jose vacation at their villa in Sicily where Jean dreams of their dead younger sister. The first second generation cyborg, Petrushka, is introduced, along with her handler Alessandro.
- Claes takes Petrushka around the Agency compound, but when Petrushka puts on Claes' glasses, Claes does not respond well. Claes is allowed to leave the compound on "vacation" to Lake Maggiore on the Italian-Swiss border. However, two explosive smugglers are detected trying to escape to Switzerland and Claes and Petrushka are sent to stop them. The people caught in Lake Maggiore were trying to kill the prosecutor trying the case of the people who killed Jean and Jose's family. Triela and Hilshire join Petrushka and Alessandro as Prosecutor Guellfi's protective detail and must try and prevent an attempt on her life.
- Henrietta finds a kaleidoscope that Jose has purchased for her as a gift, but misinterprets who it is for. Pinocchio and his sponsor, Christiano Savonarola make their appearances and Triela and Hilshire travel to Montalcino to follow-up on a Public Safety operative shadowing Pinocchio there. They mount an assault on the house where Pinocchio, Franco, and Franca are, but the three escape. Marco and Angelica are in Milan following their own leads and the SWA has to protect the chairwoman of the Straight of Massina Bridge project from an assassination attempt.
- While she is alone now, Claes was once partnered with a handler. The Five Republics Faction plots to bomb the Piazza di Spagna in Rome, but their haste allows the SWA to respond in time. Jean and Rico travel to Florence to save the life of an accountant with information that can bring down a billionaire who is financing the Five Republics Faction's operations. The story of the first cyborg, Angelica, is revealed.
- Henrietta, a combat cyborg working for a secret Italian intelligence agency, and her handler Jose attack a Five Republics terrorist safe house, supported by Jose's brother Jean and his cyborg, Rico. In Naples, the cyborg Triela and her handler Hilshire are searching for a Mafia turncoat who wants to turn state's evidence. The SWA suffers their first casualties when a cyborg and her handler are found dead in a public park.
- Angelica begins to see her old dog, Perro, and has dreams of a time before she came to the Agency, though she has a difficult time remembering recent events. She accompanies Marco into Rome as the fratelli search for a bomb threat. A truck bomb is driven into the Ministry of the Interior and Angelica shields Marco from the blast. While the doctors were able to repair Angelica's physical injuries, the mental damage from years of surgery and conditioning has finally accrued to a level that will soon prove fatal. Angelica, who now only remembers her life before her arrival at the Agency, tells Marco a story about a prince who lived in the Land of Pasta. As the rest of the girls watch the start of a meteor shower, Angelica quietly passes away, Marco by her side to the end. Triela finds that her own memory is starting to fail her. She accompanies Hilshire on a mission to Naples and is slightly injured. While she feels such a risk is normal for a cyborg to face, after the death of Angelica, Hilshire starts to realize that the cyborgs, for all their abilities, are still mortal.
|
| abstract
| - When ADV Manga was formed in 2003, the Gunslinger Girl manga series was one of the first titles the new branch of ADV Films licensed for an English language release in North America. The first volume was released on November 18, 2003, with the next two volumes not released until 2005. At the 2005 Anime Next convention, the ADV representative David L. Williams said the slow schedule was due to ADV Manga feeling the market was too saturated with new manga titles at the time and that they had rushed into the manga market. However, after the third volume was released that year, the series went on a two year hiatus. The series was restarted in July 2007 with the publication of the fourth volume, and six volumes have been released as of April 2008. A thirteen-episode anime adaptation produced by Madhouse aired in Japan on Animax and Fuji Television from October 8, 2003 to February 19, 2004. A sequel created by Artland premiered in Japan on Tokyo MX TV on January 7, 2008. Titled Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-, this sequel spanned thirteen episodes, concluding on March 31, 2008. __TOC__
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)