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Gunslinger Girl (ガンスリンガー•ガール Gansuringa Garu?) is an ongoing manga by Yu Aida. It was adapted into a 13-episode anime television series (produced by Madhouse and Bandai Visual) which aired in Japan from October 8, 2003 to February 19, 2004.
Plot
Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.
Set in modern-day Italy, Gunslinger Girl follows the exploits of the Social Welfare Agency (often referred to as simply "the Agency"), ostensibly a charitable institution sponsored by the Italian government. While the Agency professes to aid the rehabilitation of the physically injured, it is actually a military organization specializing in counter-intelligence and counter-terrorism. It comprises two independent branches, Public Safety (公安部, kōan-bu) and Special Ops (作戦部, sakusen-bu), with Public Safety being its surveillance and intelligence-gathering arm and Special Ops its anti-terrorist division.[3] Special Ops is itself divided into Sections 1 and 2,[4] the latter of which employs young girls fitted with cybernetic implants as agents. The implants, which consist of synthesized muscles and carbon fiber frames, result in heightened strength and reflexes as well as high resilience to damage and pain. Each girl is paired with a male trainer, or "handler," and together they are referred to as a fratello (Italian for "brother"). The handler is responsible for the training, welfare and field performance of his charge, and is free to use whatever methods he considers suitable. While these methods vary according to the handler, a common part of each girl's regimen is a combination of drugs and brainwashing called "conditioning," which produces a deadly assassin with unquestioning loyalty to her handler.
Characters
Known as Movimento Delle Cinque Repubbliche in Italian, the Padania Republic Faction (PRF) is a radical nationalist and right-wing group opposed to the country's increased globalization and dedicated to the independence of northern Italy. Since the Italian government in Gunslinger Girl is implied to be corrupt, support for the PRF is considerable, ranging from civilians and businessmen to government officials and elite special forces units. The PRF has influence with the local Italian police forces, resulting in the police overlooking some of their crimes. Acts of aggression carried out by the PRF include terrorist bombings, the instigation of violent mobs, drive-bys and assaults carried out by armed militants.
In volume seven, more insight regarding the PRF is given in a discussion between Alessandro and his assassin. The primary reason for the support of its separatist agenda is the unbalanced economic development between northern and southern Italy — as simplified by Alessandro, "The north doesn't want to feed the south." Once independent from the remaining Italy, the supporters of the PRF believe their sports and pornographic industries will no longer be taxed, and their homes will finally free from the migration problems they once faced from Africa and the Balkans. It is revealed that up to 80% of the Milan population supported the PRF.
Alessandro maintains that what began as a separatist movement based on legal political ground became a radical terrorist group in response to a governmental campaign of suppression carried out with the support of the southern Mafia. A local study reports that 65% of the organization's recruits joined purely for revenge; roughly the same percentage of recent Italian security recruits enlisted for the same reason.
The PRF's representative color is known as Five Republics Blue, and is meant to represent the melted snow of the Alps. Many of the PRF's supporters and lower echelon members openly adopted this color for their outfits and publications.
Gunslinger Girl was adapted into a 13-episode anime series that aired in Japan from October 8, 2003 to February 19, 2004. The series, which was directed by Morio Asaka, produced by Madhouse, Marvelous Entertainment and Fuji Television with music by Toshihiko Sahashi and based on the first two volumes of the manga, aired on the terrestrial Fuji Television and the Animax anime satellite networks in Japan and throughout Asia. Gunslinger Girl later aired in the United States on the Independent Film Channel. The anime is licensed in North America by FUNimation Entertainment.
Episode list
No.   English Title   Japanese Title
01   Big Brother, Little Sister - Fratello (Brotherhood)   兄妹 - fratello -
02   Astronomic Observation - Orion   天体観測 - orione -
03   Young Boy - Ragazzo   少年 - ragazzo -
04   Doll - Bambola   人形 - bambola -
05   Promise - Promessa   約束 - promessa -
06   Payment - Gelato (Ice Cream)   報酬 - gelato -
07   Protection - Protezione   守護 - protezione -
08   Fairy Tale - Il Principe del Regno Della Pasta (The Prince of the Kingdom of Pasta)   御伽噺 - Il Principe del regno della pasta -
09   Spider Lily - Lycoris Radiata Herb (Spider Lily/Amaryllis)   彼岸花 - Lycoris radiata Herb -
10   Fever Love - Amare (Love)   熱病 - Amare-
11   Tender Emotions - Febbre alta (High Fever)   恋慕 - febbre alta-
12   Symbiosis - Simbiosi   共生 -simbiosi -
13   Shooting Star - Stella Cadente   流星 - stella cadente -
[edit] Theme songs
Opening Theme:   "The Light Before We Land" by The Delgados.

Closing Theme:   "Dopo il Sogno ～夢のあとに～" by Op..

Trivia
•   Henrietta, Rico, Elsa, and Angelica's violin cases bear the brand of Amati, a famous Italian family of violin makers, who flourished at Cremona from about 1550 to 1740.
•   In episode six, several references are made to the iconic film Roman Holiday starring Audrey Hepburn, including the scene of a scooter ride involving two lovers, and Henrietta's wish to eat an ice cream in Rome's Piazza di Spagna.
Image album
On December 21, 2005, an image album for Gunslinger Girl called poca felicità was released by Marvelous Entertainment. It contains various songs for each of the girls (sung by their respective Japanese seiyuu), as well as an instrumental for Pinocchio and extra songs by Josefa, and two other instrumentals. Revo of Sound Horizon wrote all the music and lyrics for the album. The cover art was drawn by Yu Aida.
Tracks
1.   "La ragazza col fucile" - Josefa
2.   "Il fratello" - Revo (instrumental)
3.   "Lui si chiama..." - Yuuka Nanri (Henrietta)
4.   "La principessa del regno del sole" - Kanako Mitsuhashi (Rico)
5.   "Biancaneve bruno" - Eri Sendai (Triela)
6.   "Pinocchio" - Revo (instrumental)
7.   "Claes tranquillo" - Ami Koshimizu (Claes)
8.   "La principessa del regno della pasta" - Hitomi Terakado (Angelica)
9.   "Io mi chiamo..." - Mamiko Noto (Elsa)
10.   "La ragazza" - Revo (instrumental)
11.   "La ragazza col fucile e poca felicità" - Josefa
Publishing and distribution
The ongoing Gunslinger Girl manga series has been serialized across MediaWorks's Dengeki Daioh magazine, while the anime series is distributed across Japan by Bandai. The series has also been broadcast across Japan, East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Latin America and other regions by the anime television network, Animax.
The manga is published across North America in English by ADV Manga, and is composed of three volumes as of 2007. ADV Manga had previously put the series on indefinite hold with no mention of whether translation would resume, though it has now been confirmed that volumes four, five and six will be released in June, September and November of 2007 (respectively) in English from Canada.
In late 2004, FUNimation licensed the rights to release the Gunslinger Girl anime series across North America via a three volume DVD series, releasing the last volume on September 6, 2005. On September 19, 2006, the entire Gunslinger Girl series was released in a box set containing all three DVDs.