Gunslinger Girl - Il Teatrino - 05
I really, really, really hope that the useless recap of the previous episode that took up nearly half of this episode was used to save some budget for the future episodes, and NOT a sign that the budget for this series has already ran out. Bad animation is one thing, but when the creators start recapping for no possible reason, it’s often not a good sign. Let’s hope that it’s just one thing that went wrong on the production-side, like with the infamous episode 13 of The Third.
Luckily, the second half of the episode totally made up for the first half, when it gives some Background-information on Marco. Something he really needed €after the first season, where we learned hardly anything about him. It seems that he once left his girlfriend for some unknown reason, and now one of the enemies (I didn’t pick up exactly where he fits in the big picture, though) has decided to use her against Marco. This fails with the help of Angelica, though.
This episode was also meant to show how Angelica has grown, and how she’s become much closer with Priscilla. I like series like these, where the main characters aren’t necessarily the ones with the most screen-time, and where everyone gets an equal amount of attention.
if they’ve already run out of budget,then we’re in big trouble,makes me wonder why they’d bother animating it at all if they had such a low budget.
just to clear things up:it’s marco’s girlfriend that left him after he joined the agency since she didn’t like all the secrecy that was surrounding his new job.
the bad guy of this episode is completely unrelated to the padania
Comment by totoum — February 5, 2008 @ 14:40
Well, I ain’t watching the series but if what you said was true… How did they exactly handle the scene with Priscilla and Angelica anyway? In the manga it wasn’t to show that “Angelica has become close to Priscilla” but sort of a very different thing, which was a heart-rendering one too. Ah I don’t know how to explain it properly ^^;;
Comment by CherylHew — February 5, 2008 @ 17:08
ok sorry,i said the bad guy was unrelated to the padania,but I just watched the raw and it seems the padania is mentioned lol,that’s what i get for trying to say something based on what i remember from the manga before actually watching the episode.
CherylHew, I think the scene you’re thinking of (when angelica grabs her arm and won’t let go) was already shown in episode 4,this episodes features a slideshow at the end featuring angelica moments from when she first came to the angency up to now that wrapped things up well I think since i figure this is it for the focus on angelica,wonder what they’ll do next,maybe explore the past of jose and jean? (we did get a little flashback on episode 1) or maybe go back to pino franco and franca?
One last thing,i do like the music,but it just feels weird not having the themes from the first season,it’s like watching star wars without the star wars them,or james bond without the james bond theme or mission impossible without the mission impossible theme or……..well,you get the idea.
Comment by totoum — February 5, 2008 @ 20:18
THE James Bond theme?!? DUDE, every Bond movie has ITS OWN.
Comment by Kurisu — February 5, 2008 @ 23:31
not talking aboud songs like “goldeneye” “goldfinger” or “die another day”.
but this:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=Ii1tc493bZM
sure,arrangements change from movie to movie but it’s the same song.
Comment by totoum — February 6, 2008 @ 0:20
Well, at least the OP and ED are awesome.
Comment by Derek — February 6, 2008 @ 4:09
SPOILERS AHEAD!
Well I do know the arm grabbing one was shown earlier, I just thought that the scene psgels mentioned was the one where Angelica rode Priscilla’s bike back where Priscilla asked Ange to call her “Prissy” in the manga. It WAS around this point that the scene happened in the manga so I thought it was that XD
Comment by CherylHew — February 6, 2008 @ 15:54
Derek, out of curiosity, have you watched the first Gunslinger Girl series? I find the new OP/ED songs are pretty much “standard”, not really bad but nothing memorable either. The “animation” of the OP/ED is as budget-castrated as it can get though.
Comment by Kurisu — February 6, 2008 @ 15:56
CherylHew-i know there’s a scene on the motorbike,can’t speak japanese though,either psgels tells us or we wait fore the subs :)
I think what makes the new OP/ED “standard” compared to their predecessors is that,unlike them, they’re japanese songs,definatly makes it harder to stand out however i do love the new OP.
I agree with a person on triad’s forums who said somehow the animation of the OP was keeping him from realising how much he actually liked the song,it’s really not until i listen to the new song by itself that i realised how much i liked it.
Comment by totoum — February 7, 2008 @ 5:47
btw what are the Triad and A-Enlight crews doing? Did they early end stalled only at ep #3 already? T.T
Comment by Solaris — February 7, 2008 @ 12:30
Solaris: From what I understood, it seems that their tracker has issues. You can get episode 4 from their irc-channel:
http://www.the-triad.org/
Comment by psgels — February 7, 2008 @ 13:03
Thank you. I’ll go straight to irc right after going back home this late afternoon *.*
My Henrietta i’m coming to you~~~ wait for meee *________________*
Comment by Solaris — February 7, 2008 @ 15:09
Best episode of the series!!!
Comment by Tania — February 7, 2008 @ 22:21
Um… Excuse me, psgels. How is this episode half a recap ? I’ve just seen it and the only recap I noticed was the 30-seconds Triela VS. Pinocchio fight…
Comment by Windspirit — February 12, 2008 @ 2:56
Yes, I have seen the first season. I also loved Light Before We Land, which is a fairly unique song.
When it comes to music, I care more for arrangement and melody, as well as how well the singer is able to tap into that, more so than the lyrics. Some singers try and out-sing the melody, others undersing. Others know how to work with it so that each part compliments the other.
Both the OP and ED are wonderfully crafted from this point of view, and I don’t mean the TV version, but the whole song. The songs are much better as the full version, in my opinion, but that’s fairly typical.
In terms of the OP, I particularly enjoy how well the vocal carries the melody, it’s really well performed. The song carries an ambiance of majesty and hope simply by the tone set by the vocals. And I actually like the animation that accompanies it too, it’s different in a way that’s refreshing and appears to be showing us some source material.
The ED is a simple song seemingly designed to let the singer exert her full influence, and she pulls it off well.
Of the two, I prefer the OP, which has more “layers” of melodic harmony, and is slightly more complex than it might first appear, and had the more splid vocal performance of the two.
It is also reminiscent of Savage Genius’ performance in the Uta Kata OP and ED, both of which have a similar formula to the Il Teatrino’s OP, relying fully on the vocal to carry the melody while weaving other threads in the background to subtle, but beautiful effect.
Of course, the Il Teatrino’s OP/ED are trumped by Reflectia - True Tear’s OP in terms arrangement, that song is a delight to listen for someone like me - tho I think the song was out of the vocal range of the singer, as she is unable to hold several notes at the volume they seem intended for.
All of the songs I mentioned are better heard when you let the vocals flow through you as part of the melody instead of trying to interpret them as words, in my opinion.
Comment by Derek — February 12, 2008 @ 6:02
Sorry about that long comment, didn’t realize I rambled on like that, and I didn’t seem to make a whole lot of sense. Oh well =D
Comment by Derek — February 12, 2008 @ 6:19
Windspirit: Wait… seriously? That explains a lot… I must have gotten a bad file from Share. The number of jokers there seems to have increased over the past few weeks.
Derek: no problem. I actually prefer the Il Teatrino OP above the True Tears one. I’m not sure what it is, but the one from True Tears sounds just like most other anime OPs I’ve seen, although it’s perhaps a bit more subtle.
Comment by psgels — February 12, 2008 @ 8:54
I think the Il Teatrino is the better OP, but True Tears is a lot of fun in that it uses a lot of different sounds at various levels.
Oh yea, I didn’t really notice the recap either, I mean I think there was SOME recapping but not anything like episode 2 of the first season.
Comment by Derek — February 12, 2008 @ 18:42
K i watched all the subbed episodes so far.
The story is wonderful indeed. If only i disliked it, I’d yelld at it and sent all the anime to hell but i simply can’t do it T.T
Yu Aida i hate YU. Go back to your pencils and paper and leave animation to the real profs. You could be a good mangaka, but relly suck at animation stuff :(
Comment by Solaris — March 11, 2008 @ 23:20