Really?!

I was honestly surprised to find out about this, although to be completely honest I haven’t been paying as much attention as I should have. Given that Gunslinger Girl is one of my favourite anime series, I’m definitely paying attention now.

The original series sparked some debate and received a small number of objections due to its content – although I really have no idea why – there are things a lot worse floating around the aniverse! Hmmm … does that word exist already? If it doesn’t – I’m claiming that I just invented it :D

Anyways – to get back on track – a brief overview of what the second season entails.

The full name of the second season is Gunslinger Girl ~Il Teatrino~ – the Social Welfare Agency needs to investigate the disappearance of one of their operatives and follows a trail that leads straight to the Five Republics, long-standing enemies of the Italian government. The eldest girl – Triela – is sent in to infiltrate the organisation, but ends up being captured herself.

The one thing bothering me about this second season is the fact that they didn’t retain the seiyuu from the original series. All five of the main characters have new seiyuu representing them – which I’m presenting in a list here for my readers:
Shiono Anri as Rico
Enomoto Atsuko as Triela
Akutsu Kana as Henrietta
Hanazawa Kana as Angelica
Mizuno Risa as Claes.

By the looks of things one or two of them may be newish seiyuu; no way of knowing until I’ve done some research into them.

The new series started airing this month in Japan, and as far as I can tell is slated for a 13 episode run.

And since we’re on the subject of sequels, whatever happened to Kiddy Grade 2? A rather mouth-watering pilot preview was released towards the end of May 2007 and probably set many of the first season’s fans slavering for more. Originally set to start airing at the end of 2007, there have been no new noticeable developments, unless it was mentioned on the official site, which is in Japanese.Anyways, if I hear anything, I’ll have it up here as soon as I can.