I've been thinking of how I should go about doing this review. Anime of this genre is generally hard to follow and dissect, but this anime strikes the perfect balance. The girls are used as killing machines and have some cybernetic parts, but you often see how human they still are. To help understand what's going on, here is the description from the back of the box...
"Officially, the Social Welfare Agency is a government sponsored corporation that's in the business of saving lives. At least, that's the ruse. In reality, it's an agency on the fringe of technology. They give terminal patients another shot at life using cybernetic implants. This conditioning process then shapes the patient into an efficient machine for handling all of the government's dirty work.
Having survived the brutal slaughter of her family, Henrietta awakens to her new life at the Agency with a re-built body and no memory of the past. She has been teamed with her handler Jose, who is responsible for her training and conditioning, turning her into the perfect killing machine. Henrietta strives to find her place within the Agency, doing her best to win Jose's affection. But can Jose control her? Can he balance the needs and desires between the assassin and the developing adolescent?
Who are these girls?
They've been given a second chance at life... But at what cost?"
The main character seems to be Henrietta. Only the first two episodes revolve around her and how she and Jose progress. Jose is a kind man who is always gentle and kind. Henrietta is the same in that way and they get along very well. However, that is her downfall because whenever it looks like someone is going to hurt Jose she can't control herself and does the wrong thing. This can make for some comedy however, as seen in the restaurant scene during episode two.
Other characters are also the center of attention throughout the DVD. Rico is another girl in the agency. Her handler is actually Jose's brother, but he couldn't be any more different. Triela (one of my favorite characters) has an episode all about her and we delve into the relationship with her handler. By the end of the disc we also find out about Claes.
It's not all about the relationships though. There is still plenty of action, and this is probably why it has a 14+ rating. There is plenty of blood, though it's never gratuitous or there just for shock value. There are a couple scenes where characters get shot between the eyes but their heads don't doing anything crazy like explode or have chunks fly off. Again we can see how human the girls still are as the do feel pain, the bleed, and they can definitely be killed. Besides being skilled with guns they can also whoop butt with their fists and feet. They are fast and agile and can take on any adult male and then some as seen when Triela snaps some handcuffs in half in episode four.
The writing is very well done. I don't know if that's what the translation is or if it was re-written by Funimation or whatever group handles that part. I would say it's like someone is reading aloud from a book. The characters are very well spoken and professional, yet they are still very distinguishable from one another. You will never hear any swearing, there's no wasted talking where a character rambles on at light speed about nothing like in anime of the comedy genre. Like I mentioned before, while this anime is still very serious, it still has the right amount of humor. You'll never see any super-deformed character animations, which is a very good thing.
Speaking of the animation, it's also top notch. This is a recent anime so there's no reason for it not to look sharp with the computer generated images. It's set in Italy which is a nice, unique touch. Some of the places they visit make we want to hop on a plane and go there right now. It's all just very well done and I have nothing to complain about.
For me there really are no negatives. The disc even comes with five episodes instead of the seemingly standard four (and even three sometimes!). The extras are really lacking, but again you're getting five episodes which is better than most and the extras definitely aren't any worse than some other DVDs. You basically get a picture of Henrietta being drawn, information about the characters and their weapons, opening/ending music sequences, and previews of other animes. The case is clear plastic and comes with the reversible cover and an insert covering different anime available from the company. There is also another version of this release that comes with a box for storing the rest of the DVDs as well as a large cloth poster. The DVD seems to go for $20 new at the lowest, and $27 for the box/poster version. Definitely check this out. If there was one anime I would show to a person that may not be an anime fan, it's this.
