Il Teatrino is the second TV series in the Gunslinger Girl franchise, but unbeknownst to viewers, it doesn't follow chronologically from the first series. Instead, it covers a swath of the source manga (by Yu Aida) which appears between most of the events in the first TV series, and Angelica's sickness in the final episodes. It's a jarring transition, to say the least, and it took me some time to get over it. I'll get one thing out of the way: the transition in production houses from Madhouse to Artland is also anything but smooth, and unfortunately, regressive in quality. Too much time is wasted in flashbacks. The animation takes a number of obvious shortcuts, and character designs and many of the backgrounds look cheaply made, and probably are. One episode features an opera as the setting, but there's no singing to be heard! Two episodes in, I did not expect to like the show. I was half right.

Possibly two-thirds right.

But who's counting?

Unlike the first series, Il Teatrino zeroes in on a few of the characters for most of the time. Viewers will recall Triela, the blunt-honest and moody cyborg girl, who has a tendency to help the other girls with their problems by calling attention to them. For the opposition, we meet Pinocchio, an adolescent killer, raised from a young age by his adoptive "uncle" Cristiano to be an assassin. The first meeting of the two does not go well for Triela, forcing her to confront the hard truth that natural ability alone isn't sufficient. During the tussle, she manages to snatch Pinocchio's necklace — a precious gift from his uncle, featuring a charm in the shape of a boar — thereby setting the two up to be rivals.

Viewers may also recall Franco and Flanca, a bomb-making duo, clever enough to avoid capture when one of their customers gets pinched by the fratelli. They had a certain mystique about them that I found appealing in the first series, and which is all but gone in this one. The show spends a significant amount of time — too much — developing these two as sort of surrogate parents for Pinocchio, to contrast with the cold and distant demeanor of Cristiano toward him. Not for lack of trying, the show fails to make these three as interesting as any of the cyborg girls. Pinocchio simply doesn't know any other life, so his actions are unsurprising. The other two have their reasons for doing what they do, reasons that go way back and which aren't explored in great detail, and I'm not sure it would help if they were. The series did the worst thing it could have done in following up the first: it took the attention away from the girls, and tried to paint a broader stroke that included all the major players from the Italian government and resistance factions, all building up to a clichéd showdown to end a rivalry that began as a mere convenience, complete with feelings expressed too late, heartfelt monologues, tragic deaths — you know the drill.

That said, I would be remiss to ignore the few episodes that retained the spirit of the first series. One follows Claes — the cyborg who has no handler — around for a day. Conventional wisdom suggests that it's dangerous to pair her with another, so she helps further the science that made her what she is now, by being a subject for their experiments. In her copious spare time, she reads books, tends a garden, and wanders freely around the complex. Gunslinger Girl is exceptional when it's contrasting the awkwardness of each girl's existence with the serene and pleasant conditions in which they spend their non-working hours. It's a shame they couldn't play the Claes card more than once, but the obvious regularity with which her every day runs into the next precludes such a move.

Another couple episodes involve the handlers, and the women in their lives. Marco's ex girlfriend joins up with a reporter to learn the truth about his job and the agency, and doesn't like what she finds. We also look to Hillshire's (Triela's handler) past, and learn of the woman who was largely responsible for the path he walks now. They're both a bit of a side show, but they work, because these men's stories are inseparable from their charges.

The other spot of praise I offer the series is for its music. While the opening and closing theme songs don't stand up well to their predecessors, the background music is still a high point. Much of the music is comprised of calming piano melodies, with a few mood pieces sprinkled in. The soundtrack aided the scenery in delivering at least some of that classical Italian charm, and I found myself still enjoying the show during several of the weaker episodes, as a result.

In closing, I'd like to offer a thought on the Gunslinger Girl franchise as a whole. The first series did such a good job in drawing the viewer into the experience that I failed to consider one thing until watching the second: the cyborg girls, for all their idiosyncrasies, are too, well, nice. Sure, we get a glimpse of what happens if a girl's handler ignores her emotional needs, but not one of them is conniving, manipulative, mischievous, self-absorbed, sociopathic, crazy, mean, or just plain evil. Why do you think that is?