Now fans can own the critically acclaimed series available for the first time in high definition on Blu-ray!

The girls of the Social Welfare Agency are no ordinary children. They are the grisly remains of human wreckage pieced back together with cybernetic implants and trained to kill by the government. The oldest, Triela, pursues her targets with a ferocious enthusiasm, unwilling to settle for less than total annihilation. Her mirror in this bloody stalemate is Pinocchio, a shell of a boy raised as an assassin by the FRF: a terrorist faction at war with the SWA. Cold and cruelly efficient, he wields sharpened steel as though it were an extension of his own hand. Once human, these shattered souls have become murderous machines with only vague recollections of what it meant to be real – and a brutal compulsion to be the last killer standing.

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2785 in DVD
• Brand: Funimation
• Released on: 2010-03-16
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 2
• Formats: Widescreen, Color, Box set
• Original language: Japanese, English
• Subtitled in: English
• Dubbed in: English
• Dimensions: .23 pounds
• Running time: 320 minutes

Features

• Little girls, big guns, high def.The girls of the Social Welfare Agency are no ordinary children. They are the grisly remains of human wreckage pieced back together with cybernetic implants and trained to kill by the government. The oldest, Triela, pursues her targets with a ferocious enthusiasm, unwilling to settle for less than total annihilation. Her mirror in this bloody stalemate is Pinocchio

Most helpful customer reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful.
Review of the Blu-Ray video quality (revised)
By Porcupine
I've now watched this series repeatedly on both a higher-quality 1080p/120Hz LCD HDTV, and a lower-quality 1080i CRT HDTV.

As before, I think that the majority of this show was created in 1024 x 576 semi-HD resolution, or 576p, and upscaled to 1080i/60 for Blu-Ray by the Japanese production companies. Funimation was responsible for the encode, but not the upscale. Note that most of Funimation's other native HD Blu-Ray animes are encoded at 1080p/24, this show is an exception. 1080i was more appropriate to ensure the ending credits scrolled smoothly.

This Blu-Ray collection contains both the 13 episode Il Teatrino TV series, as well as the 2 Il Teatrino OVA episodes at the end, making it a great buy. I recommend the Blu-Ray version over the DVD version for this series, it is both cheaper and has better audio and video quality.

There are video quality issues which apply only to the first OVA episode and first TV episode. The first OVA episode is 576p but slightly blurrier than the other episodes. On my 1080p LCD HDTV the difference is nearly unnoticeable but on my lower-quality HDTV the blurriness stands out, making this the worst looking episode. The first TV episode is either upscaled 480p SD, or horribly upscaled 576p which blurred out the image tremendously. This was then followed by artificial sharpening leading to "edge enhancement" artifacts which some have complained about. Only this episode has the edge enhancement. On my 1080p LCD HDTV this episode looks the worst by far, but on my lower-quality HDTV this processing trick works and makes this episode look as good as the rest.

The only disappointment with this release is that some of the Extras are missing on the Blu-Ray version, which supposedly exist on the DVD version. Most notably, the second creditless introduction is missing. This is very sad because it's the only Extra that has worth. The Japanese Blu-Rays probably have it, though.

Now for a brief review of the show itself. Please note these are only my personal opinions.

Directing: 4 out of 5 stars. I think this show has no real single director. Several people including the creator of the original manga worked together as the "director" for this show. The result is that there are some aspects of the directing that I do not like, such as the annoying flashes to white, or the slow letterboxing effect for flashbacks. But overall the show is well-paced, well-focused, keeps your attention, and is not corny, which indicate an overall good job in this area.

Drawings: 5 out of 5 stars. Terrific drawing style. It's not the same style as the manga but neither was the first Gunslinger Girl anime series. The drawings in Il Teatrino look far better than the drawings in the first anime series, which scare me.

Animation: 3 out of 5 stars. It's not as cheap or poorly-animated as many have said. The first episode has some pretty cheap animation but it gets better after that. Compared to the original series, the budget is lower and the frames are skimpier, but the quality of what frames and movement there are, seems better than the original series.

Music: 5 out of 5 stars. Much better than the music from the original series, which was actually silent most of the time. Ko Otani did the music for this show, Funimation mistranslated his name so I did not realize until I had finished watching the whole series. I would not have expected his style of music to fit with this type of show, but it fits perfectly.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful.
READ THIS BEFORE YOU BUY!
By Saito Hajime
This blu-ray set is actually better than it seems, as it also includes the 2 ovas. I bought this set and the ovas separately on dvd, and I wasted money and feel like an idiot.

16 of 23 people found the following review helpful.
excellent gun-girl anime...
By G Bequer
Gunslinger Girl: II Teatrino is a terrific anime and it looks great on Blu-ray. I would recommend it. It may not be quite as good as the original series (the studio took a budget cut, there's a new director, and the animation is nowhere near as crisp and amazing as in the first season) but it is still worth watching and has some compelling characters and awesome action. The emotional development in the narrative is not as strong either and the psychological depth is not up to the par set by the first season; instead the second series focuses on the action more or less with the terrorist plot taking place. All in all, more superficial and action oriented with less cutting edge visuals as compared to the first season, but as I stated above still worth a look if you are a fan of the series and a worthy blu-ray entry in your collection. Certainly a four-star anime...
EDIT: Let me be clear in that this anime is not yet available in Region-1 (US) as a Blu-ray but I have seen the imported Blu-ray and it looks stellar. I have no reason to believe that Funi will not do a quality job on the Region 1 version. When the US version is available I will view it and update this review...