Gunslinger Girl

So, this series has some of the most amazing examples of cause and effect psychology. That being said, you can’t analyze just one person at a time from this series. So, I’m analyzing them in pairs in this huge block.

Jose & Henrietta

Jose is probably the kindest of the fratellos in the series. His young female charge is with him all the time, so it’s often said that the two are brother and sister. Henrietta doesn’t seem to mind though, and Jose doesn’t let it effect the way he treats her. Unlike many of the other fratellos, Jose insists on expanding Henrietta’s horizons far beyond just weapon usage. This probably derives from the guilt he had at the very beginning, relating to the fact that the assassins who would be trained were children. Still, its also interesting to note, that as much care as he shows for Henrietta, he still keeps a professional relationship of master and apprentice while on a job or in weapons training. He keeps a gentle hand, catches her if she falls, but scolds her when she does something wrong. And then he’s done with it. His anger never remains.

Still, Jose’s wish to “help” Henrietta, and his tendency to spoil her has at times kept him from calling her out in a dangerous situation when she did something wrong.

In turn, Jose’s kindness is also a double-edged sword. It makes Henrietta fairly obedient, but it also makes her care for Jose more deeply than following the orders she’s given. On more than one occasion, she has lost control and killed or almost killed people, just because Jose was in a potentially dangerous situation, or someone was trying to hurt him. In fact, she almost got into a gunfight with a fellow girl in the organization because her fratello was yelling at Jose for not teaching Henrietta better.

While it appears painful at times for Jose to not be affectionate, he rewards her continually for her work. He also spends a lot of personal time with her. He once disrupted her sniper training to view the planet Venus during the daytime. He listens to her play the violin and teaches her how to view the stars. But he also instructs her how to hold a gun, what senses she should use in battle, and the way she should move while sweeping a building. And she soaks it in completely, convinced that he knows everything. Though Jose may seem innocent at times it is never more clear that he isn’t than when we find Henrietta using her advantage of being a ten year old girl, and turning on the tears to get close to a target. This is a tactic that no doubt, since she is the youngest of the assassins, Jose has taught her in order to stay ahead of the situation.

As a character, Jose probably isn’t the perfect fratello/handler. He probably cares a little too much for Henrietta, so he fights for her well-being. As a result he spoils her and often doesn’t scold her when he perhaps should. He also finds himself under constant criticism from the other fratellos (especially Jean). At times, Henrietta can become a loose cannon, especially when Jose is in possible danger. When she raises a weapon to someone who hasn’t really done anything wrong, though, is when he raises his voice to her. Henrietta recognizes only Jose as her friend, protector, and master. In result, she trusts and is obedient to him alone.

Victor Hilshire & Triela

Victor Hilshire is perhaps a man who feels a slight guilt for the situation he’s in and is putting Triela in. He often keeps Triela with him as Jose does. But even though they appear to get along quite well most of the time, and Triela is quite loyal, on a personal level, Triela and Hilshire don’t appear to be really that close. Hilshire instructs Triela to the best of his ability, but Triela is perhaps one of the most intelligent girls in the group, so she is mostly left alone. Even in training, she picks skills up quickly and hones them without much instruction. Her lack of contact with Hilshire because of her intelligence, though, often means that he isn’t entirely sure how to react to her, and she doesn’t know what she is to the man. Still, their odd relationship doesn’t appear to hinder their work at all. Triela even became a little rash when a man they were trying to get information on almost pulled a gun on Hilshire.

While Hilshire tries to refrain from using physical means to scold Triela, he won’t hesitate to scold her with words if she does something wrong. Even so, though he’s uncomfortable around Triela, he often finds himself confiding in Jose, rather than the other fratellos. He tries little by little to be kinder to her if he can.

As a character, Hilshire is probably one of the weaker fratellos. With some exceptions and mostly basic orders, he pretty much allows Triela to do what she wants, unless he sees that the situation needs something different. His easygoing nature is probably influenced by how intelligent she is, and his lack of knowledge when it comes to relating to her. That isn’t to say that he doesn’t try his best to be better about how he treats her though. To him, she’s kind of like a delinquent daughter that he never quite got the chance to know.

Rabello & Claes

Unlike the other fratellos who have either a sympathy for the girl they instruct, or a love the job or the power involved, Rabello doesn’t seem to care anything about the job or the girl he instructs. His main goal is to get back into the military police. As a result, his training for Claes is often long, inattentive, and grueling… filled with praise less remarks. To gain his approval, Claes does everything she’s asked. She even stays on the shooting range all through the night and into the next rainy day to try and please him. The only time he ever spoke personally to her about anything was when she and he went fishing together. Shortly after, when he was about to sell some information to the press (probably relating to the project), he gave Claes a key to his office so she could read his books. He was then killed in a hit and run, probably orchestrated by the organization. Claes has since becomes a test subject, permanently pulled off active duty.

As a character, Claes was the weakest of the assassin cyborg units. Though, she was loyal, Rabello wasn’t really that loyal to her. His sporadic sense of care was probably that of an uncle that would only visit on weekends. Still Claes probably got her love for idle time and book reading from him.

Jean & Rico

Unlike many of the other fratellos who at least have a slight sense of sympathy for the girl they train, Jean thinks of Rico as probably nothing more than a hunting machine, and he treats her as such. As a result, Rico spends most of her time confused emotionally, and bending to Jean’s every order when she’s fighting. Though Jean never really seems to reward Rico, she’s actually quite good at what she does… though probably not quite the hurricane that some of the other girls are (especially Henrietta). When it comes to sniper work, Rico never seems to miss her target. Even building sweeping isn’t too difficult for her. Her main difficulties appear to lie in protecting people, which means that Jean’s own tendency to fight and take action is probably a saving grace. But because Jean is so cold to her most of the time, she doesn’t really know how to react to people in the real world unless Jean is taking the lead. As Jean has ordered, she has even shot an innocent bystander once, just because he saw her and recognized her from a previous meeting.

She’s often fragile and submissive. Jean keeps a very tight leash on her, and often hits her if the results aren’t to his liking.

As a character, Jean is probably one of the more ruthless of the fratellos. He has little care for Rico, except that she does exactly what he wants her to and that she learns from his instruction. He spends his time giving other fratellos (especially Jose) a difficult time when their own charges act up, and refuses to let Rico have the time of day. Still she insists on trying to please him, and hasn’t said a bad thing about him. How she is treated, however, is very well known by all the other assassins. They accept it, under the idea that each man treats his female charge differently.

Marco & Angelica

Marco and Angelica are charter members in the idea of using young girls as assassins. Angelica was probably given the most time to adapt and to be train out of anyone, but because tests hadn't been completed yet, she has forgotten a major part of her training. Though Marco probably treats Angelica more kindly than some handlers treat their charge (especially in the beginning), his effort to be a supportive instructor and an almost father-like figure was lost when she started to lose her memories. All the training she had received, all the effort he had put in, slowly started to undo itself until there was nearly nothing left. As a result, she was taken off active duty and is simply put on training exercises for a while. Marco may be extremely frustrated with her inability to remember, but he continues to try.

The really interesting thing about each individual group, with the exception of Elsa, is that there is no jealousy between the girls based on how each is treated. They all believe their treatment is fair, and encourage each other in their endeavors to be praised and accepted by their fratellos. On the other hand, the fratellos seem to always be fighting about how far to condition each girl, and how hard each should train them. Regardless, some of them are friends anyway, and each has seemingly come up with a method of training that makes each individual girl unique and effective in her skills.



Lauro & Elsa

Elsa is probably the most withdrawn of the girls. She puts every fiber of her being into pleasing her fratello, Lauro. He, however, is extremely cold to her, much like Jean is to Rico. His praises are usually short and accompanied by some sort of scolding or a casual comment. He doesn't care about how she or any of the other cyborg girls feel. It's a job to him, nothing more.

This team is probably perfect until they attempt to do a mission with Jose and Henrietta. Seeing Jose's constant instruction and ever-watchfulness, as well as his care for Henrietta, Elsa starts to feel lonely and jealous. Her focus is split and Lauro, unhappily, replaces her part in the mission with Jose. This was also after Jose asked Lauro about Elsa's well-being, and Lauro insisted that she was fine. Nothing had ever gotten in her way before. Jose, then stated that her behavior was something that was often displayed when the girls got careless. Perhaps, ten bonus points to Jose, and negative ten for Lauro, as it became exactly as Jose said.

The carelessness of Lauro and Elsa that day also seemed to be associated with their deaths shortly after.

In all, the fratellos/handlers all have different ways of viewing the young female cyborgs. Some view them like family, others as tool or machine, and others still have even more complex feelings and relationships to sort out as the years go on. It is quite possible that in the distant future, handlers like Jose may find it increasingly difficult not to become totally attached or even romantically involved. Still their ability to keep their distance while their charges attempt to get closer to them and gain their approval is remarkable. And there's only more to come...

Train Heartnet (Black Cat a.k.a. #13)

This character is the legendary number XIII of the Chronos numbers in the anime Black Cat.

What we know about Train's past is that his parents were killed by a number, an assassin from Chronos. That number took Train in and cruelly taught him how to be an assassin too. It would appear that Train eventually paid the man back in full, though, because Train's master later died by a bullet, fired from Train's own gun. From then on, Train was an assassin that never failed, until after he met Saya. This girl had managed to undo his assassin nature entirely. And when she died, he fled from Chronos.

At first, we see a side of Train that's quite possibly as bad ass as they come. His speed is unmatched, his demeanor, cold and heartless, and his marksmanship, unrivaled. The only people willing to get within arms length of him are the Chronos council, Chronos #1 (his female commander), Creed (a Chronos number and male psycho lunatic, who's creepily infatuated with Train), and Saya (a female sweeper that he met one night, and probably the main reason behind him running away from Chronos).

To make a long story short, Train and Saya became friends secretly. Creed found out. So when Saya asked Train to watch fireworks with her, Creed showed up and killed her instead. When Train showed up, it was too late to save her. It was around that time, or slightly before, that he met Sven and Eve.

Train ditched Chronos and became a sweeper with Sven. The interesting thing is that Train is probably the complete opposite of his murderous self when he's not in a fight. When Train becomes a sweeper, he's lazy, gluttonous (eating everything in sight), and in the general word, totally apathetic. But then he gets a sweeper job, and he gets caught up in the mess. Occasionally, when battles go poorly, he'll still revert to his old assassin demeanor of a self. Still, its a solid statement that he hasn't killed anyone since he left Chronos. This of course stands in entirety, but when he faces off with other numbers, his speed and skills don't appear to have actually decreased at all in his time away. And his selfish attitude hasn't changed either.

He and Sven often get into word battles, and Train loses most of the time. This usually holds true until Sven acts stupidly... then Train promptly hits him.

As a character Train appears selfish and pretty apathetic. This is probably completely reasonable when you look at the past he's had. Even through struggling to accept Sven and Eve into his life, he isn't above listening to a few words of wisdom, no matter the source. While he's taken on a path of repenting for his ways as an assassin, it can also be said that he still finds a use for the skills he learned as a number. While many of his emotional scars from his past have healed with time and training, the one related to Saya never really does. He is a mysterious shadow that passes through the night, but he also understands the deeper, darker dealings of the world, even if he wasn't really meant to...

Edward Elric

So the series of Fullmetal Alchemist is huge, and a good part of the reason why is because of Edward and his brother Alphonse. The writing of these two characters, plus many side characters, and the entire story involved made a phenomenon followed by a good portion of the population who read and love manga.

The back story for Ed is that his father (who disappeared) had a lot of materials laying around, relating to alchemy. Ed and his brother Al found these books and such and started using alchemy. So when their beloved mother passed away, leaving them alone, they went to live with their childhood friend Winry and her grandmother. Not long after, an alchemist came by the town and Ed and Al managed to convince her to instruct them in alchemy. When they came back from her training, they attempted to use what they had learned to transmute their mother back to life. But bringing the dead back to life in alchemy is a taboo. The result was a disaster... Not only was their mother not brought back to life, but Ed's leg was taken and Al had been completely taken into god's realm. Ed used his arm as a sacrifice to bind Al's soul to a suit of armor nearby.

Now, a normal story might end in tragedy right here, but as it so happened, Hoenheim was doing something for the government/military before he disappeared. Ed and Al had written a letter to find out if the military knew where he was. So, after their attempt to transmute their mother, Colonel Mustang showed up in person to respond to their letter. The irony of the situation was that the military strongly prohibited human transmutation (and transmutation of gold). But seeing the strength in Ed, after having a few choice words, he extended and invitation to join the military. So, Ed went through the process of being fitted with automail (artificial metal limbs) for his arm and leg, and rehabilitating himself. A year later, at age 11, he went to Central city for the military alchemist exam. What impressed them wasn't just his ability, but his quick thinking, and being able to manage without a transmutation circle (something that took time and perhaps materials too, to make). When another applicant's transmutation went awry, Ed saved everyone.

At first, Ed is obsessed with trying to find a way to get Al's body and his own limbs back. Its when he finds the answer to how to do it though that the series really starts to heat up. The answer of course being in terms of alchemy.... one life for another. In other words, in order to create the philosopher's stone, which is what they needed, they would need to sacrifice several lives... several hundred... several thousand. So they decided to try and find another way. This is what brought them into something far deeper than they could imagine.

This is when we really start to see Ed start to talk to Mustang and Hughes. Even though Ed insists on insulting Mustang when they meet, often calling him names that perhaps would get normal soldiers disciplined or court marshaled for insubordination, there's an unspoken respect that he has for Mustang. He probably sees that more after he has a talk or two with Mustang's right hand, Lieutenant Hawkeye (a female sniper). The relationship that Mustang has with Ed is that of trust. While Ed doesn't always trust Mustang in the beginning, he trusts his advice.

Later, Ed and Mustang both trust each other completely. This probably starts when Ed finds out about the Homunculus and give Mustang a heads up that the ruler of their country is actually one of the homunculus to. When Mustang sees the proof for himself, and sees what Ed is up against, he decides to fight... for Ed, for the nation, and for himself. Ed at one point borrows a small amount of change from Mustang, and tells him when he's asked to return it, that he'll return it once Mustang is the leader of the country... and then he'll borrow some more change.

Its about here that Ed and Al part ways for a little while. Ed goes up to Briggs, a post commanded by the icy sister of Alex Armstrong. After a tense situation, he manages to convince her to join his side of the fight against the Homunculus and much of Central command. Shortly after, she's shipped away from her post for questioning, regarding the death of one of their men. During that time, a military alchemist (Kimbley) who had been imprisoned previously for murdering thousands in a past war, took over control of the base. By then, Winry had already been sent to Briggs to winterize Ed's automail. Shortly after her arrival, Ed was forced into joining Kimbley to insure Winry's safety. The result was a point where Ed sent Al and Winry (completely against his better judgement) with a past enemy of his, and the enemy's comrades. Shortly after, Ed was impaled by a steal beam of a falling building, courtesy of Kimbley. With some help from his own alchemy and a few past enemies, he somehow made it out alive. From this point on though, he was out of contact with Al and Winry from quite some time, and he teamed up with a rouge homunculus called Greed who had taken over the body of a man who had previously been a friend to Ed.

At this point, the war continues on several fronts against the Fuhrers/Homunculus' plans. One group including Ed and his new companions, another including Al, Scar (Ed's enemy) and his companions, their father (whom they somehow met up with again along the way), and another that includes Mustang and his group that went a-wall from the immoral government.

Though the story itself is completely epic in every proportion, there are times when Ed takes a side trip to get his automail fixed. Now, when he left his town, he burned his own house to the ground. So, he stayed with Winry and her grandmother when he did come home.

His relationship with Winry is rather a minor detail throughout the series, but through the chapters it evolves. At first she appears to be a childhood friend. He jokes with her and barely listens to her, and then he takes her with him to Rush Valley. As they meet again and again throughout, he appears to care more about her. He's not very good at showing it though. But for some reason, he uses Winry's parent's death repeatedly as fuel to propel him forward. Perhaps Winry, her grandmother, and his brother Al were the only people he has ever allowed himself to have any feelings for after he left home. (SPOILER: This is made clear as day when he proposes to Winry at the end of the series.)

Perhaps the most important relationship he has though, is with his brother Al. Al is the force that keeps him from doing some of the stupid things Ed comes up with. Al is also Ed's second guy when it comes to taking out guards, and dodging alchemic explosions of sorts. Al is Ed's partner in a fight, and his conscience when things get bad. He's also his voice of reason on occasion. But another reason why their bond is so close is probably not only because they've always been close as brothers, but Ed used his own blood to bind Al's soul to a suit of armor. Because Al lost his body in the first place, Ed (being the older brother and having laid on the pressure) feels and enormous amount of guilt over the whole thing. And for a long time, Winry and her grandmother are the only ones who know Ed's secret.

As a character, Ed is probably one of the strongest. He has endured such immeasurable pain in his life, that when he confronts it much later, after the fact, it still makes him vomit uncontrollably. That being said, he keeps a slight distance when he meets new people, but this distance is often dashed when Al's warm personality gets involved. But unlike many people would in his situation, Ed doesn't harden himself and turn cold to the world. There are things he doesn't talk about unless he needs to, but he makes no excuses. He also will never pass on helping someone in need, unless its out of his power to do so. Even so, he is extremely stubborn, and often finds ways around the rules to achieve his goals or an ideal that's morally right. Though common sense may elude him from time to time, Ed is probably one of the smartest people in the series. This is even more true when you look at how old he actually is. But with all his knowledge, skill, pride, and ability, he also knows when to let it all go, and he has the strength to go through with it. Out of every manga ever read, this was probably the most successful and the most loved by me, and the writing for Edward and many of the other characters made that possible.

Becker

So this character showed up on Primeval after Steven bit the dust. R.I.P. Steven. But you ask, why am I analyzing the probably least important secondary character on Primeval. Simple. Because he's interesting.

Unlike many of the other characters on this blog, we know virtually nothing about Becker's past, except that he appears to have a pretty fluent military background. The long and short being, he's the muscle of the operation.

Unlike many of the other recruited hands that wield weapons, his main goal isn't to capture creatures, although the result of his actual goal usually ends up doing just that. In reality though, his real goal is to keep everyone alive. Sadly, he doesn't succeed in the end with Nick Cutter, who ends up being killed by his ex-wife. Though, Becker usually takes on the role of a soldier, that isn't to say that he doesn't have a sense of humor.

For instance, when Abby's brother lost her lizard in a game of poker, Conner probably asked Becker if he could play the role of his private army for a few minutes, just with a couple other guys. Becker, decked out with full gear, sunglasses, and chewing gum nearly scared the lizard's captor out of his wits when Conner stepped out of the way to reveal him.

But it seems throughout the series that Becker has formed a rather close bond with Conner... in fact, more close than probably any of the other members of the team. Becker probably recognizes Conner's genius and doesn't mind lending some muscle to back up the science.

Another true sign of the difference between Becker and the rest of the soldiers on base is that he's solely loyal to Lester and the team of scientists under him. While he may take orders from whoever commands him at the time, his true loyalties don't lie there. A prime example of this loyalty was when he recorded something that a leader who had taken over the base had said, and had handed it over to Lester. A political repercussion of this recording caused Lester to be placed back in charge of the base and her to be thrown out.

But while Becker is pretty easy going, there are times when he's backed into a corner. He likes a little extra cushion when it comes to support personnel. When he doesn't have it, he gets moody. When he's cornered in a seriously dangerous situation and doesn't have support, he acts rather rashly. When Abby, Conner, Becker, and Danny went to the future to retrieve Abby's brother, Abby kept refusing to let Becker go and get backup. So when they finally found her brother and began to pull him out of a hole, they were being swarmed by creatures that could kill them. So, cornered, and without backup, Becker runs away from the group, fires his gun at the creatures, and gets them to all chase after him so they'll leave Conner, Abby, Danny, and Abby's brother alone.

Becker also played a kind of doubleganger game with Conner to take out one of Hellen's guards.

As a character, Becker has an extreme sense of loyalty, but he also has very strict morals. He believes in doing his duty to every extent of his ability, but he will never do something that he believes to be wrong without forming a plan to make it right again. There are people he likes more than others. He probably trusts Conner and Abby more than anyone else on the team, because they have been in the group the longest. This ability to trust them so openly, probably allows him to open up and add a little humor to his work. He respects his post, but isn't above using the whole thing for a little laugh. All in all, Becker is really one of my favorites.