Gunslinger Girl (stylized in small caps) is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Yu Aida.

Set in modern Italy, the series focuses on young cybernetic girls and their adult male handlers who use them as assassins under the directions of a government organization.

A sequel titled Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino- and created by Artland premiered in Japan on Tokyo MX TV in January 2008.

Special Ops is itself divided into Sections 1 and 2, the latter of which employs young girls who have experienced traumatic and near-death experiences fitted with cybernetic implants as agents.

The implants, which consist of synthesized muscles and carbon fiber frames, result in heightened strength and reflexes as well as high resilience to damage and pain.

The Social Welfare Agency primarily concerns itself with dealing with the Padania Republic Faction (PRF or RF), an organization seeking an independent Northern Italy through acts of terrorism and bribery.

[3] Gunslinger Girl, written and illustrated by Yu Aida, premiered in Japan on May 21, 2002 in the monthly Dengeki Daioh magazine, and was completed with the September 27, 2012 issue.

[11] On April 8, 2010, manga publisher Seven Seas Entertainment announced that it had licensed Gunslinger Girl and would be re-released, with a new translation and in omnibus format.

It was directed by Morio Asaka and produced by Madhouse, Bandai Visual, Marvelous Entertainment and Fuji Television, with music by Toshihiko Sahashi.

A second season of the series, entitled Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino-, was officially announced in the October issue of Dengeki Daioh.

[15] This second season was animated by Artland and featured a new staff, with Gunslinger Girl creator Yu Aida being fully involved as the project's chief writer and supervisor.

FUNimation has also licensed the second season and is currently streaming subtitled episodes on its website as well as on Veoh, promising a Region 1 retail release in 2009.

[25] Jonathan Clements and Helen McCarthy feel the trauma suffered by the girls allows Gunslinger Girl to show them as "submissive blank slates in the style of Chobits", feeling that while some handlers treated them like objects, those that tried to befriend them used methods that were like "the seduction of 'damaged goods' in less popular works such as the Lolita Anime".