History Manga / GunslingerGirl

* BrandX: Section I Agents are seen using a "Nakia" phone in one episode of the second season.

* StandingBetweenTheEnemies: [[spoiler:Claes walks out to the army column advancing on the SWA compound and asks them not to attack. Despite their orders, the soldiers are unable to fire on her, and so the SWA is able to surrender peacefully.]]

* WouldntHurtAChild: National Security Councilor Aragon has brought in the Italian army to wipe out the SWA compound. She tries to talk them into surrendering, but they're determined to go down fighting. On seeing Claes walk out holding a machine gun she orders the soldiers to shoot Claes, but they're reluctant to do so. [[spoiler:Aragon forces her way through their ranks with a pistol to do the job herself...only to stop on seeing an unarmed Claes sitting on the ground crying. The SWA personnel then abandon their weapons to go to stand by Claes, urging them not to harm her as she's no longer a combatant.]]

** National Security Councilor Aragon has brought in the Italian army to wipe out the SWA compound. [[spoiler:She orders the soldiers to shoot Claes, but they're reluctant to do so, so she forces her way through their ranks with a pistol to do the job herself...only to stop on seeing an unarmed Claes sitting on the ground crying.]]

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: After the death of her handler Captain Raballo, Claes is reconditioned to forget him. During a standoff between the Agency and soldiers sent to take them out, Claes is [[StandingBetweenTheEnemies urging the soldiers to let them surrender peacefully]], when one of them asks her if she knew Claudio Raballo. Claes drops her weapon and collapses in tears, [[ImCryingButIDontKnowWhy because no matter how hard she thinks, she still can't remember him.]]

* SayMyName
-->'''Jean:''' "Giacomooo!!!"

* ExtranormalInstitute: In one scene Hilshire is shown in a classroom teaching the girls German. Triela is helping Rico with translating her test questions, which consist of weapon calibres and the words: Man, woman, father, mother, and... student (not child, or girl, or daughter).

* AtTheOperaTonight: Rico assassinates a target during a performance of ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}'' at the Teatro Reale dell'Opera. The handlers explain the plot to the girls and Claes and Triela muse at what they think Rico and Henrietta's reactions would be if they were to see the whole opera--Claes even recites Tosca's Cry to God aria--but Rico tells them afterwards that she hadn't paid much attention to it as he'd been working.

* TemptingFate: Both Lauro and Hilshire say that their cyborg has never let them down, just before a mission where said cyborg stuffs up completely.

** A female soldier at the nuclear power plant that Dante has taken over begs Jean to let her take part in the attack so she can get vengeance. At first it looks like she wants to avenge her fellow soldiers who have just been killed by Dante's mercenaries. It's several more chapters before we find out that she's a former classmate of Jean's dead sister Enrica.

** Henrietta sees a man in a ski mask, which triggers the memories of her being assaulted by a masked maniac. [[spoiler:She flies into a fit of rage and accidentally shoots her handler.]]

* MemoryTrigger: The "Conditioning" to turn the titular girls into assassins [[RepressedMemories represses their memories]]. [[spoiler:Henrietta]] is on a mission when she sees a man in a ski mask, which triggers the memories of her past. She flies into a fit of rage, accidentally shoots her handler, and this ultimately results in her death.]]

* LiteralMinded: Used for the girls' CreepyChild moments. When Raballo first starts instructing Claes, he's annoyed by her lousy shooting (actually because she's not used to her cyborg implants) and tells her not to leave the range until she can consistently hit the target. The next day it's pouring down rain and Raballo grouches that he hasn't seen any sign of the girl he's supposed to be teaching. He's told to go to the firing range where he finds Claes cold and shivering, still trying to hit the target as instructed after practicing all night. Henrietta also stays up all night [[GunStripping stripping and assembling her pistol]] because Jose told her to get proficient quickly. When the SWA begins developing the second generation of cyborgs, they specifically mention that they'll be making the conditioning milder and more flexible to hopefully avoid instances like these.

* MadeOfIron: It takes heavy weapons or a bullet through the eye to harm a cyborg. [[spoiler:This occasionally works to their disadvantage as well, since it causes them to underestimate threats and neglect their defense.]]

* MemoryTrigger: The "Conditioning" to turn the titular girls into assassins [[RepressedMemories represses their memories]]. [[spoiler:Henrietta]] is on a mission when she sees a man in a ski mask, which triggers the memories of her past. She [[spoiler:flies into a fit of rage, accidentally shoots her handler, and this ultimately]] results in her death.

* MoodWhiplash: Every time the cyborgs switch between little girls and ruthless killing machines; i.e., Angelica on her first mission -- she massacres half a dozen terrorists in as many seconds, then turns and gives the camera a "Did I do good?" smile. Marco, watching the scene later on video, is noticeably disturbed.
** The tenth episode of the first season opens with Jose and Henrietta departing for a vacation to Sicily Island and having a pleasant conversation, which then abruptly transitions into Jose informing Henrietta that one of her fellow cyborgs was murdered.
** A similar moment happens later on with Jean and Rico. [[spoiler: Rico is practicing at a shooting range and does well enough to get an outright compliment from Jean, an occurrence so rare that she practically starts glowing, and then Jean tells her that Angelia passed away.]]

* MoreDakka: Once Dante gets involved in the scene, we see increasing firepower being used to counter the fearsome abilities of the cyborgs. This includes anti-personnel mines, 50-caliber and 20mm anti-material rifles, Blackhawk helicopters with GatlingGood, armored fighting vehicles, a cruise missile, and a [[spoiler:[[NukeEm nuclear warhead]]]]. Sandro and Petra have an anti-tank missile fired at their car, and even the Agency is getting into the act with [=RPV's=] firing Hellfire missiles and automatic {{Sentry Gun}}s being deployed to protect the compound.

** Downplayed, since most of the [=SWA=] personnel are from Italian security forces and intelligence. A few, however, are recruited from other parts of Europe. Victor, for one, is a Polizei officer from Germany and was formerly attached to Europol. Olga is from Russia and was an ex-Russian embassy employee. As for the cyborgs, Triela has Tunisian roots, Claes possibly has some Swedish roots due to her surname before being reconditioned, and Petruska is from Russia.
* MurderSuicide: Elsa murders her handler and then kills herself because she feels that he could never love her the way she does him.

* NonIndicativeFirstEpisode

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: When Dante is hired to take on the Agency, he's been briefed on their capabilities so assembles overwhelming firepower including claymore mines, machine guns, antitank rockets, and 20mm anti-material rifles. [[spoiler:Beatrice is gutted by a 20mm shell and then vaporized with a cruise missile warhead when she tries RelocatingTheExplosion.]]

* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: The show lives for this trope:

* ShoutOut: In Chapter 56 of the manga Triela finds herself having to perform emergency surgery on someone. While she's doing this she ties her hair back into a single ponytail, leaving long strands of hair down her front. It's also one of the few times she wears a mini-skirt. She ends up looking very much like a certain other girl [[Manga/FullmetalAlchemist who knows a thing or two about medicine]] who also happens to share the [[ActorAllusion same English voice actress]].

* ImpliedDeathThreat: Henrietta recreates the death of Elsa [[spoiler:who [[MurderSuicide shot her own handler and then killed herself]] after she realised that her handler [[JustAMachine did not return her feelings]]. Alarmed, Jose knocks the pistol out of Henrietta's hand; it [[ItWorksBetterWithBullets turns out to be unloaded]]. After all, says Henrietta, how could she possibly kill herself [[FalseReassurance "as long as you're this wonderful, Jose."]] ]]

* InASingleBound: Henrietta when chasing a purse thief -- the same incident also features a MagicSkirt and NeckLift. Petrushka also leaps multiple stories and from the ground to the top of a crane on two separate occasions.
* IronicEcho: Manga only, during the initial search for Pinocchio, Triela is trying to get information out of a trio of teenage punks. When they start hitting on her to go off with them, she asks them "Shouldn't you be in school?" They laugh it off and ask her why she isn't. Before things get really threatening, Hilshire shows up to collect Triela. As they are walking away, Victor turns around and asks the boys "Why aren't you in school?"

* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: Henrietta's reenactment of Elsa's murder/suicide scene.
* {{Jerkass}}: Arguably a few of the handlers:
** Jean acts like this, though as the series goes on it looks more and more like a facade. He can be hard on Rico, but it's made clear that he really is interested in her well being.
** Lauro, however, is a perfectly straight example. He makes it clear he regards Elsa as nothing but a tool, and he flat out tells Jose that he doesn't like him and the other handlers for treating their cyborgs otherwise.
* KickTheDog: Some of Jean's interactions with Rico qualify, but Lauro's every thought and action toward Elsa take this to a whole new level, until she kills him and then herself.
* KnightTemplar:
** A deceptively named Intelligence Agency that uses brainwashed little girls to kill anyone who gets in their way or spots them on a job, and who occasionally handle unrelated kills as political favors. They get said girls by scouring the hospitals, and are at best deceiving the staff/families about the nature of what is in store for them. Seems like they might be bending a few laws into pretzels in the name of anti-terrorism.
** Rico's ShootTheDog moment seems to have been a one-off, which could be put down to Jean. While they are definitely fighting a "dirty war", the others tend to play the "nothing to see here" card rather than shooting witnesses.
** They also express distaste for the political favors, but can't really say no, since they're from high-ranking politicians that give support to the cyborg research.

** The girls have been conditioned out of their previous identities, but not of their basic social skills. Some of them show traits from before their transformations. When they start remembering more of their past lives than what they did in the last year, it's a very bad sign. [[spoiler:See Angelica.]]

* LaserSight: Averted, particularly with Rico, who is almost always the sniper/sharpshooter during missions.

* LeftHanging: We're shown a DistantFinale with [[spoiler:Triela's daughter]] and a page with Jean, but we're never really told of the fates of any other characters. That's from the original manga, the collections added a half-dozen pages about the remaining girls. They were {{put on a b|us}}oat, along with the technical staff.

* NoPeriodsPeriod: Averted. At one point Triela talks at length about her period, and is very irritable during the time (and storyline) when it happens. In the same conversation, Henrietta matter-of-factly notes she doesn't have that problem because during her cyberization they [[BreadEggsMilkSquick took her uterus out]].
* ObliviousToLove: One example is Triela preparing candles for a romantic dinner when she's staying in a hotel with Hilshire, who responds by turning on the lights and asking what she's doing in the dark. Likely deliberate on the part of the handlers, as the adoration of underage female cyborgs makes them rather uncomfortable. Jose is regarded as rather odd for encouraging his cyborg's affections.

* OhCrap: Both the terrorists in Padania and the SWA forces are hit with this: the terrorists when they learn the SWA's cyborgs have been deployed against them, [[spoiler:and the cyborgs when they learn that Dante's prepared anti-material weapons that can easily kill them.]]

* OnlyOneName: Almost all of the cyborgs. Elsa de Sica is the only subversion; her handler gave her the name of the park they were walking in at the time because he had to call her ''something'' and that was all he could think of.
* PhenotypeStereotype: Subverted. The European characters (which is to say, unusually for a manga, all of them except for the African girl) all possess realistic features which often deviate from the national stereotype. Hilshire and Claes, for example, a German and a Swede, are both dark eyed brunettes, while the Italian Rico is blonde.

* PrecisionFStrike: From the dub of ''Il Teatrino'': ''"This is such a fucked up world."''

* RedShirt: The first generation girls Chiara and Sylvia, who only get a little bit of focus before they're rather graphically slaughtered in the battle with Giacomo. In general, the series focuses on only five [=1st=] generation and one [=2nd=] generation cyborg.

** Averted -- during the the first encounter between Hilshire and Franca, Franca tricks Hilshire into misfiring his pistol. It instead merely caused a jam. Hilshire simply fixes the jam and starts firing at Franca.

* RoaringRampageOfRevenge: Jean and Jose are driven heavily by revenge and are easily distracted by it when they learn that their adversary for the arc is Giacomo Dante, their family's prime killer. Surprisingly, Jean is consumed by it much less than Jose, and when [=PFC=] Aprea wanted to join the [=SWA=] attack on Dante's group holing up in a nuclear power plant to avenge her friends, he told her that she should go enjoy her youth for their sake and that he will take vengeance for them, showing that he didn't want anyone else to go down the path he and his brother did.
** Could also be a case of YouRemindMeOfX (where X = Corporal Sophia Durante), making Jean reluctant to risk her life.
*** [[spoiler:Really, though, it's dramatic irony. Jean (and the audience) think she's referring to other soldiers in the garrison. In actuality, she wants revenge for Enrica, just the same as Jean (it's been 6+ years, Enrica's classmate is all grown up). Her identity isn't revealed for several more chapters.]]
* RobotGirl: All of them.

* SenselessViolins: The girls conceal their weapons in musical instrument cases. Henrietta is the one most often seen carrying the iconic violin case. Rico once used a clarinet case in the anime.
* SheIsAllGrownUp: A recent chapter has Alessandro dressing up Triela so she will fit in with Petra while they work together. A change in wardrobe and judicious padding push her apparent age up to the late teens. This makes Hilshire (and her) a bit uncomfortable as she is unlikely to ever reach that actual age. It seems to cause her to give up her pigtails, however.

* ShootTheHostage: [[spoiler:When Dante is using Jean]] as a HumanShield, Rico manages to do this despite her conditioning, as Jean had earlier made it clear they were to give their own lives if necessary to stop Dante.

* TheSiege: [[spoiler:The SWA barricades their headquarters when the government attempts to dissolve them. However, the whole matter is resolved peacefully when the soldiers refuse to fire upon Claes.]]

* TemptingFate: Both Lauro and Hilshire say that their cyborg has never let them down just before a mission where said cyborg stuffs up completely.

* SawedOffShotgun: For one mission, Triela cut down the stock on her signature Winchester to make it handier for a reverse FastRoping assault. She comments that she should have done this long before (recoil isn't an issue with her enhancements, but size is).

* SkipTheAnesthetic: When Triela needs to [[WeHaveToGetTheBulletOut take a bullet out]] of Hilshire, because he's worried that she'll run out on him afterwards. Which she does after he passes out, but she has a LoveEpiphany and returns.

* SkipTheAnesthetic: When Triela needs to take a bullet out of Hilshire.

* SuperSenses: Henrietta listens in on a terrorist meeting from the other side of a restaurant. Rico hears a vehicle coming before everyone else on a couple of occasions and detects Fermi throwing a coin at Jean's head [[HyperAwareness even with her back to him]].

* TakingTheBullet: The girls throw themselves in the blast of car bombs and Bouncing Betty landmines.

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: When Dante is hired to take on the Agency, he's been briefed on their capabilities so assembles overwhelming firepower against them, including 0.50 and 20mm anti-material rifles. [[spoiler:Beatrice is gutted by one of these rifles and afterwords vaporized with a cruise missile when she tries RelocatingTheExplosion.]]

* ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill: The mercenaries allied with Padania spares no expense when [[spoiler:they take on the SWA teams. Beatrice was gutted with an Anti-Materiel Rifle, a rifle designed for '''piercing the heavy armor on tanks''' mind you, and afterwords vaporized with a cruise missile.]]

* TheTopicOfCancer: Elizabeta was a young Russian ballerina who developed bone cancer in her teenage years because she spent a period of her childhood in an area of the Ukraine that was heavily affected by the Chernobyl incident. Due to the generally primitive state of public healthcare in ex-USSR areas, the cancer is not contained properly and by the time Elizabeta arrives in Italy for further treatment, the doctors decide that the best bet would be to amputate her leg before the cancer spreads. Realizing that she will never be able to dance again, Elizabeta tries to kill herself.

* IJustShotMarvinInTheFace: Averted: Raballo goes ballistic when he sees Henrietta look down the barrel of a jammed pistol and berates Jose for neglecting her training.
* IKnowKarate: Subverted. The girls have their fearsome combat abilities programmed into them as a part of their reconstruction package, but at the increasing cost of their remaining humanity. After her defeat to Pinocchio, Triela gets supplementary training from Italian special forces, as she's become too used to relying on her cybernetic abilities.

** Watch for a varation on this: it's the first real cue (aside from two large bleeding bullet holes) that [[spoiler:Flanca]] [[AnyoneCanDie really might not make it]]. [[spoiler:[[BetterToDieThanBeKilled Instead of bleeding out quietly]] like a sane human being, though, her blood loss leads her to decide to reenact ''Film/ThelmaAndLouise''.]]

* ImpliedDeathThreat: Henrietta recreates the death of Elsa, who [[MurderSuicide shot her own handler and then killed herself]] after she realised that her handler [[JustAMachine did not return her feelings]]. Alarmed, Jose knocks the pistol out of Henrietta's hand; it [[ItWorksBetterWithBullets turns out to be unloaded]]. After all, says Henrietta, how could she possibly kill herself [[FalseReassurance "as long as you're this wonderful, Jose."]]

* ImproperlyPlacedFirearms: Apart for Triela's Winchester 1897, all of the guns used by the Social Welfare Agency are fairly difficult to find in Italy even for a government-sponsored assassination force, and ''all'' of them could have been easily replaced by actual Italian military hardware (the only exception being Petra's SITES Spectre submachine gun, which ''is'' actual Italian military hardware specifically made for special forces. It's the most logical weapon they could have possibly given the girls). Lampshaded in Chapter 4 - a SIG Sauer pistol is found at the scene of a dead SWA team by local police, who comment on the rarity of German-made automatics in Italy. It is possible that the agency deliberately sources its hardware outside of conventional channels to lessen the suspicion of government involvement.

* InterserviceRivalry: Seen between Sections 1 and 2 during the investigation into Elsa's death, and at the start of the Pinocchio arc.
* InstitutionalAllegianceConcealment: The SWA masquearades as a legitimate NGO backed by Rome. This gives them enough cover to run a black ops agency that operates in Italy.
* ISurrenderSuckers: Used to great effect when Henrietta is raiding a Radical Faction safehouse -- she tells two men guarding the hallway she needs to get through that she's frightened of the "scary men downstairs". Quite possibly a case of TooDumbToLive, as they were warned that the Social Welfare Agency deploys little girls as foot soldiers and they both wonder out loud how she got in. They quickly dismiss this and instead try to take her hostage. It doesn't end well for them. Possible overlap with TrojanPrisoner.

* TrojanPrisoner: In one episode, the Republican Faction plans to kidnap a Senator's daughter and hold her hostage in exchange for some of their members who are in prison. Instead, the government gets wind of this and replaces the girl with Claes, who happens to look similar to the girl in question. Unfortunately, the agents tailing the kidnappers get stuck in traffic and lose them.

* [[spoiler:HopeSproutsEternal: The ending.]]
* HostageMacGuffin: In one episode, the Republican Faction plans to kidnap a Senator's daughter and hold her hostage in exchange for some of their members who are in prison. Instead, the government gets wind of this and replaces the girl with [[BadassAdorable Claes]], who happens to look similar to the girl in question. HilarityEnsues.

** ** During the investigation of Elsa and Lauro's deaths, Henrietta is the one to figure out what happened (that Elsa killed Lauro and then herself). While demonstrating, she heavily implies that she would take the same course of action were she to learn that her affections for Jose were hopeless. [[spoiler:After Henrietta frags Jose and he lies there dying, she remembers this moment through her LaserGuidedAmnesia, and Jose holds a gun to her eye and tells her to fulfill her promise.]]

** At times, evil has higher standards than the good guys, such as a Padania hitman who refuses to kill someone in the Galleria Degli Uffizi while, unknown to him, Jean is torturing his accomplice in the men's room.

* GoForTheEye: The one weak point of a cyborg, though Jean says they're working on bullet-resistant optics. The cyborgs know this and will use their non-firing arm to shield their eyes during combat. Shooting oneself in the eye is also used by the cyborgs as a means of suicide.

** Jose and Jean are both haunted by their dead little sister, who taunts them for failing to avenge her. This has more to do with their guilt than any genuine GhostlyGoals.
** A symptom of deterioration in a cyborg's conditioning. Angelica for instance imagines seeing Perro, her pet before she became a cyborg. Marco is eventually able to track the dog down in the hope of giving her some comfort.
* TheHandler: All the girls have one, and the relationships between girl and handler vary with each pair.
* HandicappedBadass: Marco (eye damage) and Captain Raballo (lost a leg from an accidental discharge) are both using Section 2 as a chance to get back into the field.

* TheHeart: Priscilla, an intelligence analyst who dotes on Angelica.
* HeelRealization: Angelica [[TakingTheBullet shields Marco from a car bomb]], but Marco -- relieved that he didn't lose his sight in the blast -- doesn't even ask about her until Jose brings the subject up. The realization that she’s dying finally causes him to start comforting her; in fact, it makes all the handlers rethink their relationships with their cyborgs: Alessandro and Petrushka share a FirstKiss, Jean's HiddenHeartOfGold shows through when he's moved to hug Rico, and Hilshire becomes overly protective of Triela [[spoiler:to the extent of leaving her in a hotel room while taking on an assassination himself -- leading to a further HeelRealisation when he realizes that he’s been letting Triela do all the killing as a means of avoiding guilt]].
* HeroicRROD
* HitmanWithAHeart:
** Franca and Franco, who try to avoid killing children.
** Padanian agents in general, and their superiors in particular, often try to avoid choosing their own cultural and religious icons as targets, despite being terrorists, because they're ''conservative'' terrorists, and those icons represent the things they believe they are fighting to protect. Furthermore, they limit civilian casualties as much as possible by only attacking government locations. Their enemy is the government itself, not the people under them.

* HollywoodHealing: Justified, as all body parts can be replaced through each repair, replacement or reconditioning. This requires a drug that causes brain damage and shortens the girls' lifespans. On one occasion, a terrorist leader sees Rico and wonders whether she's one of the rumored child assassins, but concludes otherwise due to the smooth skin on her hands. The next time this terrorist encounters Rico, those hands have just rammed his driver's head through the window of his car.

* TheseGlovesAreMadeForKillin: Many times when a handler physically touches one of the girls in the anime, even in a friendly manner, they're wearing sinister dark gloves. While they're assassins as well the handlers let their cyborgs do most of the killing, so it's likely RuleOfSymbolism as well as a desire to avoid fingerprints at crime scenes or cold hands in winter.

* TuckAndCover: And how!
* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture / AlternateHistory:
** Nearly everything about the world seems modern except for the film cameras, which were phasing out even when the manga started, and the cyborg girls, who are well beyond today's technology. The nonexistent organizations and events (like a nuclear incident in Serbia) make it at least one of these options.
** The Padania (the northern 5 provinces of Italy) separatist movement has a RealLife analogue, the "Lega Nord" party, but it's much less of an active threat. As of now, it's mostly working inside constitutional frameworks, but in their beginning they weren't that nice, at least in their declaration of intents.
** There's a battle at a nuclear plant which, in reality, got dismantled in 1987 after the Chernobyl disaster.
* TykeBomb: All of the girls.

* VelvetRevolution: [[spoiler:An expected confrontation between the military and the SWA is averted when the SWA surrenders peacefully, and the Pope arranges a ceasefire between the government and Padania.]]

* WhatMeasureIsANonCute

** There is mounting confusion about how to view the girls, who lose their human traits more and more as time progresses.

* WiseBeyondTheirYears: Triela and Claes. In particular, do not try to hide things from Triela. She picks up on euphemisms and omissions very well for a 14-year old, (let alone a brainwashed cyborg one). Fortunately, she tends to be forgiving.
* WorldOfActionGirls: Not only are all the major characters young girls, but all of them have been trained to take advantage of how they're young girls.
* YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness: [[spoiler:Once Dante has been captured and the Turin plant secured, the Prime Minister sends in the Italian army to destroy the SWA. Subverted when, instead of a BolivianArmyEnding, all SWA personnel surrender peacefully. Due to this, the Italian soldiers were reluctant to shoot them.]]

** On several different dramatic occasions, Jose tells Henrietta the story of Orion and Artemis: for example, in the very first issue, shortly after they first meet and he's looking for a way to connect with her, as well as [[spoiler:after she is turned into an automaton by the Agency and he wants to know if she still has any memories of him]]. Then, dozens of chapters later, you see how [[spoiler:they die...]]
** During the investigation of Elsa and Lauro's deaths, Henrietta is the one to figure out what happened (that Elsa killed Lauro and then herself). While demonstrating, she heavily implies that she would take the same course of action were she to learn that her affections for Jose were hopeless. [[spoiler:After Henrietta frags Jose and he lies there dying, she remembers this moment through her LaserGuidedAmnesia, and Jose holds a gun to her eye and tells her to fulfill her promise.]]

* {{Foreshadowing}}: During Jose and Henrietta's investigation into Elsa's death, Henrietta asks him about making a SuicidePact. [[spoiler:Near the end of the series, Jose is accidentally shot by Henrietta during the nuclear power plant assault after she is frenzied by resurfaced memories of her rape and torture. They fulfill the pact they made by fatally shooting each other after she snapped back to her senses.]]
** One of Claes' lines from the very first episode foreshadows how Henrietta and Jose's relationship will eventually go: [[spoiler: "If it were me, I'd resented being that devoted to."]]

* GoForTheEye: The one weak point of a cyborg, though Jean says they're working on bullet-resistant optics. The cyborgs know this and will use their non-firing arm to shield their eyes during combat. Shooting oneself in the eye is also used as a means of suicide.

* {{Hallucinations}}: Jose and Jean imagining their dead little sister, and Angelica imagining her pet dog.
* HandOfDeath: Every time a handler physically touches one of the girls in the anime, even in a friendly manner, they're wearing sinister dark gloves, except for multiple instances with Jose.

* CreepyChild: The girls, to different extents. Rico, with her tendency to kill and torture with the same cheerful enjoyment that she faces everything else in life, easily takes first place in this.

* DiabolusExMachina: Just when you thought [[spoiler:Petrushka might have escaped the EverybodyDiesEnding, she's told that the implants she received only cured the ''symptoms'' of her cancer (by allowing her to function normally and so on), not the disease itself, which has now already spread throughout her remaining organic parts and will soon kill her. Mind you, the SWA knew all along; they just didn't consider worthwhile to pay for treatments for a cyborg who's going to die young anyway]]. To make things worse, Petrushka was a second-generation cyborg, meaning she would've otherwise lived far longer than the other ones (if still not nearly as long as a normal human).]]

* ElitesAreMoreGlamorous: The GIS, being the Carabinieri's elite anti-terrorist unit. The 1st Regiment Carabinieri "Tuscania", the Carabinieri's elite special forces paratrooper unit.

** Inflicted on Henrietta when her deteriorating emotional state forces the Agency to redo her conditioning, which "resets her to factory settings," so to speak. One of the doctors explains to Jose that while she is a usable assassin again, her personality is little more than that of a robot soldier.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: At times, evil has higher standards than the good guys, such as a Padania hitman who refuses to kill someone in the Galleria Degli Uffizi while Jean is torturing his accomplice in the men's room.
* EverybodyDiesEnding: The gruesome battle between the forces of the SWA and Giacomo's cell brought the series right into this territory, and the face-off resulted in [[spoiler:the deaths of three cyborgs, with Beatrice being among the dead. After the battle, the government decides to shut down the SWA by declaring them terrorists and sending the army in to kill them.]] Out of all the first-gen cyborgs (and Petrushka), [[spoiler:only Rico, Petrushka and Claes survive to (almost) the end. In the second-to-last chapter, Rico's revealed to have succumbed to her shortened lifespan, and Petrushka succumbed to her leukemia, and it's probably safe to say that Claes didn't survive to the DistantFinale.]]
* {{Fanservice}}: While not at the forefront, it is there -- GunPorn (every character uses a different firearm, all well detailed), ShowerScene / GodivaHair (Triela), and LegFocus (Petra).
** Some of the scenes verge on FanDisservice -- the obsession the girls have for their older male handlers (though Yu is [[ObliviousToLove careful not to have things]] the [[NoYay other way round]]; even Sandro doesn't put the moves on Petra until her AnguishedDeclarationOfLove), the occasional BleachedUnderpants shot in early chapters, Henrietta's pre-cyborg {{rape|AsDrama}} and [[{{Squick}} mutilation]], the [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman detached manner]] with which Sandro checks out his [[NakedOnRevival new cyborg]], and a [[{{Sideboob}} half-naked]] Triela in the SnuffFilm scene. More overtly, any time the girls do something cute, the anime/manga [[MoodWhiplash takes pains to remind you]] that they are also [[MoralMyopia cold-blooded]] [[WhatMeasureIsANonHuman killing machines]].

** Done in episode 12, when Triela and Angelica break into a mountain terrorist base. The glass is weakened beforehand to justify this.
** Triela and Beatrice effectively pull this off [[InvertedTrope in reverse]] (climbing up a tower hand-over-hand ''really'' fast) during Vol 11 of the manga. Cybernetics are cool like that.

* ChildSoldiers
* ChildrenAreInnocent: Zig-zagged. Yes, they're basically child assassins, but there are several moments that remind you that at heart, they're still adolescent girls. For example, all the girls enjoy star-gazing; the handlers at one point remark on the fact that they're a group of child assassins who are looking at stars and singing Beethoven.

* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Done plausibly. The Social Welfare Agency only selects girls who don't have extended families who'll be concerned about them. As a victim of child sex trafficking, Triela's background is unknown even to the Agency. Henrietta's entire family was murdered and Angelica's parents are in prison. Petra's family are too poor to travel to see their daughter, which is just as well, as her appearance has been altered completely. One of the final chapters hinted that they (and the dance school she attended) were told that she died of her cancer. As Rico is one of the few cyborgs who retains memories of her previous life, the occasional visit from her estranged parents is no doubt enough to reassure them that their ill girl is receiving the best of care, and the Agency would have no trouble getting Rico to play along.
* CooldownHug: Hilshire on Triela after her second go-round with Pinocchio -- a {{Bookend|s}} to how Triela refused to let Hilshire comfort her after her first defeat by Pinocchio.
* CreatorsCultureCarryover: The series, though it's set in Italy, had many of the adult handlers be quite reserved towards their charges, probably causing ValuesDissonance for any Italian viewers. They even bow sometimes. The girls don't act much like typical Italian girls, either.
* CreepyChild: The girls, to different extents. Rico, with her tendency to kill and torture while grinning cheerfully, easily takes first place in this.
* CreepyGood: The {{c|reepyChild}}yborgs.
-->'''Alphonso''': It's just the thought of these little girls who can kill terrorists and speak three languages, and here they are singing Beethoven in the bitter cold. It's a shame they have to be cyborgs.
* CulturedWarrior: The girls are exposed to varying amounts of culture, depending on their aptitudes and handlers. Henrietta is a skilled violinist, Claes is very well-read, and she and roommate Triela have discussed Balzac and the opera ''Theatre/{{Tosca}}'' in a "matter of fact" way. Rico expressed great interest when she visited an art museum. The exception is Angelica, who can barely remember anything anymore. Triela notes that she knows virtually nothing of pop culture while guarding Mimi. Likewise Pinocchio can play the piano, but only the one tune. He also has little interest in cars or girls unlike other Italian boys his age. Lampshaded when Raballo shows Claes his extensive library and says that reading makes you a good soldier... then notes ironically that he's reading a book on [[CallToAgriculture growing vegetables]].

%%* CuteBruiser: All of them.
%%* CyberneticsEatYourSoul: Played up for all its tragic and tearjerking worth.
* CycleOfRevenge:
** Both handlers and terrorists are obsessed with avenging family members killed by the other side. Those who aren't are invariably either corrupt leaders or {{Shell Shocked Veteran}}s. The exception that tests the rule is Hilshire, who works for the program for personal reasons that have nothing to do with Italian civil wars.
** The self-destructive nature of the spiral of revenge and recrimination is a central theme and oft-repeated motif. One chapter is even entitled "To break the cycle of retaliation" and an entire story arc is entitled "Vendetta".

* DepartmentOfChildDisservices: The Agency is more or less this, although considering most of the girls' backstories, they are still arguably better off.
* DiabolusExMachina: Just when you thought [[spoiler:Petrushka]] might have escaped the EverybodyDiesEnding, [[spoiler:she's told that the implants she received only cured the ''symptoms'' of her cancer (by allowing her to function normally and so on), not the disease itself, which has now already spread throughout her remaining organic parts and will soon kill her. Mind you, the SWA knew all along; they just didn't consider worthwhile to pay for treatments for a cyborg who's going to die young anyway]]. To make things worse, [[spoiler:Petrushka]] was a second generation cyborg, meaning she would've otherwise lived far longer than the other ones (if still not nearly as long as a normal human).

** In the GSG world, a lot of them (Both mostly Polizia di Stato and Carabinieri) are on the side of the [=FRF=], most of them bribed.

** Claes isn't allowed on the shooting range since her handler is dead. She comes back one evening and her roommate Triela notes the scent of cordite on her. Claes just smiles.

** Petrushka mentions that Sandro does her makeup every day. Angelica and Henrietta are immediately rapt over the idea of receiving such intimate attention from a handler.
* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Despite the massive losses the SWA faced against Dante and the near annihilation of the agency due to the PM trying to cover his own ass, the SWA eventually turns into a legit research center in Europe to advance cybernetic prosthetics in the hopes that they can help disabled persons. Some of the SWA survivors like Jean are spared from being imprisoned or killed and are instead, shuffled to various law enforcement and intelligence agencies in order to combat future criminal/terrorist threats in Europe while others are continuing their research work on improving the research on cyborg-based prosthetics.]]
* EdgyBackwardsChairSitting: In the first season opening title, Triela is shown sitting like this in a chair. Her pose is relaxed and calm, which is deceptive considering that in the previous scene she was running and shooting a pistol.
* ElephantInTheLivingRoom: Angelica is in hospital, shunned by her handler after stuffing up on a mission. Her friends are trying to cheer her up when she suddenly bursts into tears, declaring that [[TooYoungToDieLamentation they are all going to die without having the chance to know anything about life]]. The other cyborgs maintain an embarrassed silence until [[BewareTheQuietOnes Claes punches Angelica in the face]]. Claes later returns to visit Angelica in private and admits she's just as frightened of dying as she is.

* ElephantInTheLivingRoom: Angelica is in hospital, shunned by her handler after stuffing up on a mission. Her friends are trying to cheer her up when she suddenly bursts into tears, declaring that they are all going to die without having the chance to know anything about life. The other cyborgs maintain an embarrassed silence until [[BewareTheQuietOnes Claes punches Angelica in the face]].

** When Angelica finally dies, it affects the handlers more than her friends; even Triela is surprised how little she's affected.

* BreakTheCutie: Downplayed as all the girls are taking what hope and joy they can from the situation, despite their horrific backstories and being TooYoungToDie. However Henrietta, whose adorability is lampshaded several times, suffers the most of the main characters when her traumatic memories resurface.

* BreakTheCutie