History Manga / GunslingerGirl

** 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 Enrica's former classmate.

** Hilshire quotes from ''Horatius at the Bridge'' by Creator/ThomasMacaulay [[spoiler:in his final letter to Roberta to explain his HonorBeforeReason HeroicSacrifice.]]

* ItWasAGift: Rico's cuddling pillow is a seemingly out-of-character gift from Jean. A flashback scene shows that Enrica Croce had a similar pillow, presumably also a gift from her AloofBigBrother.

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

* RedShirt: The first-generation girls Chiara and Sylvia, who only get a little bit of focus shortly before they're rather graphically slaughtered in the bell tower assault. Then there's the second generation girls who share Petra's room whose names (Freccia, Soni, Gattonero) we only find out during the final battle in the Turin Nuclear Plant. In general, the series focuses on only five [=1st=] generation and one [=2nd=] generation cyborg.

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

* SuperStrength: Triela can break handcuffs with her bare hands. Beatrice picks up a 500kg cruise missile warhead and [[RelocatingTheExplosion throws it out the window]]. Felicia and Soni take out an armoured vehicle by toppling a construction crane on top of it.

* MoreDakka: Once Dante gets involved in the scene, we see increasing firepower being used to counter the fearsome abilities of the cyborgs. This includes claymore mines, portable anti-tank launchers, 50-caliber and 20mm anti-material rifles, a Blackhawk helicopter with [[GatlingGood minigun]] and a cruise missile warhead used as a suicide bomb. After taking over the Turin Nuclear Power Plant, Dante's forces use captured IFV's, self-propelled anti-aircraft guns, {{sentry gun}}s [[spoiler:and an atomic bomb.]] The Agency responds in kind, deploying remote-piloted armoured vehicles and airborne drones firing Hellfire missiles.

* SuperStrength: Triela can break handcuffs with her bare hands. Beatrice picks up a 500kg cruise missile warhead and [[RelocatingTheExplosion throws it out the window]]. A couple of first gens take out an armoured vehicle by toppling a construction crane on top of it.

* SuperStrength: Triela can break handcuffs with her bare hands. Beatrice picks up a 500kg cruise missile warhead and [[RelocatingTheExplosion throws it out the window]].

* 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, portable missile launchers, 50-caliber and 20mm anti-material rifles, Blackhawk helicopters with [[GatlingGood miniguns]], armored fighting vehicles, a cruise missile warhead used as a suicide bomb, 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.

* StateSec: Section 2 is essentially a death squad working directly for the Italian Minister of Justice, without any independent oversight.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS:
** Henrietta's handler is variously called Jose, Guise, or Giuseppe (Spanish, French, and Italian variations of the same name) depending on the translation. Maybe we should just call him "Joe", the English form, and be done with it. His brother is unambiguously Jean (French), not Giovanni (Italian) like their father, so perhaps dad gave them cosmopolitan names as part of his strongly hinted rebellion against their grandfather, lending support to Jose, which is used by the most English translations.
** For Triela's handler, both ADV's and Seven Seas' separate manga translations and Funimation's anime dub went with "Hilshire" (English based), whereas Funimation's subtitles and the German version of the manga went with Hirscher (German based). He is German which might indicate the second form, but it's a codename which might negate that. For the purposes of this site, we stick with Hilshire as it's used by more English translations.

* AlternateHistory + TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture
** 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.

** There's a battle at a nuclear plant which, in reality, got dismantled in 1987 after the Chernobyl disaster.
* AmuletOfDependency: Seen when the girls forget to take their medicine -- Triela becomes weak and unable to fight properly, while Angelica becomes so desperate to get her hands on a weapon she breaks Priscilla's wrist.

** When Rachelle Belleut is trying to resuscitate the snuff film victim who will become Triela, she says that she has to believe there is still hope in the world. It's the final line of the series by Speranza (aka Hope), [[spoiler:the daughter of the girl Rachelle gave her life trying to save.]]

* MultinationalTeam:
** 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 Hilshire 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.

** The girls are meant to be expendable CannonFodder in Italy's War on Terror.

* LuminescentBlush: Henrietta does this the most, starting with the opening credits, but it happens any time there's physical contact between a girl and their handler, even with Triela or Claes.

** The girls themselves are {{Punch Clock Hero}}ines. They fight to please their handlers; though older girls like Triela and Petra display some moral outrage about the terrorists and criminals they fight, even they are only doing this because they've been conditioned that way.

** While some of the handlers are portrayed as good people, all of them are working for an agency that brainwashes children and engages in extralegal assassinations--including in one case a congressman who supports the same cause they're fighting for, simply because a rival congressman (who's backing the Agency's budget) wants him out of the way.

** In the manga, Claes finds herself on the verge of tears after watching ''Film/ARiverRunsThroughIt'' because the fishing scenes subconsciously remind her of her fishing trips with her handler. In the anime adaptation, she's reading [[Literature/ChildBallads The Elfin Knight]] and the song "Scarborough Fair" features prominently.

** Hilshire quotes from ''Horatius at the Bridge'' by Creator/ThomasMacaulay [[spoiler:in his final letter to explain his HonorBeforeReason HeroicSacrifice.]]

* LastEpisodeNewCharacter: The epilogue both introduces and revolves around [[spoiler:Triela's daughter]].

* HopeSproutsEternal: Not the flower version, but the final scene is [[spoiler:Triela's daughter]] saying that there is still hope in the world.

* MeaningfulEcho: An angry Marco tells a wounded Angelica that's she's "freaking useless!" after she stuffs up on a mission. However, his tone (as opposed to Lauro's curt and derisory "Useless!" after Elsa's mission-related stuff-up) shows that Marco is putting on a show, as opposed to Lauro, who was just being a {{Jerkass}}.

* 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. However Angelica can barely remember anything anymore, and Triela notes that she knows virtually nothing of pop culture while guarding Mimi. Pinocchio seems to be this trope when we see him playing the piano, but it turns out he can only play the one tune and his ParentalSubstitute kept him out of school. The trope is 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]].

** In the manga, Claes finds herself on the verge of tears after watching ''Film/ARiverRunsThroughIt'' because the fishing scenes subconsciously remind her of her fishing trips with her handler.

* 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, but Rico tells them afterwards that she hadn't paid much attention to it as he'd been working.