The complete first season in stunning high-definition!<P>Officially, the Social Welfare Agency is a government sponsored corporation that’s in the business of saving lives. In reality, it’s an agency on the fringe of technology. They give terminal patients another shot at life using cybernetic implants. This conditioning process then shapes the patient into an efficient machine for handling all of the government’s dirty work.

Studio: Funimation Prod Inc Release Date: 08/18/2009 Run time: 320 minutes

The girls of the Social Welfare Agency are no ordinary children. They are the grizzly 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 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.

"An espionage tale as fun to follow as Alias" ---<i>Home Media Retailing

From the studio that brought you <i>Beyblade, Chobits, Ninja Scroll, Street Fighter, and Vampire Hunter D

The Social Wlefare Corporation is a secret military force comprised of orphaned girls that have been "saved" by becoming more machine than flesh. Although, they have erased their memories, they are aware they are programmed to kill. <P> Contains all three volumes of this exciting series!

The Social Welfare Corporation is a secret military force that has been "saving" orphaned girls by making them more machine than flesh. No longer children, they are assassins… and an even more frightening truth will change everything. Box Set Features: • Exclusive collector’s box • 13 Episodes • 325 Minutes of Content • Audio commentary • 16:9 widescreen • 5.1 English audio

The Social Welfare Corporation is a secret military force comprised of orphaned girls that have been "saved" by becoming more machine than flesh. Although they have erased their memories they are aware they are programmed to kill.

Contains all three volumes of this exciting series!

The grizzly murder of a fratello gets Section One involved, with an investigator sent in to get to the bottome of the "cyborg problem." As the agency scrambles to protect their girls, Henrietta and Jose find themselves on an impromtpu vacation, having "been sent away for their own safety." What are they hiding? And what does Henrietta know about the deadly truth? Then the Agency uncovers a plot which could be used to wipe out the terrorists' stronghold once and for all. Things go terribly wrong, and in an all-or-nothing attack the girls find their lives on the line. Could this be the end of the girls and the Agency? Could their lives be over before they've really begun?

Great characters, great story, great anime, great price! <P>Henrietta is quickly becoming regarded as one of the most efficient assassins at the Social Welfare Agency. However, life for the other girls at the Agency is not so sunny. Enter the prototype and the problem…The prototype: Angelina was a young girl out on an errand one day when a car mysteriously ran her down and left her for dead. Reborn as Angelica, her training proves to be a much needed distraction for all of the Agency employees. As the assassin develops, so do the problems inherent in the conditioning process. Can Angelica and her handler overcome these setbacks in order to continue with their work at the Agency? The problem: Elsa, the Agency’s newest recruit, is as cold as they come. When Henrietta reaches out to her, a cold shoulder is all she gets in return. Elsa’s handler brings Henrietta and Jose in on a hit and strained tensions place the mission in jeopardy. Can Jose hold things together and make it through one more day? Every weapon has its flaws…

In the 2003 broadcast series, Gunslinger Girl, orphans are given cybernetic implants and brainwashing to turn them into petite assassins for the Social Welfare Agency, a covert branch of the Italian government. Each girl has her own trainer/handler, who teaches her everything from marksmanship to table manners. Henrietta, the central character, works with Jose, who describes their relationship as "brother and sister." When Henrietta, whose dreary personality recalls Key the Metal Idol, isn't machine-gunning criminals under Jose's supervision, she plays the violin. Because Henrietta remembers nothing of her past life and feels no regrets for her murderous actions, Gunslinger Girl offers none of the pathos of <I>Saikano. The overall effect suggests Koi Kaze re-imagined by Sam Peckinpah or The Professional: Gogol reenacted by the cast of <I>Princess Tutu. Gunslinger Girl ranks among the grimmest anime series of recent years. (Rated TV 14: considerable violence) <I>--Charles Solomon