Was Jean-Luc Godard right when he said all you need to make a movie is a girl with a gun? Coop and Steve discuss.
Disclaimer:The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network. Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead.
Coop
Hyperfixations are a funny, Steve. You could be scrolling through film chatter on Bluesky one moment, then looking at Yahoo! Japan Auctions for fan books and official merch from a modern cult classic many moments later. Alas, that's me when it comes to the Baby Assassins films and their follow-up TV series right now. While it's not an animated series, oh boy, does this series share the same "Girls with Guns" spice that a handful of beloved anime titles are known for.
Heck, the TV series even has an anime intro!
Steve
Interesting observation, Coop! You know, some dude named Jean-Luc Godard (I think he was from Star Trek?) once said that all you need to make a movie is a girl and a gun. He probably knew what he was talking about, but I wonder if he ever did the math and considered how much more of a movie you could make with multiple girls and multiple guns.
As you said, the "girl with a gun" trope is an anime perennial. It's a phenomenon that's been replicated across decades of art and studied in serious academic contexts. What, indeed, does it say about our subculture when we keep mashing idealized conceptions of femininity against the cold, hard steel of a revolver?
Funny enough, your mention of the Godard quote just connected the dots for me in a big way. While spending time with some of the genre's most prolific titles (Black Lagoon included), I couldn't stop thinking "Huh, this is the kind of story you'd expect to see in live-action." But in many of those cases, each show quickly made it clear that its tales were animated for a reason.
That thought lodged itself into my skull almost right away, mostly because I started my viewing with Noir—the first entry in Kōichi Mashimo and Bee Train's Girls with Guns Trilogy. The moody atmosphere, the setting, the scant details, the proper neo-Noir stylings... I felt as if I was watching a French action film from the '90s (my mind often wandered to Léon: The Professional), but dialed up with some of the same visual ammo one would see in a series like Serial Experiments Lain. I feel like a curmudgeon saying this, but damn, they don't make anime like this often these days.
It's a vibe! I got a similar impression from Noir's spiritual sequel Madlax when I checked it out for its Birdie Wing connection (long story). Ridiculous, maybe even overwrought, but purposefully composed.
And I think the additional layer of abstraction that animation provides is a pretty salient point. The medium of live-action film is inherently distancing, but gun violence is, unfortunately, enough of a day-to-day reality to benefit from further fictional separation. With gun girl anime in particular, I see them in a way similar to how I enjoy the aesthetics of cigarettes on-screen. And here's my totally not-shoehorned-in screencap of Anko from Call of the Night exhibiting both at the same time.
A lighter or trinket that just happens to look like a revolver is probably one of my favorite narrative tricks for subverting expectations—especially in regards to the inherent fear and tension surrounding firearms. It might be why Gunslinger Girl ended up winning me over very, very quickly.
Unlike the similar setup of Lycoris Recoil, Gunslinger Girl left me to really stew in the fact that the entire situation is incredibly messed up. These girls have been turned into weapons that solely exist to serve as assassins. Henrietta (a young tween!) firing off a machine gun is haunting, because it's not "hell yeah, action movie nonsense!" it's "holy shit, what is she doing?" I love the unease and confrontational attitude the series has about its subject matter. This is a "feel bad and really think about it" kind of show.
Also, "The Light Before We Land" is a real gut-puncher when tied to this intro. Wow.
Plus, you have to figure that all of these examples have some roots in the femme fatale archetype, so digging into those tragic overtones makes sense. On the other hand, you can see Fujiko Mine as an early subversion of that trope, making it more fun. Anime and manga have always contained multitudes.
I do think a lot, though, about how shows like Noir and Gunslinger Girl, even when I hadn't seen them, defined my perception of what anime even was back in the early to mid 2000s.
Same here to a degree, especially because I'd see ads for these shows in Otaku USA or their DVDs sitting around FYEs, but considering how young I was back then, I'd often go "Nope, I'm not old enough for this" and keep walking for fear my mom saw me looking at the weird cartoons for too long. Looking back at it all today, it feels as if those titles were more directly (and thoughtfully) courting older audiences than simply leaning into trends of the day.
I was informed that Wu-Tang wasn't for me, a then-member of the children.
I think they were also downstream of successful "mature" '90s works like Ghost in the Shell (the film), which is, of course, about a lot more than The Major being badass and frequently nude, but it's not not about that.
But this does remind me of my first proper encounter with a gun-toting girl show. Some time in the late aughts (probably not long before I started high school), I nabbed the first volume of Burst Angel from an FYE. If only I knew the series was from the pedigree behind M.D. Geist 2: Death Force. Popping my head in for a recent revisit, it didn't take me long to realize why I only remembered the early TV CG robot and Revy-At-Home—Burst Angel isn't particularly exciting or engaging. But I've got to tell you, the whole world-building bit about stupidly high import taxes hits hard in 2025.
Insert the most deadpan "lmao" you can imagine here. I don't even know what my first girl gun anime would have been. Maybe Black Lagoon with my old anime club? Faye Valentine probably also counts, even if she's not the focal point of Cowboy Bebop. Definitely worse places to start, either way.
And there are plenty of more modern examples that have adapted with the times. Like, Sword Art Online is (for better or worse) arguably the defining series of the 2010s, and lo and behold, Gun Gale Online also exists.
Lycoris Recoil takes that "Wouldn't it be messed up if all these schoolgirls were assassins in a government program?" conceit we mentioned earlier, and injects it with a fun City Hunter vibe (intentionally so, apparently). Chisato's this wonderful loose cannon who'll go to any lengths to help people out, but when it's go time... You don't want to be in her way. It makes for a compelling contrast when she's sharing the screen with Takina, who is so used to the assassin program and hasn't really been out in the world before. Not to mention the clashes that arise from Chisato's dedication to saving lives.
This falls right into that "not super serious, but a lot of fun" zone John Wick tends to occupy. Full stop.
Lycoris Recoil is probably the biggest splash the girls-with-guns genre has had recently. And even though I enjoyed it, I constantly forget that it had actual dramatic ambitions, especially in its conclusion, because in my mind the show is about Chisato and Takina being gun-toting goobers together.
And that's fine, to be clear! But it's amusing to contrast Lycoris Recoil's tone and take on teen girl assassins against, like, Yasuomi Umetsu's exploitation OVA oeuvre.
Which, incidentally, we have an entire column about.
Aside from Lycoris and the recent theatrical release of Umetsu's Virgin Punk, Akiba Maid War is another barn burner from the past couple of years. Not unlike the Yakuza games, the series deftly balances surreal humor and horrific violence. Going from "moe moe kyuns" to multiple gunshot wounds and back again is a feat in itself.
Akiba Maid War is one of my dark horse candidates for the best show from the past five years. It just succeeds at everything it attempts, and it attempts a lot. And I think it's really cool we just got a theatrical release of Virgin Punk packaged with a lengthy making-of feature (that I missed because I was sick grrrr). If Umetsu can hop back on his bullshit in the same year that we get a bunch of cute Lycoris Recoil shorts, then I think it's safe to say that girls and guns aren't going anywhere.
Since you mentioned maids, guns, and "moe moe kyuns," I do want to make sure we have plenty of time to dig into the real reason for this column: why Baby Assassins kicks ass.
I'm glad we've got that girls-with-guns primer out of the way, because I love this series. And not only for the action and comedy, but also for how it builds upon all the elements we've been talking about throughout this column. Inverse of my initial Noir thoughts, Baby Assassins is a series that feels like it could be anime, but is best suited as a live-action production. Oh, and it's hella gay too.
All credit and thanks to you for recommending it! These were not on my radar at all, but you were correct, they are me-core. Although I wouldn't want to deemphasize how utterly singular they feel to watch. I've only seen the first two films so far, but I can't think of any other action-comedies on the same wavelength. My closest point of comparison would be "mumblecore Takashi Miike," but even that doesn't encompass how Yūgo Sakamoto directs or how Akari Takaishi and Saori Izawa play these roles.
The chemistry between Takaishi and Izawa is off the charts as soon as they're thrown on screen together. They work so well not only as a unit, but the two actively elevate each other's performances. You could tell in the first flick that they were cast against each other to complement one another—Izawa for her incredible stunt work and Takaishi for her expressive acting. By the time I hit Baby Assassins Everyday! (The TV series) both had greatly improved in areas they might've struggled a touch with to begin with.
That's cool to hear! I also immediately loved them. And it's so important that they are both dumb as bricks. There's not really a "wacky one" and a "straight man" (nothing about them is straight). They're just dudes hanging out in a variety of equally trendy outfits.
In addition to these two lovable doofuses, it's the razor-sharp social commentary that fully brought me on board. The audience learns pretty quickly that Mahiro and Chisato have been thrown into a world of bills, institutions, and jobs they're not exactly prepared for. And it doesn't help that everyone around them tends to treat them as dumb due to their age. Even if they are assassins, the lethal profession becomes an allegory for being a working adult—a working young adult, whether dealing with projects that go nowhere, difficult coworkers, or inflexible power structures. These themes take a slight step back after the first film, but come Everyday, they're firmly back in focus.
It's pretty telling when the first film opens with a mundanely soul-crushing job interview that spirals into a darkly funny daydream of gun-based ultraviolence.
On that topic, another point in Baby Assassins' court: ridiculously well-choreographed fight scenes. They're shot well, on top of that, and they also have real weight and physicality, which heighten both the comedy and our connection to the heroines. I love, for instance, how the climactic fight scene in the first film ends with a long, unbroken shot of Mahiro talking to herself as she catches her breath.
Man, I am so excited for you to watch Baby Assassins 3: Nice Days... If you thought that action scene was amazing, Izawa's fight scenes with Sōsuke Ikematsu are some of the best I've seen in years. Ikematsu's raw physicality is powerful and unsettling in these dust-ups, making me wish he'd been able to fully utilize his physical talents in Shin Kamen Rider. That flick was big on the CG fights, both to its advantage and perhaps detriment in this situation.
Speaking of bugmen, there's a good handful of tokusatsu actors sprinkled throughout the entire series, too.
And speaking of CG, the digital blood spatter from the gunshots is probably my biggest mark against what I've seen so far. Does the humble squib not still deserve our respect? Although the amount of blood in that screencap you just shared does buoy my expectations for the third film.
Most viewers can tell the first film wasn't made for a whole lot of money, which explains the digital blood and muzzle flashes. As the series goes on, there are way more practical effects, and whatever CG touches up present don't stick out as sorely. I'd say the same for the TV show, too.
By the way, I'm sure you'll greatly enjoy that the show holds up a massive middle finger to generative and predatory AI use.
Good! Makes sense, too. These are, at their core, deeply human films. If you asked me what the primary vibe of Baby Assassins is, it would be these extended shots of Mahiro and Chisato just chilling on their couch together and talking about nothing.
In another case of "it's funny you mentioned that," Saori Izawa also appears in John Wick: Chapter 4 as a stunt double for Rina Sawayama.
Hah, no kidding!
Izawa's moving up in the stunt world and Akari Takaishi's playing the lead role in the NHK's current Asadora drama series. They both seem pretty busy these days, but I would never say no to spending more time with Mahiro and Chisato.
I would, no exaggeration, watch a million more of these. Movies. Episodes. Web shorts. Whatever. They struck gold here. Peak comfort food. With high body counts.
And keep the Blu-rays coming too! I'm thrilled that the entire trilogy is readily available in North America, both physically and digitally. At the same time, it's also rad that Baby Assassins Everyday! is on HBO Max, I hope that Well Go USA also gives the show a physical release. If not, I bet there are a few other companies out there that would be thrilled to have the girls' televised shenanigans in their catalog. There is a Japanese Blu-ray set after all...
Photo by Coop Bicknell
Now, if we can only get the official blorbos...
Was Jean-Luc Godard right when he said all you need to make a movie is a girl with a gun? Coop and Steve discuss― Was Jean-Luc Godard right when he said all you need to make a movie is a girl with a gun? Coop and Steve discuss. Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed by the participants in this chatlog are not the views of Anime News Network.Spoiler Warning for discussion of the series ahead. ...
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