Well two and a half years have finally came down to the last episode. I first heard about it when theO announced that Artland would officially be animating a second season. The anime was aired in Japan half a year later, and I immediately began watching all of the Pino episodes without subs. The subs popped up here and there along the next half year. Then in an interview with FUNimation, they said that it was highly unlikely that they were going to license the second season of Gunslinger Girl. Then at the end of the year, they did. And so, after a year and a half more of waiting, we finally have the dubbed GG2.

I watched the final episode today after mentally preparing myself since Wednesday. And so I bring you Pino's final moments:

Both Pino and Triela are tired and breathing heavily. Triela, with no weapons left, flips a table at him. Pino, dodging it, closes the gap between him and Triela. Pino sees an opening and slashes down at Triela. However, Triela, being the unfair cyborg that she is, catches the knife and snaps it. Yes, the grainy image is actually part of that scene. Triels then takes the snapped knife and drives it into Pino's wrist, which I actually find it hard to believe that the thick part can go through his thick jacket. But hey, maybe it's actually a different material. Triela tries to kick and punch at Pino. But, being as awesome as he is, dodges all the blows. Using his last weapon, the car key that his adoptive father had given him, he wedges it between his fingers and thrusts it at Triela's eye (the cyborg's weak spot). However, Triela returns with her cybernetic fingers, and the outcome is a hit-hit stalemate. You at first see blood from Triela's eye in front of Pino. However, the arteries in Pino's neck were pierced by Triela's fingers. And the aftermath is both are down and out. But since Triels is cybernetic and can't die unless her brain is blown out of her head, she's survives and is the victor. Before she leaves, she looks at Pinocchio's body once last time.

However, I think the episode ended nicely. When Triela looked up at the sky and said that she wasn't as happy about killing Pino as she thought she would be, the scene fades out to the episode title screen "So Pinocchio Becomes Human", which I thought was very fitting.

This was painful to put together. Oh, by the way, everyone should listen to Gunslinger Girl -Il Teatrino's- version of Scaborough Fair (lyrics in info box).