Gunslinger Girl
Kazé · 2009–2013 · 5 issues
About the series
In this five-issue series from Kazé, the Italian government's secret Social Welfare Agency recruits gravely injured young girls, cybernetically enhancing them and conditioning them as cold-blooded assassins. The story follows these cyborg operatives—each paired with a male handler—as they carry out covert missions while grappling with the fragments of their lost humanity. This compact 2009–2013 run is best known for its stark, philosophical take on innocence and violence, a defining work of the era's dark European-inspired manga.