The proposed flag of Padania, in both real world Italy and the Gunslinger Girl saga.
Padania, in the geographical sense of the title, is an alternate reference to the Po Valley in Northern Italy. It also is a term used by a political party and a real-world Italian separatist movement (namely Lega Nord, "North League" in english), though both are somewhat different in reality than compared with the fictional events of the manga and anime.
In the GSG saga, Padania is the suggested name for an autonomous northern republic which would comprise of five states, each with a capital, that, historically, were already independant and culturally unique Italian territories between the seventh century and the sixteenth century. Lombardia, Venicia, and Milano were three such proposed states, as mentioned in the first of the two OVA episodes following Season Two of the anime.
Use of the title[]
Generalizations, courtesy of Triela.
By the end of the Season One of the anime (and Book Three of the manga), Padania had come to be a very general title used by the Social Welfare Agency to describe the Five Republics Faction, it's members, sympathizers, and bankrollers.
A prime example of how loosely the name is eventually employed, can be seen midway through Book Three, when Triela, upon encountering Franco, Flanca, and Pinocchio in a Montalcino safehouse, yells "Don't move, Padania!" even though Franco and Flanca are in actuality, freelance terrorists who only occasionally collaborate with Padanian efforts as part of their own larger scheme to attack the Italian judicial system. Pinocchio, on the other hand, simply kills or protects anyone he's told to, and is loyal to no particular cause; his adoptive "uncle," Cristiano, is perhaps the most Padanian of them all, as a bankroller for the FRF, but is not present in the scene.
Links[]
- See also: Five Republics Faction
- Padania (on Wikipedia)