Pumpkin Scissors is a manga created and authored by Ryoutarou Iwanaga. An anime adaptation of Pumpkin Scissors has been released, produced by Gonzo and AIC, which began airing on October 2, 2006 across several Japanese televisions stations and ended with the 24th episode on March 19, 2007.The main female protagonist in the story is 2nd Lieutenant Alice L. Malvin, she is the second in command and field leader of the Pumpkin Scissors. An inexperienced soldier of noble origin who graduated in the academy just before the ceasefire (the ceasefire was announced literally in the middle of the graduation ceremony for the class of officers she was in at military academy); Alice's hot-tempered and reckless demeanor tends to sometimes put her and her subordinates in danger. She has a strong sense of duty and justice and tries to live up to her family's military traditions, contrary to her father and sisters' belief that she must assume a more feminine behavior. While she is the current heir to her family, she will likely lose this position once her younger brother comes of age.
Corporal Randel Oland is the main male protagonist. He is a retired soldier who joined the Pumpkin Scissors to aid in their war relief effort. He was part of the secret 901 anti-tank-trooper unit, which basically consisted of foot soldiers trained to take down enemy tanks by them. This unit, known also as the "Gespenster Jäger" (German for "Ghost Hunter") was part of the "Invisible 9". They are specially trained to ignore pain and fear in order to engage tanks and armored vehicles at point blank range. While the division was secret, all tank crews were warned to be wary of soldiers carrying a blue lantern. Despite his impressive stature (well over six feet tall), and a body riddled with scars, Randel's nature most of the time is kindhearted and ingenuous. But when he is in trouble he turns on his blue-steel lantern marked "901-ATT", and he becomes a fearless and vicious combatant. He is capable of defeating even heavily-armored foes with his 13 mm anti-tank gun, known as the "door knocker" (highly reminiscent of a Thompson Contender pistol).Due to his reckless style of combat, Randel is frequently hospitalized during the series. These hospital stays lead to a running gag about the size of the corporal's penis, and the inability of the hospital staff to get a urine container that will not break.
In the story you will encounter a lot of interesting characters that will make the story much more colorful. Now that the main characters are being introduced, here comes the synopsis.
Set in a region strongly resembling Western Europe, in which a catastrophic war has just ended similar to that of the two world wars that occurred in the early parts of the 20th Century, the Royal Empire and the Republic of Frost have declared a ceasefire to end the war indefinitely. The Empire is plagued by starvation, and pestilence, with former soldiers turning to thievery, banditry and others forms of crime, forming into gangs to survive the post-war period. To aid the people of the Empire in the war relief effort, the Imperial Army State Section III, also known as the Pumpkin Scissors unit, is established.
The name for the group was an idea from one of its officers, the 2nd Lieutenant Alice L. Malvin, according to her, in their war relief effort they must "face the threat of corrupt people who protect themselves behind lies, power, and money like the rind of a pumpkin", and Section III must act like a pair of scissors cutting through those layers and delivering justice for the people. This is a constant message which ripples throughout the series. The units are, however, berated constantly, considered propaganda tools used by the government, and are seen as an insult to the war relief effort by many within the army as well, as the Empire's citizens. Randel Oland, a veteran soldier with a mysterious past, joins their ranks and steadily the Pumpkin Scissors unit begins to be taken more seriously as the anime's plotline begins to unravel.The anime series of Pumpkin Scissors is good and interesting, the animation is mostly decent, but noticeably fluctuates. For an action series, I wouldn’t say the action sequences are that great: many of the important fights are battles of attrition, which can become rather dull at times. The fights involving Oland are more interesting and generally over quicker, but they follow an obvious formula: blue light comes on – Oland takes out his Doorknocker – trash gets taken out.
Just watch it and have some comment here.
