Pumpkin Scissors

Information of Anime

The Empire calls for a ceasefire order with the Republic of Frost after a long war.  Three years later, the Empire suffers from the effects of the postwar with starvation.  The difference between the peasants & nobles is great.  Former soldiers become bandits in order to survive.  Randel Orlando, a former army soldier, joins the Imperial Army relief unit, Pumpkin Scissors, led by Alice L. Malvin.  However, Randel has an interesting past.

Storyline (CONTAINS SPOILERS)

Below is a summary of the storyline I've seen.  If you haven't seen the series yet & don't want to be spoiled, skip this section.  If you want to know the story & want to see how I viewed it, read on.

The Pumpkin Scissors team is trying to restore the Empire from the long lasting postwar effects.  Fighting off bandits that are making the Empire worse, Randel joins the unit to help out.  As a former Anti-Tank Trooper, a secret unit in the army, his abilities brings some mysteries as he seems to be throwing his life away in front of tanks.  As the show progresses, it seems there is a secret organization developing weapons so advanced that the army don't know about them.  At the same time, the mystery of the army's abandon secret project Invisible 9 is creating a stir inside Section III.

As the secret of Invisible 9 is showing up, the secret organization which is now discovered as Silver Wheel to the viewers is coming into light as well.  They are creating a downfall into society with drugs & highly advanced weapons.  Also, it's creating some corruption inside the military.  However, the show would more away from this & go into the fight between nobles & commoners as the commoners found an unpublished secret article that makes one of the high up nobles, Paulo, in trouble if exposed to the public.  This would be the show's last arc.

Due to the article, a group of commoners decided to raid a noble ball that has Alice attending.  Learning about this, the remaining Section III members try to stop them before they are committing a serious crime.  Alice's fianc�E Leonil Taylor is at attendance as he witnesses Alice trying to calm the raid by challenging one of Paulos' Royal Guards to a duel with the noble's pride on the line to save the commoners.  Although she wins the duel, the commoners aren't satisfied as this wasn't their objective.  But when Paulo steps up after realizing his sins, he goes into a duel with the leader of the commoner group.  However, he begs for his life & apologizes.  When the other nobles realized that Alice was putting her life on the life & their noble pride being taken too highly, they step up as well to the commoners to beg for forgiveness.  Seeing this, the commoners lose their will to kill & drop their weapons with no deaths involved.  As Alice tries to make an arrest for attempted murder, the colonels step in as Alice is a noble girl since she's off duty.  They charge the commoners for damaged property instead.  However, Silver Wheel still lurks in the shadows.  The show ends with Randel being promoted to Colonel & being a proud member of Pumpkin Scissors.

My Personal Review

Pumpkin Scissors is a fairly decent anime show.  It's not too deep, but the theme is pretty good.  The first episode wasn't appealing to me, but the later episodes got my attention a bit.  It's a good show to watch in your spare time.

Animation

The character designs are pretty average to me.  Most of the characters look the same with the long faces & medium size eyes.  The clothing is done pretty well to match the timeline & setting the show is in.

The backgrounds are dry & dull.  This works since the time frame the show is set is right.  It shows the hard lives that the lower class is facing very well.

The colours are a bit bright.  There are some shades of dullness for the backgrounds at least.  The balance between the backgrounds & characters is good as they don't clash with one another.

In terms of the animation movement, it's quite flowing.  Hardly any of those silly stunts involved even though you see very little of it.  The movements are pretty smooth regardless of the speed.  However, there are some choppy parts during those quick scenes.

Sound       

The sound effects are more on the realistic side.  There are some silly sounds involved & they appear quite often for those funny moments.  So often, I was thinking I was watching a funny anime show more than the serious message it is delivering.

The seiyuus here aren't too bad.  Some could use some work, but it's not very a big deal.  It's pretty average really.  Even though they do put some life into their characters, they aren't quite memorable or something you will go crazy for.

The music isn't too great.  It's got a bit of that army feel & some folk on the side.  The music is well done, but not really a catcher.  The ending theme is a bit catchy & funny since it is written with a silly purpose.

Story

The story has a good theme about the postwar situation.  There are a handful of anime shows that do this, but this one is a bit on the realistic side in terms of improving the situation without the need to rebel against the Empire.  Randel's mysterious past is quite an attention grabber.  However, the way he takes on tanks & comes out ok is hardly believable.  One scene has a tank giving a direct hit on him, but he still keeps walking fine.  That's the main factor why I wasn't enjoying the show at the start.  Taking on a tank using some sort of catalyst is one thing, but coming out of it alive after getting a direct hit is another.  Aside from this fact, the story looks promising & seems to have some potential.  When we reach about Invisible Nine, it builds up the show even more.  However, the time for it to go into depth about this secret project is long & sometimes forgot when Section III go out on missions.  Luckily enough, it's linked to the Silver Shield the terrorist group & the show does focus on this area at times.  The linkage between the two is very good & flows nicely.  However, the show ends with a lot of mysterious & incomplete parts.  Silver Shield is still going & the past of Randel & his old army unit isn't revealed.

Overall Conclusion

Pumpkin Scissors is quite an interesting story.  The theme of using a past timeline & having a bit of a realistic approach is its key.  I do suggest watching, I probably put it on your "to watch" list.

Pumpkin Scissors gets a 7.5/10.  The story looks promising at the start & the characters are unique.  However, the idea of a human being coming out alive from tank hits is too weird.  Plus, the ending doesn't really tie up anything as a lot of things are left unfinished.

Last updated on January 14, 2008