Anime Analyze: Pumpkin Scissors (Anime)

So the next series that I watched recently was Pumpkin Scissors, a somewhat comedic military anime.  It was originally a manga started back in 2002 and (unfortunately) it is another one where the manga is still going, even to this day, but they decided to stop the anime for whatever reason, leaving the majority of the series as well as many plot points left unattended to.  Anyway, the anime adaptation was made in 2006 by Gonzo (think Afro Samurai and Kaze no Stigma) and consists of 24 episodes at regular half hour length each.  The opening was "Aoki Flamme" by Yoko Takahashi, and here we go into Pumpkin Scissors. 

The show starts out with a man named Orlando who was a soldier in the war that the empire that this takes place in was involved in ten years ago.  While the war has ended, people are still suffering from it with hunger and poverty, as well as rogue military factions terrorizing various areas in order to survive.  One day Orlando meets up with a group called Pumpkin Scissors which is a military section that is dedicated to war relief, even though most people just see it as a propaganda tool made by the nobles and military. As we go through the series, we find that Orlando used to be a part of the ATT or Anti-Tank Troopers, a group that was a part of the secret "Invisible 9" which were squads that used not-so-legal means of fighting in the war and whose existence was kept secret from the rest of the military and the people of the country.  Anyway, we also learn about the members of Pumpkin Scissors, who is lead by a Major named Hunks and a Captain named Alice Malvin, who is also a noble in the country and is constantly ridiculed for entering the military by the military and her family, saying that a noble should not do such things.  As they go about their adventures there is the underlying mystery about the person behind the Invisible 9 and the experiments that are said to have been done on the members of the squads in it.  These experiments led to people like Orlando who, just by turning on his blue lantern, loses all thought of getting hurt and then is able to take on a tank with just a large pistol by himself.  The entirety of the show tells of some of the adventures that the squad has when trying to provide war relief to various areas of the country, and in most cases this led up to some sort of moral or theme, usually having to do with looking at others lower than you in a better light or taking advantage of others being wrong.

This show could have been great.

Yes could is the keyword in that statement and while there is still the possibility that someone could come up and do it, the chances are not high considering that this anime adaptation was made some time ago.  The fact is that this show had a great premise and the themes and morals in it were really good too.  There was just one problem.  They stopped making it.  The manga is still being made even today, but they couldn't think to continue the anime? Yes the ended it at the end of a small arc in the show, but that arc itself was not even having to do with the main points, instead it just happened to be the longest arc in the series and the most action filled, so they figured putting it at the end would make it better.  NO! How about just continuing the series.  The plot never really got started, they did have something that could have been considered plot related, but they ended it before it got off the ground, so all we really have is a military based slice-of-life anime, where we see the day-to-day goings on of this group and then they just stop somewhere. They had specific scenes throughout implying that something bigger was going on in the show, but they just never followed through with it.  It's sad really, this could have been such a better series than it was.  I will give it that it came out in the same season of Code Geass and also Death Note, both of which are critically acclaimed series' especially the first one I know since it is my favorite, and Death Note was good too, but still, this could have been could had they not stopped and never continued.

The animation in this show was fairly decent with lots of dark tones to match the mysterious man belonging to a army regiment that never existed.  And while the rest of it really wasn't anything special, it didn't look bad either.  The colors looked nice and while the fights were never extremely good, they did have some moments.  Anytime that Orlando lit the lantern and took on something like a tank were some of the most epic moments in the show, and it was really cool.

Character development was there to an extent.  Alice and Orlando were the main focuses on this with Alice learning more about how she as a noble can help the people of the country and how Orlando can use his talents to help the people even after the things that he had done and experienced in the war.  They also focus on a relationship that seems to be growing between the two characters a bit and, well, the series stopped so it went nowhere.  Figures.  Anyway they do learn a lot about other people and themselves and the show as a whole does have a lot of good themes and morals that some people of today could use and I liked that about this anime, and while aside from the two characters there was little to no character development at all, it did have what little it had in good places so I will give it props for that.

This series as a whole was really good, and while it stopped at a bad place, and didn't continue, and left plotholes bigger than texas, and shall I go on? This show had good intentions and I'm guessing that the success of Code Geass and Death Note affected the success of this show just a bit but this did have a lot going for it and I liked it.  It was funny at times and had good morals to it and with the main two characters, they had good development of their own lives.  I will give Pumpkin Scissors a 6.9/10, and while with how much I bring it up that may seem harsh and slightly backwards, it's really the lack of plot and the shutting down of the show as they were trying to get the plot of the ground that really just dragged the series down with it.  Had they continued, I think it would have been a really good series, but they chose not to and there is nothing that I can do about it.  So that is my take on the anime Pumpkin Scissors.  I will be back soon with more and I hope everyone has a pleasant week, and for others like me in college right now, I wish you a happy exams.

Final Rating:  6.9/10
                    Plot:                                4/10- Pretty much non-existent, almost slice-of-life-ish
                    Premise:                         8.9/10- Single man vs. tank. Freakin' Sweet
                    Animation:                      7.9/10- Dark tones added to mystery, but not spectacular
                    Character Development:    7/10- Good for two main characters but no one else
Episodes: 24
RWF: Japanese Dub
MRS:  gogoanime.com (yeah different than normal but nwanime only had english dub and i prefer japanese so.... :) )