Anime Pumpkin Scissors

[Raiyuu]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]The bizarre title and the fact that GONZO made it drew me to start watching this series. There's only been one episode so far - the next one airs tomorrow - but it looks quite promising.

It's set in the aftermath of a war between the Empire and the Republic of Frost. No one won or lost - the Emperor signed a peace treaty, leaving the soldiers wondering what they were fighting for in the first place. Many of the soldiers from both armies have become bandits, terrorising villages in the absence of any real conflict in which to participate.

The main characters are Alice, a young officer in the eponymous Pumpkin Scissors unit, which was formed to handle war relief and deal with bandits and postwar unrest; and Randall, a hulking, scarred soldier with some unusual (and quite creepy) skills and equipment - I won't spoil the first episode with details. Alice likes laying siege to things and has a romanticised view of how a soldier should act. Randall likes to eat, and is about as indestructible as Chad from [i]Bleach,[/i] though not as indestructible as Excel from [i]Excel Saga[/i].

The world is pleasantly reminiscent of [i]Fullmetal Alchemist,[/i] and there are noticeable traces of [i]Last Exile[/i] in some of the character design (Alice looks a fair bit like Lavie). The postwar setting is refreshing, and should make for some interesting thematic gubbinz, provided GONZO can break out of their style-and-no-substance stereotype.

Anyone else seen it? ANN says it's based on the manga of the same name, anyone read that? I'll certainly be watching tomorrow's episode, just to see how it pans out.[/FONT]

[Dagger]

I was thoroughly prepared to turn my nose up at this show, but it actually has promise, darn it. The main characters are both of types that I passionately dislike under normal circumstances, but the way they were portrayed (at least in the first episode) made me like them quite a bit instead.

The guy whose name has been rendered a thousand different ways (I guess I'm sticking with Orlando for now) basically falls into the Kenshin/Vash mold, except that he's missing the irritating pacifism, and his everyday persona is easy-going and absent-minded rather than flamboyantly silly and incompetent. So far, at any rate. Alice is the naively idealistic one, except that she gives a fairly good impression of knowing what she's doing and keeps her righteous tirades nice and concise.

Good animation so far; we'll see how long that lasts. I rather liked how they transitioned from the prologue to the opening sequence--it helped build up excitement. I'm disturbed by the comedic ED and worried that much of the series could turn out to be episodic, but I'll going to keep watching for the time being.

~Dagger~

[Raiyuu]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]Having now seen episode two, I am a little worried that they're going to meet a crazy tank-toting ex-military type every episode, and Randall's just going to [spoiler]turn on his lantern, defeat it[/spoiler] and learn a new lesson about living in peacetime each week.

I'll reserve judgement until the larger story arc (assuming there is one) starts showing through. There have been hints that the higher echelons of the military see the Scissors as more of a [spoiler]face-saving propaganda unit than actual war relief[/spoiler], which may have a larger bearing on later episodes.[/font]

[Fasteriskhead]

One of the better Trigun spawn of the current season (and there appear to be a [I]lot[/I]). I'm expecting a half-dozen or so standalone episodes, most of them ending with Randel killing a lot of people and/or learning a life lesson (Raiyuu beat me to it), and somewhere in the second month the plot should kick in.

What say we make up a DRINKING GAME? I'll make the first few rules (feel free to add your own):

-whenever Alice acts brashly in a dangerous situation, take a sip.
-for each dog bite, take a sip.
-every time the two juniors (the blonde and the meganekko) complain about their jobs, take a sip.
-for each tank interior scene where the main cannon reloads, take a sip.
-whenever Alice pulls the sword, take a sip. (note: for each scene where she pulls the sword in order to act brashly in a dangerous situation, this would be two sips total)
-every time Randel says something in a profound-sounding tone, take a sip.
-one sip per neck chill. (two or three in one scene only counts as one)
-one sip per phrase in neither japanese nor english.
-one sip for every line from the heavies regarding 901 ATT horror stories.
-if a dark secret from someone's past is revealed, chug.
-every time an evil bureaucrat obstructs justice, chug.
-whenever it's revealed that the government did something very very bad during the war, chug.
-if the main arc turns out to involve a dark secret from someone's past, finish your bottle and chug another.

[Raiyuu]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]F*head, you just made my day. One more to add:

- Every time Randall shrugs off something that would blow a normal human into bite-sized meaty chunks, take a sip.[/FONT]

[Dagger]

[QUOTE=Fasteriskhead]
-whenever Alice acts brashly in a dangerous situation, take a sip.
-every time the two juniors (the blonde and the meganekko) complain about their jobs, take a sip.
-every time Randel says something in a profound-sounding tone, take a sip.
-one sip per neck chill. (two or three in one scene only counts as one)
-every time an evil bureaucrat obstructs justice, chug.
-whenever it's revealed that the government did something very very bad during the war, chug.[/QUOTE]
That pretty much covers episode 3, but here are a few addendums.

- Take a sip at any hint of conflict between Alice and her family.
- Whenever Alice wins over some sort of skeptic (commoner or noble, it doesn't matter) through righteous persistence and so forth, take a sip.
- Whenever we see evidence of Oreld's womanizing (I [i]so[/i] knew that he would turn out to be that type!), or another character makes a reference to it, take a sip.
- Take a sip if the characters go badly off-model or if you spot other obvious animation shortcuts.
- If, at the end of an episode, it turns out that the story has not advanced a single centimeter and, in fact, has only succeeded in repeating stuff that we already know, chug.

~Dagger~

[Raiyuu]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]Yes. Disappointing third episode. There are some nice visual images and concepts in the show as a whole, but it's got repetitive by episode three. Pull your socks up, Gonzo. I know you can do better than this.

At least there wasn't a tank in this episode.[/FONT]

[Delta]

[COLOR=#656446]Hmm. Odd. [spoiler]There weren't any tanks in episodes 5-7 nor were there extensive accounts of 901-ATT. What was interesting though was the explanation behind the unit's code number. If that was true the perhaps GITS' "Section 9" was based on the same military tradition as well?[/spoiler]

BTW, I heard that they were skipping an arc in the manga. Is this true?

PS: Oreld gets cuter each episode. Love him.[/COLOR]

[Andy]

[SIZE=1][COLOR=DarkRed]Hmmm....having seen episode's 1-4, i'm going to have to say that i'm pretty interesting in seeing how the rest of the anime pan's out. I will probably continue following this anime, considering the fact that I just like the characters and such. Although I am still trying to figure out why they are called the "Pumpkin Scissors".[/COLOR][/SIZE]

[Raiyuu]

[FONT=Trebuchet MS]I've officially stopped watching this show, thanks to episode seven. Seriously, an [spoiler]abandoned baby[/spoiler] episode? Is there no level of cliche to which this series will not stoop?[/FONT]

[Delta]

[COLOR=#656446]After watching 18, I feel that it is my duty to report to both the critics and the curious alike: [b]Pumpkin Scissors has officially gotten better.[/b]

Episodes 14-17 features the 908-HTT Arc where [color=#E0E0E0]the Corporal meets one of his comrades, Hans from unit 908. No 901 nostalgia, no dog bites and most definitely no tanks in this arc -- although by Fasterisk's drinking game, I say you'll down half a mug per episode for the government bureaucracy alone. Also, Alice does not pull her sword out anywhere in this arc (what she pulls out, though, are a couple of special surprises).[/color]

As I watched 14, [color=#E0E0E0]I got the feeling that the arc will not focus on our merry band of soldiers but rather on the people they're up against. It started building up the plot, piling on scenes and accounts from the military, the waterworks guards, 908-HTT's Hans [i]and[/i] the Kauplan Institute. When Kauplan appeared, I knew right then that the plot's going in the right direction: deeper. Add to that the appearance of the Silver Wheel organization and you're guaranteed that Pumpkin Scissors is going [i]somewhere[/i]. [/color]

The arc culminates in [color=#E0E0E0]the Section I/Section III standoff at episode 17, where Oland, Machs and Alice are pitted against the Claymore unit of Section I (they're introduced as the special attack unit of S-I but after seeing how they fight, I.just.don't.know.). Oland god-modes really well in this episode and Machs is out of his usual self - as he was in the previous episodes- but Alice, Alice is just SUPERB.[/color]

All this action in the 908 Arc leads one to ask: [spoiler]WHERE IN THE WORLD WAS THAT GOOD-LOOKIN', STREET-FIGHTIN' PUNK ORELD AT?[/spoiler][/COLOR]

[LazLong]

Yikes ... I've only seen the first episode but it looks like the rest carry through with many of the cliche's I noticed in the first episode.

Good drinking game ... not sure you can make it through a whole show with all those rules .. that would be lots of drining :)

Laz