Geekatana Anime Review: Pumpkin Scissors

Pumpkin Scissor is an anime that despite the name has nothing to do with pumpkin and scissors. It's an anime produced by Gonzo that aired back in 2006. If you had Animax around that year you might have the off chance of seeing this being aired as I did.  This anime probably went under the radar for a lot of people since 2006 was also the year Black Lagoon, Code Geass, Gintama and Haruhi was also released.

This was one of those anime that had potential but due to one reason or another never got the recognition or goal it set out to achieve. For the purpose of this review I'll probably touch on a few spoiler territory for this review. But hopefully not too much.

Set in a fictional European like Country the story starts three years after the great war between the Royal Empire and the Republic of Frost. Everywhere you go people are still plague by starvation, pestilence, and former soldiers turning into banditry to survive. To aid in the relief efforts, the Empire created the Intelligent Army State Section III, better known as the Pumpkin Scissor.

The series has a lot of potential specially when you view its excellent anime opening this series has. Sadly the series concentrate more on the relief efforts of the Pumpkin Scissor group that is giving food and medicine to war town section to another.

Sadly when the story dips into war conspiracy but drops the idea halfway and moves into the next mystery they come across. The anime opening teased of the Invisible Nine which was set up as this super soldier research project which was partly mentioned here and there but never fully developed in the series. In fact a lot of the episode feel force and all over the place.

Also of all the characters in the show only the tomboyish princess Alice Melvin is the only one that has a fully developed story arc. She also has one of the best and more believable action scenes there is...if you are a fan of double edge blades you will definitely love her. Randall was supposed to be another main lead and is more prominent in the anime opening but he feels so generic and his specialty tends to be a one trick pony ....effective that one trick is.

Visually the show is impressive and the worlds building through its visuals is one of the Gonzo Studios high points. Regrettably it falls on the story aspect with this one that its like they forgot what they were going for and hired new writers and sweep the conspiracy that made the show interesting under the rug. The music is decent specially when Randall turns on his old flashlight and go super soldier mode.

Folks who will see this will no doubt draw comparison to existing characters and series. There is simply no going around it as the dynamic between Alice and Randall has been done many times over. Like Randall is pretty much the combination of Captain America and Frankenstein.

If anything else this series needs at least another season to tie the loose ends. They definitely teased a second season sadly due to the state Gonzo is now we won't be getting another one which is sad since this was slowly getting really good too.

Pumpkin Scissor despite its simple story and shortcoming and some inconsistency it is surprisingly enjoyable series. It's not going to win any awards and failed to deliver what it originally promised but it's still a fun and enjoyable series simply for the visuals. It's definitely worth at least a single viewing from beginning to end.