Pumpkin Scissors

Title picture from the Netflix page.

Years ago, when I asked for manga recommendations, my buddy ZRoc on the Mabinogi World Wiki told me to try Pumpkin Scissors. Since I have a hard time getting into manga, it's taken me this long to look at that list.

In fact, I watched the anime first, and then I read the manga, so this will be a look at both.

Pumpkin Scissors is set in a fictional world loosely based on post-WWI Germany. The country is trying to recover from a devastating war. Many people are without work and starving, and they are becoming resentful towards the militaristic government. In an attempt to 'patch up' -- but not necessarily fix -- the mounting unrest, the army formed a propaganda unit known as State Section III. This unit's task is to help people recover from the ravages of war by sending out supplies, running soup kitchens, etc. -- small things to make the common people think that the government is doing something to help them.

State Section III, then, is kind of the laughingstock of the military. It's a soft job, and they aren't meant to do any real fighting, just these token 'war relief' efforts.

This unit is led by Lieutenant Alice Malvin, a very strong-minded woman.


She likes to shout and flourish her knife.

She often acts rashly, even when she herself is at risk -- in the opening story, she accosts bandits who are in a tank, for example.

She resents the bad reputation her unit has and takes its mission very seriously, hoping to make an actual difference in the world.



Alice names the unit "Pumpkin Scissors." Her men are 'scissors' that cut away at the evils leftover from the war, represented by a Jack-o-lantern.

In the beginning, under her command are two men, Oreldo and Martis.



Oreldo. This panel from the manga describes him perfectly.

Oreldo's a seedy character, a ladies man / paramour, a perv, and a thief. He joined the unit to have an easy life and three square meals a day. His skills with lockpicks have come in handy more than once.


Martis. I guess he is supposed to be the nerdy guy, what with the glasses.

Martis pretends to be the cool head in the group, but underneath he seems a bit angry and resentful (at least in the anime, not so much in the manga). He and Oreldo were friends growing up, though in the army they don't always get along. Basically, Martis is the one waiting in the car while Oreldo picks up girls.



There's also the captain, who gives Section III its missions. He's usually in the office, smoking a pipe, reading a newspaper, and drinking coffee, giving everyone the impression he's an easygoing guy.



They also have a courier dog, Mercury, who sends messages between people during missions, and an overly friendly perky girl who serves coffee all the time. I never caught her name. She's supposed to be comic relief.

That's the situation when the story starts. Soon, Randel Orland joins the team.



He's a big bear of a man (He quickly becomes nicknamed, "Big Guy"), and he seems to be a very simple, kind-hearted guy -- and he loves cats. However, it's obvious he's not an ordinary soldier when he can stand up to a tank with his single-action handgun.

It turns out he's from the 901-ATT war unit, which, upon investigation by Martis, doesn't actually exist. Randel's past is a mystery with the story's intent to slowly reveal the truth behind him. When all is said and done, he is basically the star, even more so than Alice. Having been a tool for murder during the war, he feels he's found his place in Pumpkin Scissors, but the challenges they face continue to increase.

Every time he uses his gun to protect his newfound friends, it's a reminder of what he is. And, after he joins the group, they seem to get into more and more dangerous missions...

Anime vs. Manga

The manga has a total of 15 (? it seems to vary from website to website) volumes. Only 5 volumes of the manga have been released in English. Of these, I've only read up to 4, which is where the anime ends anyway.

I'm not a big manga reader -- I find it hard to follow actions scenes and often skip them. In Pumpkin Scissors, the action scenes are relatively short so I liked that. I mean, if you want long, overly-drawn-out action scenes, read Fairy Tail or something =v

The anime follows the manga fairly well, at least up to a point. There are some episodes of the anime that have no source in the manga. If I were to rewatch the anime -- which is rather unlikely considering many factors I'll go into later -- I'd skip these episodes since they have no bearing on the overall story.

Basic episode list & description; the episodes that are not part of the manga are italicized:
1. The Invisible 9 - the introduction, Randel joins
2. War Relief Unit - a crazy noblemen is firing at his own people with a tank
3. For That is a Precious Thing - Alice must convince reluctant villagers to help build a railroad tunnel
4. The Cracked Portrait - Martis investigates Randel's old unit, the 901-ATT
5. Shallow-minded Men - cont'd
6. A Fruitful Time - Alice & co. work to find the mother of an abandoned baby*
7. The One Who Leads and the One Who Follows - introduces Alice's fiance**
8. Burn in the Snowfields - SSIII has to deliver a package through snow and they get attacked by bandits
9. The Woman in the Morning Mist - Oreldo tries to help a 'lady of negotiable affection' who seems to have no zest for life
10. Pumpkins and Scissors - the history of the Pumpkin Scissors***
11. The Quiet Quickening - Alice is taken hostage by a woman who wants to expose military secrets on the Invisible 9****
12. Unseen Pain - cont'd
13. Crude but Elegant - Martis acts as bodyguard to a Lodelian princess*****
14. The Flame Still Burns - the waterworks company is trafficking drugs underground and SSIII investigates
15. Decisions Run Astray - cont'd
16. The One Who Slashes - cont'd
17. The Darkness That Cannot be Saved - cont'd
18. A Small Military Power - overly perky girl tries to cheer up the unit after the last mission******
19. A Sweet Trap - Alice has to attend a fancy ball, but trouble soon comes in the form of a peasant revolt
20-24. are cont'd from 19

* The abandoned baby incident was in the manga but to a much lesser extent. The anime somehow took the idea and made an entire episode about it.

** In the manga, Alice's fiance isn't mentioned at all until the fancy ball storyline. In the anime, they bring it up real fast and make a big deal of it. Also, in the anime, Alice has two noblemen vying for her affection: Shultz and Lionel. Shultz is not in the manga.

*** In the anime, overly perky girl was the first member of Pumpkin Scissors, and then Oreldo joined, and then Oreldo convinced Martis to join. Alice actually joined much later. Because Alice joined last, the anime invented a backstory in which she had to earn Martis's trust as the leader. In the manga, Alice and the captain were there first, or so it seemed to me, and this backstory is not present. It's possible this happens in a later volume of the manga.

**** I thought this storyline was very important because it brings the Invisible 9 -- the secret government experiments during the war to create super soldiers -- to Alice's attention. Imagine my surprise when I found out that it wasn't in the manga!

***** Apparently this storyline happens in volume 5, which I did not read.

****** Though this happens in the manga, it didn't add all that much to the story and so I'd skip it if I were watching the series again. ...Maybe I just don't like the overly perky girl =v

Other differences:

In the manga, Kaplan seemed a heck of a lot more important.



As far as I can tell, Kaplan is the scientist involved in creating and maintaining the Invisible 9 soldiers. When Randel gets hurt and ends in the hospital, it's Kauplan who comes to treat his injuries. She was only seen in one or two episodes and her importance felt much less apparent in the anime.

During the waterworks arc there's this guy with a mask, and his mask is 100% more creepy in the manga. Trust me.

That's about all I can think of. Oh, some arcs are ordered a little differently but it plays out the same in the end.

Worth a look?

The anime:

Is it bad that I have to say... eh... maybe...?

The anime's problem is that the ending is long, drawn out, and doesn't go anywhere.

The society of the Silver Wheel that was mentioned many few times? Forget about it, you'll never get an explanation. Further details on the Invisible 9? Forget about it. Who is Kauplan and her creepy my-eyes-are-always-closed assistant girl? Forget about 'em. Oh, and the romance aspect was, of course, also unresolved.

The ending is Alice in a four-episode-long duel. Enough said! I mean, it was nice to see her fighting but I think it could have been resolved in fewer episodes.

The action episodes are a bit formulaic, too. The unit gets into trouble, and Randel saves the day almost every time.



I did like how the anime portrayed the words "Toten Sie!" that flash through Randel's head when he's about to go into his berserk mode.

If you intend to watch the anime, be prepared for an abrupt, sub-par ending. They expected a second season that they did not get. It's not as bad as Star Ocean EX, but it's close.

In fact, I'd recommend only watching the first two or three episodes and then going to the manga after that.

The manga:

The manga's problem is that not a lot of it was translated into English, and it seems to have been dropped.

So, just like the anime, there won't be an ending for us English-speakers. There doesn't seem to be any scanlation groups for it, either.

Knowing this, whether it's worth it or not is really up to you.