Pumpkin Scissors – The End
25 December 2007
I finally got around to finishing Pumpkin Scissors. I was fairly impressed with how the series turned out, especially because even the slightest mention of Gonzo has me shuddering, see Last Exile. The plot itself was reason enough for me to watch the show. Anti-tank troopers? Tanks that amusingly resemble German Panzers? Guns that amusingly resemble Garands? A rag tag war relief unit out to salvage the Empire from poverty and turmoil? And! A possible romance between a corporal with a hidden past and a second lieutenant with noble blood? How much more can I ask for?! It’s like Fullmetal Alchemist without the alchemists, more bullets and a better, even more stubborn blonde protagonist!
The show, to say the least, had personality. In this sea of boring, recycled plot lines and cliche characters, Pumpkin Scissors shimmered like a rare jewel. It wasn’t afraid to say what it wanted. Without resorting to any subtle metaphors or symbolism or any of that, it kind of just shoved it all right in your face. You need talent to miss Pumpkin Scissors’ message. It was like a giant statement against war, against poverty, against corruption, against all the evil and all the unfairness in world. And, yes, there is a certain naivety in such simple beliefs, but at the same time the world needs excessive naivety. According to Alice L. Malvin, the leader of the Pumpkin Scissors unit, the meaning behind the seemingly ridiculous name is that all the corruption and evil in the world is a pumpkin and only a tough pair of scissors would be able to penetrate the skin. And the series did just that.
I found the ending to be quite satisfying, Alice falling into the Corporal’s arms, Section III continuing it’s mission and all (they call him Corporal or Big Guy so much that it’s hard for me to call him Orlando), despite the many loose plot lines and unresolved mysteries. The show never truly addressed the top secret nine-oh-something units. Even when it did, they were only minor mentions, a peek here and there. I was hoping they’d reveal more about the Corporal’s past, like what happened with Hans from the 908th Flamethrower unit. I was hoping to see what horrible Army experiments were behind the Corporal’s enormous size and that lantern of his, especially since the opening hinted at it so much. It felt like the show ended just as the major plot line was beginning. The whole Marquis Hoost and the Silver Wheel thing was just taking off when the show ended. Perhaps they had intended for a second season, twenty four episodes felt too short.
In all honesty, I loved pretty much every aspect of the show, good or bad. Corporal Orlando, the big guy, the anti-tank trooper with a heart of gold, he had me at hello. He’s got to be one of the most interesting characters I’ve encountered. On one hand, he’s this amazing, gigantic, brutish, Leviathan. He takes out tanks single-handedly! He’s like Frankenstein, with all the scars and that eerie blue lantern and those bulging, crazed eyes and everything. But, he’s shy and he’s timid and he’s quiet, and he feeds kitties under the bridge! How he struggles to deal with his own identity, his own being, how much pain he has balled up in that enormous heart of his, how warm his smile is, it’s maddening, it’s maddening! The scene where he comes back to the bridge with food for the kittens, and they’re afraid of him, afraid of the smell of blood, it breaks my heart. Where do such selfless characters come from? Then you have Alice L. Malvin and the rest of Section III. They’re all great characters in their own right.
I guess what I’m saying is that the show had a lot of heart, a lot of personality and a lot of heart. Looking back at the shows I’ve watched, the shows I’m watching, the shows I’ve liked and shows I’ve felt were lacking, I guess what I fall is a big heart, that strange undertone of warmth that not a lot of shows carry. Since it’s Christmas, it’s like the moment where the Grinch’s heart grows three times its size! Stuff that makes you feel good when you walk away, and it doesn’t even have to be out of pure joy, this feeling, it just has to be grand, swinging on the borderline of epic. I can’t say that it’s a rare feeling, certain parts of Naruto has the same affect on me, but it’s what brings me back time and time again.
I picked up a mag from the conbini today and found that pumpkin scissors manga is still being serialized.