Pumpkin Scissors brings two of my favorite things together. 1: Pumpkins. 2: Scissors. Actually, this combination is about as bad as Nuts & Gum. But how does the anime fare?

So Pumpkin Scissors takes place three years after the ceasefire of a huge war. Since there’s so many soldiers that have been trained to fight, and no war to use their skills, the soldiers resorted to becoming thugs. It’s the Pumpkin Scissors’ job to take out these bullies and keep peace in the country.

The first thing I thought about when I heard about the plot is how this relates to my Political Science class I’m taking. We were studying how privateers eventually became pirates after the war had ended. And how terrorists are sort of related, except not really. Anyway, getting back to the anime review…

Oland is an ex-soldier who’s living off of pure asparagus. This town is also home to a bunch of renegade tank thugs codenamed Grauwolf. Luckily for the town, Pumpkin Scissors is on the case! When Alice and friends show up, they rush into town and demand that the tank guys stop terrorizing it. The tank guys respond by shooting a blank into the town. But it’s not really a blank, it’s a chemical round!

The good news is that there’s an antidote. The Pumpkin Scissors and Oland team up to beat the Grauwolf gang! Apparently, Oland is from the special anti-tank division (how convenient!) and has a blue lantern that makes him go into berserk super saiyan mode… Oland makes short order of the tank and is invited to join the Pumpkin Scissors brigade!

So this anime appears to be your average special forces war story. I’m guessing there’ll be a few episodes that are mission by mission, and then a final arc leading up to some grand finale. The characters seem interesting, though Oland looks like he’ll be the generic tough guy with a mysterious past. I like Alice, and the meganekko onna no ko with the dog is pretty cute too.

The animation quality is good, though I did notice the occasional bad CG with the tank. It’s done by Gonzo, I believe, so good animation is to be expected.

The OP reminds me of a .hack OP or something. I’m not too big of a fan. The ED is really really cute. Even the ED sequence with the dog delivering his message and checking out a French poodle is cute! It’s pretty awesome.

Download the OP: “Aoki Flamme” by Yoko Takahashi
Download the ED: “Mercury Go” by Kana Ueda & Yukai na Nakama-tachi

I really don’t have much time to watch anime this semester, so I’ll probably stick with the obvious wins. Pumpkin Scissors seems like a fairly solid anime, but there’s nothing that makes it seem more than above average.