Monday, January 14, 2008

Pumpkin Scissors Volume 1

Overall Rating: B
Synopsis: Pumpkin Scissors is a military drama manga with a healthy dose of comedy created by Ryoutarou Iwanaga. The series is set in a fictional world, similar to Western Europe that does not have wireless communication or automatic weapons. The manga is set five years after the end of the war between the Royal Empire and the Republic of the Frost. Starvation, pestilence, and soldiers who have turned into bandits plague the countryside, and in response the military has created "Imperial Army State Section III" also known as "Pumpkin Scissors" to aid in the war relief effort.

Led by a member of one of the noble families, 2nd Lieutenant Alice L. Malvin, the group is a rag tag team with little funding and even less respect. Some consider the group a waste of resources, and others consider them a propaganda tool for the military, but the team itself seems to take the matter seriously (at least sometimes). Things start to change when they meet Corporal Randel Oland, a veteran of the mysterious 901 ATT. The infamous Gespenst Jäger (Ghost Hunter) squad who single-handedly take down tanks. These dudes are crazy. In the first volume, we meet everyone and see some examples of what the Pumpkin Scissors are working to fix.


I won't lie, I read Pumpkin Scissors because of the name. It sounded weird and interesting so I checked it out. What I got was a world that intrigued me, but not quite enough to really draw me in yet. I'm definitely interested in finding out more about the Invisible 9 (secret platoons of which the Gespenst Jäger is one), and I like Alice a lot, but there isn't a concrete plot yet, and the other characters don't do much for me. Hopefully, Volume 2 will build on this and I'll get drawn in.

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