Pumpkin Scissors is a very good anime series, even if the story spends too much time away from the main storyline. The characters' dialogue is fantastic, raising the tension through episodes five to 12.
As mentioned previously, Pumpkin Scissors, the third section of the Imperial Army State of the Royal Empire, is devoted to war relief. The first volume focused on Pumpkin Scissors' new recruit, the tall, unstoppable Randel Oland. While the Pumpkin Scissors is investigating the Invisible 9, the anti-tank regiment which Oland fought in, they are also fighting in side missions. The second and third volumes of the series follow these side stories.
After Oland recovered in the hospital, he found a baby dropped off by the Imperial Army's headquarters. Oland brings the baby to Pumpkin Scissors' office, and they spent the episode searching for the mother. The group also searched for missing supplies while Alice went out with her fiancee. Warrant Officer Oreldo also helped a prostitute who is still longing for her husband, who died in battle.
The last two episodes of volume three were devoted to Pumpkin Scissors continuing investigation into the Invisible 9. The Pumpkin Scissors leader, Second Lieutenant Alice, was kidnapped by a woman, who claimed that her brother was killed for writing a report revealing that the army was experimenting on the Invisible 9 soldiers, who destroyed her hometown. Unfortunately, her two comrades knocked her out to sell her report to a journalist. Assassins soon shot the journalist and the woman's two comrades, and the newspaper publishers lost the report. Oddly enough, the man who invented tanks was also killed. The episode ends with Alice's fiancee, Lionel Taylor, secretly talking with a stranger in a dark room about the recent events, as if they were plotting something.
Although the series spent lots of time with side stories, the dialogue is very good in this series. Unlike the war anime series "Fullmetal Alchemist," this series is heavily reliant on dialogue and hilarious mishaps. For example, in episode eight, the regiment was stuck in an abandoned lodge after their truck was attacked by snowboarding bandits. In a freezing lodge in the winter, a fire in the lodge would attract the bandits' attention, so Oreldo made the embarassing suggestion to Oland that one of them could sleep in the same blanket as Alice to stay warm.
However, the last two episodes revealed that the military is really doing a lot to hide their secrets. In the middle of searching for the report on Invisible 9, Alice and Oland are attacked by an assassin with two swords. Although it's really weird to have an assassin dressed like an Englishman who fights like a ninja, it really proves how much the Imperial State Army wants to hide their scientific experimentation on soldiers.
"Pumpkin Scissors" has a very good story going for it right now. Although the series gets a little sidetracked from the main story, the dialogue for the series is excellent. Hopefully, the series will continue with more revelations to come.
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