skygiants | (no subject)

jothra is evil. Why is this? Because she has cruelly hooked me on an ongoing manga that has only five volumes out of twelve published in English, no scanlations anywhere online, and no promise of further volumes until October at the very earliest. ;_; JOOOOOOOOO! *shakes tiny fist*

I've seen Pumpkin Scissors compared to Fullmetal Alchemist multiple times, and though the actual stories are very different it's pretty easy to see why. The main story of Pumpkin Scissors picks up three years after a cease-fire has ended a long and brutal war between the Empire and the Republic, and focuses on the inevitable problems that happen when towns and farmlands have been destroyed by constant warfare, large numbers of former soldiers are wandering around unemployed, and the whole country is in the middle of a serious economic depression - and that's without factoring in an easily-abused oligarchical class system and an apparently super-sinister military. Our protagonists are Imperial Army State Section III, an army unit that's dedicated to war relief and reconstruction. Most people (including the rest of the army) see them as pretty much a useless token effort shuffled together for the sake of propaganda, but the second lieutenant in charge of the unit is determined to prove that RECONSTRUCTION IS SRS BSNS and make a significant difference.

I think the focus on reconstruction and the aftermath of war, rather than on dramatic battles, is really interesting; I also like the characters, and, as this is a visual canon (with an anime adaptation) that means mini-picspam time!

Our Heroine Alice Malvin is the fresh-out-of-officer-school second lieutenant in charge of the unit. She's of high birth, dedicated to the ideals of ~nobility~ and ~justice~, constantly combat-ready, and fierce, or in other words kind of like the tiny lovechild of Tamaki Suoh and Olivier Mira Armstrong. Strongest points: determination to protect the helpless, inspirational speeches, and ability to hold off twenty soldiers with a enormous cavalry sword. While on foot. Weakest points: lack of ability to realize that charging into action with a cavalry sword on foot is not always the best tactical option; lack of ability to realize that, however fond you are of your metaphor, 'Pumpkin Scissors' is kind of a ridiculous name for a military unit. (A plus for the manga: I have rarely seen women play this role in a story, and I approve!)

Alice also has two equally fierce older sisters who spend most of their time onscreen facepalming at her, trying to shove her into dresses, and stomping in between her and angry mobs. I kind of love them.

The other main protagonist, Corporal Randel Oland is a scientifically modified human weapon of a soldier who served in the war as part of a top-secret unit that was basically composed of one-man anti-tank missiles. (All of the top-secret units are kind of walking human rights violations. Let's not even talk about the flamethrower unit, AUGH.) After the war, he's been kind of tooling around being huge and homeless until he meets Alice and remembers that idealism exists, and he promptly gets even more SUPER EXCITED about war relief and reconstruction than anyone else. I love Oland because, given his background, he could so easily have been super manpainy, and instead he is just an enormous sweetheart. I mean, he has obviously serious (and justifiable) psychological damage and emotional trauma from his experiences, but he spends most of his time lumbering around after Alice with kittens hanging off his head and hero-worship in his eyes. (Except when he goes crazy and kills tanks.)

The rest of the unit: Oreldo, the blonde guy, is the slacker playboy with a heart of gold; Machs, the guy with the glasses, is the smart one who is starting to investigate some of the army's creepier secrets. They are BFF, and together they won my heart when Oreldo, annoyed about Machs' secret research, started announcing all of Machs' most embarrassing secrets from when they were seven years old to the whole library. Stecchin, the tiny one in front, is the genki girl paper-pusher who choreographs cheer routines as a pick-me-up her coworkers, and canonically decided to join the intelligence division because of her experiences in the army marching band. The messenger dog used to be a corporal, but he got demoted. :(

The manga kind of whiplashes between comedy and seriousness and full-on nightmare fuel; as it happens, that is a whiplash I thoroughly enjoy. All of the army conspiracies and evil scientific experiments and rising class tension also seem to be developing into a plot that is really interesting, and that I would LIKE to know more about but probably will not be able to FOR YEARS. Damn you again, lack of translations! (I will totally be watching the anime, but I think it only covers the parts I have already read. ;_;)

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