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Now in Japan
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Monday, 28 May 2007 17:00 |
 Alice's crusade to improve the lot of the Empire's citizens continues with a few more reconstruction missions for the Pumpkin Scissors - but some are beginning to have doubts about Randels's past and whether his presence is a good thing for the unit or not, while someone's gotten their hands on technology that shouldn't even exist yet...
3 - For That is a Precious Thing
Alice's sisters have returned home, and in common with her father, they're just a bit frustrated by her insistence on playing "army games" - and she's equally frustrated by their refusal to accept that she's doing what she feels is right. When her father makes a barbed comment about how she can hardly say to be working for the good of the Empire, commoners and all, when she's quite happy to live the life of a noble, it's enough to persuade Alice that maybe it's time she experienced how the other half live. Meanwhile, the Pumpkin Scissors are assigned to take charge of the repair of a collapsed railway tunnel - Alice plans to hire labourers from a nearby village to do the work, but thanks to their past experience with the military, they're far from eager to co-operate...
4 - The Deteriorating Portrait
The tank that the Scissors confiscated from Viscount Wolkins has thrown up a little surprise: some of the technology used in it is still in the experimental stage, and certainly shouldn't have been able to make its way into a noble's personal tank. With Wolcott being in no shape to answer questions about where he got the tank or technology from, Alice and the Pumpkin Scissors are assigned to look into the matter. Meanwhile, some questions are being asked about Randel - any one man capable of disabling or destroying a 10-ton tank must have something unusual about him, so some in the military aren't buying his outwardly friendly and relaxed image. They may have a point, too...
5 - The Shallow-Minded Men
Randel ends up in the doghouse with Alice after aggravating his injuries by sneaking out of hospital to feed his cats - end result being an extended stay in the hospital. He's not exactly in the good books of the hospital staff, either, who have labelled him a delinquent patient. His absence gives Machs a chance to investigate the 901ATT further, and Oreld - having spotted Machs' behaving strangely around Randel - soon gets involved himself. Their snooping leads back to the Imperial Science Institute (the Kauplan Institute), who had apparently pushed for Randel's assignment to the Scissors. Just what was their involvement with Randal and the 901ATT? Perhaps the best person to ask would be the big man himself...
Three episodes, and three distinct plotlines for Pumpkin Scissors to get its teeth into. The first is fairly straightforward, as Alice begins to wake up to the fact that life as a noble doesn't really give you a true reflection of what life is like for the country's commoners. For all her idealism, she's been living in an ivory tower and doesn't really understand what it means to live without the luxuries that her rank gives her - but she's slowly beginning to learn. That's also going to bring her into the knowledge that it's the nobles that are behind a lot of the suffering that the lower classes are having to deal with, so I wonder how she'll deal with that...
Storyline number two revolves around the technology found in Viscount Wolcott's tank, and asks more questions than it answers: where did Wolcott get the technology from? Why is someone so keen to destroy any trace of it? If Wolcott's got his hands on it, who else has it and are they working for or against the Empire? Some of that you can figure out yourself (you just know it's not good guys behind it), but there's still a lot to uncover.
The third line is Randel himself, who's obviously been on the receiving end of some special treatment by Muse Kauplan and her team at the Institute, and judging by one or two rather surreal scenes at the beginning of episode 5, you can't help but think the side effects will turn out to be a Bad Thing™. Given the secrecy surrounding the 901ATT, and the way Randel behaves when he goes into action, it's clear there's been some experimentation going on with him that's left his mental state some way short of stable, at least when he's provoked. The why's and how's are more issues still to be addressed.
In amongst all the mystery, there's some good humour as well - most notably a few scenes involving the nurse's efforts to find a jar large enough for Randel to use for a urine sample (making you wonder exactly what Kauplan has enhanced for him), but there are a few other snigger-worthy moments as well that help to lighten the tone after all the darker revelations have been done with.
Pumpkin Scissors isn't lining up to become anything particuarly special, unless it really throws a loop somewhere down the line, but it's competently done and is certainly enjoyable enough to keep the interest. There are better shows out there, but this is still worth a look. |
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