neko's thinkbox

Phew. If I started ranting about the dorm’s proxy server I am locked behind right now, I wouldn’t be able to stop before dawn. Nothing besides port 80 HTTP traffic would work. This whole piece of junk is seriously trying my patience to a point where I don’t hold back anymore and get really consequent. Had some serious discussions with some higher-ups, and ta-da, the admin comes out of the blue and asks us guys here what domains/ports he should add to his ingenuous whitelist. Should be in effect by next week. Is this the light at the end of the tunnel? Time will tell.

Anyway, on to more interesting things. So—– No, this week’s Pumpkin Scissors episode isn’t as funny as the picture above. But as you can see, you always need an amusing intermission to distract from serious business once in a while. Thanks Stekkin! Because this episode is serious business, which is not about to end soon. Also, I like Alice even more now.

/me slices a carrot.

Click here to proceed to the thinkbox.

Episode Summary – #16: The Slashing One 「斬り裂き者」

The night of the transaction between Mione and the mysterious emissary. An anxious Mione mumbles the words “We are all under the Silver Wheel”, but doesn’t seem to earn much sympathy. Rather than paying attention to that apologetic dotard, the silver-haired masked man walks past him and deplores that Hans is doing a boring job. The 908 soldier expresses his thanks towards that man, which raises Mione’s jealousy – he urges to get the business done as soon as possible and brandishes the official documents required in exchange for the “Himmel” drug.

The envoy examines the documents, then puts them in his jacket and tosses the briefcase with the drugs at Mione. He tells the old man to continue the distribution of the drug as usual and orders Hans to continue protecting Mione before leaving. As he walks away, Mione pulls out a gun and shoots him in the back, but it doesn’t seem like he hit his target.

On a road not too far away, Alice seems to have heard that same gun shot. Orland sitting in the back of the army car is still sulking about Alice’s refusal to let him handle Hans. Alice sighs. Orland sighs. Machs sighs. Alice sighs again. And then she finally capitulates with an “All right, do as you like!”, but she still remains unsure if Orland really will not hesitate to shoot at Hans once again.

Back to the mansion hall. The masked emissary turns around and walks towards Mione, who yells at him not to come closer. The lights go on, and a dozen guards rush into the hall and point their weapons at the enemy. Mione, confident of victory, reveals that he wanted to become the head of the Silver Wheel Society (or organization). The guards around them are getting impatient and want to kill the emissary; they even doubt if Hans is not an enemy himself, but Mione holds them back saying that he will only listen to his words.

Far from it; it soon turns out that Hans is actually prioritizing the masked man’s words over Mione’s, and as if to prove Mione’s inferiority, the emissary takes out two knifes tied on a rope in a blink of an eye and throws them around – almost killing all of the guards with that single blow. The tables have now turned. Mione breaks down, bursting into tears and begging on his knees for forgiveness. The anonymous messenger in response agrees to meet again in a two week’s time and prepares to leave, but gets stopped once again. Outside, a roaring noise is getting louder and nearer.

Meanwhile, in Section III’s office, Captain Hunks is asking Metz if he hasn’t gotten any official documents from his boss. Metz hands him a handbook, which Hunks promptly browses with interest, but he suddenly cringes. At the same time, Oreld enters the office, with many lipstick marks on his face. Stekkin of course isn’t pleased at all by such decadence and starts complaining in the background. Oreld simply ignores her and reports to Hunks on what he found out during his “encounter” with that acquaintance of his in Section I: the Claymore I Violence Suppression troops have been dispatched.

An explosion. The said Claymore I troops are invading Mione’s mansion, tanks breaking through the walls, soldiers breaching through doors and windows. While Mione’s guards are being shot on sight, the masked man kills a few soldiers and unhurriedly manages to escape. Hans also gets to burn some soldiers down without problems, but tells Mione to stand because he can feel that “they” are coming.

Outside, Alice and the rest have arrived at Mione’s mansion. They are intercepted by Section I’s troops who clearly recognize them, but still command them not to go any further inside. Well, you should already know our stubborn Alice, so it is no wonder that she orders Machs to get through. The ignored soldiers immediately report to the army HQ that the Pumpkin Scissors squad has broken through their defenses.

As soon as they arrive inside the mansion hall, Orland directly sets off to search for Hans, who escaped from the place, and Alice tells Machs to rejoin him while she is about to face the Claymore I soldiers, alone, with her very long black bag she had been carrying all along. Machs follows her orders and drives back to the entrance where he crashes the car to block the entrance so that reinforcements cannot penetrate the hall that easily. Remaining inside, Alice knocks out some soldiers with her huge bag, then unzips the bag to reveal a long double-edged sword. With a cool move, she defies her enemies with the same words you always hear in the episode previews: “Come at me if you have the courage!” (or if you’re not scared, whichever sounds best)

Machs finally rejoins Orland, who is straying through some kind of underground facility, searching for Mione and the 908 soldier. Orland is very concerned about Alice who is now fighting alone against the Claymore I soldiers, but Machs reassures him; Alice definitely is not to be underestimated, despite her looks. Although Major Connery is sending reinforcements which will arrive at the mansion about one hour later, Alice would still be fine by herself if Machs and Orland came back by then. It all depends on how quickly they can deal with Hans and Mione.
On the surface, Alice goes on a rampage and slices through one soldier after another, but she already looks worn out…

Back to army HQ, Oreld returns to Hunks’ office to report on Section I’s reinforcement dispatching. In response to that, Hunks decides to talk things over with Connery.
In the infirmary, Kauplan arrives with a case containing some private parts of Section I’s secret investigation squad, while speculating on which of either 901 or 908’s corpses she will be able to gather some samples the next day…

Thinkbox mode: on

So things are finally getting serious. Who would have thought, Alice wielding such an XBOXPS3 hueg sword? She’s as awesome as Darth Maul in Star Wars Ep 1!!… okay she’s definitely cooler than that guy, and… so lovely XD

This episode somehow made me a bit angry as well. I guess that pointing guns at someone is serious matter, isn’t it? This is war, right? Remember that one part where the guards stand all around Mione, Hans and that masked guy? After most of the guards were killed, I shook my heard and asked myself, “Why don’t those idiots simply pull the trigger and kill that guy as he is about to make his move??”

Another example. Claymore I troops are entering the mansion hall, killing the remaining guards on sight. So, why do they only notice that masked guy only later? Hell, his disguise couldn’t be any brighter than white, so why do those dimwits approach him like “Oh hi I upgraded your RAM” and get killed? On top of that, nothing happens even after two soldiers were shot!!! No seriously that’s something I don’t really understand. But then again, if the bad guy was to die first then it would be pointless to continue the story. Oh, I forgot. And in the end, Alice does not fight against rifles… Was the enemy THAT considerate? Geez. That’s anime for you, huh.

Nevertheless, I repeat: Alice is awesome. Win and Gold, has a sward, wins the internets. Too bad she still doesn’t get much screen time, but I hope she will get much more in the next episodes. Speaking of which, she still does kick ass in next episode’s preview. Yay ^^ But, Orland doesn’t look very well… I think he’s on fire. (Yes, the pun was intended.)
See ya next time!
~neko