Headscratchers / Pumpkin Scissors

• Just how old is Randel, anyway?
  • I'd guess about late 20s, early 30s.
  • I'd give him mid-thirties. Considering how much he's presumably had to go through, training-wise and experiment-wise, to become an ATT, and then be deployed in the lengthy war, and then wander around during Reparation for a while before meeting Alice, he's probably at least in his thirties.
  • Well considering the things they probably pumped inside him, it is possible that he is younger than he looks. Also, if you try to imagine him without the scars, he isn't that old. I'd give him mid-20s.
    • It's also explicitly stated that Hans is nineteen when the series starts. Given anime and manga's penchant for Improbable Age, it's not too far fetched to assume Oland is younger than he looks.
    • On the other end of the scale: With everything they pumped him up with, he could also be *older* thank he looks because the physical enhancements reset the cell-death timer.
  • Come to think of it, how old are Oreldo, Stecchin, and Machs? Stecchin looks like she should still be a freshman in high school or something. Which leads to another question...
• Is Stecchin possibly Hunk's granddaughter?
• The flamethrower. Just the design alone bugs me. Who on earth designs a weapon system like that? It makes no practical sense to construct a weapon that burns the soldier along with the enemy! And yes, I am taking into account Cut Lex Luthor a Check here. I just don't get their reasoning behind a ridiculous weapon.
  • I always took it as the designers not having the technology available to design a flamethrower that didn't burn the wielder. Remember, the idea of self-loading ammunition is brand new. Also, the R&D woman pretty much said that they couldn't find a way to keep the wielders from getting burned, which was why the design was scrapped—it was too horrible for allies and enemies alike.
  • Unlike real-world flamethrowers, these appear to literally spread burning fuel inches from the end of the wand. Radiated heat's a bitch.
• So is the series over now, or are they planning more?
  • Well, with Studio Gonzo now pretty much dead in the water, I'd say it's pretty unlikely, although I guess there might be a slim possibility of AIC putting together a second season like what they're doing with Strike Witches. Although they obviously set it up for a second season, my guess is that there's probably nothing in the works, at least now.
    • And the next manga chapter? Or did that die too?
    • The Manga is still going on; it just hasn't been translated into English yet.
    • They've translated up until Volume 8 Chapter 2.
• Why, in God's great name, did Kauplan decide to toss out that burn cream formula when it could be used to save peoples lives?
  • Because she didn't care about anyone who wasn't one of "her" supersoldiers. To her, only they are important.
    • It's been a while since I've read or watched the series, but I thought it was because there was no burn cream formula. It was some sort of anaesthetic so the soldiers didn't notice that they were slowly burning to death...or am I thinking of something completely different?
    • Actually, the burn cream formula seems to have been authentic, just finished too late to be put to any use she would consider worthwhile. The anaesthetic seems to have been a makeshift, to hold until they got the real thing developed. Having your flamethrower troops be unable to take off their suits is a serious problem, especially if they'd been a bit less eager to get out of their suits. Can you say 'Roaring Rampage of Revenge'?
• Just who the hell cuts Halloween pumpkins with scissors? Is this some Japanese thing?
  • The pumpkin and the will-o-the-wisp go pretty well with each other. (A will-o-the-wisp inside a pumpkin = Jack-o-lantern...) Also look at the design, the scissors are placed below the pumpkin, like to cut it from it's (imaginary?) throat. On top of that the traditional Irish Jack-o-lanterns look rather frightening too, compared to the American version. Take a look here◊. Might be fridge brilliance -or just me hallucinating - but a pair of scissors is a pretty dangerous thing, despite not being made as a weapon / for combat, just like the "Public Relations Section 3 - Pumpkin Scissors".
• I get that they're a "public relations stunt," but why the hell are the members of Pumpkin Scissors constantly sent into the field completely unarmed? The only members who regularly carry any form of weapons are the guy who brought his anti-tank pistol from home, and the Lady of War who brought her "sword" (I mean, other than the impractically huge one, it's more of a big knife) from home too. Even though nearly all of the members of the unit are actually officers, none are even carrying a sidearm most of the time. The fact that they ever survive missions is generally 75% luck, 25% Randel. Though admittedly, even on the very rare occasions anyone thinks to arm an intelligence unit that constantly gets shot at, it's rare that they ever fire a single shot in their defense.
  • Apparently,the Imperial Army has a pretty big corruption issue, and Section 3 was supposed to be PR stunt; a way for the Army to pretend they are serious about reconstructing the Empire. It's only thanks to Alice that the unit could overstep its original purpose,and her family connections means that there's no overt way to quash or disband her unit without an epic fight. As a result, less friendly brass will routinely send them on supposedly "quiet" ops and avoid sending them back-up in order to get them killed.