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Impressions:

As everyone has already pointed out, the animation quality has dropped a little. I also thought there were some fluctuations in the way the characters were drawn. Inconsistencies in artwork such as that really gets to me, but thankfully it was only a little this episode. Let’s hope Pumpkin Scissors doesn’t take the same downhill path that NHK ni Youkoso did in terms of quality. I enjoyed the episode surprisingly more than usual for an episode with degrading quality. I really liked seeing more of Alice and getting further insights to her past. Although we all know the type of person she is, I thought she needed an episode to establish this. This episode also served the purpose of depicting Alice maturing fast (mentally XD). We also see her blush a lot, which I don’t think suits her. In fact, I don’t think any form of romance goes well with the style of the series, though I do believe something’s going to happen between Orlando and her.

The episode was much more relaxed with no real action. The pacing was slower than usual, but once again the slowness of the episode allowed for a lot of character development. Alice’s dad even talks about her arranged marriage, which most likely means her future husband has been chosen, or maybe they’re already engaged (as in, the marriage will be soon). Alice will most likely reject the marriage if it does happen for the sake of her unit and job. Orlando also got a cool line this episode, and that was comparing the events in the episode to doctors and patients. The thing is, the feisty and rebellious Alice listened to his words right away, while she usually refuses to listen to anyone. Then again, Orlando is the only one who says intelligent things in the Pumpkin Scissors unit. Orlando will probably be Alice’s guide and tudor for life skills. He’ll also be some competition to Alice’s future (supposed) husband…wait, is that him in the preview!?

Plot Outline:

- Alice rises from bed and greets a photo of her mother (so I guess her mother is dead?)
- Orlando gets up from where he had been sleeping, which is under a tunnel in the city
- At breakfast, Alice and her father discuss her situation with the army
- The subject of Alice’s arranged marriage is also brought up
- Alice stops eating as poor commoners are starving everyday
- At HQ, the Pumpkin Scissors are ordered to excavate a caved in tunnel
- Alice tries to hire excavators from a nearby village
- This is refused, as the leader tells her that this same thing has happened before, but no one paid the town after they finished digging out the tunnel
- Alice decides to do everything by herself but faints in the tunnel
- When she wakes up, Orlando is by her side, but she slaps him for no apparent reason

- Orlando tries to get her to eat something but she refuses
- Orlando tells her a metaphor of their situation, where the commoners are the patients of the war and the Pumpkin Scissors the doctors
- He explains that commoners don’t want doctors to feel the same pain they do, they just want to be saved
- Alice changes her mind after hearing this and decides to eat
- Back at the village, Alice tries again to hire some workers, and this time shows her royalty and swears by her family to pay them
- When the village leader finally agrees, they are informed that his son has taken the Pumpkin Scissors’ shield train to help with the excavation
- Everyone rushes to the site, where Alice and the father crawl into the caved in tunnel
- They manage to stop the engine and save the child, but they find that they have no means of getting back outside
- When it looks like the tunnel is about to cave in, Orlando blasts through the rubble with his will-of-the-wisp switched on
- In the end, everyone happily starts excavating the tunnel together

Preview:

Next episode - #4
And it looks like Orlando is taking action once again…

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