[2] It initially takes place in New York, but because the editor believed the magazine's demographic was men audience, the setting changes to Europe at a certain point.

[3] Written by Kazuya Kudo and illustrated by Naoki Urasawa, Pineapple Army was serialized in the magazine Big Comic Original from 1985 to 1988.

[9] Manga critic Jason Thompson stated that Pineapple Army was a modest success in Japan, but failed in America.

He speculated that Viz's decision to commission new covers by an unknown artist drawn in a "Dave McKean-style" might have been misleading when the reader opened them and saw little girls throwing hand grenades.

Thompson largely compared it to Golgo 13 (which Kudo previously wrote for) with its self-contained mercenary stories, but stated that the chapters are much shorter and thus feel rushed.