English Dub Season Review: Scissor Seven Season Two

Despite a bit of a hiccup with the dubbing release due to…the state of the world right now, Scissor Seven is back for another season of solid pseudo-anime goodness. Jumping off from last time, Seven is still coming to terms with understanding the memories he’s regained of his old life. But before he can really wrap his head around that, it turns out that Thirteen finds herself unable to kill her targets (some of Seven’s friends) from last season due to her growing feelings for Seven, which has caused her kill list to become an open bounty, meaning any of the assassins from the island she hails from can claim them. All of this happening while more shadows from Seven’s past begin to emerge and wreak havoc on his makeshift new life as a bad hairdresser. Can Seven balance his past with his present while working to become the best assassin?

If there’s one thing I’ve been consistently impressed by with Scissor Seven, it’s its “less is more” approach to a lot of its storytelling. This may seem off base to say, considering there tends to be so much nonsense flying at the screen at any given point in time, but what I mean is that a lot of the show feels pretty minimalistic at times. Obviously the animation is not the most polished, but it still feels smooth and fluid when it needs to be. The island setting is not the most complex or instantly interesting place, but its tranquilness is used to great effect to show how lived in and relaxing it can be. And this of course extends to the cast, where even the most minimal of bit players is so easily and fully characterized with breathed in personality. There’s a character this season who is simply there to be a gag about how assassins don’t dress up like ninja, but even his few seconds on screen makes me feel like he has his own story to follow. That’s a talent this show has above a lot of others and it really shouldn’t go understated.

As for the plot, while the synopsis above does seem to provide a pretty clear cut outline for what could be an interesting season arc, it really only comes in a few times over the ten episodes. And yet it doesn’t end up being that big of a problem, as we spend most of what could have easily ended up as disposable filler for fleshing out our main cast in stand alone character pieces, often taking things in surprising directions for just about everyone involved. The common overlapping details usually being that a fun, mundane outing ends up uncovering a darker or sadder aspect of these characters’ lives, such as Da Bao’s former fighting rival or Cola’s surprise origins explaining her cancer. This could have very easily turned into just Seven’s show, but instead we’re given a lot of room to help the rest of the less obviously important characters get their fill.

Essentially, Scissor Seven continues Netflix’s ever expanding catalogue of unique and heartfelt animation. Never taking itself too seriously, but always earning its respect and laughter by constructing a down to earth but head in the clouds kind of show that can juggle multiple insane aspects and throwing in a Noah’s Ark amount of talking animals but still managing to feel very human as a result. This season ends with quite a bit unresolved, so hopefully it will be brought back for a third go around, but we’ve still already gotten two seasons that feel like a very planned and thoughtful tale, so to add on to it would be gravy at this point. Although I sure would like a haircut right now if I could get one.