I haven’t watched too many Chinese anime, so I was skeptical going into Netflix‘s Scissor Seven, a slapstick playful action comedy with a touch of romance and a boatload of wholesomeness.
Featuring a zealous but kindhearted amnesiac hairdresser “7” Wu, who works to uncover the secrets to his dark past, several unique islanders, and of course many assassins later on.There’s also a plethora of talking animals like an entrepreneurial blue chicken sporting shades & a cigar , guitar wielding dogs, a bull that can cook, a bear doctor, and other characters that add hilarity to the simple yet compelling story.
So what’s the deal with simple art style and the talking animals? Is it a kids show? The answer is…
No… no it is not. Characters get hurt. Hell, 7 gets shot, stabbed, and suffers casualties that should’ve killed him several-times over.
Characters swear. 7 drops a number of f-bombs especially when getting comically hurt in some brutal way.
There’s lots of crude humor. Its a comedy, but some of the gags meant to chuckle at would otherwise disgust some viewers. I’m pretty sure at one point 7 disguises as a lion and gets r*ped by an actual one; oh and I think there’s a banned episode involving a pair of pants with eyes.
By this point, you’ve probably concluded that 7 is a lively character, and well… he is. Wu is one of the most interesting characters I’ve seen in anime…. He. Has. Personality. And in my opinion goes through tremendous growth throughout the anime.
He comes off as a sly, confident, smooth-talking hairdresser that fails miserably at the tasks he’s given, but it’s hilarious and he even makes several friends as an outcome. He tries to be masculine and touts his strengths when he really is just this incompetent lad. But deep down, 7 is a really caring guy. He’d protect his friends when danger strikes, and cherishes the good times.
Also Wu can telepathically control a seemingly indestructible pair of scissors, which seems lame on the surface but is actually pretty badass, and saves him more times than his code name 7.
Give a man a pair of scissors and he has a weapon. Give a man the ability to control those scissors with his mind, and he becomes God. Alright alright that escalated quickly, but I came up with that on the fly.
Oh and he’s given this magical ball *invention* that let’s him shapeshift into pretty much anything, ya know, for stealth purposes. It often hilariously backfires, getting the attention of the wrong target or rousing suspicion.
I’m pretty sure 7’s immortal, but I don’t remember that being mentioned (“immortal 7” ?). The 21-year old gets hurt time and time again in some brutal ways, but it is a comedy with superficial events (like neck stretching in order to hear, or dodging lasers in the most physiologically impossible ways) but that makes the show great in its own right.
Another interesting thing about Wu is his backstory, because of course every protag-kun has to have a unique or tragic backstory. 7 is really the most wanted assassin alive, having killed thousands of people, soldiers and VIPs alike, and having a killer mindset. So when he blacks out and washes ashore on Chicken Island, his amnesia leads Wu to developing a completely different persona. Its only when he learns the ugly truth that he faces the dilemma of going back to his old life or continue this new one (the answer is both, sort-of).
With the help of his friends, Wu fights for his life from wave after wave of assassins. The plot, even though it may look really simplistic on the surface, is actually quite captivating. I don’t remember if I was hooked on the first episode or even the second, but if you give it a chance you will not regret it.
I haven’t mentioned much about the other characters. They all really deserve a post of their own. Dai Bo is a money-hungry hustling blue chicken that takes advantage of Seven at first, due to his hatred for humanity after they put him through a c*ck-fighting ring. Its only later on that Dai Bo realizes that Seven is different; he has a heart as big as Chicken Island and cares for him. Xiao Fei is the adorable cherub of a chicken that Dai Bo took under his wing (literally) after his father died in the fighting ring. Underneath that ball is a muscle man waiting to come out. I’m being serious.
Thirteen is an interesting number, but also a conflicted character that has an on-and-off romance with 7. Time and time again, she is tasked with assassinating him, only to somehow fail due to his overwhelming charm and abilities (that may be sarcasm). She grows fond of his big heart and care for others despite herself being taught the opposite growing up. While he appears to take care of himself through luck, she still comes to his aide when he needs it.
Again, every character has their story and struggles, and this makes Chicken Island so unique and come to live with its own ecosystem of memorable characters, even if some may be animals.
Are you a sub or a dub? Ah… its the age-old question.
Don’t hate me for admitting this, but I watched Scissor Seven dubbed. You see, my ex couldn’t stand mandarin (for some reason…) and while I almost never watch dubbed anime, I actual quite enjoyed the voice-acting in this one. It’s not very often you get a good cast of English voice-actors dubbing anime, especially Chinese. Seven’s English accent sounds so smug and I love that, while Dai Bo comes off aggressive while 13 almost always has a serious tone. I feel like its mainly comedies that I watch dubbed, mainly because it doesn’t force me to think so hard reading the jokes in Japanese, but for the most part I will watch subbed.
If I haven’t convinced you yet, check out some of those crazy action sequences. Those are captivating in itself. Scissor Seven is a gem and I plan to watch it to the end. Can’t wait for season 4! Thanks for reading. 🙂
-The Shy Otaku