Review of Scissor Seven: Xuanwu Kingdom Chapter

INTRODUCTION Scissor Seven is weird, and that’s a good thing. You can tell from the moment that you see the first episode, this isn’t your typical anime; granted that it is a dong hua (动画) and not an anime. The animation style with the way the characters are all written makes it not necessarily superior to other shows, but definitely unique in its own way which certainly gives it some appeal. If you’re reading this review to gauge if you should watch this dong hua or not, don’t bother; go watch it first and then finish reading this review, you’ll thank me. Also yes, I’m ofChinese descent but that does not mean you need to be able to understand Mandarin for this show to be enjoyable.

STORY - 10/10

The setting and story is something else, the setting is really fitting for the dong hua because of how it evolves. We go from the setting of Chicken Island in season 1 and 2 which is fitting because it suits the more calmer and laid back atmosphere of season 1 and 2. Seasons 3 then progresses to Xuan Wu Guo which again is quite reflective of the story because that’s when the main arc starts to kick in, not saying that season 1 and 2 didn’t focus on the main story, but it really helps the pacing of the show because by doing this; at the start of the third season you are completely invested into the show because the setting in conjunction with the story really tells you that the dong hula’s main arc is in effect. Digressing from that massive tangent on setting instead of the story, the story is pretty good to say the least. Specifically the way they have all the backstory of all the characters laid out, they make almost every single characters have an interesting backstory. For convenience sake, I am going to use the story surrounding the Prince of Stein as an example. He adds to the main story by being an antagonist and later a protagonist, but that’s a later discussion for the character section; what’s more interesting is how his father was supposedly killed by Seven which causes him to kind of have a vendetta against Seven, but the thing is that he doesn’t know that Seven killed his father. The story is put out like this so us as the fans are just sitting here on the edge of our seats waiting for him to find out, and see his reaction after we get to know him as a character. This is just one example of how they use a specific type of story device to reinforce the overall enjoyment of the show, you will be able to find more of these story device everywhere in this show.

ART - 10/10

This is a bit of a chooser, everything in this show is hand drawn compared to the typical style most anime and dong hua is animated in. This can either be really appealing to you or kind of annoying, but here is how this the animation and art in itself is actually used to enhance certain things within the show. The animation in a regular scene is basic, there no way around that; when the characters are moving around, they are essentially smooth coloured shapes and the art is comparable to the average anime in 1990. However if you don’t find this obnoxious, it really isn’t that bad because the trade off is quite worth it. During an action, emotional, or impactful scene; the animation studios ramps up to one hundred and actually becomes impressive. By employing a low fidelity (detail) for tame scenes and a high fidelity for crucial scenes, it puts an emphasis on the high importance scene because of the highly detailed art. It doesn’t matter if you didn’t consciously realise this dichotomy (contrast) between the scenes and their respective animation styles, but your brain will definitely subconsciously notice it. This makes you think that the action scenes are absolutely amazing, even though you might not know why, this is why; well the music is also important as well, which is a nice segment into the next section.

SOUND - 9/10

Sound within Scissor Seven is the weakest element but still amazing nevertheless. The reason this is not a ten out of ten is because Scissor Seven is lacking in the department of utilising common sound effects in certain scenes, albeit this doesn’t actually detract from the dong hua that much because most animes and dong hua fail to effectively use sound effects anyways. The real saving grace for sound within Scissor Seven is the music, but I do have to interject here because what Scissor Seven does is neither bad nor amazing. Most good modern animes can already effectively employ good music within themselves which add to certain scenes based on what mood that needs to be created. Granted Scissor Seven is a good dong hua which means it can do this with great proficiency as well; they perfectly place humoured music over comedic scenes, and also enlist an intense score for a fight scene or a soft melody for a emotional scene.

CHARACTER - 10/10

The characters in Scissor Seven is really what makes it a ten out of ten show, every character is entertaining simply due to just how well the writing team fleshed each and every one of them out. There is nothing special done here except good character development; each character has depth through a specific characterisation technique that the writing team uses, they use the destruction of ‘caricatures’ to make all of their characters have depth. Caricatures are when a character is made to fit a specific personality and set of traits, being confined only to their superficial characteristics; thus akin to stereotypes for characters. Caricatures are a massive problem with most animes, you have the main character who is a nice and touching person; the gentle yet fierce love interest; the nerd; the coward; the brute; the unsociable individual; etc. These caricatures have being used to death by mainstream anime, especially shonen, and create characters that can only act based on that stereotype. Scissor Seven demolishes this conception through diverting expectation and good development of individuals. For example, I will use Da Chun to show this. When Seven initially meets Da Chun, he seems like the stereotypical goody two shoes responsible person of the group who knows best, but it is later revealed that he was ostracised by his original cast. This is reflected when later Da Chun states after doing a bunch of impressive shit that you would expect from the competent one of the group; that he just copied all the cool and flamboyant stunts and attacks off fictional media, showing that in reality he is just as vulnerable as everyone else but just has a little more integrity than the normal person. There is an endless list of characters who are seemingly pigeon holed into stereotypes just for them to be broken, which by doing this makes almost every character a joy to watch and grow.

CONCLUSION

The genre which Scissor Seven is in is impossible to pinpoint, it can seem like at times a comedy, action, romance, drama, or all of them at the same time, and that’s why I think this show is so great; apart from everything else I mentioned of course. Scissor Seven provides literally everything and somehow manages to nail whichever genre it decides to be. When it wants to be a drama, it has moments that are sad enough to make you cry. When it wasn’t to be an action, it has scenes that are so adrenaline filled to make you fly. When it wants to be a comedy, it has jokes and comedic timing that can make you cry but with laughter; and when it wants to be a romance, it has character development that makes you roll around on your bed like a teenage girl texting their boyfriend. This show is simply a ten out of ten, and there’s no way around it.