Review of The Severing Crime Edge

Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge: What's Your Fetish? What happens when you combine Rapunzel and Higurashi no Naku Koro Ni with a generic moe romantic comedy? You get Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge, one of the most awkward anime series I've seen in quite some time. Awkward and campy are the best ways to describe it since trying to put this series into one genre is a damn near impossibility, on top of the odd elements this series tries to explore. The series revolves around a rather strange junior high student with a hair fetish named Kiri Haimura, a possessor of a pair of scissors known asa Killing Good. These Killing Goods are murder weapons for killers in the past and are passed down to their kin throughout the ages. Kiri isn't the most accepting of his Killing Good, but his opinion quickly changes of it when he encounters a sheltered girl with extremely long hair named Iwai Mushiyanokouji. Upon meeting her, he learns that she is cursed and her hair cannot be cut. She is known as the Hair Queen and that she is the target of a group named Gossip. Since he possesses a pair of scissors with a unique circumstance, he attempts to cut her hair with it...and their adventures begin from there.

Overall, I found the strongest aspect of this series was the atmosphere built from the great animation and music. This series did a masterful job of balancing out the comedy, romance, and thriller elements to make for a strangely intriguing series. The "awkwardness" of this series is actually what I thought to be its greatest strength. It's rare to find an anime that tries to blend the genres like Crime Edge attempted, and to some extent, it succeeded. While the atmosphere was fantastic for Crime Edge, it had a lot of flaws.

Generally, the characters I thought were good, but underdeveloped. Kiri was an interesting lead as an awkward, but likable protagonist. However, considering his background, I wanted to know more about his back story as well as his relationship with his father. It's a subject that's barely touched upon in the first episode and we don't ever see it again throughout the series. We do see some interactions between Kiri and his grandfather, but it doesn't do much to develop Kiri's character. Unfortunately, Iwai's character suffered the same problem. She is a likable character, but unfortunately her back story is not very well developed even though the series does give some general explanations early on and also later on in the series. Even then, it was still lacking. In my opinion, the relationship development between Kiri and Iwai was extremely awkward, almost seeming as if the director wasn't sure if he should be more aggressive or passive in their development...and in the end, it turns out being just awkward. The supporting cast I found to be okay. I wouldn't say there are a lot of memorable characters, but I will admit there are some that have interesting personality quirks. A few examples include Yamane with her awkwardly serious behavior, Emily's rather bipolar behavior, as well as the intriguing duo of Seigi and Kozakura, an Author with a jaded sense of justice and an Instead on a mission to keep him inline. Don't get me started on Kanae either, a mysterious character with...oddly enough, a lolita complex.

While I did think the animation was the strongest aspect of this series, the direction of it was a bit off-putting. There are some anime out there that you can consider ecchi...and then there's Crime Edge...which beats you over the head with a 2x4 of ecchi and fan service. While I don't mind the ecchi at times and found it to work in some instances, it seems like this series went WAY overboard with it. It's one thing to have ecchi with older, high school characters or adults, but it's a completely other thing when a majority of the ecchi is revolving around children that are 14-years-old or younger. There were times I seriously felt dirty for watching this knowing the characters were so young and are being so exposed. Like I said, there were times when the ecchi and fan service worked in the context of the series, but the producers seemed to hammer it in when they didn't need to. I'd even go so far as to call the production staff behind this series downright perverts.

As far as the plot and story are concerned, I did find it interesting, or at the very least, interesting enough to hold my attention. However, I felt this series didn't quite do enough to cover the bases in regards to explaining the Murderer's Game. It's explanation is extremely fragmented and round-a-bout. While it's explanation does make sense, it seems very impractical and I found myself groaning at just how stupid Gossip's logic was concerning the Murderer's Game.

My general thoughts on this series are...meh, it's okay. This series has an interesting aura about it with a nice blend of lighthearted atmosphere with extremely dark moments. It's animation (when taking the story seriously) is very good and the soundtrack is haunting at times. However, for everything good the atmosphere does with this series, it manages to always seem to take a step back with its horrifically padded fan service and unnecessary ecchi...thus, also resulting in some underdeveloped characters. This is a series that really had me hooked early on and kept me interested throughout, but as the series wore on, so did my patience with the director's antics. This series had the potential to be really good and it turned out being just average. On top of that, it left us on a mini-cliffhanger for a 2nd season. While I wasn't blown away by Crime Edge, I'd be interested in checking out a 2nd season if it does happen. Recommending this series to anyone would be difficult though considering how blended the genres are in this series. If you liked a show like Tasogare Otome x Amnesia or Sankarea, you might enjoy a series like this. Dansai Bunri no Crime Edge, despite its flaws, is a rather unique series. Overall, I'd call it average though. You can certainly do better than this series and you can certainly do worse as well. Still, it's at least worth trying out a few episodes to see if it is your cup of tea.