HomeAnimeThe Severing Crime Edge | Anime Mini-Review

The Severing Crime Edge | Anime Mini-Review

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Kiri Haimura has a massive fetish for hair, or to be more specific, cutting the hair of other people. Iwai Mushanokouji on the other hand is a young girl also known by some as the “Hair Queen”, with incredibly long hair that cannot be cut by any blade or scissor known to man due to a long-running curse. When the pair come across each other one day and Kiri’s favourite pair of scissors manage to cut Iwai’s infinitely growing hair to a reasonable length – a friendship and attachment is born between the pair. Although their relationship is an intergral component to the plot of The Servering Crime Edge (Dansai Bunri no Kuraimu Ejji), it is secondary to the core storyline which is much darker and more action-packed.

Being able to cut Iwai’s hair signifies that Kiri is the possessor of a “Killing Good”, an object that is passed down from ancestors that were infamous serial killers. Although not yet displaying the true impacts that becoming a wielder entails (Becoming a mindless killer), he becomes ingrained in the lives/world of other “Killing Good” possessors – some whom don’t mean him harm and some that seek to kill Iwai to obtain the “wish” that is associated with massacring the Hair Queen.

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The fundamentals of and concepts introduced in The Severing Crime Edge were interesting, and helps it stand out among the other anime releases published in Australia during 2014. Although the story did heavily focus on the Killing Good element of the storyline, there were also some decent episodes which focused more on Iwai breaking out of her shell and beginning to enjoy school life. While their attempts to merge action-oriented and school-life elements felt a tad disjointed and not completely harmonized at the beginning, the writing team managed to use both of these components well as the series progressed.

Production quality was also high, and it was a shame that Madman Entertainment didn’t offer the Blu-ray release of this collection that was made available in North America. Despite its high production values, North American localizer Sentai Filmworks deemed that they would not commission a new English dub for the series, retaining only the original Japanese dub which was nevertheless satisfactory.

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Unfortunately it seems like The Severing Crime Edge may have gone down the same route that ruined Kamisama Dolls for me. Although this series provides a solid standalone experience, there were many aspects only hinted at or lightly touched upon that clearly need additional episodes to be fully explored. To a point, this first season was more or less setting things up for the second/main season. Granted it has only been approximately a year and a half since it was aired, there has currently been no word on if or when a second season will be commissioned. Unless they are waiting for Tatsuhiko Hikagi’s original manga series to progress a bit further along, I am sceptical if they will decide to commission a second season. If nothing else comes from this franchise, that would be quite a disappointing decision.

But future prospects aside, The Severing Crime Edge was an enjoyable anime series that delivered the different components of its storyline well, adequately developed the major characters and had solid production values. But as mentioned above, there are many loose ends that really need to be tied-up in order for this series to have any chance of leaving a lasting impression.

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Where to Buy?

Those residing in Australia can pick themselves up a DVD copy of this series from the official Madman Entertainment website or their local anime retailer. Those in North America or seeking to import can pick up the series through RightStuf.com (HERE and HERE) or their preferred retailer.

Disclosure

A DVD copy of The Severing Crime Edge was provided by Australian anime publisher Madman Entertainment for the purpose of this review.

Sam
Sam
Founder of The Otaku's Study. I have been exploring this labyrinth of fandom these last fifteen years, and still nowhere close to the exit yet. Probably searching for a long time to come.

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