Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Scissor Seven’ Season 4 on Netflix, A New Clash with Powerful New Foes

Seven (Ronny Chieng) is a 21-year-old barber with amnesia. In addition to cutting hair for a living, he works as an assassin as part of the Killer League in an attempt to pay off his medical debts. However, he’s never been very competent at this side job, usually either sparing his targets or solving matters in a peaceful way. With Scissor Seven now in its fourth season, this Chinese animated series finds Seven and his allies locked in a clash with warring two rivaling factions. The story picks up right where the end of Season 3 left off, after a certain shadow assassin sets her sights on Seven and Thirteen (Jennie Kwan) clashes with Blackbird (Todd Haberkorn), an assassin with roots in the Flying Bird Sect. It’s up to Seven to save Thirteen when she falls in battle, which ultimately ends up in Blackbird’s untimely demise.

SCISSOR SEVEN – SEASON 4: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: Thirteen lies on the ground, badly wounded as she watches fragments of her Thousand Demon Dagger break away from its hilt and fly into the air as Seven watches nearby, clutching his weapon in anger. As Blackbird tightens his grip on Thirteen’s throat, the pieces of her sword come together to free her from his grasp as Seven engages in combat.

The Gist: Seven remains firmly entrenched within the warring factions, and this time he lies in wait as Thirteen was locked in combat with her first move against Blackbird. Seven previously faced off against assassin Manjusaka after defeating Xuanwu assassins, and with his hands full, he couldn’t keep Thirteen safe initially. With Season 4, he sets off to rescue her from Blackbird and brings his all to the fight, especially after seeing Thirteen and her special weapon fail in battle.

With claims of being “immortal,” Blackbird is one of the cockiest enemies Seven and company have faced yet. As a member of the Flying Bird Sect, he wasn’t particularly used to having to face defeat, and as such, Seven is able to launch an all-out offensive when he sees Thirteen in dire straits.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Scissor Seven has strong roots in the shonen genre in general, but in particular this arc feels a lot like series like Avatar: The Last Airbender, from its overall character cast to its animation style. If you enjoyed that Nickelodeon animated series, you’ll find yourself heavily immersed in Scissor Seven.

Our Take: It’s been some time since the end of Scissor Seven Season 3, so we’ve been waiting to see if Thirteen’s offensive on Blackbird would pay off. It’s great that the show didn’t decide it wanted to skip around and give us a little more back story on an inconsequential character while the fates of two hung in the balance, so the latest episode throws you right into the heat of the moment, without having to do much work to go back in and see how the previous match-up ended.

Nothing much has changed this time around either, which I appreciated. It’s more of the same straight-up, high-octane action that Scissor Seven is known for. Fans have been waiting to see a match-up with Blackbird and Seven for a long time, and it finally culminated in this episode, which gives us one of the series’ best fights yet – and at the beginning of the fourth season, with no waiting!

If this is any indication of how the rest of the season will go, fans will be in for a real treat. And though there are already several seasons to sift through for newcomers, it’s this episode that might finally convince some naysayers to give it a chance. It’s that good, and the fights will leave you breathless.

Sex and Skin: None to be found in this episode, or the series for that matter, as it’s very clean in that regard.

Parting Shot: Manjusaka (Miley Yamamoto) appears after Blackbird’s death, seemingly disappointed by his passing. She uses her powers to give him a more suitable expression and turns her attention to Seven, knocking him out. It’s not clear what Majusaka’s intentions are, but she has a clear “crush” on Seven and seems to want to act on it, which is completely in character for her.

Sleeper Star: Jennie Kwan as Thirteen brings a whole new dimension to the character. She doesn’t have that many lines in this episode, given that her personality and expressions usually speak for her, but Kwan brings her to life perfectly with her slight voice and the confidence she occasionally exudes when she’s down and out. Thirteen was perfectly cast, and Kwan shines in this episode, especially when the chips are down.

Most Pilot-y Line: Blackbird holds Thirteen up by the throat, about to take her life. She had previously attacked him with her Thousand Demon Dagger at the end of the previous season. He quips: “Did you really think that you were going to kill me with one slash?” It’s a portent of the future, given that the supposedly “immortal” enemy falls in this episode.

Our Call: STREAM IT. The stakes are higher than ever for Seven and his crew, and now that Blackbird is out of the picture, there are only more assassins coming to attack. If you haven’t been invested since the very beginning, it’s worth jumping in and getting started to see how things shape up now that we’re four seasons deep. The action is as exciting as ever, the animation just as sharp, and the characters just as likable. This is a great Season 4 debut episode, and well worth investing in – especially since Manjusaka is about to strike.

Brittany Vincent has been covering video games and tech for over a decade for publications like G4, Popular Science, Playboy, Variety, IGN, GamesRadar, Polygon, Kotaku, Maxim, GameSpot, and more. When she’s not writing or gaming, she’s collecting retro consoles and tech. Follow her on Twitter: @MolotovCupcake.