English Dub Season Review: Scissor Seven Season 4

Have you been enjoying the Chinese Netflix series Scissor Seven, BUT wish that the titular character of Seven wasn’t in most of the season? And even in the episodes he was in, he barely did anything and only got one fight? Well, good news if you wanted that highly specific thing, because Season 4, subtitled “Shadow Destiny” for some strange reason, is a nearly Seven-less season! Continuing from the cliffhanger at the end of Season 3, Seven and Thirteen, as well as many other returning characters, continue their struggles against the Shadow Assassins, among whom Seven used to be a member. Seven’s former identity as one of the most lethal killers has been an ever growing plot thread throughout the series and this season does take some of its time focusing on it and gearing Seven up to finally face his past life and the reason he lost his memories. But again, it’s very much in the background for a lot of the episodes, with several seemingly less important plots getting bigger attention, probably more than you would think they would ever get.

It actually feels like a tradition in Shonen anime, which Scissor Seven clearly emulates, where the main protagonist will be out of commission for an extended period for whatever reason, giving the other main characters and even supporting cast chances to shine and get cool moments to themselves. I remember this happening at least a few times across Dragon Ball, Yuyu Hakusho, Naruto, Bleach, My Hero Academia, and many others, and that feeling is definitely reflected here. We follow up with Cola being treated for her illness by the Prince of Stern (who is no longer voiced by Crispen Freeman, sadly), we learn more about the dubious allegiance of Shadow Assassin (and Thirteen’s master) Green Phoenix, as well as the sorted lost romance between Chairman Jiang and Redtooth, and another Shadow Assassin invades Chicken Island and forces the fighters still remaining to defend their home in Seven’s absence. And in case you were looking forward to seeing how all of that shakes out, guess what, because NONE OF IT GETS RESOLVED. Yep, it’s an ending full of cliffhangers! It’s all hanger, no cliff!

But that’s not necessarily a bad thing as long as it’s EVENTUALLY resolved, which I have no doubt it will be in either the next or following season. It’s clear that this season was mainly about letting everything surrounding Seven come to a boil, with just about all of the remaining Shadow Assassins engaged in battle while Seven himself looks inward to become his best self and finally put the past behind him while he defends those he loves and gets back to being an okay barber. It’s actually probably good that I hadn’t watched this series in three years, as binging Season 3 for the first time and going straight into this one helped keep the pace going instead of waiting years for this next part of the story. Although now I DEFINITELY have to wait at least a year for them to put out the next season, so I’ve kinda played myself there, haven’t I? Oh yeah, I’m supposed to be recommending this. Well, if you’ve been keeping up with the show and enjoyed it so far, you’ll probably enjoy this and can wait with me for the inevitable conclusion.