Between Mysterious Girlfriend X, The Severing Crime Edge, and Dog & Scissors, I dare say that scissors must be a popular weapon these days. But in the case of this particular series the scissors are wielded by a male protagonist named Haimura Kiri who has a fascination with cutting hair.
It seems that the Japanese have a real fascination for hair if their horror movies and anime shows are any indication, but I don't mind it so much because I think the culture is really cool. And, of course, not all Japanese people like anime or horror movies, but I'm quite certain the anime culture in Japan is a lot more fervent than the anime culture in America and they apparently take hair very seriously. Personally, I'd kill for anime hair because then I wouldn't have worry about things like premature graying or baldness.
Anyway, our main character meets up with the character dubbed the Queen of Hair, Mushanokoji Iwai. Iwai has really long black hair that cannot be cut by ordinary scissors. However, through chance and circumstance Kiri meets up with Iwai and he tries to cut her hair. It isn't until that Kiri tries to cut her hair with his own pair of scissors that we are introduced to what is essentially the central plot of the series.
Kiri's pair of scissors has a history behind it and the original owner was supposedly a man who killed hundreds of people. There are other people out there who inherited certain devices with morbid histories and these device speak out to their owners and drive them insane with the urge to kill. The devices are called "killing goods" and the people haunted by these devices are called "authors." To stay sane and to keep from indulging in mass murder everyday, some authors use "insteads" and insteads are people who are willing to bear the brunt of an author's urge. Think of it this way, in this show a woman has a syringe and when her urge gets too great her friend fills the syringe with saline and allows her to stab her and inject her with it in the arm as many times as it takes until the urge passes. This way nobody dies.
The thing is, Kiri doesn't feel an urge to kill people; He just wants to cut hair. However, when the Gossip organization (a shady group that watches over authors and the hair queen) reinstates the "kill the hair queen game," Kiri must use his scissors to protect Iwai from authors who believe that killing the Queen of Hair will allow their inner most desires come true.
Along the way Kiri discovers that maybe he is a true author after all and that maybe there are those out there who are worse than your typical author.
This show isn't great but it is pretty decent. As goofy as the premise is it largely works because it is mostly played straight-faced with the exception of the odd comedic moment. Some of the humor is a bit ill-timed considering that I thought a more serious approach was the way to go, but it is serious at a lot of times and it does get bloody when the situation calls for it. Of course, there are a few ecchi shots and that's all fine and dandy until you remember that Iwai is supposed to be fourteen years old. Then it gets uncomfortable.
Not a lot is resolved by the end and we see glimpses of what could very well be a second season if this goes over well in Japan. Hopefully, it will because I like the story enough for it to continue.
Naturally, I watched this show in Japanese with English subtitles and aside from the high-voiced Iwai, I don't think any of the voice-actors got on my nerves too much. If this gets an English dub, it'd be interesting to see who will do the show. I'd say it's iffy that this show gets a dub, but I honestly didn't think Mysterious Girlfriend X would get a dub, either. So we'll see.
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