Kiri Haimura has an unusual fascination with cutting other people's hair. One day, he encounters a girl in a western-style mansion with incredibly long hair named Iwai Mushanokouji. Kiri is overjoyed over this fact and tries to cut her hair, only to find out that it can't be cut due to an inherited curse and it grows at a ridiculously fast rate. It also turns out that Mushanokouji is being hunted by descendants of murderers who are trying to kill her (using cursed weapons passed down by their ancestors called "Killing Goods") so that they can get their wish granted. A little while later, Kiri learned from his grandfather that he had an ancestor who liked to dismember and cut up people with scissors called "The Severing Crime Edge," which Kiri had inherited. Now, Kiri has to protect Iwai from serial killers with these scissors.
The Severing Crime Edge (断裁分離のクライムエッジ Transliterated ) is a seinen action manga that debuted in 2009, written by Tatsuhiko Hikagi and published by Monthly Comic Alive. The manga concluded in 2015 with 11 volumes. An anime adaptation by Studio Gokumi aired as part of the spring 2013 anime season lineup.
The anime was simulcast on Crunchyroll
and is also on The Anime Network.
Tropes found in this series
- Absurdly Sharp Blade: Kiri's scissors can sever body parts, something ordinary scissors obviously can't do.
- Always in Class One: Kiri starts off in middle-school class 2-A. Despite not going to school for years, Iwai quickly ends up in that class as well.
- Ancestral Weapon: The killing goods are weapons passed down by serial killers to their descendants and are supernaturally stronger than normal weapons.
- Blade Enthusiast: Emily has 46 knives, all of which can apply an anti-healing factor.
- Blind Musician: Hitomi is a blind pianist.
- Bring My Brown Pants: In chapter 6/Episode 3, Iwai urinates herself in fear after an author of a sledgehammer killing good breaks in her mansion and tries to kill her.
- Brown Note: Playing an entire song on the white piano kills anyone who hears it, except the player. Playing most of a song apparently has no effect.
- Cuteness Proximity: In chapter 2, the female classmates in Kiri's class fawn over how silky and cute Iwai's hair is as soon as she finishes introducing herself to the class.
- Curse Escape Clause:
- For the killing goods authors, killing the "Hair Queen".
- Morality Chain: A minor one in the form of Insteads, people who have resistance to their killing abilities that Authors can enact their Goods' unique abilities on in order to ease their desire to kill and maintain their psyche.
- Curtains Match the Windows: Houko has red hair and eyes.
- Cute Little Fangs: Iwai displays these as one of her more endearing traits.
- Damsel in Distress: Iwai is exceptionally small and weak, and has spent most of her life locked in a house, making her near defenseless against the countless psychopaths who want to kill her and guaranteeing that she'll fall into this trope at every turn. Despite this however, she also demonstrates how much strength even a helpless DID can show; even when captured and tortured, she continues to stare defiantly at her attackers, refusing to break.
- Deaf Composer: The piano tuner, Houichi is deaf (maybe he relies on digital measurements?), and functions as an Instead for the user of the lethal piano.
- Declaration of Protection: Kiri is completely dedicated to protecting Iwai from being killed by other killing goods authors.
- Deliberately Monochrome: The anime uses sepia tones for action scenes.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- In Cut/episode one after Kiri fails to cut Iwai's hair for the first time, he begins petting it while commenting that he 'really loves this hair'. Iwai's reaction is purely this trope.
- Yamane's "pretend killing" of Houko involves a lot of gratuitous blushing and licking.
- The Dulcinea Effect: Kiri knew Iwai for approximately 48 hours at the point he decides to defend her from the serial killers out to murder her. No, not kidnap and sacrifice her, but kill her on the spot. Whoever does manage to gets the power to break the laws of nature, and presumably have one of their wishes granted. Admittedly, it doesn't take much to want to prevent a young girl from being brutally murdered.
- Evil Weapon: The killing goods give their authors urges to commit murder.
- Fantastic Arousal: Author and Insteads tend to experience this during a fake killing.
- First Kiss: Witchie steals Kiri's.
- Freudian Excuse: Most of the Authors have one for why they're so willing to kill Iwai. Whether they're good ones or not can vary.
- Yamane was influenced by the spirit of her Goods' original author, and has been left incredibly introverted and emotionally damaged as a result.
- Ruka's is that she didn't get the role of the princess in her school playnote , so she didn't want to ever have to feel such loneliness and humiliation ever again.
- Emily suffered an incredibly abusive childhood, apparently taken care of by some psychotic human traffickers who only kept her alive for her potential as a Goods Author. Then her adoptive father came along and became the first person to treat her kindly. So she's willing to kill Iwai for his sake.
- Hypocrite: Witchie makes fun of Kiri for his power to amplify pain, and apparently get off on it too, when she's the one who works to create serial killers and ensure that they have kids who can become Authors in a sadistic killing game.
- Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: All chapters/episodes are labeled as "cuts".
- Improbable Weapon User: Some Authors have a rather unorthodox killing good but Kiri stands out for fighting with a pair of scissors.
- In-Series Nickname:
- The "Hair Queen" for Iwai.
- The "Severing Crime Edge" itself (a cursed pair of scissors) is nicknamed this by Kiri and Iwai, and this soon becomes Kiri's nickname as well.
- Most authors go by a short form of their killing goods name.
- Intimate Haircut: Kiri and Iwai's haircutting sessions often get rather.. .intimate due to the former's hair fetish; hair-petting from Kiri and a lot of blushing from the both of them are usually included.
- Ironic Name: Iwai's name means celebration. However, as she points out, she has nothing to celebrate due to her curse and the various dangers in her life.
- Like Cannot Cut Like: No matter how powerful the Killing Good is, it cannot destroy another killing good.
- Little Miss Badass: Emily is among the youngest Authors and is very skilled with her killing good. She even manages to curb-stomp Kiri twice.
- Luminescent Blush:
- Kiri has this expression on his face whenever he gets "excited" about cutting Iwai's hair.
- Iwai blushes often due to being easily flustered and shy.
- Magic Hair: Due to the curse, Iwai's grows extremely fast and can not be cut with anything except Kiri's titular scissors.
- Meaningful Name:
- Kiri's name means "cut"... guess what he does with his scissors.
- Byouin of Byouinzaka means hospital, which befits the sisters medical background and Yamane's syringe.
- Yamane's name means sick or diseased child and she's emotionally stunted and has some mental issues.
- Seigi Nakajima's given name means justice, indicating his warped view of justice and his vigilante nature.
- Musical Assassin: Hitomi's piano is a Killing Good.
- Named Weapons: All killing goods have a rather long name that describes what they do such as Kiri's scissors (The crime edge of cutting and severing) and Yamane's needle (Injection of Coma Death).
- Older Than They Look: Iwai, (due to her height) looks like an elementary schooler but is actually a middle schooler.
- Parental Abandonment: Iwai's father was murdered by a killing goods author and her mother abandoned her. This is the reason why she lives in the mansion alone.
- Polar Opposite Twins: Yamane and Houko Byouinzaka. Yamane is the more introverted and quieter younger twin. While Houko is the agressive and more extraverted older twin sister.
- Rapid Hair Growth: Iwai's Hereditary Curse on her lineage causing all the females' hair to grow down to their ankles at midnight.
- Sacred First Kiss: The witch steals Kiri's.Witch: Oh my, you're so flustered. Is not your first is it?Kiri(After she leaves): Of course it was my first.
- Self-Made Orphan: Yamane killed her and Houko's parents due to being influenced by the spirit of her killing goods' original author. Houko decided to take the blame for it so Yamane wouldn't be burdened with guilt.
- Ship Tease: The scene in chapter 21 where Yamane gives Kiri a much-needed blood donation is rather... suggestive to say the least.
- Sneeze Cut: In chapter 10, when some of Kiri's classmates wonder if Kiri tried to confess to the class president, Kashiko, the scene changes to Kashiko sneezing.
- Spit Take: In chapter 24, Iwai spit-takes when Emily asks if she and Kiri are in a relationship.
- Super Breeding Program: Gossips pairs authors together to "mate" in order to create a powerful Order-Made authors. The children who are too weak for Gossip's purposes are disposed of.
- Tears of Joy: In the first chapter, Iwai cries these due to being happy when Kiri manages to cut her hair with his scissors.
- There Was a Door: In chapter 6/Episode 3, an author of a killing good in form of a sledgehammer uses it to break through the walls of Iwai's mansion in order to murder her.
- Third-Person Person: Little Miss Badass Emily speaks this way.
- Tyke-Bomb: Order-Mades. Gossip apparently goes through the trouble of creating serial killers by driving people insane with drugs and the like, and then arranges for them to "mate" in order to ensure they reproduce. The kids who don't become authors are tossed out, as well as the weaker Authors. The select few to be chosen by Gossip are the most powerful Authors.
- Unbreakable Weapons: Killing goods are invulnerable to damage and can not be destroyed even by other killing goods.
- Unstoppable Force Meets Immovable Object: Apparently the reason why the Crime Edge—an indestructible sharp thing—can cut Iwai's otherwise unseverable hair.
- When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Iwai's hair grows several feet in a matter of seconds at the stroke of midnight.
- Whip of Dominance: Ruka is a domineering girl who desperately desires power to stand above others and possesses a "pet whip" (it's like a riding crop but it's still called a whip) that magically dominates the will of those it hits.
