The world of anime is no stranger to odd and offbeat weapons. This is a medium where people fight with yo-yos and guitars after all. That being said, the Scissor Blades of Kill La Kill still rank among the more unusual. Especially when they're split in half. No doubt they fit the series' themes and heavy focus on clothing and sewing, but there is more to these giant shears than you might first guess. Kill La Kill's lore invests the Scissor Blades with great importance and unusual abilities.
These are 10 Things You Didn't Know About Kill La Kill's Scissor Blades
10 Two Of A Kind
Life Fibers form the core of Kill La Kill's lore. This living alien fabric is the source of the series' superpowers, and they regenerate almost instantly. No human weapon can cut through them. Well, almost.
Part of what makes the Scissor Blades so special is that they are one of only two weapons in the series that can cut Life Fibers. Isshin Matoi made them from hardened Life Fibers for this exact reason. The other weapon? Satsuki's Bakuzan. Which isn't made from Life Fibers weirdly enough.
9 The One Thing They Can't Cut
Isshin Matoi made the Scissor Blades from hardened Life Fibers for a clear reason. They were the only material that could totally sever other Life Fibers, letting Ryuko slice through Goku Uniforms. But there was a downside to this. Hardened Life Fibers can't cut through clothes made from hardened Life Fibers. Ryuko learned this the hard way against Ragyo Kiryuin and her Shinra-Kotetsu. A kamui also made from hardened Life Fibers, it proved impervious to her blade.
8 Their Ultimate Fate
What became of the Scissor Blades wasn't revealed until Kill La Kill's epilogue episode. Ragyo's assistant Rei Hōōmaru attacked the main characters looking for revenge. She turned Honnoji Academy into a giant mech.
Despite no longer having her kamui Senketsu, Ryuko busted out the Scissor Blades one last time. Through sheer will, she transformed them into scissors the size of a battleship and snipped the huge robot in half. Their purpose fulfilled and Honnoji Academy destroyed, Ryuko let the blades sink into Tokyo Bay.
7 No Reason For Ryuko's Case
One of the first indelible images Kill La Kill delivered was Ryuko staring defiantly up at Satsuki, her silver weapon case slung on her back. With a spinning flourish, she then brandished her red scissor blade. But we learn later that there's no reason for her to use a carrying case. The scissor blade can shift size to be as small as a keychain. Granted, Ryuko didn't learn this until after meet Senketsu. But why did she still use the case after that?
6 The Two Halves Don't Match
And we don't just mean their colors are different. Nui Harime's purple Scissor Blade, the one she ended Isshin Matoi's life with, is shaped far differently from Ryuko's red blade. For one thing it's shorter, thanks to a more angular tip.
The handle is also circular instead of the more oval shape Ryuko's handle has. This may seem odd, but putting the two together reveals the reason for the asymmetry. The two blades make seamstress' shears, not just regular scissors. Better for snipping loose threads.
5 Nui's Blade Changes Color
Here's something that might really fly by if you're not paying attention. Nui's half of the scissors actually change color depending on who's using it. When Isshin attacks her with the complete Rending Scissors, both halves are red. Then when Nui takes her blade it becomes purple. But once Ryuko steals it back from her, it becomes red again. What's going on here? There's no in-universe answer, but we might guess Nui's Life Fibers were effecting the blade's. Makes as much sense as anything else.
4 Preventing Regeneration
The greatest advantage of the Rending Scissors, once the blades are put together, isn't just that they can cut Life Fibers. No, it's that they prevent Life Fibers from regenerating. So any damage the two blades cause together is permanent.
More Life Fibers would be needed to fix anything they cut. Hilariously, this ability is demonstrated through attacks on Nui Harime, who's made entirely of Life Fibers. Her eyepatch and missing arms are both the result of this effect. It's the one thing that actually hurts her.
3 Can Work Separately
Examining them, the Rending Scissors don't really work much like scissors. Not in the important way at least. The biggest example? Well the whole point of bringing the two blades together is to prevent Life Fibers from regenerating from their cut.
But it turns out that Ryuko didn't even need to join them together to get this effect. She just needed to use them both at the same time. We suppose that's how actual scissors work (theoretically) but it's still strange.
2 Where Did The Screw Come From?
It wasn't until the anime's last episode that Ryuko was able to put both Scissor Blades together into the Rending Scissors. This made both blades more powerful but raises an important question. Where did the screw bolting them together come from?
Seriously, we see a screw appear from thin air to combine the two blades together, but there is no indication of where the heck that screw came from. Was it the original screw? Did Ryuko summon it somehow? Did she will it into existence? We guess we'll never know.
1 Mighty No.9
Kill La Kill IF- The Game won't actually be the first time the series' signature scissor blades have popped up in the video game world. Way back in 2013, the boss character Brandish from Mighty No.9 wielded a very similar weapon. A red-colored ninja robot, Brandish's main weapon were two blades that resembled the halves of a scissor. Character designer Kimi Kono hasn't mentioned any Kill La Kill influence for Brandish's design, but Mighty No.9 began development around the same time the anime originally aired. Maybe scissor weapons were just in the air back in 2013.