Angou Gakuen no Iroha
Cipher Academy

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Make no mistake, Cipher Academy appeals to a very niche audience and that is no understatement. (Unless you're a diehard Nisio Isin fan who also happens to be a language otaku familiar with every nook and cranny of the Japanese language. If so, congratulations! You've hit the jackpot.)

Being a work befitting of Nisio and his eccentric storytelling style it is atypical in many ways such as the wealth of text on every page, jam-packed with language-specific puns, catchphrases and references to other media (including his own, of course) and if this was any of his other works it would have been well accepted and appreciated ... even by international fans. But alas, this manga is about ciphers, the very backbone of which is the Japanese language, a mystery most of us probably can't wrap our heads around beyond the few translator's notes scattered across the manga (seriously, what is up with that. If there's anytime to soil a page with TL notes now is the time). But no matter, even the author himself probably realised this since almost every chapter would have notes at the bottom explaining things as one reads along so fret not! Nisio has you covered.

If you're looking forward to having fun solving the ciphers in this manga by yourself be prepared to be disappointed because most of them either require an exaggerated level of Japanese knowledge or you're just too stupid. Either way, most of the ciphers don't feel like they are intended to be solved before the characters do so just enjoy the ride and let the characters themselves do the explaining.

As for the characters we have a lovely cast of very distinct and likeable characters, each having unique character designs and traits that make them easy to tell apart considering we have an entire class' worth of them introduced right of the bat with wacky puns for names. You just can't dislike them.

The premise of the plot is simple but gets more and more interesting as the story develops so I'm excited to see where this is going, with already very noticeable peaks early on that have chills down my spine just thinking about. It really helps a lot that the art is so precise and expressive which goes a long way in conveying emotion well. The expressiveness of every character is drawn flawlessly, which is rather important in a mystery genre like this. The artist takes no liberties in poses, perspectives and facial expressions so there's a lot to like.

Nonetheless, Cipher Academy is no doubt a hallmark masterpiece of this era, one that superbly challenges the mind in both riddles and our ability to endure the sheer overwhelming text on each page.

This manga is a unique one. If you like puzzles and mystery you've found the perfect manga. The puzzles? Nearly unsolvable. The twists? Every other week. The characters? Lovable. The entertainment when you combine them? Phenomenal.

The puzzles have the most random solutions for them, making it nearly impossible for the reader to solve. It's worse as someone that does not speak Japanese, because some of these puzzles were made with Japanese-based solutions in mind. Despite the impossible puzzles it is still fun to watch them be solved and receive somewhat complex explanations for them.

Since this is a mystery manga it is bound to have ... twists. The twists are not too predictable, while still making enough sense within the story to not make the reader think "well that was stupid". The plot itself can be considered lackluster, but the twists and turns help keep the reader engaged.

To help with cultural differences or language barriers, there are notes throughout the chapter explaining things to the reader, which has definitely proven helpful. Aside from the puzzles and mystery the manga can also be cute and and goofy at times, giving the reader a nice smile or chuckle.

Definitely not a manga for everyone, but it can be worth a shot.

I didn't like my old review so I wanted to write a new one

Cipher academy is a manga about solving puzzles, school drama, the growth of the protagonist and other characters through various situations and cheesy power of friendship in the way that an average shonen manga should be. so I will analyze the various aspects of this manga in more detail.

1.Story & plots & premise
Usually for me the plot where the main character joins X is quite repetitive and formulaic. (Many of this author's works always have a school setting. I don't know why.) But in this manga, A boy (yes, a boy, ... he's cute, right?) attends an all-girls school that focuses on deciphering and solving many puzzles that their received. this may seem boring to most people. In particular, most of the puzzles require knowledge of the Japanese language. but what makes this manga portray these things so well is the characters' reactions towards those puzzles. and their interactions (I think art helps a lot. I'll cover the art part) so you can enjoy it without trying to solve the puzzles yourself. Just watch the characters do their thing even if some of the puzzles are stupid and don't make sense and can be solved just because....it is, But like I said This manga has a refreshing and unique atmosphere that keeps you entertained even if you don't understand any damn thing, As for the premise that's straightforward but has a good and beautiful meaning. an normal boy dreams of ending the war with the treasure he will receive after overcoming many obstacles. (I won't spoil any further, because I want you to read it yourself) This suitable the concept of most shonen manga where the protagonist wants to be X or make the world better. It's not that special imo, but it's easy to understand and fits well with the world situation as the author wishes to convey the meaning


2.Characters
It's what truly carries this manga. From the protagonist to supporting characters and others that make you want to root for them. as the story progresses each character becomes more interesting. They have their own unique personalities and motivation. Even though there are a lot of characters, they don't feel like they're cookie cutter at all, let's start with Irohazaka iroha, the cute femboy protagonist who on the first volume cover. he's a really good protagonist imo. In terms of personality, he seems naive and always tries to be friendly to others, even if that person is not friendly to him, he has a habit of always caring for others and has an genki attitude that is always eager to do things with confidence in himself. These things alone make him very likable to me. since this manga has so many characters, describing them one by one is too much for me. So I'll list my favorite characters and explain a little about them.

2.1 Irohazaka iroha
Who I think will be probably the cutest male jump protagonist since nagisa shiota from assassination classroom. his personality makes him even more cuter and loveable. most importantly, he likes to dance !!!

2.2 Anonymity Requested
She looks like she's from a typical shojo or romcom manga. and of course she is the best girl in terms of cuteness and charm. It made me think for days when she took off her mask for the first time.

2.3 Toshusai kyora
the villain looking girl who is actually very sweet girl. The relationship between her and the protagonist as friends is really good.

2.4 Kasuri Ensa
She is the protagonist's closest friend. A lovely and trustworthy friend, their relationship seems to be platonic relationship more than man-woman romance for me.

2.5 Yugata Tayutan
The stoic-looking girl was due to her past. She is very cool girl and has some interesting special abilities that make you want to root on her. Her relationship between toshusai is sooooo wholesome (It's a little yuri bait for me)

3.Art
It's very stylish and underrated for me. I'm surprised and a feel little hurt by people who don't like or hate the manga and don't even appreciate the art at least. the character designs are simple but attractive and with such an art style. It makes reading manga filled with lots of information and puzzles more appealing. It makes me want to see new work by this artist as soon as possible, even if he no longer collaborates with this manga's writer

4.Others
One thing you can clearly notice is that even though there was only one boy (because we haven't seen the other boys yet) and several dozen female characters. It also has no elements of romance or harem or fan service as it should be due to its setting. and the female characters are quite independent in their own, If you want to think deeper, this manga is very feminist. whatever it is, it's up to you. I like this type of trope. the manga has really interesting at women writing, the relationship between the male protagonist and the other female characters is based on friendship and trust

In the end, it's a huge shame that the manga didn't succeed, even though its quality deserved it. It's been 5 months since serialization ended. I still miss this and Imagine what it would be like if it had not been canceled and flourished in this magazine.

I will say I love you, Cipher Academy, and I'm glad I read this manga from beginning to end. and whoever reads this review should read it too. If you have already dropped it please pick it up again and read it carefully.

May the war will end

Written by the legendary Nisio Isin, I had big expectations for this new manga. The story takes place at a cypher school where the main guy (yes, it's a guy) enrolled.

Reading a Nisio Isin story often takes a lot of brainpower due to the sheer amount of text, subtext, references and writer notes, but this manga takes it to the extreme. Almost every page has a note to explain what is going on. From an artistical point of view it's quite impressing to see the love and attention Nisio Isin puts into writing his stories. But from a reader perspective it doesn't make for such ... an enjoyable experience.

Being in a cypher schools, you're prestented with a lot of cyphers that the caracters play with. But while a few cyphers can be decoded on your own, most of them require a stupid amount of knowledge about japanese culture, japanese alphabet and a lot of other languages (braille, music,..). It does a really good job at portraying how talented the caracters are but I guess I would've liked some cyphers to be a bit easier since it's fun to decode them.

On the caracter side, it's still early in the story to have fully fledged out caracters but Nisio Isin always delivers at making you attached to complex caracters.

The art is pretty basic for the most part but some panels are absolutely gorgerous.

I'm not sure if I should recommend you to read this. The cyphers and their explaination are quite hard to understand but the story remains quite entertaining.

I was never a reader of Nisio Isin story, so coming into this was quite a doozy, lots of wordplay, lots of puzzles, lots of "more on that later" vibes. It was nothing within my knowledge or wheelhouse, I just opened it because I heard of legendary status of the author so I thought, "okay I'll start here." I think because the story was not given the proper amount of time to develop (would an author only want nearly 60 chapters where it seems a larger looming war was being trained for?!?!?!) I cannot give this series higher than a certain threshold, not because it's ... bad but because it's unfinished. I enjoyed the wild puzzles and convoluted explanations about how certain characters solve riddles and their backstories and abilities. I enjoyed the potential for a story critical of war and crafting super soldier squads to enlist in things. I enjoyed the protagonist's noble goal of ending all wars and the kindness he held. But I did not always enjoy things, in the beginning, the story seemed to lag or maybe I was not entertained, in truth I found it a bit boring and I even forced myself to trudge through the chapters, but once more characters were introduced, the other classes and the challenges across classes, the metaverse arc, I found the narrative to be quite enjoyable. I think I started enjoying after the murder mystery arc. It wasn't clicking much for me but I'm glad I read it, I'm gonna accept the MAL rating of 6 because "fine" is the way I'd describe this at-times-charming, at-times-complicated, at-times-hard-to-get-through, unfinished story.

This manga started a short time ago, and I admit that at first it seemed a little confusing and overexplanatory in how it showed some codes and their resolution. But after such little amount of chapters it really shows how big of a potential it has. The characters become more lovable and complex each time they appear, and the plot does become more interesting each chapter. Apart from that, the art is actually kind of nice, it is quite simple, but it shows some very well drawn panels if it needs them to be detailed for whatever reason.

This manga is still new but I ... really recommend giving it a go at some point.

School drama about solving puzzles. Seems like this would be a slam dunk but sadly it's incredibly boring.

Very poor start to the series. The puzzles are way too random and get solved in literally seconds. There is zero buildup to any of the battles which makes the whole thing feel shallow. Character development is nonexistent. Everyone is either a genius or a cheater or just annoying.

Artwork is fairly standard and I wouldn't expect anything more from this genre.

Hopefully this manga gets better but it's not looking good. Definitely would not recommend this as it stands right now.