Nisioisn, the creator of the Monogatari series, recently ran a new manga in Shonen Jump, and which ran in on the app in the US – Cipher Academy. The series gained a degree of infamy due to a level of wordplay that lead to a change in translators partway through the run. Well, I’ve read the whole thing, following its conclusion, and I have a few thoughts.
Cipher Academy, much as with Bakemonogatari, has a weird mix of the very light, with an undercurrent that isn’t dwelled on, but is still very present, of the very dark. The plot follows Iroha Irohazaka, the only male student at an otherwise all girls school with a focus on cryptography and puzzle solving. Iroha has entered the academy with a goal to (basically) end all wars. To do this he’ll have to become the “Leading Private” of his class, and then obtain a massive vault full of cryptocurrency within the school, which in turn will require him to triumph at a long series of puzzle battles, and earn the trust of his classmates.
As with much of Nisioisn’s work – this lives and dies by its writing, as while the art is very solid, it’s for the service of the dialog – eventually we do get some some puzzles with some major visual elements to them, but there’s a lot of wordplay – which is why the first translator ran into problems and eventually had to tap out – which is completely valid. It doesn’t have the same level of visual flash that Bakemonogatari did in animation, but it’s easy to follow with some stylish elements.
Fortunately, Nisioisn is also a pretty solid writer of characters as well, so the members of Iroha’s class have really strong personalities, with a few gimmicks to help particular characters stand out, and also very strong chemistry. Additionally, this could very easily have gone into harem category (effectively one guy in a class of girls) – but it never really does. No ecchi elements here (contrasted with the Monogatari series), and no heavy romance elements either.
There is a very dark undercurrent to various parts of the story – there are untold deaths in the background of various characters, with many of them having blood on their hands, but the series never particularly dwells on it. It just brings it up and then moves on, and it manages to do it without cheapening those elements of the story.
I wouldn’t necessarily call this a must-read, but I would say that if you’re a fan of how Nisioisn handles wordplay, this should scratch this itch for you.
Cipher Academy is available in the Shonen Jump app.
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