CIPHER

DESCRIPTION

CAST

MANGA DramaCIPHER

REVIEWS

• 

  arsenic

  87/100
  A compelling narrative surrounding the battle between our egos and desire for success.

  THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

  There's something particularly distressing about everyday lives. It's only natural that humans want both a successful career but also to be able to keep our individuality. I think this piece of work portrays exactly that.

  The main character, Siva, is disappointed to find out that his field of work as an actor is surrounded by superficiality. He has frivolous fans that chase after him, however, his one true friend is his brother as well as his colleague. He is surrounded by people who only see him for his talent but not his value as a person.

  His twin's character is particularly interesting. At the beginning of the OVA we're left under the impression that he simply helps his brother out by switching with him on set and helping him ward off the fake people in his life, but the longer it goes on, the longer we're left to ponder who he really is. At the end of the movie, it heavily alludes that the twin and Siva become one in order to lead a satisfying life. That raises the question - is Jake Lang actually a spiritual deity, or is the ending more metaphorical? Despite the fact that I mulled over this question many hours after I had finished watching Cipher - and believe me, this OVA has that much of an effect on just about anyone - I still could not come to a concrete answer. I suppose it is left up for interpretation, much like the ending of Perfect Blue.

  As well as the relatable yet still engaging plotline, it's also worth noting that the soundtrack, as well as the directing, are well-executed. Despite the OVA being quite old, all of these factors remain impressive even from a contemporary point of view. The voice actors deliver their lines with just the right amount of passion and the soundtracks always seem to fit the mood of the scene, be it cheery or dark. Though our everyday lives aren't accompanied by songs, if they were, I imagine that the experience would be similar.

  The characters' arcs are well-rounded despite its short run-time, with each coming to a satisfying conclusion by the end, which is something I personally find to be very commendable. Though the themes introduced aren't overly complex, I believe that this is why Cipher hits so deeply and resonates with the everyday person. But I believe if the cast was made up of a bigger number of characters, that wouldn't be possible.

  So you must be thinking, based on what I've said so far, Cipher is clearly a masterpiece. Why is the score an 8.7/10?

  I think that the narrative can come off as incoherent at certain points, which makes it harder to understand for the average viewer. I've dedicated a long amount of time and research into piecing together the plotline and though without this much effort put into it, the OVA is still enjoyable, I think that it deserves a penalty for its unclear storytelling in some parts.

  Overall, I recommend giving Cipher a watch as long as you're willing to understand it. Treat Cipher with care and give it the recognition it deserves.

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• 

  StrawHatIrene

  95/100
  It's a plain fantastic OVA for fans of the manga. That's all it needs to be.

  The following is a review I originally wrote on Letterboxd. But before we proceed, I noticed the other review on here attempting to piece together the plot of the OVA, without any knowledge of the source material it is based on. I have no idea if it's a sarcastic review, but it does lead into the missing piece that people are usually unaware of whenever they watch Cipher the Video. Hence the ridicule. Hence the conclusion that this man named Siva is a spiritual being, and not some two-brain-celled twink who playfully bickers with his friends a lot.

  Anyway:

  Cipher the Video isn't so much an adaptation of Cipher as much at is an adaptation of Cipher's feel. The comic brandished many beautiful establishing shots of both New York and Los Angeles, creative and dynamic paneling, and an immense love for the fun, peppy nature of 1980s American pop culture. It fulfills all of Minako Narita's hopes and dreams by allowing her to convert her renditions of New York into sweeping colored backgrounds, in motion. It especially fulfills her dreams of being able to pair popular licensed songs with her own property. It's a supplementary piece to a lovely comedy-romance manga, working in tandem with it rather than separately from it.

  Particularly, the most Cipher the Video adapts story-wise (besides the very beginning in the form of "I want to be your friend!") is an arc where Jake and Roy take a trip to LA to film a football movie. This entails Anise going on a cross-country biking trip to see them, but the OVA instead focuses more on the fictional movie that the comic doesn't focus much on. Besides that, the comic establishes early on that Roy will sometimes take walks throughout the city when feeling down, hence the sequence that occurs when his mother is mentioned. Why the mention of his mother triggers this is something I won't spoil either, but it's to be said that parental issues are a vital theme of Cipher. The OVA also foreshadows the appearance of Levine, who is very important in the plot of the manga after the video's release.

  Cipher the Video is something that you need to be a fan of Cipher to truly understand the appeal of. Fans will revel in how every unique attribute of the comic is represented with flying colors, and the ability to tell their confused friends the individual context of every scene. Maybe the movie could've taken the time to explain things [even I had a bit of trouble remembering whether it was Siva who got the ponytail and orange hair in the first LA trip or not], but why ruin the illusion of a mockumentary that embraces the energy of Narita's masterful chapter covers and background work?

  This isn't a bad OVA, or "so bad it's good". It's a plain fantastic OVA for fans of the manga. That's all it needs to be. Who cares if it's a more "read the manga" work than One Piece even is at a fanbase level?

  Read the manga.

  -a big Cipher fan

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• 

  3zra

  10/100
  Had potential, showed none of it. (great art though)

  Contains spoilers:

  Having not read the manga: the OVA suggests a possibly-complex storyline; however, barely any of it was apparent. The voice acting was bad, but it was hard to get good English voice actors at the time. I loved the art and character design. The concept was interesting, but the cuts made it very hard to follow and majority of the OVA was scenery with music or shots of the MC's life with minimal context. Many scenes repasted (this may just be common in older anime). I couldn't tell the twins apart, at all (typically, for film purposes, there would be some sort of distinction: i.e. different voice actors, heights, Fred and George in Harry Potter who are naturally slightly different with different voices and also constantly address one another by their names). `I really hope someone remakes this!! Cipher seems like it would be a great anime.`

  Breaking it down:

  Voice acting:
  The voice acting was my second least favourite aspect of the OVA. Terrible voice acting is bearable if the anime itself is good- however, this was not the case. The intonation was not the worst but definitely not professional by any means. The pauses in speech were always either too long or too short (i.e. the memed scene where one of them wakes up for breakfast and they take maybe around three shots in silence staring at one another). There was no proper emotion displayed in any of their voices- I'd even say that the scene where they're being slightly 'over-dramatic' in terms of voice acting to represent the character themselves acting was better than the rest (but still not very good). Their tone was off as well- I'm not sure how you'd fix a tone of voice as I'm not a voice actor or singer, but the tone had a childish tinge to it which made it harder to become immersed. I also believe that the voice actors for the twins should have been different in order to differentiate the two- it would have added character and been more immersive and easier to comprehend.

  Art and character design:
  I loved the art. For its time its good art, and for today it's nostalgic art. I would, again, prefer if the twins were made to look slightly different though. One thing that could have been done is maybe have adult-looking twin always wear glasses while the younger one doesn't. (I think the older one has a ponytail though? I can't tell anything at all from the OVA so I can't say). The character design is really good, each character was really cool looking. There should definitively be less scenery shots, but I think that's less of art/character design and more of the concept's issue.

  Other (idk what to label):
  An MTV style OVA sounds like a really cool and interesting concept, but it was not done well at all. There were way too many cuts to follow anything that was happening: I couldn't tell what was the intro, ending, or storyline. There was not enough showing- where the plot is explained visually- as well as not enough telling either- where the plot is explained through words. For example, there were a bunch of shots of the twins in their everyday lives (bear in mind, these shots didn't tell us much about what they did in their everyday lives and instead focused on showing the twins off from different angles) that were placed in between two shots that referenced the death of their mother- by showing the funeral- past trauma. Another example is the array of football clips that, even now, I don't know if the main character is a football player, an actor, or this was a diary of his? We also got that the setting is New York (or Los Angeles, I can't tell anymore since they intermingled the story with cuts) without the 50 different shots of the twin towers and Washington Square. Maybe around approximately 27 minutes of the OVA was actual storyline (debatably considering I understood none of it), and the last approximate 13 minutes were credits/behind-the-scenes. Majority of the 27 minutes of 'story-line' was music and scenery. Maybe around 5% of the OVA actually showed anything understandable.

  I have zero clue on how much effort was put into this and how much effort it takes, I apologise if I've said anything wrong.

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