Cipher 1
Posted: October 2, 2008 Filed under: Cipher 8 Comments »I picked this up simply because I liked the really classic-looking art so much. The plot sounded a bit too over-the-top shoujo for my tastes, but I was in the mood for an older manga, so here I am.
My thoughts after reading the plot summary seem kind of on the mark so far, the main character is on a quest to tell a pair of twins apart and be told the secret of why they pretend to be one person at both school and at the acting jobs they both get. She moves in with them for awhile to try and settle their bet. This premise alone is pretty far out in shoujo manga territory, but as of yet it lacks any romance, which is astounding since a regular series would be dropping a ton of hints after the heroine moves in with two famous guys. Anise is not that kind of girl, and wants at most a very platonic friendship with one or both of them. Any hints at romance are stopped cold in her ignorance of such things.
The boys themselves also kind of push her away. Anise values her friendship with Cipher and Siva, but is appalled whenever she realizes they don’t value her nearly as much. There’s a few instances of this, and there’s also a few instances of Anise getting close to Cipher (I think… one is slightly more sentimental than the other). Absolutely nothing has happened between these characters yet, but I actually really like series where the romance develops extremely slowly since those tend to be more emotional and touching. Plus, there were hints at more than one personal secret on both sides, so there promises to be some juicy/tragic revelations in the future.
I also kind of like the fact it takes place in New York City. Not many manga take place in America, and CMX publishes the only two I can think of off the top of my head (this and Moon Child). The setting is quite nice so far, and the characters have already done some walking around the city.
[...] and vols. 1 and 2 of Blood+ Lissa Pattillo reviews vol. 3 of Sundome at Kuriousity. Connie reads vol. 1 of Cipher and vol. 24 of Bleach at Slightly Biased Manga. At Comics Village, Sabrina reviews vol. 1 of Rave [...]
I actually really want to read this one. I have all of it; it’s just sitting there ’til I have time to get to it. :)
This sentence is the most interesting to me: “Anise values her friendship with Cipher and Siva, but is appalled whenever she realizes they don’t value her nearly as much.” Probably because such things happen all the time in real life.
Actually, Volume 1 of Cipher is probably the most “sensational” of the series; most of the other volumes are way more realistic. The series is full of human drama and drugs and death and stuff, but the over-the-topness of the first volume seemed more the result of the mangaka trying to hook readers more than anything. Cipher is a really understated, 11-volume character study, not quite like most things on the market. If you liked Volume 1, stick around. Volumes 4-8 all made me cry.
Oh, and Banana Fish takes place in 1980s New York, too. Fake takes place in New York, although later (90′s, 2000+?).
I honestly adore this manga series and I’m happy that you’re reading & reviewing it.
Good, I’m glad this series is so well-liked, and it sounds very much like something I should have read a long time ago. I especially love tearjerkers, so now I’m looking forward to the later volumes.
Well, I did think they went a bit soap operish in Volume 6, but they recovered in the next one.
And you know, I don’t think Anise is the protagonist after having read the first 7 volumes. I think the twins are.
it drives me absolutely crazy the way they print some of the sentences in the bubbles backwards and up and down! they are a bitch to read and i really hope that subsequent volumes correct this. i’m up to volume 2 and i really hope they change that…
Yeah, I noticed it every once in awhile in other CMX books, but it really is the worst in Cipher. English just does not read vertically. It drove me crazy, I’m kind of surprised I didn’t mention it in the review.
I keep forgetting I have a few more volumes of this series in my to read pile. I like it a lot, I should probably get on that this week.