Cipher

This anime… Whew. You either hate it or love it. But I'll tell you right now, if you expect something akin to the manga, that's not what this is. The manga, from the little I've read, is supposed to be a love story involving a girl and two boys in an American high school. The beginning of the OVA kind of does that (keyword: kind of), but then eventually it takes a completely different turn.

It turns into a guy who became a famous actor, I guess. Now, I'm not necessarily against the idea of an anime adaption taking a different turn compared to the ... manga, but the way Cipher does it is juxtaposing prime. The storyline is awkward to say the least, a mishmash between several plotlines. It’s about high school kids, then it's about making it big in Hollywood, and then it turns into a gay love story. As you can imagine, it all mixes together as about as well as oil mixes with water.

The music is pretty catchy and features 80s' classics, albeit out of place at certain parts. However, that's where my compliments on the sound end. The voice acting is so awful it's hilarious. It's like they found random people on the street and paid them $10 to read lines. Character development? What's that?

To have that, you need to have… Character. There are a lot of things happening to the protagonist, sure, but we know next to nothing about him. He’s a teenage actor and… That’s about it. The other characters have the same level of depth, too. There is nothing that gets me invested in these characters. With all that said, would I recommend watching this anime?

Yes. Is it bad? Also, yes. But it’s an experience. Firstly, it’s an anime that’s so bad it’s funny. Secondly, it’s a good tutorial on how not to write a story for any aspiring fiction writers. Thirdly, you can enjoy it with your fellow anime-loving friends as you roast it… Preferably with a beer or two. And to be fair, it's pretty rare to find an anime where its original dub is in English which just adds to the uniqueness. And from what I can tell, the creator seemed to have a lot of fun making it. Even though this anime is far from good, it’s still a very enjoyable series.

I just watched the 1989 ONA Cipher and I have no idea what to say, this anime is unexplainable, sure it has a plot and a somewhat cohesive story, but there is something about this that I truly can't wrap my head around, whether it's good or bad I can honestly say I've never watched anything like this anime.


So the story is basically this, there are two twin brothers who pretend to be the same person, and a girl at their school I think finds out about it and wants to be their friend or something... Shiver the one brother is a famous actor ... currently shooting a football movie called "Winning Tough" and the other brother Cipher is a musician. Well this movie is an absolute disaster, I honestly don't think Einstein could wrap his head around this movie and I don't think that it is in a good way either, it is so confusing but I don't know why, I've never been more confused watching a film before.


Something I genuinely liked about the movie was the soundtrack, it was good, classic 80's songs from great artists like Phil Colin's. The voice acting on the other hand is dreadful, some of the worst I've ever heard, this makes the original Devilman series of 1987 look like acting greatness. I did believe the soundtrack gave it some sort of charisma I guess.


The animation was awful, yes even for the time period. Not much else can be said about the animation though, it wasn't a unique art style and it was just plain horrible, the movement was stiff, colors looked ugly, and the art in general wasn't terrible but definitely wasn't good.


I've been putting it down but I do think there is something different about this ONA, it genuinely did intrigue me in this weird way I can't explain. I am not saying it is good or anything, I'm just saying their truly is something about this that I just couldn't wrap my head around, it kind of left me speechless. I mean it still sucks though... right?

A touching love letter to American pop culture of the time, not much more. That's what this adaptation is, it's not too entertaining or special with no real plot beyond showcasing the only real character in it, whos a movie star. Comments on the video I watched mentioned it was intentionally dubbed in English when it was made, resulting in a bad dub. But that only contributes to its feel of American Culture, and does not detract from the show due to it being so American. The only real thing the show addresses is how many pop and movie stars become estranged from their families ... over time and the toll it can take.

To wrap up the music in it is English pop music, and with the lack of plot making the show feel like a music video. The music itself is pretty tinny. Visuals are pretty classic shoujo for the time. And story is practically non existent. Still for a 26 min one shot I think it might be worth your time, depending on what you expect to get out of shows. It best comes across as a love letter to American Pop culture of the time.

Cipher the Video is a 1989 OVA adapted from a 1985 manga (simply titled "Cipher") which tells the story of two teenage twins. If you only watch this OVA, good luck trying to actually find a plot.

Simply put, Cipher is quite possibly the single worst "animated" audio-visual product I have ever sat through. This is not entertainment and to refer to it as actual animation is an insult to the craft since there is only the slightest hint of it in this 26 minute exercise. Sure, even quality can come from OVAs with limited animation but even the art style is poorly done; characters are ... generic and messy, lacking in any personality whatsoever.

This lack of personality isn't just limited to the design but also the voice acting (the OVA was only ever dubbed in English with Japanese subtitles, apparently trying to go for realism but ending up with something far worse). The actors are decidedly amateur and noticeably flub some of their lines as if they hadn't bothered to read the script or just used the first take each time. Somewhat thankfully the dialogue is kept to a minimum, with the majority of the runtime dedicated to montages of images as 80s pop tunes play over them. Unfortunately for us some of these are dreadful cover versions of classics by the likes of Phil Collins and Kenny Loggins.

I mentioned at the start of this review the difficulty in understanding the plot, but that's because there really isn't one. It's just montages of images with no direction whatsoever and no attempt at cohesion or constructing even a basic narrative. From what I have heard th manga is actually pretty good so if you're looking for something new to read then it might be worth checking out.

Even ironically I cannot recommend this. Unlike other bad anime which can be mocked and ridiculed to the point where it is perversely enjoyable, Cipher offers no such redeeming qualities. It is a pointless, banal waste of time.

Ok so just finished watching the OVA and afterwards i wanted to see if the manga was as shit as the short video. And let me tell you It is wayyyyyy better than this short. After reading the first volume of the manga thinking back to the video made a little bit more sense. You would need to go to the manga and read it( which I highly recommend) but even in the first chapter I was pulled into the story it really is amazing but this is also me talking about the first volume, which I hope the rest of the story is as ... great as the beginning. The art is also really beautiful in the manga but that’s just my opinion. Overall I would highly recommend the story then go back and watch the OVA, or not cause it was pretty shit....
OVA: 3/10
Manga:9/10

I think this may have just been the very first AMV.

While I'm now intrigued to take a further look into the manga, I don't recommend spending 40mins of your time watching this, might as well just play an 80s playlist instead.

For those I've seen explaining it would be more enjoyable to watch if I had read the manga, I'm sorry but there's no way this would have made you happy, even if you were a fan of the series. I'd just be upset this was all they put together.

Although I do have to admit, if they hadn't used only English 80s songs and instead ... added Jpop from the 80s, my enjoyment would have gone way furtherup and I'd give this a 3 for allowing me to find new music.