Kubikiri Cycle: Aoiro Savant to Zaregotozukai

Due to a mysterious disease, the genius Iria Akagami has been forced by her family to stay in a mansion on the isolated Wet Crow's Feather Island with only a handful of maids. To keep herself entertained, Iria invites a variety of fellow geniuses to stay as guests in her home, including computer savant Tomo Kunagisa and her unnamed assistant, skilled fortune-teller Maki Himena, famous artist Kanami Ibuki, academic scholar Akane Sonoyama, and renowned cook Yayoi Sashirono.

These visits progress as normal until one of the guests is found gruesomely murdered in the night without a single clue as to the identity of the killer or a possible motive. Tensions rise between those on the island as the killer remains at large, and Tomo's assistant takes it upon himself to uncover the culprit's identity before the murderous events progress any further.

[Written by MAL Rewrite]

Boku Main

Kaji, Yuuki Japanese

Kunagisa, Tomo Main

Yuuki, Aoi Japanese

Aikawa, Jun Supporting

Kaida, Yuuko Japanese

Sonoyama, Akane Supporting

Shimamura, Yuu Japanese

Himena, Maki Supporting

Endou, Aya Japanese

Ibuki, Kanami Supporting

Kawasumi, Ayako Japanese

Chiga, Teruko Supporting

Gotou, Yuuko Japanese

Chiga, Hikari Supporting

Shintani, Ryouko Japanese

Handa, Rei Supporting

Kuwashima, Houko Japanese

Akagami, Iria Supporting

Ise, Mariya Japanese

Yodo, Akiko Producer

Matsushita, Takuya Producer

Shinbou, Akiyuki Director, Series Composition

Yase, Yuki Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Reviews

Sep 26, 2017

LouysG

Recommended

:: NO SPOILERS ::

Zaregoto is a Nisioisin show. Who ever told you it was a mystery probably told you PMMM is a kids show, and Shokugeki No Soma is a cooking manga. Bottom line, if you like that Nisioisin flavor you're gonna like this OVA, if you don't, well, at least ep. 7 has a beautifully animated scene directed by Akiyuki Shinbo that's worth the 8 ep. price of admission.

Without reading any of the other reviews I can tell you what they're gonna say. Zaregoto is a slow build. The main character is an edgelord. It's a little bit too much of a stale whodunnit? ... without a sense that something tangible is at stake. Yeah, forget that noise. Like Monogatari, the big flashy genre set-pieces are sideshows, the character drama is the main event. All the mansions and murders and mauve color palettes only really matter to the extent that they give us greater insight into the characters themselves, the demons they're wrestling with, and whether or not they can actually overcome them. Deep breath. So yeah, the story starts with a lot of talking heads and not a lot of lopping heads. That's the point. When the characters and the hidden forces that drive them are the meat of the story its natural to spend 2-3 episodes listening to them subtly unveil the workings of their inner psyche. Of course, this is what makes Boku (MC-kun) seem like a member of the edge nobility. You already know him, he's the world-weary hoodie-donning teenager who abuses his privilege as narrator to preach his profound-as-a-puddle philosophy of not caring. Thankfully the show knows better. Half the fun of Zaregoto is watching the people around him pick away at his shell. He's a moaner, but he's not trash. You genuinely hope he'll evolve into a better person by the end of the series.

What are you waiting for? I gave you the bottom line in the first paragraph. Stop reading reviews and just go watch the thing!

Reviewer’s Rating: 9

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Jul 26, 2018

mayoiko

Mixed Feelings

Overall:
1. The protagonist is typical nihilist wannabe.
2. The case scenario is typical Agatha Christie's locked-room murder.
3. The irrelevant cool genius Aikawa is typical Sherlock rip off.

At the moment I start watching it, I knew this anime is all about nihilism and existentialism, but it's definitely nihilism for the protagonist, plus it was started with a quote by Nietzsche, the godfather of all nihilism fanboy, so at that moment I assume that the writer of the story must be one of those nihilist f*g. Later, I found out that it was by Nisioisin, and tbh I never really finish the monogatari series, I only watched the ... first season, as it was dreadfully boring for some reason I just gave up. So, all I know is that Nietzsche's nihilism must be his primary inspiration for this.

At second episode, the moment Ilya start mentioning about this "interesting character who is like a detective", Aikawa, for some reason it reminded me of Agatha Christie immediately, since this is mystery anime with murder case, Agatha's work is most likely to inspire the story of the case in this anime. Like any other anime and movies or whatever, Agatha is a well known writer of detective novels and the one with strong influence of locked-room mystery subgenre, this anime is influenced and of course use the locked-room type of murder to create a case. And guess what? yep, locked-room murder! with the possibility of everyone could the suspect! how very Agatha Christie-ish!

Aside from Agatha as another inspiration for this anime, I suspect Aikawa's character is Sherlock rip-off, even before she actually shows up. BBC's Sherlock especially, not a detective but a consultant, both of them. yes, consulting detective. And when she shows up, "an expert at humanity", knowing where the protagonist wanted to go by deduction, yep, it confirms it.

I know Nisioisin's inspiration are primarily these three: Nietzsche, Agatha Christie, and Sherlock. It's so so very obvious. So this anime isn't a work of someone talented, this is a work of a "hardworking" person, because it's bland, and it's as if he just ripped those so called inspiration off and mixed it in one, without much of modification. Why did he write the novel I wonder? with this anime adaptation I can see how he isn't good at this genre. I'm sure, the only reason it even got an adaptation was because it's a work of Nisioisin, someone with reputation and fanbase, not necessarily because it's actually good. I do admire of the possibility that he might want to prove a point that nihilism is realistic or something like that.

But, something about the protagonist's characteristic just feels off. Nihilist but righteous? Apathetic but empathic? He is supposed to be nihilistic and apathetic, but with his close minded mind he thinks murder is definitely wrong and unforgivable under any circumstances, it's as if he blindly swallowed the norm's definition of what's right and what's wrong, because he said that there is no reason needed to believe that it's wrong. Someone like this can never be a nihilist and an apathetic person, because being apathetic in the first place is wrong by society's standard or morality. To be a nihilist you need to be open minded and realize that nothing matters, hence you will be apathetic and you will not concern yourself about anything banal.

But then again, its either that, or the protagonist is actually not nihilistic and apathetic at all, being with Tomo who he likes and jealous of at the same time, makes him wants to be able to get rid of his emotions, hence behaving like a nihilist and claiming to be apathetic, for the sake of staying at her side. But then again, he said that he is naturally nihilistic and apathetic and that Tomo is the "moisture" for his "dryness", so maybe the protagonist's characteristic is indeed kinda off. But who knows, in the end, whichever it is depends on mere perception.

Reviewer’s Rating: 5

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Dec 3, 2017

Detective

Not Recommended

Superimposition and retrospect ultimately lead to this abomination. This is an amateur work by NisioIsin developed, marketed, packaged, and sold in a post-Bakemonogatari world. This is the greatest undoing of this work, but to understand why this project failed beyond direct content we have to tackle a series of other shortcomings first.

1. Closed room murder mystery featuring a cast of geniuses.
2. The ever tired and tiring fantasy that is the coming of age narrative.
3. The once-iconic now-generic SHAFT direction style.

1. Vagueness is not profundity
The story is set on an isolated island where an assorted group has been assembled by a quirky patron of ... the arts. There are around ten characters in the story. Only two are men, including the protagonist. Most of the other characters are famous in their universe for their ability, not much unlike the setting of Danganronpa fused with the backdrop of Umineko. They are blandly introduced with a title card to signify their importance. There is the adorable chef, the hotheaded fortune teller, and the disabled artist among others. This is the first sin of Zaregoto, as it uses this introduction as a heavy crutch to get it's weird premise off the ground. The rule of "show, don't tell" is a simple filmmaker principle that if you want someone to relate to something on film, do not haphazardly state "that character is smart." Show the audience through visual work the aforementioned character is capable of being smart.

Our protagonist, a high school age male, is visiting this island with a "genius engineer" whose abilities are never really explained as she is almost completely absent in this story. He is quickly entrenched in a murder mystery, and instead of the homeowner calling the police, she insists they solve the mystery themselves. The stage is set for the sleuthing to begin, but... it never really does. The completely tone devoid foray into motives make this first a whodunnit which then rapidly develops into a coming of age story. The deaths are played off as inconsequential compared to the ravings of young adult self-deprecation. Our protagonist is unsure of himself and of his intellect and spends all eight episodes frustrated about his severe normalcy. After being foisted into an unbelievable and at least interesting scenario it is very disappointing that most of the work is spent soliloquizing about "being average." This lead me to believe the goal of Zaregoto was never actually to be a story of intrigue but a story of growth. So if Zaregoto isn't a mystery it must be something else?

2. Zaregoto doesn't know what it is.
The word zaregoto is used in japanese to mean "nonsense" and it's supposed to be tongue in cheek but it's also supposed to be extremely serious. Irony, which worked more easily in NisioIsin's other works perhaps because they are partly comedy, is frustratingly used in this work to hide shortcomings. Where a character development should happen a platitude in the form of irony rests. The script drones on and on about vague notions of "sense of self" and "knowledge" to wind up at a head-tilt and smirking quip. This would be fine if Zaregoto didn't do this in every interaction. What once was novel is now textbook. Most scenes feel redundant, and the dialogue between any two characters feels alien. Each character is so weirdly inhuman that eventually you become desensitized to the weird interactions and just shrug them off. When every character is a suspect, every interaction trumped up as hugely important, and every thing that happens supposedly integral to solving "the mystery" you begin to doubt how honest this work really is.

3. SHAFT no longer innovates
SHAFT's work in Bakemonogatari is monumental for editing in anime. Since 2009, SHAFT has begun to use the same wide lens shots, cut-to's, framing, and jump cuts in every work. The fact that shots and even color pallet in works like Nisekoi are almost identical to Bakemonogatari is alarming. Tonally those two works don't have a thing in common. Sadly, Zaregoto is no exception. Where this style worked in Bakemonogatari, where the literal and metaphoric often became visual gag or symbolic, the script of Zaregoto cannot hold. Tracking shots or wide lens shots feel lazy and often lead to a sense of disconnect. The close-ups are held too long, the backdrops feel empty and surrealistic, and the characters are framed jarringly. The true visual irony of the work is that while this work boasts a strange direction style, it would actually benefit with less "creative" shots. This "auteur SHAFT style" has become a crutch, and Zaregoto is the sloppiest offender yet.

Conclusion: Safety, Redundancy, and Resignation
NisioIsin wrote this as his first published work. Re-contextualizing Zaregoto for a post-bakemonogatari audience only hurt whatever this work originally intended. It became muddled in the mixed tone, the "tried and true" direction, and finishes feeling like a diminutive version of other works. Zaregoto is in actuality a generic coming of age story about a boring Japanese highschooler dressed in extremely elaborate lace. It is done up as a mystery, where the mystery is unsolvable and trite. It has these wacky characters with titles like "Genius Artist" that really don't feel any different from any other anime. It is even occasionally shot as a harem with needless sexual shots of characters that the script can barely justify for existing. All these come together and ultimately just feel insulting. It's too much yet it's trying too hard to look like it doesn't care. It intends to wow, but never executes. Forced restraint simply gives this poorly written hodgepodge an air of superiority it can't justify. I don't know if Zaregoto can ever be done well given the content, but I am certain that this anime was the worst way to handle it.

Reviewer’s Rating: 1

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