Kubikiri Cycle: Aoiro Savant to Zaregototsukai (The Kubikiri Cycle)

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Alternative Titles

Synonyms: Zaregoto Series, The Headless Cycle, The Beheading Cycle: The Blue Savant and the Nonsense Bearer

Japanese: クビキリサイクル青色サヴァンと戯言遣い

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Information

Type: OVA

Episodes: 8

Status: Finished Airing

Aired: Oct 26, 2016 to Sep 27, 2017

Producers: Aniplex, Kodansha

Licensors: None found, add some

Studios: Shaft

Source: Light novel

Genres: Drama, Mystery, Supernatural

Duration: 30 min. per ep.

Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 7.77¹ (scored by 31,199 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #972²

² based on the top anime page. Please note that 'Not yet aired' and 'R18+' titles are excluded.

Popularity: #1900

Members: 100,015

Favorites: 845

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Synopsis

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]

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Related Anime

Adaptation:	Zaregoto Series
Other:	Cobalt World

More characters

Characters & Voice Actors

Boku

Main

Kaji, Yuuki
Japanese

Kunagisa, Tomo

Main

Yuuki, Aoi
Japanese

Aikawa, Jun

Supporting

Kaida, Yuuko
Japanese

Himena, Maki

Supporting

Endou, Aya
Japanese

Sonoyama, Akane

Supporting

Shimamura, Yuu
Japanese

Ibuki, Kanami

Supporting

Kawasumi, Ayako
Japanese

Chiga, Teruko

Supporting

Gotou, Yuuko
Japanese

Handa, Rei

Supporting

Kuwashima, Houko
Japanese

Chiga, Hikari

Supporting

Shintani, Ryouko
Japanese

Akagami, Iria

Supporting

Ise, Mariya
Japanese

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Staff

Shinbou, Akiyuki

Director, Series Composition

Yase, Yuki

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Tsuruoka, Youta

Sound Director

Asami, Takashi

Episode Director

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Opening Theme

	1: "Optimistically" by Yuki Kajiura (eps 1)
	2: "Cobalt World (群青世界(コバルトワールド))" by Sangatsu no Phantasia (eps 2-6)

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Ending Theme

	1: "Märchen (メルヒェン)" by Kalafina (eps 1-8)
	2: "Cobalt World (群青世界(コバルトワールド))" by Sangatsu no Phantasia (eps 8)

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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? ...

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Feb 26, 2019

Veronin

Recommended

Until the final moments of the second episode, it is extremely unclear what Zaregoto is supposed to be about, or even what it wants to be about.

Little of significance happens during this time: character introductions interspersed with surreal 'SHAFT-ness' (this should be coined as a word if it hasn't already) and philosophical discussions about the meaning of life and why the protagonist is apparently such a big fat loser. Cool, so everyone is a weirdo, and the setting makes no sense, but why are we supposed to care, again? I expect most people who are not already fans of Nisio Isin or SHAFT anime ... will lose interest somewhere during this time and potentially drop the series altogether.

Which would be a mistake, because the third to eighth episodes are an absolute joy to watch, and constitute some of the best content SHAFT has produced in years.

Zaregoto (Kubikiri Cycle) is, rather, a murder-mystery anime, which those familiar with the Danganronpa series will find quite similar. The unnamed protagonist, trapped on a solitary island with a dozen others, must wrack his brain to solve a bizarre string of seemingly impossible murders. The natural response would be to call the authorities and let the professionals do their job, but circumstances prevent the police from being called to the island. And so begins a traditional battle of logic: the construction of alibis, theories to be argued out, and proof to be sought— and sought desperately.

Those well-versed in the mystery genre will find it relatively easy to work out the culprit's identity via the clues left behind, but the actual process through which the murders are committed, and especially the culprit's motives, are a bit harder to predict, if largely because they contain elements that would be implausible in an actual real-life incident. So, if being surprised by absurd events is more entertaining to you than an ordinary, realistic murder case, you will be in for a fun little ride. And conversely, those seeking something plausible will be a bit more exasperated. But I am not sure you would be coming to a SHAFT anime in the first place if you were expecting realism. I mean, hell, in the final episode, with 200 cars exploding into an atomic-bomb sized ball of fire, directly behind the characters during their peaceful car drive, with them not so much as even acknowledging it (what?), it became clear to me that this show ain't based in our universe. The SHAFT universe is indeed a strange one.

If surreal artwork and mystery was all Zaregoto had going on, perhaps it would merely be an average, albeit fun series. The debates between the characters at the round-table aren't particularly compelling, with the protagonist and his opponents simply going through the motions of a mystery story: a theory and an inevitable rebuttal. Compared to the Danganronpa games, which made things much more complex and interesting by means of characters speaking in red herrings and complete untruths (even when they are innocent and have nothing to be gained from lying), in Zaregoto's case, there just isn't a whole lot to applaud.

So it's a good thing there is more to Zaregoto than mystery. The frequent philosophical discussions between the protagonist and his opponents, characteristic of Nisio Isin's catalogue, make even the moments where the story is at a standstill a pleasure to watch and listen to. There are a couple scenes that veer towards preachy or even arrogant territory ("this is my, Nisio Isin's, way of thinking, and other perspectives on life do not and cannot exist"), and a scene involving one of the maids uttering the most disparaging comments that could possibly be uttered to another human being (ending in them, literally, no joke, telling the protagonist he should kill himself), when said maid has only known the protagonist for a grand total of three effin' days, was quite... nay, extremely uncomfortable to watch. But by and large, the philosophical discussions in Zaregoto add an extra bit of flair, a more cerebral quality that many anime lack, even if the themes of these discussions aren't necessarily new or profound.

With a dozen characters and only eight episodes (and constituting only the beginning of a much larger light novel series), naturally, the characters are developed to wildly varying extents, with some being relegated to the sidelines and existing as little more than one or two-note tropes. The cook, Yayoi, is particularly guilty of this, being some incredible genius in the kitchen and capable of differentiating hundreds of thousands of tastes (how the heck do you even count that in the first place?), yet we see nothing of her cooking or her character besides her blowing her gasket at one point before withdrawing to the shadows again. Maki, defined largely by her love for wine and her verbal abusing the protagonist, is perhaps the most mature and intriguing member of the cast, which makes it a shame how little was seen of her. Instead, we get to see Tomo a million times... cute she is— especially in her twintail incarnation— but 'cute shut-in savant girl' is a trope I've seen seen more times in anime than I want to. The unnamed protagonist— or Ii-chan, I guess we could call him as Tomo does— is unsurprisingly the one with the most depth, a sort of darkness, a depressive nature hidden inside him that is teased but little revealed throughout the series. Mature and logical, he stands his ground in arguments, keeping his emotions tucked away inside himself. Though I wouldn't go as far as to claim him 'fun' or 'likeable', he's completely inoffensive and is one of the more compelling protagonists anime's mystery genre has birthed.

Yes, Zaregoto looks, sounds, and feels like a typical SHAFT anime, a visual cross between Madoka and the Monogatari series. Surreal artwork, embracing style over realism, is ever-present, particularly in the final episode which is SHAFT cranked up to eleven and completely and entirely visually incomprehensible. The surreal artwork coheres with the story, considering the ridiculous supernatural skills most of the characters possess, but at times the artistic and sound design becomes overbearing. No, the characters do not need to do the trademark SHAFT head-tilt, and no, we don't need the protagonist's inner monologues sounding like he is talking in the bathroom of some abandoned house. It's as if SHAFT is incapable of letting go, of letting the story take the lead and the artwork being complimentary, as it should in Zaregoto's case. There's an almost arrogant nature here, and, honestly, after over a decade of the same thing, it's about time the studio experiments with a new artistic style. But, yes, look and sound pretty Zaregoto does, especially with its background music and tight transitioning between opening sequence and story.

Zaregoto is a thoroughly enjoyable, if unfortunately brief experience. It is also obscure: obscure in the sense that mainstream audiences— those who are not active fans of Nisio Isin or SHAFT— will not be aware of its existence. It is, after all, an OVA series. It didn't air on TV. It is an adaptation of a series already fifteen years old. It went straight to disc, the only choice being to buy it or not. In Japan, where streaming services and illegal downloading aren't half as much a thing as they are in the west, this has made Zaregoto completely and utterly impenetrable to newcomers.

And that's unfortunate, because Zaregoto deserves to be watched.

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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.

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Boku

Kunagisa, Tomo

Aikawa, Jun

Himena, Maki

Sonoyama, Akane

Ibuki, Kanami

Chiga, Teruko

Handa, Rei

Chiga, Hikari

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Kubikiri Cycle: Aoiro Savant to Zaregototsukai

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