Kubikiri Cycle: Aoiro Savant to Zaregotozukai (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: 29 min. per ep.

Rating: R - 17+ (violence & profanity)

Statistics

Score: 7.76¹ (scored by 33,285 users)

¹ indicates a weighted score.

Ranked: #1084²

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

Popularity: #2014

Members: 105,089

Favorites: 862

Available At

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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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Background

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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

Akagami, Iria

Supporting

Ise, Mariya
Japanese

Chiga, Hikari

Supporting

Shintani, Ryouko
Japanese

Handa, Rei

Supporting

Kuwashima, Houko
Japanese

More staff

Staff

Matsushita, Takuya

Producer

Shinbou, Akiyuki

Director, Series Composition

Yase, Yuki

Director, Episode Director, Storyboard

Tsuruoka, Youta

Sound 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)

Reviews

Mar 16, 2023

Marco_Yooo

Recommended

THIS IS A SPOILER-FREE REVIEW

Okay, this is a hard one to review. „The Kubikiri Cycle „ or „Zaregoto Series“ is the first work of the famous or infamous NisiOisiN. Having already watched and reviewed the „Monogatari Series“ as well as „Katanagatari“ i decided to go back to the start of his career as a writer. I had incredibly high expectations for this one, but were they reached? I proceeded to watch the entire show in one sitting.

Story – 8/10

First, we have to talk about the mystery aspect of the show.
I absolutely LOVE classic murder mysteries. I also think they are incredibly hard to pull off, ...

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Oct 18, 2023

Teramol

Mixed Feelings

SPOILER FREE REVIEW

I'll be the first to admit I'm not that into murder mysteries. However, I mostly enjoy the Nisioisin and Shaft combo mostly known for the Monogatari series so when I found out it's the same thing here I got a little interested regardless. This 8 episode OVA is based on the Zaregoto series of novels and this one adapts just one part of it which imo is one of its biggest downfalls.

The setting is fairly basic and screams Danganronpa (supposedly it also inspired the latter funnily enough), you have a dozen give or take geniuses of various fields summoned to a mansion in ... an isolated island and after a while, someone gets offed and the mystery continues. Yes I said continues because the story is a mystery from the first minute. We know next to nothing as to why this is happening or who the characters even are. Hell, the main character himself doesn't even have a proper name, he's referred to as the Narrator.

Now much like the Monogatari series, Kubikiri Cycle is mostly just dialogue between characters with Shaft style direction mixed in between shots to keep the viewer's attention and I still think it works for the most part just fine. However, I personally found things presented in an overly complicated way a lot of the times, making the dialogue seem a bit pretentious or like r/im14andthisisdeep material. And while I don't really mind dialogue heavy shows, the pacing sometimes felt like it was dragging on too much. Honestly, I don't think this story needed 8x 30 minute episodes to present the narrative.

The characters for the most part are interesting enough for you to get more immersed into the mystery although like I mentioned earlier, it's a real shame nothing else of the series was adapted because AFAIK some of the characters appear in the other stories too and I personally wasn't really happy with the little we got to know of them here. The main character in particular is a really weird case and I'm not sure if I mean that in a positive or negative way. He really is like a narrator as his missing name suggests. He always feels very indifferent and cold about everything that is happening, hardly ever showing any hints of emotion.

In the audio department we are solid. The series is fully composed by none other than the legendary Kajiura Yuki whose work I've always enjoyed. While this series isn't in her top scores to me, it still fit the story and mood of all the scenes very well. Also quite enjoyed the Opening and Ending songs.

Visually, a lot of people seem to praise this show. I'm not sure if it's because I was reading comments from when the series came out or what but to me it was nothing special and actually looked pretty bad at times too. At least we get the fluid motion that comes from the Shaft style direction which I enjoy.

The plot twist at the end was pretty good, definitely didn't see it coming but at the same time I feel like the author tried to give the plot points a few too many layers. Right as something is seemingly solved a new theory rises to mostly undermine the previous ones. Overall the plot just felt like a complicated version of an Among Us game, for better or worse.

At least the short runtime can't really make anyone upset even if the series isn't for everyone. I would still say it's worth checking out for any murder mystery genre fans and especially for Danganronpa fans.

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Feb 15, 2024

AnimeEnjoyer420

Not Recommended

I love a good mystery, and Kubikiri Cycle does at least somewhat deliver on that, so it's hard to entirely dislike it. While it does get a little too convoluted at the end, the actual murder mystery portion of the series is the most sound and enjoyable part of it. It's the other parts of the series that are a letdown.

In particular, there are two elements that stand out above the others as critical issues: the characters and the dialogue writing. These problems are distinct, but related of course. The characters are insufferable virtually without exception, and a big part of that is the pretentious ...

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Kubikiri Cycle: Aoiro Savant to Zaregotozukai

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Boku

Kunagisa, Tomo

Aikawa, Jun

Himena, Maki

Sonoyama, Akane

Ibuki, Kanami

Chiga, Teruko

Akagami, Iria

Chiga, Hikari

Handa, Rei

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Kubikiri Cycle: Aoiro Savant to Zaregotozukai

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