Being a work befitting of Nisio and his eccentric storytelling style it is atypical in many ways such as the wealth of text on every page, jam-packed with language-specific puns, catchphrases and references to other media (including his own, of course) and if this was any of his other works it would have been well accepted and appreciated even by international fans. But alas, this manga is about ciphers, the very backbone of which is the Japanese language, a mystery most of us probably can't wrap our heads around beyond the few translator's notes scattered across the manga (seriously, what is up with that. If there's anytime to soil a page with TL notes now is the time). But no matter, even the author himself probably realised this since almost every chapter would have notes at the bottom explaining things as one reads along so fret not! Nisio has you covered.
If you're looking forward to having fun solving the ciphers in this manga by yourself be prepared to be disappointed because most of them either require an exaggerated level of Japanese knowledge or you're just too stupid. Either way, most of the ciphers don't feel like they are intended to be solved before the characters do so just enjoy the ride and let the characters themselves do the explaining.
As for the characters we have a lovely cast of very distinct and likeable characters, each having unique character designs and traits that make them easy to tell apart considering we have an entire class' worth of them introduced right of the bat with wacky puns for names. You just can't dislike them.
The premise of the plot is simple but gets more and more interesting as the story develops so I'm excited to see where this is going, with already very noticeable peaks early on that have chills down my spine just thinking about. It really helps a lot that the art is so precise and expressive which goes a long way in conveying emotion well. The expressiveness of every character is drawn flawlessly, which is rather important in a mystery genre like this. The artist takes no liberties in poses, perspectives and facial expressions so there's a lot to like.
Nonetheless, Cipher Academy is no doubt a hallmark masterpiece of this era, one that superbly challenges the mind in both riddles and our ability to endure the sheer overwhelming text on each page.
