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.
