_Disclaimer: This review is mostly spoiler free._

Have you heard of the Japanese literary movement honkaku?

The term can be literally translated as “authentic” and refers to mystery novels that follow a high degree of logical reasoning and deduction. In addition to being literary compositions, they are almost like challenges from the author to the reader: “All the clues available to the detective are available to you too; can you solve the mystery before everything is revealed?”

This form of mystery writing reached its peak in the years immediately following World War II, but gradually fell out of favor as a new “social school” emerged, which tended to focus on the psyche of the culprits and eschewed honkaku’s quixotic settings in favor of natural realism. Honkaku has, however, undergone a revival of sorts lately, in no small part due to works that even western readers will be acquainted with such as Soji Shimada’s The Tokyo Zodiac Murders.

Yukito Ayatsuji, whom anime fans might recognize as the original creator of Another, has also written honkaku, but I digress. The aim of today’s article, of course, is to review Nisio Isin’s own contribution to the konkaku movement, The Kubikiri Cycle.

Animated by Shaft, it is likely no surprise to anyone that this show’s atmosphere is reminiscent of their earlier adaption of Isin’s Monogatari series. Some anime listing sites such as MyAnimeList have “dementia” as one of its genres, and while I don’t believe that to be the most apt description for Kubikiri Cycle, viewers would be forgiven for being baffled or puzzled by the show’s often schizophrenic visuals. Although it is not deeply explored over the course of the eight episodes (roughly only the first volume of the source material is covered), it is clear from the offset that the protagonist’s emotional well-being is in tatters, which is why I believe the show chooses to employ the visual technique it does. Having said that, armchair diagnosing fictional characters is not my forte.

The landscapes and environment that we see on screen is reflective of the characters’ state of mind as opposed to any objective reality. This can be shown when the protagonist engages in an extensive philosophical dialogue with another character whilst traversing the ends of the world and the underworld only to arrive at the apartment building of the one person he did not want to see. If we interpret the scene literally (to do so, in my humble opinion, is to completely miss the point of the series), then any semblance of consistency is lost; if we look at the scene as symbolism, then we come to the realistic conclusion that the voyage through hell is a metaphor for the very human act of gathering courage in order to face the reality of having to do something unpleasant.

For instance, how many inner demons do you have to fight before venturing into something unknown and possibly frightening?

In other words, the visuals cannot be interpreted simply as they are presented. The narrative’s dialogue heavy nature means that this is not a show that you can understand easily if your brain is switched off. As mentioned above, the series follows the honkaku rule of logical reasoning and deduction, so you will need to have your wits about you if your intention is to solve the mystery before the protagonists. As someone who has already finished the show, I can vouch for its sense of fair play – it is a mystery that can conceivably be solved by anyone who:

A) reads a lot of mystery novels and is already aware of the myriad tricks an author may use;

B) applies critical thinking.

To conclude, this is a series that I enjoyed and I would recommend anybody with similar tastes to give it a try. If you are looking for an intellectually stimulating mystery with morsels of deceptively idle philosophical chatter sprinkled throughout eight episodes, then you have come to the right place. If you enjoyed the Monogatari series, then this would also be right up your alley. If you prefer your entertainment to be straightforward and frank, then you’ll probably not enjoy this series on the basis that it is neither straightforward nor frank. But who knows?

PS: This show has one of the most fitting OPs I’ve seen in recent years. The Zaregoto light novels on which this show is based has been licensed for an English release, and while the show is perfectly fine and coherent as a standalone piece, perhaps you would be interested in the further adventures of the nonsense bearer and the blue savant?

PPS: This review was originally posted on my blog.