Spoilers Ahead

Kubikiri Cycle is a simple mystery story in concept, a kid on an isolated island tries to solve a murder. This review is focused on what I see as the negatives of this anime, mainly things that occur in the last 2 episodes of the show. Before we get into that I would like to point out the positives and what I enjoyed about the story, because I did enjoy it especially up to those aforementioned last two episodes.

As I said in my review summary, Shaft's directing style and animation fit perfectly to this sort of psychological, dialogue-based mystery. If you have watched any of the Monogatari series it is very similar to that. This style works well because it provides interesting visuals as dialogue takes place. The odd animation also adds to the mystery because it is confusing and somewhat ominous in a way. For example, the table and weird moving clock thing in the dining room. Why is the table so damn big and why is there a giant moving clock thing in the background? Who knows. Either way, I like it. Also, the story and mystery in general were pretty well done. Different characters were hinted at to confuse the viewer who is the real culprit and for the most part it was not only difficult, but fun to work alongside Li in solving it. Besides that I especially like Kunagisa and Kaname as characters, but the rest of cast isn't bad either. I also do like Li's character development, many characters sort of push him towards finally realizing his true feelings for Kunagisa, and he understand them at the right moment. While getting attacked in Yayoi's room, he realizes he loves her and so he goes to protect her. At the very end of the story he also goes to Kunagisa's apartment which is nice.

Moving on to what I don't like, the main thing is the mystery reveal at the end. The reveal, of course, is the most important part and most difficult part to do well in any mystery. I like how the original solution to the mystery ended up not being correct, it was a nice twist. It was also nice because there were plenty of holes in the original solution (which Li said himself). My only question is why he would even leave the island and believe the solution was correct in the first place if there were holes in it. His own motto is "if there's no other solution this must be the answer no matter how unreasonable it seems" or something like that. So why then did he leave if there were other possible solutions? Plus, after "solving" the mystery the first time he (along with everyone else) just let Akane (actually Kaname) walk out free. Li, by the way, was the person pushing for the cops, the person saying that murder, no matter the cause, was unacceptable. And you're saying that he just let Kaname, a muderer, walk out free? Moving on to the actual solution to the mystery, first of all it's just way too drawn out and long. Aikawa just rolls in and gives an almost completely uninterrupted 30 minute speech. I don't care how interesting the visuals are, it simply isn't entertaining to sit and watch someone drone on and on for that long. Because of how boring this reveal was I missed details (because I zoned out). I know this is partially my fault but honestly I don't know how anyone could actually listen to that whole explanation and be entertained the whole time. The actual killer and whole mystery solution itself was interesting by the way, it was different and unexpected. The motivation, though, was dumb. If Kaname was so damn smart couldn't she just have got into the exact same position as Akane eventually without killing her?

All in all, this isn't an all around bad anime but it is definitely let down by the solution to the mystery itself and the way the mystery is revealed.