Two brothers are in the spotlight: one a movie star making a football movie, the other a musician who occasionally goes to school (to cover for his sibling). What will destiny bring them?
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Having finished "CIPHER THE VIDEO" after 40 minutes’ worth of confusion, bewilderment, laughter, and tears, I feel it necessary to gather my thoughts on it in some fashion. Recently released in a new rip/encode by ARR, “Cipher” is truly one of the more puzzling works I have ever seen from any era, in any medium. Its intentions seem wholly unknown to me, buried under the purest of incompetency, laziness/budget constraints, and seeming indifference. The provided summary is as follows: "Annis Marfie is a boyish-looking girl, who is studying art in New York. One day, she discovers that her schoolmate, an extraordinarily beautiful semi-pro model, Shiver is actuallyimpersonated by two people. They are twins, Shiver and Cipher, but for the world, they act like they were just Shiver. Annis gets interested in the intention of these two, who fool the world this way, so she approaches them. " However, absolutely none of that actually happens. Maybe it does in the manga, who knows, but, so far as the OVA goes, nope. What does happen the anime? Well, story-wise… absolutely nothing. There is a character who is an actor. This actor, his director, fellow actors, and fans are interviewed by an off-camera reporter. The whole “secret twins” idea is entirely lost, but there are two characters who look identical. Also, there is a girl who is somewhat involved with one of them. All of this, aside from the brief and thoroughly inconsequential interview scenes, is told without any dialog, as… the majority of “Cipher’s” content is comprised of oft-baffling musical montages. I’m not making this up, in the first fifteen minutes, all but a rare 2-3 minute interlude is an unending string of montages. Of the stomach churning late-80s fare present are only two songs that I recognize - Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” and Kenny Loggins’ “Footloose.” I know of no better way to convey just how poorly handled and monotonous this dragging parade of montages is than to describe in great detail what I see as being the peak of their strangeness. After an opening string of cutesy montages lasting eight-and-a-half minutes, the anime finally cuts to what seems to be its long-delayed actual opening… instead, you are treated to a brief shot of the three main “characters” sitting around a television, which soon zooms in to show a 40-second cake commercial. No, wait, it gets better. After this mind numbing break, the viewer is treated to the first instance of dialog from the supposed center of the story, carried out in the previously described interview fashion. We see the young man on the set of a new film, a football feature entitled “WINNING TOUGH.” All of the voice acting is horrible in the most surreal of fashions. Characters mumble through lines, insert awkward pauses as if it were their first time reading the script, and, on at least one occasion which I would bet my life on, actually trip up and stumble during the reading. This mishap is left in, as he then goes on to backtrack a half-step and continue the line. There is a definite “Blood Freak” feel going on here. After we dabble around with them for a while (approximately two minutes), what is, so far as I can figure, supposed to be the preview for this football film is shown in, you guessed it, an extended montage. When it came around to a few bars before the hook and I placed this familiar song as “Footloose,” I just lost it. If it does not last for the entirety of the song, then it is certainly a cut which is damned close to it. This Kenny Loggins anime football travesty finally comes to a close, leading into another worthless string of awkward and uncomfortable interviews for a minute (as in, literally, one minute) until… you can just feel them coming at this point, another montage. I pray that I still have some readers, as what I am about to share deserves more than any other documented history or human expression to live on in some sort of shared consciousness. The montage following this one-minute break… is… a new, separate montage… set, again, to “Footloose.” A “Footloose” anime montage to follow up after the last “Footloose” anime montage because, hey, what could possibly be better than a “Footloose” anime montage? The mind reels. What absurdity! At every turn, this thing just gets stranger and stranger. It does not in any way feel like something that could have been directed or even aided by an actual human being. The pacing is so unnatural, the approach so obviously muddled… at the very worst, even the most artless of trash contains some trace of inherent subscription, again, even unconsciously, to standard rules of storytelling. It goes so far beyond any excuse possibly rendered along the lines of budget constraint or general inexperience of its cast and crew. Despite the arguable contradiction in such a statement, the only organizational reasoning I can place to try and make some sense of this thing’s reality is that it is an unintentionally dadaist work. It is a brain-breaking monstrosity - seemingly a relic from another dimension, somehow released on home video within our own. Don’t accuse me of exaggeration until you’ve seen it yourself. There is absolutely nothing identifiable as “human” present at any point on any discernible level of this 40:50 shoujo abortion. Oh no, there’s more. After the second coming of Kenny Loggins follows more pointless and unilluminating interview footage, more montages (at least we get some good funeral footage of the twins’ mom, as if anyone could actually be emotionally invested in these blank slate dweebs), and, finally, a genuine meeting of of two of the main characters in an unintentionally gut-busting scripted scene. After that (quite literal) rude awakening, the twins talk about what they are going to make for breakfast. This is clearly supposed to be humorous, but, really, I could go back and give a line-by-line transcription of the scene, and, yeah, there’s nothing more or less funny than summing it up as two men discussing which breakfast foods they want to combine into their meal. That this seems to be a source of great amusement for them is another testament to this OVA being more an approximation of human entertainment than the genuine article. This is, however, the most story and character development offered thus far. Suddenly, at 23:35, a familiar tune pops up… “Say, isn’t this the hit 1984 Phil Collins ballad,’Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)?’ The very same song which was featured at the start of this OVA? Is… wait… why are credits rolling at barely over halfway through the running time…” After being treated to another full-length cut of that soft rock classic, nearly fourteen minutes remain… fourteen minutes occupied by a making-of featurette/love letter to whatever-the-hell you just finished watching. It appears to be hosted by the main character himself, in character, but… this same voice also carries out the proceedings as a removed and subjective narrator. It really just alternates from line-to-line, basically. In this behind-the-scenes look, you gain an insight as to how the filmmakers sought for accuracy in recreating the wasted and trivial New York City setting. They claim to have closely studied the editing techniques of MTV programming to effectively emulate their tone (they didn’t). They worked with English voice actors in an attempt to create something unique in the world of Japanese animation. The universality of just how terrible every actor is in this feature is staggering. One would seemingly have better luck of getting decent performances out of people pulled from the street at random. This stands out even more when you watch people actually trying at this garbage. How could this have been made? How did nobody at any point of its construction take a step back and realize how stilted, unnatural, and altogether heinous this thing is? Watching this featurette proves that it either is, in actuality, the result of human effort, or, at least, the work a highly evolved shapeshifting race (my money is on reptilians). How did it happen. How did any of this come to be. This review is loaded with such adjective saturated descriptive turns, and even combining them into one general impression fails to get across the broken feel of this anime. It is akin to the sorts of stimuli forcefully presented to someone in order to “break” or otherwise psychologically reprogram them. So far as scoring goes, "Cipher" exists completely outside of any scale which could sum up its worth in simple numerical value. To reflect this, only a "0" or a "10" would seem applicable, so I opted for the "10," figuring that it would likely be uniformly rated lowly on this site. It is, if nothing else, a bizarre artifact of late-80s anime product which is entirely unlike anything else you will ever see. Whether or not this warrants a proper viewing is up to you.
Overview: I have seen a LOT of really weird anime, but I have never seen anything like Cipher. This anime comes completely out of left field and just leaves you speechless. It is basically a 40 minute music video that tells the story of a famous teen actor and his twin brother, who often attends school in his place. It was made in the 1980s, so the soundtrack is mostly Kenny Loggins and Phil Collins. It is PURE 80s cheese! I guess you have to consider that "AMVs" didn't exist in the 1980s, so the very concept of watching anime mixed with popular music was brandnew and exciting. However, the first isn't usually the best. Just like the Wright Brothers' plane isn't exactly a high quality airplane by modern standards, Cipher isn't a very good AMV...or a good anime in general. Every once in a while, the music stops and we get to watch a conversation between the characters. In his infinite wisdom, the director of Cipher didn't hire professional voice actors. I think he just held auditions for any Japanese citizens who could speak English. Of course, that doesn't mean that these people can act or get to practice English very often. So we get to listen to the most stilted, wooden, awkward line delivery I have ever heard. Yes, I am including "The Room" in my assessment of that statement. Laughing at these simply God awful line reads is probably the best part of Cipher. There are 2 different kinds of spectacular failure anime. The first kind is when you know exactly what the director/writers were trying to do, but they managed to botch the execution beyond belief. An example of this would be Green Green. The second kind is where you honestly have no idea what the FUCK the crew was thinking. Why was this made? Who the hell thought this was a good idea? Who looked at the finished project and allowed it to actually be released?! Those are the kinds of questions you will be asking for a long time after watching Cipher. At least it gained 2 points for hilariously bad line reads and awesomely cheesy music!
Up until lately, I have been out of anime to watch. Much to my surprise, being a very big fan of this medium, I thought to myself that, maybe, it was time to quit. With my national exams coming, it would have been easier for me to focus on them. Few days later, I found out that I still needed my daily dose of anniemays and mangoes and manhwuoes and whatever, had it become a habit to watch much coming from this medium. Much to my serendipity, I was able to find a masterpiece that was able to bring me back to this medium. Thatbeing a masterpiece in both directorial and emotional prowess, Cipher. This ineffable experience managed to bring many fortunities about. On the one hand, a music video of only 40 minutes, on another one that managed to utilize airing time to its fullest. The directing being incredibly digestible, I was wondering about whether gods really exist in this world, ones that makes such perfect works to bestow us pitiful humans with. The close-ups, the further-aways, the camera shots in general were captured with elegance and eloquence, supporting the credibility of old shows. An episode that should be up there with Legend of the Galactic Heroes and Rose of Versailles, in the hall of fame, in the avant-garde collection of meaningful canvasses that this industry has produced in its quite early years. Of course, I would not be able to skip on talking about the soundtrack, which is the main merit of this ephemeral journey. All the songs, I mean it, all of them, are tremendously well-done, Phil Collins included in the palette. Holy mother of god was the transition between them magnificent as well. I am left with no words, as the sound section triggers a sonorous sound into my soul, one that is truly admirable. The art section is yet another great addition to this work of art, incredibly clean and definitely not boring to look at, with detailed character designs that surpass the likes of Yoshitoshi ABe. The animation is so fluent and so addictive, and it hurts my soul, because it manages to throw sand on the faces of Gunbuster, Akira, Ghost in the Shell and Area 88. Undoubtedly a galore of colourful, vibrant artistic means, including the so sentimental looks that our characters' eyes have. Additionally, our characters manage to shine throughout the series, all of them, even the side characters, being equally important. Home to impeccable dialogue and narrative, including that all around spectacular scene where our main character speaks with a man of old age about many difficulties of life, Cipher manages to strike my heart chords with subtlety. The moments between the two brothers are touching and full of meaning as well. I will be looking forward to the hit manga series that is homage to this incredible short watch, which as I've been informed, is even greater than it. There is a comment I found in a YouTube section that indicates so: "Actually: IT'S FREAKIN AMAZING AND BEAUTIFUL MANGA. And another one: YOU SHOULD READ IT, IF YOU DON''T WANT TO WASTE YOUR LIFE. Seriously. One of the best manga I've ever read, talking about love, hate, lonliness, drugs, envy, betrayal, death and the most of all: forgiveness. Beggining is happy and kinda childlish. Then very sad and mature for a certain time, but at the end it's really touching and heart-warming story about life. Simply masterpiece for me. Oh, and you better Google it to look how beautiful it is. Old mangas ftw~ Now read it. GO! It's your next quest!" I was moved by how dedicated this person is towards this incredible work! Such detail with such a succinc manner! It definitely will be my next quest, in this long yet tiring yet full of credit journey that this medium has given me! I am pat patting for it! Check out this masterpiece please. It should not be missed by anyone. Cipher will be performed as an opera on the holodecks of the ships that disperse us into the heavens! We were really just clothed monkeys until it allowed us to transcend our animalism! I shall sing its praises to all that shall come forth and be enlightened!
[SPOILERS AHEAD] Ah yes, Cipher. Cipher is a classic 25 minute, 80s anime about the life of Roy Rang. It is well-known around the anime community as a legendary mess of a show, but was it really that bad? It was made by the same studio that made the critically acclaimed Legend of the Galactic Heroes after all. So the story is about the life of Roy Rang and who he is. Most of these 25 minutes are not about the story though. Most of it was music playing while the characters were dancing, walking, or just showcasing the city. There were a few moments when themusic stopped and they focused on the story. What was that story? Talking about how much of a fucking legend Roy Rang is of course. They talk about how good of a person he is and that people love him. There is also a girl who’s here for a few minutes that likes him, and the main character has a secret romance with his twin brother Jake. The pacing of Cipher is horribly formulaic. They do a few minutes of music video, then a few minutes of story that hardly makes sense or means anything. In addition to that, the story isn’t connected at all. It’s like they took the story in the manga, and only kept the opening and ending moments. There was a single main character in Cipher and that’s Roy Rang. Roy, also known as Cipher, is a successful actor that everyone loves. There was even a segment where an interviewer asked a lot of people on the streets what they think of Roy Rang and it was all positive. At the start, they even made a girl have a crush on this perfect man. Because of him being such a great man, he doesn’t grow at all. The other named characters are his brother Jake, and a girl named Anise. Both of these characters have romantic feelings for Roy and Roy decides to go out with his brother Jake. There is no buildup whatsoever for either of these relationships. You see that Anise likes Roy at the start then never shows up again, and you see that Roy and Jake are going out by the end of it. The animation of Cipher was honestly one of the best points of it. It looked fluid and was pleasant to look at. The lighting was nothing special. Neither were the angles used in this. The soundtrack of Cipher consisted of three popular 80s songs: “Against All Odds” by Phil Collins, “Footloose” by Kenny Loggins, and “Let’s Hear it for the Boy” by Deniece Williams. Of course, these are all classic songs played over the clips where absolutely nothing is happening. Sure it sounded great, but it complemented absolutely nothing. The sound design in Cipher was horrible. When the music stops it’s like cancer to your ears. I felt like dying listening to it. The voice acting was awful. There are a few characters who speak. There’s Roy Rang and other people that have opinions on Roy Rang. They all sounded horrible and the amazing part about this is that they’re all Japanese people off the streets that could speak decent English. That’s right, it’s all in English. In addition to that, the voice actor for Roy Rang is also the narrator for Tonegawa and that was legendary, so I guess this is one of his first works for him to have improved that much. Overall I fucking loved Cipher. It was so wack with everything that happened and so bad, that it made for one of the most enjoyable anime experiences I’ve ever had. Everything about it was so bad, yet so good at the same time. It’s also from the same studio as Legend of the Galactic Heroes and hentai so, that’s also cool I guess.
This is a prime example of a piece of media that is best admired for its audacity of existing (like, at all) as opposed to being good in any critical sense. Seeing a classic 80s Anime ooze so much Americana is just a head-trip, and for the fun (FUN FUN FUN FUN FUN) it invokes I have to recommend this to anyone who is interested. Additionally for all the fans of overanalyzing media, this is an excellent catalyst for interesting tangents, which is my bread and butter so I must doubly endorse this OVA to all that are interested in it. For those don't careto overthink a good thing, you don't have to bother reading any more of this review. Just watch this and have a blast. On a technical level there's nothing remarkable, if not softly crude, but that is undoubtedly part of the charm; the English voice acting is uncanny but also goes a long way to adding to the OVAs quirkiness. If I had to describe what works best about this short, the words ethereal and dreamy come to mind: this is pop-media at its purest and exists as a testament to the most romanticized aspects of both the American and Japanese experience of the 80s. In that sense it acts as a very interesting link between two distinct cultural moments on the other side of the world, celebrating the commonality of carefree, innocent opulence. Of course, it would be impossible for me to talk about this feeling without acknowledging how radically the world shifted away from this ethos (something that is reinforced by the repeated imagery of the Twin Towers, which will sadly forever create a haunting feeling in all media it is featured within,) and in that sense it would not be hard to understand how a contemporary viewer might get a sense of an "end of civilization" feeling while watching this. The other elephant in the room is the palpable homoerotic undertones. Sexual analysis is not my area of expertise but there's a very Björn Andresen-esque pretty boy in Japan vibe going on, and while never addressed in this manner, the existence of identical athletic teenaged supermodel twins that trade lives and sexual partners has very Freudian implications. There is absolutely a rabbit hole to go down here if you want to. All in all, I got a lot out of this OVA and I think there's no reason you can't as well. Just go in with the right expectations and enjoy yourself. Peace.
Cipher is an anomaly. I have no fucking what this is supposed to be or why this was made, but regardless I can’t help but say I liked it. It’s a film that feels like it either came from a brilliant mind or an idiot who had no idea what they were doing. It summarizes several chapters of a story in a 20 minute music video, and then provides information on how it was made, and even though the hilariously awful dubbing for the first 20 minutes is in english, the interviews in the second half are entirely in japanese with no english subs. Ijust… I don’t even know man, this shit is wild.
I'm so confused???? But apparently, that's expected, since this is pretty much an (official) AMV for a manga. To be fair, the music is good. It's very american (i mean, phil collins is in the intro! just an example), but it's good. The dub is horrible, it's like they COULDN'T pay for actual voice-actors so they just asked around the street for random people to come over and say some lines in front of a microphone. BUT... it's so hilarious that you just roll with it and accept the awkwardness. It kind of gives a certain "charm" to this OVA. The art is pretty and I actually wantto read the manga, so yay for that. What really made me give it a "low" rating is the story. What the FUCK is the story??? I have no idea! That's one of the reasons why I plan to read the manga: to figure out what the fuck was going on lmao There's also another thing that bothered me: does this story have incest?? There was a particular scene that made me go "umm??" but since I didn't understand the story, I can't point it out as incest. That could just have been a misunderstanding by me. But... I'm not sure. Overall, I think Cipher: THE VIDEO was pretty funny. I know that that wasn't its intention, but I mean... that's all it could offer me lol
Gosh, Cipher is such a strange work. There's a guy named Cipher, and a guy named Siva, and they're both... twins or something? Nothing is really explained about their relationship to each other or what is even going on in the film. One of them is a movie star making a football film, that's about all I got out of it. None of the characters are introduced very well (or in some cases at all), as there's very little dialogue in the film, and the dialogue that is there is done through an interview-like style that doesn't actually say much about them or the story at hand. Thefilm literally just ends up being a few different music videos that feature the same characters, strung together by these interview segments. These music videos have a certain amount of charm to them, featuring 80's music and being somewhat fun to watch. The art is pretty nice too. I like how they portrayed New York, and the character designs look alright, despite being pretty standard for that era. The animation is nice enough, but for an OVA from 1989, it does seem a bit lacking compared to the other stuff that was coming out at the time. Overall, Cipher feels like wasted potential. The whole film feels more like an extended intro to an 80's movie, and the last scene of the film feels more like it should be the first scene after the opening credits. However, the film just kind of ends, right as it feels like it's about to begin. It's really bizarre. If this had been longer and we got more dialogue and an actual story played out, then this could have been a pretty interesting way to start a movie, but as a work on it's own, it just falls really short, and fails to deliver on the loose premise that they set up. Despite that, I can't say I despised it...
An Avant Garde Masterpiece A surreal fragmented narrative told through nothing but mock interviews, fake advertisements and animated music videos sequences set to 80s pop hits. In fact, the whole thing is book ended by Phil Collin's music! Despite wielding only this pastiche of 80s pop culture, a compelling example of 'show not tell' storytelling is expertly achieved within just 20 minutes. The remainder 15 minutes? Dedicated to the promotional material and the 'making of'. A fitting metafiction for this story within a story. Notable: -The Twin Towers as an allegory for our twin protagonists-Silent film dialogue -Phil Collins -Awesomely atmospheric montage of NYC nightlife set to an obscure new wave song -Totally not gay brotherly kiss -"Yeah" -Even more Phil Collins So watch this post modernist masterpiece now; a compact culmination of 1980s western culture in all its glory!
OK. This is somehow the cringiest anime I have ever seen, and that includes many of the worst listed on MAL. Story: 0 I was forced to give this a 1, but if it was up to me it would be 0. There is literally no story. One third of this is a montage of disconnected moments and the worst dancing ever in anime. The rest of it apart from the final scene is about a guy who's filming a movie: it doesn't do much. Then the last scene is him meeting his brother. That is it. That is all. It is a plotless mess that islaughable. The worst thing is that there are four minutes of credits at the end against a static image. Art: 2 Average to bad. An 80s shoujo style that is not as good as the manga in anyway, and I feel as if some of the footage gets re-used quite a bit. Sound: 2 I watched the English dub. The music is bad, apart from one song which is the saving grace for the sound section which sounds oddly familiar, likely due to it being a popular 80s song from the US. The dub is the worst English dub I have ever watched. Monotone, flat and with pauses inbetween words in a sentence. On top of that, the main VA stumbles a bit in a few places. Furthermore, the audio quality of the voice makes it sound like it wasn't even recorded professionally, and I could do better myself with just my phone. The script is also garbage, it coming off so fake it's cringe worthy. Character: 1 There is barely any character to look into. All we get is a guy being interviewed and we get a ghost of a semblence of a personality and that's it. The other two "main" characters were really only in the montage so they are there for practically no reason. Enjoyment: 10 Just from sheer terribleness, this could only be described as a hilariocity, or a hilarious atrocity. I'd recommend watching it with friends to complain about it's terribleness and laugh like hyenas. Overall: 1
"Cipher" is a bundle of emotions, and a love letter to 1980s New York and Los Angeles. My attention was kept for the entire 26-minute runtime, but I didn't understand what I was watching. It started to make sense when I realized that the target audience for this was readers of the "Cipher" manga, who would already be familiar with the characters. The OVA served as a "demo reel" of sorts that let the readers see their favorite characters animated and speaking English. So, although it looks like a bizarre spectacle at first glance, there is meaning behind the madness. It starts off with one of themain characters walking through a montage of iconic New York landscapes set to Phil Collins' "Against All Odds," and then we see the other two characters (one is his twin brother, and the other becomes his... girlfriend?) in a montage set to Deniece Williams' "Let's Hear It for the Boy" that's complete with on-screen profile information for the twins. We then suddenly cut to... a cake mix commercial? I guess this is just to make the OVA feel more "authentically American." The setting then changes to what looks like Los Angeles, and we see one of the twins, Siva (Cipher? Jake? the names here are really confusing) who is starring in a football film, get interviewed. Then there is a trailer for the nonexistent film, and then we see other actors and the director give their thoughts on the star, and then there is a montage of him and his brother getting mobbed by fans set to "Footloose." And then we get some random person-on-the-street-type interviews about the star. Next, we're back in New York (it seems), and Siva (?) is being interviewed again, when he gets asked a triggering question. This starts a gloomy flashback/montage set to "Kamikaze" by the Thompson Twins. Finally, the ending scene is one of the strangest I've seen in anime. This is due to a number of factors: the lousy voice acting, the lines he (one guy voices both of the twins) says, the twins kissing each other on the lips, and the fact that it ends as it started, with "Against All Odds" playing. Due to the nature of this OVA, I can't really evaluate it for plot or character development. The animation, although recycled in some parts, is quite good for what was likely a passion project -- it's colorful and fluid. The character designs are appealing, and the background cityscapes ooze nostalgia. The music is, of course, good, and although unusual, surprisingly fits the tone of the OVA well. The voice acting and dialogue are the main drawbacks of this OVA. The voice acting, all done in English, is not professional. It feels like random English speakers were brought in off the street and asked to read lines in one take. And the lines are poorly written (some of them even sounded ad-libbed). However, this does add to the charm of the OVA, and makes it unintentionally hilarious. If they had used professional voice actors, "Cipher" would not leave nearly as profound an impression as it does. Then there's the odd quirk of the twins kissing each other on the lips, but that also helps make this OVA memorable. Overall, it's clear from watching this OVA (and the "making-of" feature often paired with it) that the cast and crew were passionate about the manga, and passionate about America and New York City in particular. The love for both shines through in this OVA, and makes it worth watching.
You will never see another anime quite like Cipher. It is a music video, a love sonnet to New York City, a tribute to Phil Collins, a movie within a movie, a commercial for cake mix, an interview, a psychoanalysis of its characters, a surreal mind trip... Cipher is all those things and so much more. As I watched, I felt a full range of emotions: confusion, delight, disgust, joy, outrage, hilarity. Although based on a shoujo manga, director Tsuneo Tominaga decided to throw the source material away, including a linear narrative, character arcs, and discernible dialogue, for a bizarre trip through his subconscious. Lacking any semblanceof plot, music videos are strung together to form a tapestry of idiosyncratic moments in the life of twins Siva and Cipher. Then a Pillsbury Doughboy parody decides to pop up smack-dab in the middle of the OVA. Then a movie interview follows soon after. But hold on…another music video! Wait, is that a fat flying cat with a bow-tie? Nothing makes sense and it is brilliant. Although most of the OVA is cheerful and upbeat, a dark undercurrent runs through its 26-minute run. While the twins are charismatic, talented, and well-liked, they are also filthy liars. What drives them to fake their way through life is up for interpretation, but it could be seen as a scathing rebuke of the hotshot movie lifestyle. Or perhaps their deceit is due to their tragic backstory? Or maybe it was all an elaborate ruse to get their hands on that cake mix? It sure made me hungry enough to commit a crime. Another notable character is Anise, their classmate. She is bubbly, hotheaded, sports an obvious crush, and apparently likes to dress up as Peter Pan. Make of that what you will. The soundtrack is outstanding; it has that campy and delightful 80’s feel, with songs such as “Against All Odds” by Phil Collins and “Let's Hear It for the Boy” by Deniece Williams. If a Cipher CD comes out, I would download the shit out of it. Voice acting quality is a mixed bag; voice actors all speak English (given that this is set in the U.S.) but at varying levels of experience. Some of them did a phenomenal job and sounded just like native English speakers, but others performed as if ripped straight from a parody dub. Characters are drawn pretty and bishounen-like: tall, handsome, well-built and indistinguishable from one another. Although the guys are nice eye candy, my favorite character design goes to Anise: bushy blond hair, soulful brown eyes, and wears keys for earrings. Someone call Vogue, I have a new model for them. Second best would be Mose, who looked like he had been transported straight from the pages of the Old Testament. Animation is mostly the characters dancing. They could beat any Dance Dance Revolution tournament blindfolded. Cipher transcends scores and numerical rating scales – it is an EXPERIENCE. Recommended to absolutely every single living being on this planet.
This thing's wild. It's a jumbled up montage of music videos stripped of context, and then an MTV-style "real bro interviews" thing where the main actor has a very noticeable accent, completely breaking the illusion of the character, along with a few real bad voice actors to go along with it. Yep, this is a Japanese anime movie where it's voiced entirely in English. It's not much better than you'd expect. It's wild and barely comprehensible, but it's also pretty short. 15 minutes of the 40 minute runtime are actually a making-of featurette after the fact; that's pretty nice and I appreciate it.
"Hello Japanese people we plucked off the streets, can you speak English?" "Yeah!" "OK, great, you're hired!" If I were a gambling woman, I'd place money on that being the way they found the VA's for what is essentially a 30-minute long AMV intercut now and then with dialogue. I can't say I wasn't entertained, though, oddly enough. Maybe it was the music, or the way they hype up American culture and the film making process, but this just left me nostalgic and longing for a decade I wasn't even born in. It's definitely something I would recommend if you want decent animation set to catchy pop songsand don't care too much about story or characters.
Cipher is definitely one of the cringiest and worse animes I have ever seen. Story: 1/10 There is no story. Half of it is a montage of random scenes that have no connections in any way. And the other half is some terrible 'interview' of these people being cast into a movie. Completely plotless. Art: 1/10 The art is very ugly and terrible quality even for the 80s. A lot of the animation gets reused as well. Sound: 1/10 The songs that were played were TERRIBLE and didn't fit the video at all. The voice actors were so monotone and cringy, awfully recorded too.Character: 1/10 There is nothing to the characters, they do not get developed in the slightest. All there is to go on is a terrible interview that reveals absolutely nothing. Enjoyment: 1/10 Not fun at all to watch. I played it on double speed just to get it over with quicker. Do not recommend. Overall: 1/10 I would score this a 0/10 if I were able to. Honestly one of the worst animes I have ever seen. Do not watch it. It is only 30 mins but it feels like 30 hours to sit through. Terrible.
Okay, this is my first review and I just need to write about this awful anime. I guess I now know why it is on the MAL badges for unique anime. I couldn't find a good storyline in this anime, to me it was as if ingredients were thrown together to make a delicious cocktail only the ingredients consist out of rotting meat and milk that has been spoiled for three months. The art for it's year of making was okayish, I just couldn't enjoy it and it eventually became a thorn in my eye in combination with the voice acting. The only thing Ienjoyed about it was the music in between the dialogue, catchy and brings back memories.
Ah, the much-maligned "Cipher". Notoriously rated one of the worst anime OVAs of the decade. Also considered one of the weirdest anime shows to be made, leaving many to scratch their heads thinking, 'why does this even exist?' (However, it does not take the cake for the strangest ever -- that honor goes to Chocolate Panic Show). And yet, if viewed from a certain perspective, it has a certain...charm. I would certainly be more willing to watch more like this, than about half of the current,modern crop of regular anime series that are dredged up and vomited onthe screen each year. If you read any online description for 'Cipher', it will invariably mention twins Shiva (alternately called Shiver/Shiba/Siba) and Cipher, and even though 'they' become semi-famous actors, no one seems to know they are two different people. Oh, and apparently there's this cute girl that wants to be friends with Cipher. Or something. And I say the "or something" because...well, you can pretty much throw all of that (or any other story description you may read) completely out the window. Because this OVA barely even touches on any of that. In fact, there is NO linear story to this at all. It starts with one painfully-eighties music video (featuring a Phil Collins song covered by some nameless lounge singer), followed by another music video. Followed by a fake commercial that has nothing to do with anything. Followed by an interview snippet. And another music video. And so on. It's all tangentially about Shiva/Cipher, but just sort of dances around the concept of a story. I suppose the actual story is in the manga, if you really care. But, if you accept all that and just look at this as one long experiential music video (airing on, say, USA Network "Night Flight", or on VH-1 at 2 in the morning). One oddity that sets this OVA apart from all the rest is that even though it a Japanese production, the language is all in English, and the setting is in New York. The character designs are appealing (it's a type of shoujo characters that I like, especially the cute-as-buttons girl), and the background artwork is crisp and clean. The animation is pretty blah, however, much like the effervescently eighties soundtrack. So, just tune out of any sort of story and tune in to the visual experience, and you should do fine.
A touching love letter to American pop culture of the time, not much more. That's what this adaptation is, it's not too entertaining or special with no real plot beyond showcasing the only real character in it, whos a movie star. Comments on the video I watched mentioned it was intentionally dubbed in English when it was made, resulting in a bad dub. But that only contributes to its feel of American Culture, and does not detract from the show due to it being so American. The only real thing the show addresses is how many pop and movie stars become estranged from their familiesover time and the toll it can take. To wrap up the music in it is English pop music, and with the lack of plot making the show feel like a music video. The music itself is pretty tinny. Visuals are pretty classic shoujo for the time. And story is practically non existent. Still for a 26 min one shot I think it might be worth your time, depending on what you expect to get out of shows. It best comes across as a love letter to American Pop culture of the time.
I just watched the 1989 ONA Cipher and I have no idea what to say, this anime is unexplainable, sure it has a plot and a somewhat cohesive story, but there is something about this that I truly can't wrap my head around, whether it's good or bad I can honestly say I've never watched anything like this anime. So the story is basically this, there are two twin brothers who pretend to be the same person, and a girl at their school I think finds out about it and wants to be their friend or something... Shiver the one brother is a famous actorcurrently shooting a football movie called "Winning Tough" and the other brother Cipher is a musician. Well this movie is an absolute disaster, I honestly don't think Einstein could wrap his head around this movie and I don't think that it is in a good way either, it is so confusing but I don't know why, I've never been more confused watching a film before. Something I genuinely liked about the movie was the soundtrack, it was good, classic 80's songs from great artists like Phil Colin's. The voice acting on the other hand is dreadful, some of the worst I've ever heard, this makes the original Devilman series of 1987 look like acting greatness. I did believe the soundtrack gave it some sort of charisma I guess. The animation was awful, yes even for the time period. Not much else can be said about the animation though, it wasn't a unique art style and it was just plain horrible, the movement was stiff, colors looked ugly, and the art in general wasn't terrible but definitely wasn't good. I've been putting it down but I do think there is something different about this ONA, it genuinely did intrigue me in this weird way I can't explain. I am not saying it is good or anything, I'm just saying their truly is something about this that I just couldn't wrap my head around, it kind of left me speechless. I mean it still sucks though... right?
