Cipher Academy

Cipher Academy (Japanese: 暗号学園のいろは, Hepburn: Angō Gakuen no Iroha) is a Japanese manga series written by Nisio Isin and illustrated by Yūji Iwasaki. It has been serialized in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine since November 2022, with its chapters collected in three tankōbon volumes as of August 2023.

Cipher Academy
First tankōbon volume cover
暗号学園のいろは
(Angō Gakuen no Iroha)
Manga
Written byNisio Isin
Illustrated byYūji Iwasaki
Published byShueisha
English publisher
ImprintJump Comics
MagazineWeekly Shōnen Jump
DemographicShōnen
Original runNovember 21, 2022 – present
Volumes3

Plot

The plot takes place in the eponymous Cipher Academy, a former all girls' military academy focused on study of cryptography, and focuses on Iroha Irohazaka, the sole boy in his class. While dealing with a spartan homework puzzle on his first day in class, Iroha comes across Kogoe Horagatoge, a student from a different class on the run from Kyora Toshusai, a fellow student of Iroha's and the heiress to a weapons manufacturer. After helping hide her, Kogoe gifts Iroha with a pair of glasses embedded with technology that allows him to see the "hints" to codes that his fellow classmates use to seed control. After winning a cipher-based battle against Kyora, Iroha is thrown into a conspiracy involving 50 billion morg hidden in the academy - a stash of cryptocurrency so valuable that it could end half the wars in the world... or double them.

Publication

Written by Nisio Isin and illustrated by Yūji Iwasaki, the series began serialization in Shueisha's Weekly Shōnen Jump magazine on November 21, 2022.[1][2] A voice comic featuring Rina Satō, Ayane Sakura, and Saori Ōnishi was released on YouTube.[3] Shueisha released the first tankōbon volume on March 3, 2023,[4] and has released three volumes as of August 4, 2023.[5]

Viz Media and Manga Plus are publishing the series in English.[6] However, the series' original English translator, Kumar Sivasubramanian, announced he would stop translating the series following the release of the thirteenth chapter; he also linked to an article by Screen Rant, which described the series as "impossible to translate". He was replaced by a new translator, Dan Luffey.[7][8]

Volume list
No. Japanese release date Japanese ISBN
1 March 3, 2023[4]978-4-08-883439-9
  • 01. "World War IV Will Be Fought With Pencils and Paper"
  • 02. "Can't Solve Puzzles on an Empty Stomach"
  • 03. "Decoding May Dance, but It Does Not Move Forward"
  • 04. "Undo the Cipher and Tighten its Cords"
  • 05. "Cipher Shipmates"
  • 06. "Cipher Soldiers Value Being Rough and Ready"
  • 07. "The One Who Solves Last Solves Best"
2 May 2, 2023[9]978-4-08-883531-0
  • 08. "The Dancers are Wars, The Watchers are Wars"
  • 09. "A Distant War is Where the Heart Is"
  • 10. "Yesterday's War is Today's War Too"
  • 11. "You Can't Win Against a Code and a Crying Child"
  • 12. "Patience is the Source of Eternal Peace- Treat Anger as a Code"
  • 13. "To Hide the Solution With A Smile"
  • 14. "Encrypt the Rook Instead of the Useless King"
  • 15. "A Knight's Code, A Pawn's Solution"
  • 16. "Decoding the King and the Rook at the Same Time"
3 August 4, 2023[5]978-4-08-883594-5
  • 17. "Stupid Wars are Basically Just Resets"
  • 18. "A True Soldier Should Know Their Codes"
  • 19. "Decode as Fast as the Wind, Quiet Down Quickly, Launch an Air Raid, then Remain as Unstoppable as a Dragonfly"
  • 20. "One Should Never Shy Away from Deception When Decoding on the Battlefield"
  • 21. "Thousands Die In Order to Make a Successful Code"
  • 22. "Always Approach a Code as if It's Your First"
  • 23. "Too Many Wars Spoil the Battleship-Fund Broth"
  • 24. "Triple Code Alliance"
  • 25. "The Road to War Trophies Also Starts With a Single Step"
4 October 4, 2023[10]978-4-08-883669-0
  • 26. "The Early Bird Gets the Code"
  • 27. "Mediocre Strategy is the Source of Codes"
  • 28. "Employ the Battlefield and You'll Stand Out. Go With the Flow of the Battlefield and You'll Get Washed Away. Try to Enter Wartime and You'll Be Cramped. In Any Case, Turbulent Times Are Difficult to Live In."
  • 29. "If You Know The Enemy and Encrypt Yourself, You Need Not Fear the Result of a Hundred Battles"
  • 30. "Just Because Military Funds Are High Doesn't Mean They're Noble"
  • 31. "A War That Happens a Second Time Will Also Happen a Third Time"
  • 32. "A Sound Mind is In a Sound War"
  • 33. "Everyone Has Their Own Way of Being a Tank"
  • 34. "One Record That’s a Match for a Thousand"

Chapters not yet in tankōbon format

These chapters have yet to be published in a tankōbon volume.

  • 35. "When Leaders Tolerate Humiliation, then Even War Can Become Virtuous"
  • 36. "On a Paper Razor's Edge"
  • 37. "Those Who Chase Two Rabbits are First Class Privates"
  • 38. "The Aftermath"
  • 39. "You Can't Put an Army on a Stone"
  • 40. "Whoever Decodes It Should Do It"
  • 41. "Walk Three Steps Back and Be Careful Not To Step on the Shadows of Those Who Died in War"
  • 42. "War is the Mother of Invention"
  • 43. "It’s Better to Have a Big War than a Small War"
  • 44. "Mine Has Been a Life of Much War"
  • 45. "Become the Fight, Not the Muzzle"

Reception

The series ranked fourth in the 2023 Next Manga Award in the print manga category.[11]

Carlyle Edmundson of Screen Rant praised the use of purposeful censorship to illustrate points about contemporary Japan.[12]

References
  1. Hodgkins, Crystalyn (November 6, 2022). "Shonen Jump Magazine Launches 4 New Manga in Next 4 Weeks". Anime News Network. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  2. 西尾維新×岩崎優次のジャンプ新連載! "暗号解読"学園ドラマ『暗号学園のいろは』. Oricon (in Japanese). November 21, 2022. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  3. 暗号学園のいろは：西尾維新原作の「ジャンプ」話題作 ボイスコミックに 佐藤利奈、佐倉綾音、大西沙織出演. Mantan Web (in Japanese). Mainichi Shimbun. February 10, 2023. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  4. 暗号学園のいろは 1 [Angō Gakuen no Iroha 1] (in Japanese). Shueisha. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  5. 暗号学園のいろは 3 [Angō Gakuen no Iroha 3] (in Japanese). Shueisha. Retrieved June 27, 2023.
  6. Hazra, Adriana (November 21, 2022). "Viz Media, Manga Plus Launch Cipher Academy Manga in English". Anime News Network. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  7. Leung, Hilary (February 19, 2023). "Difficult-to-Translate Manga Cipher Academy Is Losing Its Translator After 13 Chapters". Comic Book Resources. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  8. Colbert, Isaiah (February 21, 2023). "Translator Steps Down From Shonen Jump Manga After Declaring It Untranslatable [Update]". Kotaku. Retrieved February 22, 2023.
  9. 暗号学園のいろは 2 [Angō Gakuen no Iroha 2] (in Japanese). Shueisha. Retrieved April 30, 2023.
  10. 暗号学園のいろは 4 [Angō Gakuen no Iroha 4] (in Japanese). Shueisha. Retrieved August 18, 2023.
  11. Loveridge, Lynzee (August 31, 2023). "Seitokai ni mo Ana wa Aru!, Ki ni Natteru Hito ga Otoko Janakatta Win Next Manga Awards Print, Web Categories". Anime News Network. Retrieved August 31, 2023.
  12. Edmundson, Carlyle (December 20, 2022). "Shonen Jump Finds a Genius Use for Censorship in New Series". Screen Rant. Retrieved February 22, 2023.

Further reading
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