After a four year hiatus from Shonen Jump, Nisio Isin’s making his flashy return with another manga series titled Cipher Academy!
Nisio Isin (commonly stylized Nisioisin) recently began serialization in Shonen Jump with his new series Cipher Academy. Best known in the west for his work on Monogatari and Katanagatari, Nisio Isin is one of the best-selling authors in Japanese history with over 36 million copies of his work in circulation
He is also is the most prolific Japanese author in the West, having the most novels translated of any Japanese writer. He’s also known as one of the most distinctive Japanese writers and one of the fastest, having written a 526-page book in only three days.
Known to many as one of the most influential writers in bridging the gap between anime and respected literature, it may come as a bit of a shock that Nisio Isin’s love for writing came from his desire to be a mangaka!
However, with no innate artistic talent, he decided that if he couldn’t draw the stories he wanted to, he would write them. As such, alongside his incredibly prolific novel publishing, Nisio Isin has a long history of working with Shonen Jump to create both one-shots and serializations, having worked on over 21 one-shots with the magazine.
These one-shots include collaborations with incredibly popular artists, such as Posuka Demizu (Promised Neverland) and Takeshi Obata (Death Note). Cipher Academy marks his second serialization with Shonen Jump after the critically acclaimed Medaka Box and fourth serialization in total.
What is Cipher Academy?
Cipher Academy is a new serialization in Shonen Jump written by Nisio Isin (Monogatari, Medaka Box, Zaregoto) and illustrated by Iwasaki Yuji, a frequent collaborator of Nisio Isin. The series follows Iroha Irohazaki, a transfer student to the puzzling Cipher Academy, where students are taught how to become codebreakers in preparation for the next world war, which is predicted to be a war focused on information.
Unlike her peers, however, she has no innate talent for codebreaking. But with the help of a mysterious pair of glasses, she finds herself the center of attention as she breaks codes way beyond her skill level and finds herself thrust into the underbelly of Cipher Academy.
Where can I read Cipher Academy?
The series is currently being simultranslated on Shonen Jump’s website, which you can find here. As of writing, three chapters are currently out, with updates being put out every Sunday at 12 PM EST.