Warning! Contains spoilers for Cipher Academy Chapter 12!One new Shonen Jump manga is challenging its readers to solve a real mystery. That series, Cipher Academy by Nisioisin and Yuji Iwasaki, has featured incredibly difficult puzzles throughout, but all the previous puzzles have been solved in the manga itself. Its latest chapter features a puzzle that is left for the reader to solve, allowing fans to truly test their code-breaking skills.
In chapter 12, one of Iroha's classmates, Yugata, gives him a letter to try and patch things up after challenging him to an intense lipogram battle in the previous chapter. The letter itself is a puzzle for Iroha to solve and while the Shonen Jump manga’s author standin Kogoe mentions that Iroha does solve it, they say that the manga won’t be revealing the solution, leaving it for readers to solve on their own. The puzzle’s difficulty rating is three stars, which according to Kogoe means that readers will have to think hard about it to solve it. Given the convoluted nature of many of the manga’s other puzzles, this means that it will be pretty challenging to solve, even for experienced puzzlers.
Cipher Academy Provides a Real Challenge For Its Fans
One of the most difficult aspects of the puzzles in Cipher Academy is that they often don’t contain clear directions for how to go about solving them. They require the solver to first figure out what the puzzle actually is before solving it, which can be easily as difficult as finding the solution itself. As all of Cipher Academy’s characters are experts at impossible wordplay, these sorts of challenges aren’t generally that difficult, especially when they have the absurd levels of intelligence that Shonen characters are often criticized for. But for the average fan of Cipher Academy, this presents a much harder task.
Despite its difficulty, this puzzle gives readers of Cipher Academy a chance to do something they can’t do with most other Shonen Jump manga. Most other series have fights based on absurd powers that don’t exist in the real world, making it impossible for fans to know how they would be able to perform if they were in the protagonist’s shoes. Cipher Academy’s fights however are an innovative twist on typical Shonen battles, being based on actual puzzles. By trying to solve it, fans can see whether they would survive as a student of Cipher Academy.
Cipher Academy's Puzzle Lets Fans Step Into Its World
Given that the solution to the puzzle probably involves knowledge of both Japanese and English, it will likely be incredibly hard for most readers to solve. That being said, it is still incredibly cool that this sort of challenge to the reader exists for those who want to attempt it. Hopefully more Shonen Jump series follow in Cipher Academy’s footsteps, including ways to keep their readers engaged with the series long after they have stopped reading.
Cipher Academy Chapter 12 is available to read from Viz Media.