''Cipher'' is a '' shōjo''

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

series written and illustrated by Minako Narita. It was serialized in

Hakusensha is a Japanese publishing company. It is headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Chiyoda, Tokyo. The company mainly publishes manga magazines and is involved in series' productions in their games, original video animation, music, and their animated TV ...

's ''

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'' magazine from the February 1985 issue to the December 1990 issue, and was collected in Japan in twelve ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' volumes and seven '' bunkoban'' volumes. A sequel manga series titled ''Alexandrite'' was published in ''LaLa'' from 1991 to 1994, and compiled in Japan in seven ''tankōbon'' volumes and four ''bunkoban'' volumes. ''Cipher'' was also adapted into a promotional English-language

OVA , abbreviated as OVA and sometimes as OAV (original animation video), are Japanese animated films and series made specially for release in home video formats without prior showings on television or in theaters, though the first part of an OVA s ...

titled ''Cipher the Video'' in 1989, with Narita's input and involvement.

Plot

The story of ''Cipher'' is set in mid-1980s

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, mainly

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. It concerns the lives of former child stars

twins Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of TwinLast Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two em ...

Shiva (Jake Lang) and Cipher (Roy Lang), who mysteriously began to trade places until the two became synonymous with each other. Anise Murphy is a classmate of Shiva's, and shortly after becoming acquainted with him ends up entangled in a bet to see if she can tell the two apart after living at their apartment for two weeks.

Characters

* Anise Murphy * Jake Lang (Shiva) * Roy Lang (Cipher) * Rob * Jessica * Ruth * Alex Levine * Haru (Hal) Takeshita * Jean Lang

OVA Cast

The voice acting for the OVA was done entirely in English, without a Japanese version. Most of the cast consisted of bilingual Japanese actors and a few native English speakers in Japan.

Media

Manga

''Cipher'' is written and illustrated by Minako Narita. It was serialized in the monthly magazine ''

'' from December 24, 1984, to October 24, 1990. The chapters were later released in 12 bound volumes by

under the Hana to Yume Comics imprint. CMX licensed the series in North America in 2005. It went

out of print __NOTOC__ An out-of-print (OOP) or out-of-commerce item or work is something that is no longer being published. The term applies to all types of printed matter, visual media, sound recordings, and video recordings. An out-of-print book is a book ...

when

DC Comics DC Comics, Inc. (doing business as DC) is an American comic book publisher and the flagship unit of DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC Comics is one of the largest and oldest American comic book companies, with thei ...

shut down the CMX imprint in 2010.

''Tankōbon'' editions

References

External links

* CMX (comics) titles Hakusensha manga Magic Bus (studio) Shōjo manga {{manga-stub