Shounen Enigma by Sakaki Kenji

[WilliamK]

Everyone is assuming Cannibal can utilize the form of anyone he eats plus their ability... But if he ate someone who can change form and just transformed in president.

But that wouldn't explain how he used Matsurigi's Cubic Subtraction unless he ate him.

 

[FanOfAniManga]

And now, SPOILERS FOR e48, brought to you by a Japanese spoiler website and translated over by me.

The chapter's title:

Spoiler

Uncovered. (It was a bit tricky translating the title from Japanese, "Ankabaado".)

Here's what the website says:

Spoiler

Kirio's prison guard is changed over to prison guard chief Kuroiwa.
(I think) Akame cuts Matsurigi's foot off.
The next station the train arrives at is (you guessed it) Yuyami Prison.

 

[WilliamK]

Spoiler

Hmm, I wonder what Kuroiwa looks like? Another new character, so it's got to be interesting. So I guess Sumio was unable to do anything about Cannibal and went to the new stop since the time limit was going up and then wow, Akame cut off Matsurigi's foot? That's surprisingly brutal. Although, since he's probably Cannibal, I wouldn't care. Now, I want to see what Sumio does, whether or not he'd blame Akame or get suspicious of Matsurigi.

And Kirio's appearance again! I think it's too soon. Disappointing that Sakaki has to force things to happen earlier. I mean, didn't they skip Tsugi Station? I mean, after Mao got kidnapped, that was where the ticket was leading. Either way, it's very, very interesting to see that the next stop will probably have other people on it. Looking forward to see the challenge. I'm sure Akame might get arrested in this stop though, leaving Sumio and Cannibal alone when they get back on the train.

 

[FanOfAniManga]

Spoiler

Hmm, I wonder what Kuroiwa looks like? Another new character, so it's got to be interesting. So I guess Sumio was unable to do anything about Cannibal and went to the new stop since the time limit was going up and then wow, Akame cut off Matsurigi's foot? That's surprisingly brutal. Although, since he's probably Cannibal, I wouldn't care. Now, I want to see what Sumio does, whether or not he'd blame Akame or get suspicious of Matsurigi.

Spoiler

Keep in mind, Tsugi actually means Next. So the ticket most likely meant to say "Next Station".

Anyways, the Chinese fansub is now out:
http://tieba.baidu.com/p/1206636688

 

[Animeace]

English is out http://reader.cxcscans.co.cc/reader/read/enigma/en/0/47/page/1

 

[FanOfAniManga]

English is out http://reader.cxcscans.co.cc/reader/read/enigma/en/0/47/page/1

So that's chapter 47. The cover page is missing, by the way.

 

[[Cross]]

So that's chapter 47. The cover page is missing, by the way.

It's since been fixed'

 

[Hangedman]

chapter 48 chinese scan here

 

[Asgaroth]

i guess the president is cannibal, because i thought it's weird, that he is the only one on board that haiba knows.

the coolest way would be an explanation of haiba is actually cannibal himself, but thats too unreal to be the conclusion, but it would be quite surprissing.

 

[masgrande]

Haiba being Cannibal would be one hell of a mindscrew, but maybe Cannibal is the train conductor and is trying to get Haiba to mistrust the other passsengers instead of working together like he did in th e-test.

 

[jose]

Sorry people but Enigma is so rushed these days, and the series lost its "suspense", the new arc is so fast paced in my opinion that i think the manga will be axed soon.

 

[WilliamK]

2 weeks on the bottom isn't enough to cancel it, I don't think? It still has 1-3 weeks before it being certain, although the next two chapters are just explanation chapters.

Anyway, I think Sakaki is playing this act safe. She's not giving us a lot of detail on the characters on the train which makes it seem fast paced. Also when you compare a station in this test to a trial on the e-test, it seems like it's rushed as it's only 1 chapter when compared to the original 1-3. Rather than explanation during the chapter, the arc seems like it'll have explanations at the end of the arc instead. That means, even if it does get canceled, she'll probably explain things but not in depth, but if she doesn't, she has a chance to explain things much more and such... After all, the big things in this act such as Masked Gentleman's indentity, Akame's defeat, Cannibal's capture and now even Kirio's appearance are surely going to get interest in the manga.

 

[Galactic Tomahawk]

Only issue right now is Sakaki's hilariously bad attempts at throwing everyone off from the president.

Murderer goes on a ten minute spiel about eating people just for the hell of it.

 

[FanOfAniManga]

Only issue right now is Sakaki's hilariously bad attempts at throwing everyone off from the president.

Murderer goes on a ten minute spiel about eating people just for the hell of it.

Yeah. I've noticed that too.

The manga had lost its suspense to the Japanese readers at the end of the e-test already; I'm pretty sure they'd figure out that this random character introduced out of nowhere in a flashback out of nowhere that turned out to be a mere 5 chapters before the climatic chapter happened to be Enigma after all. I'm referring to Kirio, of course.

This time, it's even worse; the author is barely hiding the fact that the person you'd least expect of the test participants could be Cannibal. At least she was trying to hide Kirio's identity in the e-test to the end, although she already did that a bit poorly by introducing him too late in. I don't know if she was actually told that Enigma would be cancelled soon, but I can tell she's starting to rush the story, not only by repeating this Big Bad Friend trope she's relied on from the e-test, but by screwing it up on the train test big time.

As we've read over the past few chapters, it has become pretty obvious who's really Cannibal. It's also obvious that Akame's spiel is a big fib; it's a replica of Mao's fib of knowing about the skull.

It's official: Sakaki has ran out of ideas. She had good ideas, but they were all executed poorly.

 

[Zeltrax]

Well..engima hasn't been particularly smart or full of great ideas or anything.
I would say that its above the average for its plot.
It's always more like "the situation is based on their powers" and that everything is set up so in a way that can be solve
by using their powers.
I expected more mind and logic to be at work in engima, considering what kind of manga it is.
Whoever the cannibal is wasn't particularly interesting anyway.
I really hopes it picks up and don't get cancelled, it does have potential after sticking around for a year now.

and yeah, I wanted to say this too..the e-test conclusion..wasn't as conclusive or..satisfying.

 

[WilliamK]

I'm not seeing why the negative comments towards Enigma at all. She done many things, very good and there are so many positives about Enigma. Poorly executed? Definitely not, in my opinion. I saw someone say it's the least interesting series out of Jump and that just made me laugh as it's not true. There's a difference between exposed and uninteresting, Enigma is neither, it's underexposed and very, very interesting. I feel sorry for Sakaki considering she definitely wanted to plan this and make it longer than this, but I doubt she'll get the chance to do just that. The manga definitely was intended to end at the e-test? I don't know why people say that, that just wouldn't work out. There are way too many mysteries in the manga that were raised. I mean, the problems in Enigma like lack of character development, personality were more or less done on purpose. Sakaki definitely intended to have the manga go on for awhile, at least, that's what she wanted. There are so many obvious, yet very small points that she wanted people to look forward to, but ultimately, they were over looked.

Characters: Kurisu Ryou: Some may say that we learnt what we needed about him, him being a strong, reliable person looked up to by many. However, this isn't the case. Not many have noticed, but why would he have a guardian, Reverend Scott in this case? It's because his parents died, or he ran away from them or something. You may say this is speculation, but Kurisu lives with the Reverend, Reverend was the first person he confessed his "talent" too, as well as him being the person he went to when celebrating his acceptance into Yuuyami. Not only that, Reverend Scott himself is a rather suspicious character, in chapter 40, we see him next to Kurisu showing that he did attend the Yuuyami festival with Kurisu and he also "got sick" before the flight and stopped them from going on the hijacking incident. It's clear Kurisu's background wasn't revealed at all- and mainly because it's definitely something big.

Moto Hasekura: Looking at him, I'm surprised no one said anything, but his eye patch. I for one believe he has more to him than just being scared and rather, the eye patch he has is the reason for why he wants to "be safe until he dies", so to speak.

Misuawa Aru: Though already hinted and indirectly shown, the second incident, was it truly done by Cannibal (the result of the bus crash)?

Hiina Kujoin: Actually, her history was done rather well. But, there's still her relationship with Sumio considering there has been hints of her liking him after the Water Puzzle incident, as well as when they get out of Kijima's copy of Yuuyami High. Not only that, it seems she went to the Festival with a bodyguard, suggesting that one of her bodyguards has a talent too.

Kirio Imizuka and Kijima Yuuta: Come on, even with the load of explanation done in chapter 41-42, there is no way there isn't more to it.

Cannibal: This is obvious... his motive, his appearance, his everything?! :P

Mao and Gentleman: So yeah, the characters in the manga have all hinted to have more than they seem from the outside. Mao Nanafushi and the Masked Gentleman, too. I wish she wasn't rushed, but we'll have to wait till the hope of Enigma not getting canceled to have them two to get more background on them. Mao has a way too twisted personality and can push someone down the stairs (which could be deadly) for her own gain. I hope she becomes all Juvia (from Fairy Tail) like towards Sumio or Matsurigi after this. As for Masked Gentleman, his entire identity!

Moving on...

Powers: Come on, you have to admit. People's talents in this are so interesting in the manga! Although, hints of importance and growth currently have only been suggested at one character...

Shigeru's Foresight: Yes, it is simple foresight and though she has gained better control, there is a major thing bugging me about it. The whole statement of "it not being her". I mean, there's a child version inside her that extends to the influence of the Dream Diary that recalls the tellings to Shigeru. I find this interesting, as it may mean the "demon" thing Mina was talking about in chapter 1.

Next...

Plot:

Inconsistencies: Sakaki isn't silly. She's smart and it shows in her foreshadowing. Now, my main question is with Kijima, Shigeru heard him say: "The parade of madness", yet in Kijima's recollection, he thinks him saying: "Enigma's giving talents...?" or something. I think Kijima's still under control of the skull, considering his psycho states and decisions like locking up and ruining children's lives to protect them from Cannibal.

Rumours: I love this part about Enigma. Suuki's rumour database. There have been two rumours named throughout Yuuyami, that being the Hand print phantom and the other being Gaikotsu Wish Granting Train. I mean come on, it'd be awesome to find out about the rumours of Yuuyami which further extend to the history of the "Enigma" skull.

History: The history with the skull is the main factor of the story. Making people go insane, creating rumours throughout Yuuyami, destroying the town whilst destroying itself. It is a great plot device and if this doesn't get canceled, I'd love to read about it. As in, the history with the Masked Gentleman, Kirio's father and even before them... Also the fact that the skull can create areas and such...

Now, potential is my favourite thing about this manga. Complimenting with the rumours and the skulls history there's...

Enemies: There should be more than just Cannibal after the skull. I mean, the rumours came to be because of the skull and people living to spread those rumours. There are more after the skull and I'm sure its definitely not the first time it gave out talents to people for the heck of it. Though I wouldn't want this to turn into a battle manga, I would like it to have action sequences. Not only that, Cannibal might not even be the only person hunting others with talents... I'd love to see an arc about Sumio and gang saving other characters (who have talents) throughout the school.

Locations: We have yet to even see Iriai Coast. All we know of it is a plane crashed there and Mao wears school uniform from one of the schools there. So yeah, more Iriai Coast.

Anyway, that's all I'll say for now, even though there's more. I'm exasperated at how much I typed... hahaha, but it's for Enigma, my second favourite manga! I'd do anything for it. And surprisingly despite what people say, I've already seen posts like: "I knew it was Akame!" and "So it's not President..." So I do think many are fooled by Sakaki's ploy, despite it being obvious.

 

[FanOfAniManga]

I'm not seeing why the negative comments towards Enigma at all. She done many things, very good and there are so many positives about Enigma. Poorly executed? Definitely not, in my opinion. I saw someone say it's the least interesting series out of Jump and that just made me laugh as it's not true. There's a difference between exposed and uninteresting, Enigma is neither, it's underexposed and very, very interesting. I feel sorry for Sakaki considering she definitely wanted to plan this and make it longer than this, but I doubt she'll get the chance to do just that. The manga definitely was intended to end at the e-test? I don't know why people say that, that just wouldn't work out. There are way too many mysteries in the manga that were raised. I mean, the problems in Enigma like lack of character development, personality were more or less done on purpose. Sakaki definitely intended to have the manga go on for awhile, at least, that's what she wanted. There are so many obvious, yet very small points that she wanted people to look forward to, but ultimately, they were over looked.

Characters: Kurisu Ryou: Some may say that we learnt what we needed about him, him being a strong, reliable person looked up to by many. However, this isn't the case. Not many have noticed, but why would he have a guardian, Reverend Scott in this case? It's because his parents died, or he ran away from them or something. You may say this is speculation, but Kurisu lives with the Reverend, Reverend was the first person he confessed his "talent" too, as well as him being the person he went to when celebrating his acceptance into Yuuyami. Not only that, Reverend Scott himself is a rather suspicious character, in chapter 40, we see him next to Kurisu showing that he did attend the Yuuyami festival with Kurisu and he also "got sick" before the flight and stopped them from going on the hijacking incident. It's clear Kurisu's background wasn't revealed at all- and mainly because it's definitely something big.

Moto Hasekura: Looking at him, I'm surprised no one said anything, but his eye patch. I for one believe he has more to him than just being scared and rather, the eye patch he has is the reason for why he wants to "be safe until he dies", so to speak.

Misuawa Aru: Though already hinted and indirectly shown, the second incident, was it truly done by Cannibal (the result of the bus crash)?

Hiina Kujoin: Actually, her history was done rather well. But, there's still her relationship with Sumio considering there has been hints of her liking him after the Water Puzzle incident, as well as when they get out of Kijima's copy of Yuuyami High. Not only that, it seems she went to the Festival with a bodyguard, suggesting that one of her bodyguards has a talent too.

Kirio Imizuka and Kijima Yuuta: Come on, even with the load of explanation done in chapter 41-42, there is no way there isn't more to it.

Cannibal: This is obvious... his motive, his appearance, his everything?! :P

Mao and Gentleman: So yeah, the characters in the manga have all hinted to have more than they seem from the outside. Mao Nanafushi and the Masked Gentleman, too. I wish she wasn't rushed, but we'll have to wait till the hope of Enigma not getting canceled to have them two to get more background on them. Mao has a way too twisted personality and can push someone down the stairs (which could be deadly) for her own gain. I hope she becomes all Juvia (from Fairy Tail) like towards Sumio or Matsurigi after this. As for Masked Gentleman, his entire identity!

Moving on...

Powers: Come on, you have to admit. People's talents in this are so interesting in the manga! Although, hints of importance and growth currently have only been suggested at one character...

Shigeru's Foresight: Yes, it is simple foresight and though she has gained better control, there is a major thing bugging me about it. The whole statement of "it not being her". I mean, there's a child version inside her that extends to the influence of the Dream Diary that recalls the tellings to Shigeru. I find this interesting, as it may mean the "demon" thing Mina was talking about in chapter 1.

Next...

Plot:

Inconsistencies: Sakaki isn't silly. She's smart and it shows in her foreshadowing. Now, my main question is with Kijima, Shigeru heard him say: "The parade of madness", yet in Kijima's recollection, he thinks him saying: "Enigma's giving talents...?" or something. I think Kijima's still under control of the skull, considering his psycho states and decisions like locking up and ruining children's lives to protect them from Cannibal.

Rumours: I love this part about Enigma. Suuki's rumour database. There have been two rumours named throughout Yuuyami, that being the Hand print phantom and the other being Gaikotsu Wish Granting Train. I mean come on, it'd be awesome to find out about the rumours of Yuuyami which further extend to the history of the "Enigma" skull.

History: The history with the skull is the main factor of the story. Making people go insane, creating rumours throughout Yuuyami, destroying the town whilst destroying itself. It is a great plot device and if this doesn't get canceled, I'd love to read about it. As in, the history with the Masked Gentleman, Kirio's father and even before them... Also the fact that the skull can create areas and such...

Now, potential is my favourite thing about this manga. Complimenting with the rumours and the skulls history there's...

Enemies: There should be more than just Cannibal after the skull. I mean, the rumours came to be because of the skull and people living to spread those rumours. There are more after the skull and I'm sure its definitely not the first time it gave out talents to people for the heck of it. Though I wouldn't want this to turn into a battle manga, I would like it to have action sequences. Not only that, Cannibal might not even be the only person hunting others with talents... I'd love to see an arc about Sumio and gang saving other characters (who have talents) throughout the school.

Locations: We have yet to even see Iriai Coast. All we know of it is a plane crashed there and Mao wears school uniform from one of the schools there. So yeah, more Iriai Coast.

Anyway, that's all I'll say for now, even though there's more. I'm exasperated at how much I typed... hahaha, but it's for Enigma, my second favourite manga! I'd do anything for it. And surprisingly despite what people say, I've already seen posts like: "I knew it was Akame!" and "So it's not President..." So I do think many are fooled by Sakaki's ploy, despite it being obvious.

Actually, I still enjoy reading the manga, as much as I always have. I even figured out what you said about the plot and characters already, but forgot about it. Having reminded me, I'm starting to feel grateful again for Sakaki's writing style. There really are no inconsistencies and the plot still has its potential through its suspense in the form of many unanswered questions.

I guess I was being a bit harsh in my last post; I wanted to figure out why Enigma is doing rather poorly in Japan, though the latest volume's sales are actually supposed to be significantly better than the last 3, I heard.

Still, I think it was a bit too obvious that Akame is fibbing and doesn't know what's going on, for two reasons:
1. He blurts about kidnapping to get himself good things to eat, play with and live. It could be just because he's poor. After all, he's a freeter.
2. If Akame is Cannibal, what's the likelihood the boy attended the festival and got an Ability/Talent too?

 

[WilliamK]

Don't worry, it wasn't directed at anyone personally, rather just I was confused on why there were a lot of criticizing posts (not just in this thread). The main thing I'm wondering is what about the students that did indeed gain a talent and haven't be targetted by Kijima or Cannibal. Matsurigi and Kurisu after a year(?) of obtaining it, began training together to control it. Also it seems unlike Shigeru and Sudou, that Misaki, Kengo and Arai also knew of their abilities. That means, there's students who are in full attention of their abilities and I'm surprised there's been no news on them. I think one of them could've been the murder that Yumikawa was blamed for, because I highly doubt Kijima was the one who killed the kid just to charge her, but rather, he was following a student, saw what happened and had to blame it on Yumikawa.

And yeah, I agree, I still think it's too obvious that Akame is but I guess if people aren't over thinking things, they may believe it's actually Akame.

 

[Negative Syndicate]

Enemies: There should be more than just Cannibal after the skull. I mean, the rumours came to be because of the skull and people living to spread those rumours. There are more after the skull and I'm sure its definitely not the first time it gave out talents to people for the heck of it. Though I wouldn't want this to turn into a battle manga, I would like it to have action sequences. Not only that, Cannibal might not even be the only person hunting others with talents... I'd love to see an arc about Sumio and gang saving other characters (who have talents) throughout the school.

I'm totally agreed on that one. I don't think there is only Cannibal who is after Enigma; there could be more people who want Enigma's power, like Kirio's father.

Therefore, I think the main goal for this series is find a way to destroy Enigma, not defeating Cannibal.

 

[Galactic Tomahawk]

Enigma has a few problems but it's still a pretty strong series IMO.

The previous chapter was kinda stupid but otherwise I've been enjoying this arc.