While I don't like how pretentious saying this sounds, I still have to say it:
This isn't some 'Whodunnit'-rhomp you can watch after work or school while being half asleep. To truly get most out of it, I recommend really focusing on it as much as possible.
That, or get drunk and enjoy the pretty pictures and lovely sound.
I've been guilty of that too occassionally.
Now on to what you can actually expect.
Zaregoto is a character study donning the guise of a murder mystery, with some good indulgent waifu material, as is Nisioisin's law.
Now, one could say that this sounds a lot like the Monogatari series, which is also a character study pretending to be a 'Girl-of-the-week' harem, but there's differences beyond the genre.
While The Kubikiri Cycle certainly has a good cast of characters, the main developmental focus is actually cast on our protagonist, Boku (or refferred to as Ii-Chan, by his friend Tomo), which alludes to the entire story being told in his perspective, as it was in the novel. Not once does anyone actually say his name.
Throughout the story, the anime touches on themes such as one's place in the world as well as society, the blessings and curses that come with being a genius/savant, one's calling in life, the dependancy upon other people and lots of other tough to swallow subjects you'd probably rather hear about in school than anime.
I'd say, though, that it's precisely what's so interesting about this OVA. You can easily read into it as much as you want, you can just enjoy this as a surface level murder-mistery (even if it falls a bit flat on that level) or you could even get an epiphany and become the next Buddha.
We're not quite sure yet if Nisioisin is that smart or if he's just good at pretending to be smart.
Anyway, if that managed to catch your interest, I'll now cut to the dry part of my review and talk about the subcategories specifically. Ready? Cause I aint.
Story:
As alluded to before, the actualy murder mystery is quite solid. Nothing amazingly new, but it utilizes the classic 'Locked Room' mystery quite well.
It also doesn't fall into the more modern trap of not actually giving the audience the hints they need to figure stuff out themselves.
You'll know as much as the protagonist, guaranteed.
One thing to be critiqued especially, is that the entire cast sometimes just doesn't think about something every person who's familiar with mysteries would think about. People lying about alibis? The murderer didn't act alone? The persone we think is suspicious doesn't actually have a decent motive?
Yeah, it'll take a while, if at all, for the cast to even consider these questions at times.
Still, solid like I said, and it's more of a vehicle to make our characters encounter new experiences and question themselves, so it's not key to the enjoyment.
Art:
This is highly subjective, but I'm a sucker for Shaft's Monogatari-style directing, which they heavily used for this title. Head-tilts, eye close-ups, supremely intricate and beautiful backgrounds, colour-shifts, it's all here.
Even without the directing though, I think it's needless to say that the art is just extremely nice.
I've heard people say that the characters look a bit too 'plastic-y' at times thanks to the lighting, which I think is a fair point, but I can't say that I dislike it.
Sound:
The sounds was for me, especially in the first few episodes, phenomenal in complimenting the atmosphere. It constantly creates an atmosphere of unease even before the murder(s) and keeps you on your toes.
As the episodes went on, however, I noticed the soundtrack less and less. Not that it ever got bad, just not as obviously good as before.
I'll have to note though, that this might be because I binged the series, so maybe I just lost focus as time went on.
Shoutout to both OP and ED, as they're really good songs.
Characters:
Usually, on any other Nisioisin production, this is where I'd praise him for cleverly subverting character stereotypes, but with Zaregoto I really need to commend him on writing characters that complement his main goal, which is to explore Boku (and to a lesser extent Tomo) as characters.
Every character pretty much stays true to what you'd think they'd be like. But only in this circle of very defined and rigid characters can an undefined character like our protagonist truly shine.
In that sense, I can see how giving this section a 10 could be controversial, as I'm praising the choice and usage of characters, and not the characters themselves.
If it's any comfort, can I say that I really liked all of the characters, both personality and design? Especially my girl; sleazy, drunkard fortune teller, Maki Himena.
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I really shouldn't have written all the stuff before my ratings, as it'd fit better in here, now that I think about.
Trying to find any closing words, I'd have to go with the following:
If you enjoy the idea of analyzing something again and again, and want to see just how far anime as a medium can be pushed, then you'll really like the Monogatari Series.
And if that's too much time investment or a bit too big of a plunge (or I guess you already consumed everything Monogatari, but want more), then watch this OVA, cause it's a great start to Nisio's writing and Shaft's directing while not outstaying its welcome.
