Phi Brain – 02
You too can get free lunches if you join the Puzzle Illuminati
Ready for more puzzles? You can never have enough puzzles! Take it from a puzzle lover who printed out a screenshot from the episode, cut out the shapes, and sat there trying to solve it. Not sure how productive that was for time usage considering I had a midterm right after, but as long as I can solve puzzles, I’ll be MAGICAL…….Oh God, this show is brainwashing me. Let’s just go to the summary. >_<
Kaito solves the gears puzzle by evoking his Phi Brain ability and seeing through all the distraction pulleys. He tugs on the correct rope and then collapses from fatigue. Nonoha – black belt extraordinaire – piggybacks him all the way home. She’s quite concerned about him and his sudden GLOWING RED EYE syndrome, so she checks up on him bright and early the next morning. He’s back to his usual slightly less asshole-ish self now, so no need to panic!
Yeah, I always sleep with my sunglasses right by my pillow too. Who doesn’t?
Kaito heads back to school, where he actually never attends class. He is just harassed by puzzle nut students and the puzzle-obsessed principal. His newest stalker is Galileo, a hot-headed punk who uses a megaphone to beckon Kaito to the roof using morse code “BA” and “KA.” Not having anything better to do, like attend class, he races to the roof and solves the puzzles that Galileo has left in his wake. Kaito solves them with ease, but Nonoha (and I) weren’t so quick at solving them…
Upon reaching the roof, Kaito falls into a trap and is hung upside down from his ankles. So Galileo is just a fan of incredibly elaborate bullying that involves traps. Woooow. Just when Nonoha comes to untie him, Jikugawa mysteriously appears (the only way he knows how to appear) and summons them to the principal’s office.
Wait, how is this within school rules?
The principal sure dumps a huge load on Kaito.
1. He has made a contract with Orpheus that lets him use the ‘Phi Brain’ power.
2. He is now a Solver and must complete the puzzles provided by Givers.
3. The Givers are part of a secret puzzle organization called POG.
4. Apparently, ancient ruins, pyramids, and other wonders of the world are PUZZLES to solve
5. The reason the POG does this is in hopes of finding someone capable of solving the DIVINE PUZZLE
6. The school gets a cut from the treasures/money Kaito gets after completing a puzzle
Kaito refuses having the title of Einstein and solving POG’s puzzles, not wanting to be anyone’s pawn. Instead, Kaito goes to the cafeteria and acts like a fool by trying to out-order and out-eat Galileo. Seeing as he has the special title of ‘Galileo’ marking his puzzle-solving expertise, the food is on the house. Not so much for Kaito, who refused the offer just a few minutes ago. Zetsuboushita doesn’t even begin to describe it.
The more you eat, the less effort we put into animating you
During lunch, Kaito gets a challenge from a Giver named Clash who has a puzzle waiting for him. It shows the location on GPS for a split second before Galileo swipes the handheld and heads for the puzzle location himself. He’s interested in the treasure you get for solving puzzles, and Kaito just lets him go. Of course, he changes his mind almost immediately after brooding on the ingenius puzzles Galileo created for him. Perhaps he’s actually respecting him, thanks to his old man telling him that puzzles are a reflection of the person that made them?
Galileo arrives at the puzzle site and demands to be allowed to take a crack at the live action “Traffic Jam” puzzle. Clash refuses until Kaito steps in, to which he just says ‘screw it’ and lets all of them do it together. They all cram into a tiny car and control the puzzle with a touchscreen, which Galileo hogs to himself. He solves the puzzle, but Clash becomes bitter and puts the brakes on their car so they can’t complete the final move. Instead of letting them win, he drops a bus on them.
Well that’s not very nice, sir! Galileo and Nonoha try to break out of the car windows while Kaito activates his Phi Brain abilities to manipulate this puzzle. After all, it’s practically moaning to be finished, so they can’t leave it alone before the climax. Wait, what. No, don’t picture puzzles whispering sexy things to Kaito, please don’t. ANYWAYS, regardless of what the puzzle feels, he solves it anyways by using the momentum of another car to push them out.
Once Kaito confirms that the Givers like to kill you if you can’t solve the puzzle (and sometimes even when you can) he is finally convinced to accept a title and solve puzzles regularly. I can think of no better perk than getting free food so you can risk your life. Meanwhile, funky afro bro smirks in his office and narrows his eyes at the sound of Kaito’s name.
Bonus Puzzles:
Don’t leave a brother hanging!
“Thanks for letting us out of the dark box you keep us in today!” “Yeah yeah, now get solving, midgets.”
What mechanics REALLY do with your cars when you take them in to be repaired
Ohhhh Kaito….I need you to solve me sooooo baddd~~~
End Thoughts: Is this show absurd? Yes, it is. But I like it! I found myself more interested in this episode than the one before mostly because it had more puzzles in it. Sure, they were all pretty simple puzzles, some of which I’ve seen a million times before, but it’s good for a show with a quirky concept to show that off. Once again, they still don’t give much time for the audience to try and solve it or even explain how Kaito comes to his solution. If solving puzzles is so satisfying, why bother have Kaito solve those puzzles on the way to the roof and then never show us the answer? If you’re not gonna let us solve the puzzles ourselves, at least let us live vicariously through Kaito and explain his genius revelations! I don’t want things to get too chatty, so just a quick flash of the answer and a one-liner would suffice for me.
Despite the puzzles being a little easy so far (my favouriteone was the morse code one, and that was barely even a puzzle), at least the show makes the puzzles seem tense. Characters sweat like mad, the music ramps up, and the villain starts laughing evilly. It really is a world where if you can solve a puzzle, you can rule the world. Can’t wait to see how lulzy things get when they try and solve that DIVINE PUZZLE to become closer to God ppffftttt. Well, if you’re gonna do puzzles in a shounen anime, might as well go all the way! This show is corny as hell, but I kind of like that sort of thing.
The newest addition to the cast is Galileo, who really isn’t that likeable. However, his over-exaggerated mannerisms are perfect for this kind of show, so I think he’ll be a good addition once more and more characters are added to Kaito’s rag-tag team of puzzle solvers. Based on the preview, we’ll be slowly introducing characters for a while before Kaito really gets into what I assume will be a “puzzle of the week” flow. The Rush Hour puzzle was stupidly easy, so I hope they start to get…harder? I mean, couldn’t Kaito have just moved the little red car out of the way of the bus? It only fell on a small area, not the entire grid. No wonder that guy got fired by the crazy afro kid.
Preview: Kaito, Galileo and that girl who can memorize stuff face off against their newest opponent…a shota. But he’s a really smart shota, and look! Honest!
About Overcooled
A neuroscience graduate, black belt, and all-around nerd. You'll either find me in my lab or curled up in my rilakkuma kigurumi watching anime.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Kaito is quite the arrogant puzzle master and that armlet seems to make it worse. But I did like the red x-ray eye and its processing speed. Just looking at the OP, it’s no secret that everyone has a few screws loose.
I wish they left a little amount of us to at least try and figure out the puzzle. Then again, my brain might fry trying to solve it.
A challenge invitation in the middle of a junkyard reeks of a setup. That guy who created the puzzle is a sore loser who can’t bare to be beaten by kids. Haha, too bad for him. Gamon proves to be a worthy rival to Kaito and he’s completely off his rocker. To make it better, they’re bickering like cat and dog.
There’s an evil puzzle organization as well? This is so Yu-Gi-Oh! but without the cards and battle stages.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I like his arrogancy in his Phi Brain mode form better, because instead of being like a petulant child, he’s more like a suave genius. Gotta love the cold, emotionless ones!
Galileo is a cool rival. By his looks, you’d think he’d just be the token rival (cat and dog fights are fun!) but he’s got the brains to back it up. I guess punks can be brainy too.
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 99 comments
Not getting to see the solutions was a kick in the gut! Maybe that means I’m invested in the show, but I can’t say I wasn’t disappointed. 🙁
I like the heroine though. Carrying that wimpy hero like a complete bamf.
OC, what are you blogging this season?
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
Yeah, and she does Karate as well as the tennis club.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I was so sad. They even showed the finished blue “T” but all the shards were magically melded together, so I couldn’t see how he solved it. Do you know how long I spent with paper cut outs trying to make that T?!?!
I like how Nonoha is useful and really active (YEAHH A FELLOW KARATE-KA *HIGH FIVES*) but she kind of sucks at solving puzzles. :/ She looked at those puzzles Kaito solved as if they were two-headed mutant fish.
I’m blogging Phi Brain, Hunter x Hunter (in Meta Jump posts), and Persona 4. Should be..interesting. How about you, Renn? :3
POWUH: Metanorn Regular with 99 comments
You do karate? 0.0 Amazing, I will keep that in mind. xD
I’ll blog either Un-Go or Last Exile most likely. But I’m watching Hunter x Hunter and Persona 4 for sure (and most likely Phi Brain), so I’ll be sure to follow your posts. 😀
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
Yes, yes I do! Don’t worry, you’re too far away (…kind of.) for me to beat you up.
I didn’t like the first season of Last Exile, but I’ll probably give this one a 3 episode test or something like that. Un-go looks like it will be good, I’m sure it’ll be fun to blog. =D
POWUH: Lovely-pyon~ with 305 comments
You know what this show lacks right now? It hit me as I was watching this episode: This show needs an arrogant yet cool and badass rich guy with brown hair who controls a blue-eyes white dragon.
PHI BRAIN WOULD BE SO MUCH BETTER IF IT HAD KAIBA!
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I’m going to just cut out a picture of Kaiba and wave it around as a replacement for Nonoha as I watch it next time. I WISH KAIBA WERE IN THIS SHOW AS WELL.
POWUH: and Vampire Lover with 11746 comments
Yeeahhh!!! Go Seto Kaiba!!
POWUH: 500-599 with 519 comments
This episode made me laugh so hard. The puzzles were taken way too seriously. Especially when the Divine Puzzle thing was brought in. I was thinking of the Divine Move from Hikaru no Go during the whole thing. XD
And I think the reason why Kaito couldn’t just move the red car was because the car was locked in place so he needed to get the other car to push them out of there.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I love this show because it takes puzzles that seriously. Divine Puzzle? Yep, this show is insane. All the more fun to blog about for lulz.
Ah, that’s true. Although it’s kind of stupid that he’d leave an open area like that if he really wants to kill them though. Then your first move could be to move to the side (before he stops the car) and just…break out. XD
POWUH: 800-899 and Flying Sage with 856 comments
“I love this show because it takes puzzles that seriously.”
That’s exactly it. I love the fact they take puzzles so seriously. It really is the best thing about this show. It gives everything a light-hearted color. In reality the kids who love puzzles would get beaten up at school (or at best, ignored), but here they act like BAMFs and battle secret puzzle societies. I find the concept hilarious.
POWUH: 400-499 with 406 comments
Damn it. I wanted to see the solutions so bad. Whyyyy.
That father figure in the flashback just reminds me of Verde from KHR.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I was planning on solving it and posting the solutions, but it proved to be too time-consuming. I can never be a puzzle master U_U
He looks like Verde, yes! The same lazy expression too!
POWUH: Metanorn Lover with 199 comments
That sounds totally like yu-gi-oh with puzzles (other than Millenium Puzzle). Eeeh, I don’t know, cool-san likes it so I probably would too…. ok, I’ll wait for other episodes review
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I like it, but it takes a certain amount of tolerance for cheesiness to like it XD It’s actually an anime I’d be very reluctant to recommend to anyone since the reason it’s good is because it’s bordering on the edge of bad. Personally, I find it hilarious, but maybe wait and see how the third episode holds up before giving it a try? :3
POWUH: iLurker with 1 comments
[…] “Despite the puzzles being a little easy so far (my favourite one was the morse code one, and that was barely even a puzzle), at least the show makes the puzzles seem tense. Characters sweat like mad, the music ramps up, and the villain starts laughing evilly. It really is a world where if you can solve a puzzle, you can rule the world. Can’t wait to see how lulzy things get when they try and solve that DIVINE PUZZLE to become closer to God ppffftttt. Well, if you’re gonna do puzzles in a shounen anime, might as well go all the way! This show is corny as hell, but I kind of like that sort of thing.” – Metanorn […]