Phi Brain S2 – 08
The puzzle of learning personal space has not yet been solved by these two.
 |
I should have just asked someone to cover shows for me while I was at Anime North, but I was too stubborn to do so. I’m also too stubborn to combine 2 episodes into one post, so I posted Tsuritama like a DAY BEFORE the next episode was scheduled to come out and I’m attempting a similar feat with Phi Brain. That’s just how I am – unable to accept being late and combine two episodes into one. Enjoy this Phi Brain post as I slowly try to claw my way back to a normal posting schedule that has some semblance of timeliness to it. I’m…I’m trying. |
Reaction
This week was alllllll Ana! I like Ana because he’s so ditzy and almost magical in his ways, but I have to admit seeing him just go around the puzzle ring over and over was a bit grating on my nerves. He was a little too clueless for my liking. He killed the Howawan joke too by saying it so much. We get that Ana is air-headed, that doesn’t mean I want all of his lines to be “ehh?”. If Mizerka hasn’t insulted Kaito, then Ana was basically going to lose. That’s not a good thing for a genius. How did he get the coveted title of Da Vinci again? Anyways, Ana made me roll my eyes a lot, but I did like the brief glimpse at his past. We may not have learned anything about his psychic powers, but it’s a start!
The best part of this episode was seeing Kaito have a good, long emo moment, complete with flashbacks about Freecell. We got to see more pieces of the puzzle come into place, and Kaito ended up regaining his composure by the end of the episode. I couldn’t handle stretched-out periods of Kaito being useless, so thank goodness. That was the perfect amount of depressing reminiscing. Kaito much quicker to getting back on his feet now that he doesn’t have a mind-controlling armlet forcing him to not have normal feelings.
Overall, a “meh” episode consisting of Ana being an annoying airhead and some actually interesting tidbits about Freecell’s past.
———————————————————
Analysis
Freecell: Our Rook look-alike (Rook-alike?) holds a very strange grudge against Kaito. I will hold my tongue about how ridiculous it is to blame Kaito for his mother’s death this week and focus on his emotional state. Freecell is not just angry because of what Kaito did to his mom, but he’s angry because they aren’t friends. Even now, I think Freecell really just wants Kaito to be by his side. In a twisted way, he’s making up for the puzzles he didn’t get to solve with Kaito as a kid by forcing him to solve these deathtraps now that they’re older. This extreme reaction is most likely because of the Orpheus armlet pushing him to be COMPLETELY BONKERS, but he does have a genuine affection for Kaito. Other than his like for Kaito though, he’s a complete demon. His smiles are all fake and he scares the other members, which makes for an interesting mix of someone who is cold-hearted but knows how to act jovial, yet has a huge weakness for anything Kaito related. Insult Kaito (like Melancholy did) and he’ll shoot you a glare that could curdle milk, and mention his past with Kaito and he’ll basically break down.
I still prefer Rook, because his Kaito psychosis was all the more extreme, but Freecell is definitely becoming more interesting as the story fleshes him out. During Kaito’s flashback, we see Freecell at his mother’s grave, and he smiles when he sees Kaito. Clearly, he did not hold a grudge against Kaito, even during his most vulnerable moments after his mother died. This whole hatred thing was probably instilled in him by the Orpheus armlet…and I think someone may have specifically slapped that thing on his wrist knowing it would awaken a latent disdain for Kaito. Otherwise, he was just an innocent little kid in Kaito’s harem, secretly lusting after him no matter what he did XD
As a side note, the only other kid with Freecell when he was at his mom’s grave appears to be Pinochle. Was he Freecell’s only childhood friend? Does he hate Kaito because he was always ignored as Freecell sighed dreamily over the resident child genius? I daresay that I feel worse for Pinochle than for Freecell at this point because oh my gosh, that is just so PATHETIC AND SAD. He’s still all sulky this episode too! It’s just so depressing how much of a third wheel he is.
Mizerka & Ana: Somehow, Mizerka knows Ana’s “onee-sama” (who very well be a dude given how Ana is) and yet grew up to be very different. The big question here is…what happened to Eve? Why is someone who was so important to Ana absent in his life? It’s also a bit weird that Mizerka knew Eve too, yet doesn’t really know Ana. Since Mizerka was stuck in Crossfield, I guess she met Eve after Ana did? It’s weird. All I really got from the flashbacks was that Eve kept him happy and taught him how to paint. I don’t even think the two of them went to school, which explains their “ehhhh??” reactions to everything. Since Mizerka is involved, I can only hope they tell us more in time.
———————————————————
Speculation
Remember when I was spouting radical conspiracy theories involving mass-brainwashing of the Orpheus Order? Well, it seems like one of those mad rants hit what could be close to the mark this time. Jikukawa notes that Orpheus armlets are very rare artifacts. Therefore, it’s rather odd that 5 people with the exact same goals and connection to Kaito would all conveniently find armlets. Either someone gathered real armlets themselves and purposely distributed them to the Order, or these are more prototypes for gathering data. There is something fishy about all these armlets turning up in one place. Remember, Rook and Jin were the only POG members to even have them, yet here is an entire group showing off their bling like it’s nothing. With the POG now on the good guy’s side, they should be able to find out what’s going on and get to the root of the problem. If they can stop the one who is mass-producing these Orpheus armlets and other odd accessories, then they know where to strike. Of course…that probably won’t happen since they need to SOLVE PUZZLES to come to any conclusion in this show :/
Bonus Screenshots: Show ▼
Preview: While it’s not a team battle, next week has a 2 vs 2 fight with Kaito and Gammon facing Doubt and Freecell. Teamwork is key here and I’m not really sure if that will go well considering who we’re talking about here. Yikes.
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
This episode was entertaining but I realized no what the story, Kaito is somehow tied to it one way or another. And Freecell’s story about his mother, I think he’s holding back on details.
Damn, these guys can eat and in huge portions, too. Where do they put it all? I makes me think back on that post about food and the gluttonous characters that eat it.
I’m a bit puzzled about Mizerka mentioning Eve like that, wonder what the connection is. Maybe they’ve met somewhere that Ana had yet to know about.
Freecell and Melancholy brought intimidation faces this week. Freecell’s when Melancholy was smack talking Kaito and hers when Mizerka lost. I had chills seeing them. Absolutely menacing.
Even as a kid, Ana dressed like a female. If it wasn’t revealed last season, we would’ve never known. He’s definitely a world class trap. And his ditziness during his part of the game, it’ll either be the death of good guys, the Order or us, the viewers. Whether it’s unconsciously or not, what he did to win was pretty much the opposite of Pinochle’s method and for a minute, it was like he didn’t know what was going on.
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I agree, there’s something fishy about it for sure. You don’t go from smiling at your “supposed traitor” friend at a funeral to suddenly deciding to hate them. Something else happened to him.
Melancholy has some wild mood swings…She regresses to a kid a lot, but then she also has a wicked streak. Yikes. It’s less surprising to see Mizerka get all angry because she looks more like the type.
Yeah! That’s so weird that he started his trap tendencies so young! Maybe his parents were hippies that let his hair grow out and didn’t care if he wore a lot of pink? I dunno. Ana just does what he wants without much thought…even when it comes to life-or-death situations. Remember last season when he waltzed through the stone henge puzzle like it was nothing without even listening to the rules? Ana, you are just ridiculous…lol
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 62 comments
And here I thought you would be doing a double post. When I posted the character designer’s weekly doodle I realized I did not have anything fun or witty to say about the episode… Just with a raw it was cute and nothing else… Episode 9 seems to have more plot details
and yanderebut I wasn’t able to watch it.The art of being a world-class trap was passed on through generations like an ancient heirloom…
^ Hahaha it’s even more true when looking at a certain moment in the next episode.
Ana is still full of misteries… What could have made him depressed when he was young and what’s the deal with Eve? I love saying howawan, it has something adorable in how they pronounce it. And I totally fist pumped when he got serious. Part of why Ana won is because he pissed Mizerka off. He totally ignored her until she insulted Kaito.
I found it weird that Freecell smiled when Kaito walked by. You don’t smile at the guy you hold responsible for your mother’s death!
I was surprised the magic square giver from all the way back to Cubic’s introduction got a cameo. Give us Rook already!
POWUH: Meta Team and The Mad Scientist with 5525 comments
I saved your comment. I didn’t realize that was YOU on Tumblr lol.
It was a pretty uneventful episode aside from a small addition of the funeral scene and seeing Eve…and we saw that in the episode preview last week =_= It wasn’t bad, but it was pretty average. I’ll get to 9 eventually. Ugh, I really should have done a double post.
I was contemplating whether Ana’s parents were dead or not. Maybe Eve helped him get over it. When in doubt, I just assume parents are dead. It’s just very statistically likely in anime…
I’m dying for Rook to come back too. He was just so perfect…!!!
POWUH: Occasional (51-75) with 62 comments
I didn’t openly say it so it’s alright. I was still excited when I saw you followed me. Take your time for the posts! You seem to work very hard lately.
Parents don’t exist in anime unless they are seen or mentionned. None of our high schoolers seem to have parents, even Nonoha and Jikukawa who seem to be the most normal ones…