Phi Brain S3 – 06

There is no double chin. There is an infinite vastness of perpetual chins.

Sometimes you need a break from the male-dominated world of puzzles.  What better way to unwind from puzzle assassins than a day at the beach with the ladies? Being completely useless at anything puzzle-related, they pass the time by flaunting their bodies in front of the camera in swimsuits. Ahh…Phi Brain. Stay classy.

There has never been a villain in Phi Brain quite like Raetsel. She’s a good person walking down a dark road, coerced into evil by a dark puppeteer who knows how to manipulate her love for Jin. She’s the classic “misunderstood” villain, but she differs from Rook and Freecell. Unlike the white-haired duo, Raetsel can have a normal conversation without slipping into bouts of insane threats and homicidal behaviour. The fact that she’s sane makes it easier to sympathize with her since it kiiiiind of makes sense why she’s so keen on annihilating puzzles and puzzlers. She’s also not as acutely dangerous because she would rather frolic with Jin than plot the demise of Kaito. All in all, she’s actually a pretty nice girl caught in unfortunate circumstances thanks to her contract with Enigma.

The pool episode really takes advantage of Raetsel’s ability to actually blend in with both sides. The concept of Ana being buddy-buddy with Raetsel is just too cute, especially since he’s the only guy in the group invited to the “girl’s day out.” I was almost convinced she would cave in and become more friendly. She’s gotten utterly pissed at these puzzle assassins almost every week, and this time they explicitly tried to kill her. Furthermore, Enigma’s apology for trying to kill her is “lol, you deserved it, bitch.” Raetsel’s weak point is Jin, so just mention his name and all is forgiven. The way Enigma guilts her into staying with him with those crocodile tears exemplifies what a rotten person he is. Jikukawa straight up says that Raetsel is probably being controlled, and it’s becoming more and more clear that Enigma’s manipulating skills are top notch. As much as Raetsel may think she’s getting a big benefit from this, I’m almost certain she’ll get screwed over in the end. The appearance of season 2’s rotten loli, Melancholy (oh my god, it rhymes. Did they name her that on purpose?), makes things even more ominous. We’re making lots of plot progress each week, aren’t we?

I’m amazed they actually put some plot into the fanservice episode. Then again, an episode without puzzles would be blasphemy. You’d think this would be Elena’s big chance to solve a puzzle but God forbid we have a woman solve something! Instead, I like to imagine all the creators of Phi Brain (men, of course) got into a room and brainstormed ideas of things they think girls do for fun. Shopping??? Clothes?? Beach?? Talk about boys??? Unable to decide, they had them do all of these things in an incredibly cliche day of girly nonsense. Of course, part of the girls-only episode contains lots of skin…without any of the guys in the show there to ogle them. Let’s be serious, they’d be too busy with puzzles to notice anyways. In fact, while the girls try and parade in swimsuits, the men are out solving puzzles. Such is life.

I love how there is literally no one else in the pool

While the fanservice stuff was pretty lame (the girls didn’t even get any budget spent on…you know..movement) it was nice to see Ana try and become cat friends with Raetsel, only to have it backfire. It seems like all the really depressing stuff always happens to Ana. As soon as he almost befriends her, she becomes unapproachable again. Oh Ana…you try so hard to convey your prophetic visions to everyone but no one ever listens.

I almost forgot about Gammon’s puzzle. I like the attention to Jin-Raetsel-Kaito storyline, but that has eaten up a lot of screentime. This means there is only a sliver of time left for a puzzle, which by default has to be a simple one or else they’d run out of time. The designs are still great and the bounty addition really spices things up since it gives them different reasons to target different people, but the reasoning behind each puzzle becomes really simple. I have a thing for when the main character explains the reasoning behind their brilliant solution. This puzzle was so trial and error that it wasn’t really necessary. It’s not a bad puzzle, but the villain of the week format feels more like an add on to desperately remind us that this show is about puzzles. Yes, we know it’s about puzzles, no need to throw in a random villain with a terrible name.

I’ll give them this…each villain looks more deranged and terrifying than the last. Colonel Demolitionman is another name that will go down in Phi Brain history…

Bonus Screenshots: Show ▼

Preview: A puzzle with Freecell! I wonder how that will go down considering how he’s leery around puzzles now.

Part of me hopes he retained a smidgen of yan to even out the dere.

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.