Phi Brain S3 – 15

The third wheel to end all third wheels

Ready for puzzles? Well calm down, because this episode doesn’t have any. It sounds blasphemous, but there are other things that need to be explained first. After some steady progression, we finally know more about Jin, Enigma, and Lovushka. And Baron I guess, but he’s a colossal loner in all of this so whatevs.

Instead of just shooting out an e-mail, Baron gathers the entire group of puzzle dorks for a live meeting in the middle of nowhere. Standing on top of a cliff where Lovushka’s grave is (probably illegally) located, he tells them about their past. Basically, Jin was Lovushka’s rival and they would compete to see who was the better Solver. Being a girl, Lovushka wasn’t as good at puzzles so her dreams were shattered and the Phi Brain staff had to kill her off. Having a female who is decent at puzzles onscreen for too long just wouldn’t be right. As such, Lovushka dies in a terrible, puzzle-related accident.

“You are lacking something” Is it…a Y chromosome…?

Or did she? We don’t actually see her fall to her death. For all we know, she pulled a Cinderella and just left one of her shoes behind as she escaped elsewhere. It’s mighty suspicious that we don’t see her die considering how much this show loves flashbacks of parents falling to their doom in giant chasms (such as Kaito’s parents). It would also be nice for her to come back as a super-strong Solver after spending her entire life up until now crawling through a secret, underground network of Fools’ Puzzles.

Speculation aside, it’s good to see the truth about part of Jin’s past. After all of that struggle trying to figure out Jin’s hatred for puzzles, it turns out it was all made up. Enigma verbally confirms that Jin never had any malevolence toward puzzles – at least the kind that would make him bitter enough to hire a team of assassins. Sometimes he’d get a little frustrated or melancholy about them, sure, but even an Orpheus Ring wasn’t enough to make him go that far. Enigma made it all up to avenge Lovushka.

My favourite part about his convoluted plan is that it’s implied he killed her himself. Enigma wants to get revenge for killing his own girlfriend…who isn’t actually his girlfriend. I could be wrong, but the two of them never really gave off the impression of being in love. Enigma just clung to her with wide, dorky puppy eyes while she just looked tired in response. If anything, she had more chemistry with Jin. The fact that Enigma is delusional enough to pretend he had a girlfriend, keep information from her, push her so hard so that she dies and then seek revenge by tricking another girl into the same sort of thing…well, if insanity could be impressive then I’d say his chart-breaking madness is quite impressive indeed.

Yeah, I’d jump into an endless pit too if that creepy thing touched my shoulder

Underneath the suave suit and radiant haircut is a raving lunatic. Enigma is on a pointless quest for revenge that makes absolutely no sense. At one point he wanted Lovushka’s dream to come true, but he was so obsessive over it that he forced Lovushka past her limits. It’s a lot easier for him to believe that puzzles killed Lovushka instead of himself, so he quickly accepts that and viciously denies everything else. He’s gone through all of these mental acrobatics to absolve himself of blame and make his league of puzzle assassins see like a noble cause. I guess not everyone needs an Orpheus Ring to be a little unhinged.

With his hand revealed, will he be the final villain? He’s got the makings of a final boss that perhaps Raetsel and Kaito team up to beat, but I’m unsure. The beauty of this season is that the goals here are more fluid. They can change from episode to episode. There is no overall goal of “defeating the bad guys” because it’s been hard to tell exactly who they are. Raetsel is Kaito’s opposition for now, but she’s not really evil. With this in mind, the flow of the tide could change at any time and the two could become friends.

The more Raetsel starts to sympathize with Kaito, the more I feel bad for her. She just wants to spend time with Jin, but Enigma has been warping her thoughts and pushing her to extremes. In the preview she even admits that she always knew Kaito was right about Jin’s feelings towards puzzles. But she doesn’t like puzzles, and she doesn’t want to accept that she’s fundamentally different from Jin. The “something she lacks” will hopefully be revealed soon, especially since Lovushka mentioned the exact same thing in regards to herself. I wonder if the two of them are linked together in any deeper way other than both coincidentally mentioning that they lack something.

The “final” puzzle against Raetsel should be interesting for a number of reasons. One: the yanhomos are taking part in it. Two: Raetsel is admitting the truth. Three: Jin has been acting weird as hell lately and now is a good a time as any to lash out. It’s only episode 15, so after this puzzle is complete, we may find the series moving in a totally new direction. What will it be? As long as there’s puzzles, I’m game.

Preview: Raetsel’s final stand-off with Kaito to prove her resolve. It’ll be a deadly on!

Time to take out the claws

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.