Phi Brain S3 – 19

Phi Brain 006

Never let Gammon pick where to go for a date

What’s up, puzzle dandies? I have 3 essays and a midterm this week so the last thing my brain wants to do is write. It doesn’t want to do much of anything, really, aside from maybe shut down for a week. Excuse me if this post is not quite up to par with my usual writing as a result. But then again, it’s not like I need to do much deep analysis for a show like this. It should be fine, so bear with me!

Can you believe Kaito is onscreen for only one scene? This time the spotlight is on Gammon, who never fails to delight. Honestly, you could get away with just having his voice present as a narrator and I’d be happy. In a show where everyone is flamboyantly dorky to the point where they have no shame about their puzzle obsessions, Gammon is the cool kid that you can’t help but love. After defecting to the POG, it’s easy to see him relapsing into the villain territory again. He’s Kaito’s rival, he’s fiercely jealous, and he’s got the reckless personality to pull off an impulsive turn to the dark side without remorse. It all adds up. Since then, he’s kind of been playing on our expectations and appearing to go rogue again when he’s actually just being a big old softie.

Phi Brain 003

Like a really, really BIG softie. Christ, he’s tall.

Gammon travels to Amgine to be Kaito’s “shield” of sorts and try to save the day without anyone getting hurt. You’d expect something a little more suspicious from a guy who left without telling anyone, but he’s really just protecting his pride. It’s actually pretty cute. In the process he gets an Orpheus Ring slapped on his arm and the automatic reaction is to gasp and say “oh no…he’s evil again!”. I know I did. It would have been a neat way to pad out the last few episodes by forcing Kaito – yet again – to pit his wits against his own friends.

But Gammon’s evil days are over so he just growls, flexes his biceps, and saves the day. He is so jacked that the nerd portion of the Orpheus Ring is repelled by what a jock he is. It’s amazing. Gammon wins with his biceps and gets the girl! Phi Brain really becomes quite a different show when Gammon is in charge, doesn’t it? It’s like watching the captain of a football team whereas Kaito is more like the greasy philosophy major with a ponytail who frequents the chess club.

Phi Brain 007

Muscles, sparkles and roses. Nothing goes together better.

Gammon was wonderful during every moment of screentime. Elena? Not so much. She has been reduced to the rich girl with convenient privileges who has a crush on Gammon. She used to be incredibly sassy and willful. She used to be a master Giver who nearly thwarted Kaito many times before. She used to be one of the only girls on the show allowed to be involved in the boy’s club of puzzle solving. Now she’s been given the Nonoha-level puzzle exile! It was sad that Elena became nothing more than an object for Gammon to save. She was there only because she had a pretty dress that matched Gammon’s hair and they wanted to draw her jumping around in heels. Don’t give me the excuse that Givers suck at puzzles either because Freecell and Rook totally redeemed themselves before.

I’ve always been kind of “eh” about Elena, but now I just feel sad for what they’ve done to her. You’re trying to tell me every girl in the show has a job to just cheer on the guys and help them do better? EVERY GIRL? Even the ones who used to have their own stupid TV show where they made puzzles each week? Raetsel is an anomaly at this point and I’m so glad she exists. The sexism in Phi Brain is usually just sigh-worthy with how blatant and dumb it is, but this week it actually managed to annoy me.

Phi Brain 004Phi Brain 008

Not sure what Gammon will do now that dinner is over and he just kind of walked out on the final boss. Regroup with Kaito? Sit and wait for the right time to strike? Go back home? See a doctor about those whacky future visions? Whatever he does, I kind of hope he stays in the spotlight justttt a bit longer. Him and Ana. More Ana please! Unfortunately, that’s a bit…unlikely. Gammon’s predicting a final showdown between Kaito and Orpheus, and that looks pretty inevitable at this point. It’s only a matter of time.

More Puzzles: Show ▼

Preview: Raetsel appears to be the next subject for a mind puzzle in the sky. The next episode looks like it’s all over the place so who know what to expect? Well, you can expect giant sunflowers and melting clocks. That’s a start.

Phi Brain 010

Um, okay.

About

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.
Blinklist BlogMarks Delicious Digg Diigo FaceBook Google MySpace Netvibes Newsvine Reddit StumbleUpon Twitter

8 Responses to “Phi Brain S3 – 19”

  1. Kyokai says:

    About time that we had a Gammon episode. Some off time from Kaito is good and when we have some special bonding between Gammon and Elena, well even better.

    • Overcooled says:

      Gammon is the closest thing to a main character aside from Kaito. He’s just so amazing!

      • BlackBriar says:

        It’s a rare thing to have a character that has both brains and brawn.

        • Kyokai says:

          He’s a hunk and we have to respect that. 😉 Not to mention being voiced by FukuJun always wins in my books.

  2. BlackBriar says:

    It was overdue for the other characters to get a little spotlight, especially when the series is this close to its end and it’s probably the final season altogether.

    Gammon has finally awakened his Phi Brain Sharingan! Better late than never. Fortunately, he’s intelligent otherwise his hotheadedness would’ve always gotten the best of him. I get worried when he shoots his mouth without considering what he’s up against but he manages to get things done. The way he shattered the Orpheus Ring was awesome. My curiosity is on who he saw in his vision besides Kaito.

    Orpheus still remains the composed, badass villain of the show and his changing eyes still creep me out. Thwarted a second time and he reacts with intrigue instead of frustration. One thing that caught me off guard was how much of a snake he turned out to be beneath the surface with his troll of a puzzle. I almost jumped up at how Gammon got cheated with the red squares.

    Next is Raetsel’s turn. Got to wonder how Orpheus is going to mess with her.

    • Overcooled says:

      It’s so sad that this might be the very last season…

      Gammon acts like an idiot, but he’s got a lot of puzzle smarts. Actually, he might be kind of ridiculous outside of puzzles in general considering he was tricked before into fighting Kaito.

      Orpheus is a really good villain. He keeps his cool no matter how many times the heroes overthrow his dirty tricks. At least his puzzle had a solution. That’s more than some villains try.

  3. belatkuro says:

    Heh, glad I wasn’t the only one who thought that Gammon got rid of the ring by flexing his awesome muscles. Come to think of it, Kaito, Rook and Freecell aren’t as buff as Gammon. Does that say anything? 😉

    As for the puzzle, well that’s one way to make one, as opposed to almost all the puzzles we’ve had that probably costs God knows how much. Don’t get me started on how long it takes them to make it as well as how they installed it on those sites(those underground spikes!)
    Though, couldn’t they(Gammon and Elena) have just jumped to the finish plate when that green plate is passing over? It’s not like it’s travelling fast and Gammon could have carried Elena. And here I thought I got the hang of this puzzle time business, what with Kaito and Gammon pulling out solutions to puzzles out of thin air. Gammon of all people would have pulled this off like that motorcycle puzzle this season with him travelling and jumping in the borders. Ah well.

    At least Gammon proved himself why he was chosen when I was questioning it as well. And he has the galaxy eye thing now, which took Kaito a whole season to get. No comment on Elena as she’s not really that important in the whole thing anyways.
    Quite a fun episode, mostly because of Gammon and FukuJun’s hammy voice.

    That end card made me lol. I’ve been wondering myself why Doubt and that other girl(forgot the name) hasn’t appeared yet despite being in the OP and ED. Will we even get to see them? I doubt it(hah!).

    • Overcooled says:

      Rook is actually pretty damn buff, he just hides it under his clothes all the time. But as a general rule the puzzle solving dorks are as scrawny as heck.

      Yeah….now that you mention it, they could have cheated on the sky mind-puzzle. There’s nothing stopping them from just jumping around whenever they want. It’s weird that they only make up rules half of the time and the rest of the time they want to follow the straight and narrow path.

      Gammon’s finally on the same playing field as Kaito. Well, almost. He’s the main character so he’s gotta be the best. I’ve kinda been questioning Gammon’s skills as well since is bounty was the lowest and he hasn’t been so hot at solving puzzles without help recently.

      Oh gosh, I kind of hope we don’t see Doubt and Mizerka because they were just kind of…there. Unless Mizerka picks up the subplot with Ana’s sister again, because that was great. But otherwise…yeah, I could do without them getting screentime. But the end cards never lieeeee

Leave a Reply