The next anime that I watched recently was the first season of the show Phi-Brain Kami no Puzzle (Phi-Brain Puzzle of God). This show was produced by Sunrise and the first season was aired in 2011-2012. Since then, they have had another season go by in Phi-Brain Kami no Puzzle Orpheus Order Hen and that was a success as well and a third season is planned for 2013. With the usual running times for episodes at a half an hour each, the series' opening was "Brain Diver" by May'n and the ending was "Hologram" by Natsumi Kiyoura. So here is a look into the first season of Phi-Brain Kami no Puzzle.
 |
| Kaito Gains the Armlet of Orpheus |
Later, Kaito is given the title of Einstein which grants him special privileges on their school campus and there are others with titles in this school as well who become friends with Kaito through the show. There is Galileo, who is a student who thinks that he is the greatest puzzle solver in the world, there is Edison, who is this really smart kid who goes around inventing stuff all day and walks around on this robot he made, and then there is "Da Vinci" who is one of those people in anime that looks like a girl, acts like a girl, and is in fact a boy. But anyway, he is really good at making art, and so he paints a lot.
As they go about their lives they learn that they are all special children who are being prepared to become what are called "Phi-brains" kids with mental prowess that can solve even the hardest puzzles. Kaito, having the armlet is the most likely of the group to become one. They are then challenged by an organization that creates puzzles and is searching for something called the book of God, which can only be found by solving the puzzle of God. This organization is called Puzzle of God (POG) and is led by Kaito's best friend from long ago, Rook. The POG are made up of various "givers" which are the people who make the puzzles for the people who solve them "solvers" to solve. Usually each puzzle they make has some form of death based punishment should they fail to solve it. So Kaito and his friends must go out and solve the puzzles that the POG make in order to try and protect the world from the POG getting it's hands on the book of God, which is said to hold the ultimate secrets of life and the world. 
OK, so this show, despite how it may sound, "ooh people solving puzzles all day, sounds exciting, NOT!", actually is a really interesting anime. Even though it is mostly what they do, the puzzles are more exciting than you may think and it really was a series that kept my attention through all of the episodes. Like I said before, there is a second season that I have yet to watch and so I don't know if its as good as this one. The plot and premise for this show is like nothing I have ever seen before and quite honestly I was more intrigued than excited as I was starting out and the fact of the matter is is that this show is really really cool. The whole time, if they are solving a big puzzle or something, if you solve any sort of puzzles yourself, you almost want to try and solve it too and want to know how these guys are going to solve it. It keeps your attention and gives you something to think about and I love shows and movies like that.
The animation for this show is something else. Really, its different than other anime that I have seen before, and it works well for itself. The eyes are different and so are the hair, and those are the main differences, but also what they did with the lighting in the show also brings out some things in the show that probably would not be there if they used the type of animation that is in fairy tail for example. It just makes the show that much better and despite being new and different, it works.
Character development in this show is there, and while its not the main focus, the main characters do have their emotional growth through solving of puzzles and the relationship between Kaito and his friends as he advances mentally faster than they do, and how they react to this. There are some moments where they have to choose if they are going to stay with him or move on and do something else with their lives. Other times, its mainly focused on what is going on and so the character development stops. It almost goes by episode when it comes to whether or not there is going to be character development or not. The point is though that they do have it and they do it well in the episodes where there is more focus on it. This show is definitely a different show than I have seen before and while that sometimes can be something bad, in this instance it really was kind of cool. There is something about this show that just sets it in a different category than other shows based on genre. It really is not something that you can describe other than the generic ones that you can give it like comedy or adventure. I mean this show is basically "puzzle solving hardcore". It is pretty good and I will give it a solid 8.9 rating, having really good premise, animation that was new to me but worked well, and characters that grew through the series in a way that made it entertaining.
And that is my review of Phi-Brain: Kami no Puzzle I. I will be watching the second series some time in the future and you can expect more from me soon since I have an hour for a study period this semester and when I don't have homework I can review more :). So I will be back soon, have a nice day everybody.
Final Rating: 8.9
Premise: 9.0
Plot: 8.5
Animation: 9.0
Character Dev: 7.5
Total Episodes: 25
RWF: Japanese Dub w/ English Sub
MRS: www.nwanime.com
No comments:
Post a Comment