Phi Brain – Kami no Puzzle Final Episode

After a week break, the final battle begins with Rook and Kaito putting their lives on the line. Rook even makes the puzzle easier intentionally to almost force Kaito to kill him. Kaito desperately tries to find a way to keep Rook alive. He finally realizes the solution, enlisting the help of his friends to save Rook and himself. Rook’s armband then breaks and he returns to normal. The Divine Revelations are also burned in the process. In the aftermath, Rook parts ways with Kaito and plans to rebuild the POG.

Most of the stuff in this episode were pretty predictable, but it was the ending that they had to do. Gyamon’s still probably my favorite character…despite his little escapade. It looks like the second season will introduce a new enemy. Like I said before, I can’t see this enemy being as interesting as Rook was, but we’ll have to see. Hopefully, the second season isn’t too much of a disappointment. I look forward to watching it. It has been fun to blog this show, and I hope to continue doing so in the coming season. I think I might choose to review this whole show before watching the second season, but I haven’t decided yet.

Phi Brain – Kami no Puzzle Episode 24

That face is so scary.....

After Rook’s panic attack last week, the POG is in turmoil as footage of it was leaked. Later, Kaito gets a phone call from Rook and goes to meet him the next day. Strangely, Rook has reverted to a behavior similar to Kaito’s memory of him. The two spend the day together, ending with Rook reverting again and challenging Kaito. Rook also reveals that he has the Divine Revelations, as Pythagoras solved the Divine Puzzle with his battle against Jin. He threatens to unleash them on the world unless Kaito battles him.

In normal protagonist style, Kaito abandons his friends to go face Rook alone (this is MY FIGHT!!). However, it seems that even the POG will not allow this to happen, so his friends are naturally gonna be there to watch. Maybe he’ll even have an epiphany moment where he needs his friends to win or something. Anyways, the final battle is set up, so it should be interesting. I’m still curious about Rook’s background…it’s possible they touch on it next week, but maybe they count this week as enough. We’ll see. Also, I guess a second season would involve probably the principal taking over as head of POG or something and then maybe Kaito would be called to defend the Divine Revelations against some new foe. But like I said before, they can’t possibly have that engaging back story like Rook…wonder how they plan on doing all of this.

Phi Brain – Kami no Puzzle Episode 23

This week, Kaito is still clearly upset about the vision he saw last week. He goes to see Ana, who has been painting the scene that Kaito sees in his vision. After Ana cheers him up a bit, Kaito returns home to find an invitation to Gammon’s last puzzle, a deathmatch. Kaito desperately tries to hold back to avoid the vision where he destroys the world, but Rook gets him to activate his armband.

With Nonoha’s encouragement, Kaito activates a new power, destroying the armband and solving the puzzle, but saving Gammon. Rook starts to freak out from this, and Kaito realizes that the future has changed so that Rook destroys the world.

Okay…that was kinda cool. In the pinch moment, Kaito rejects the armband and saves his friend. Guess this means Gammon is back on the light side. Everything is set up for a final battle against Rook to end the series. I’m actually curious how this series ends. With the second season coming in the spring, I can’t imagine they would kill Rook. Maybe he would even become an ally against a new enemy. But what would that new enemy be? There’s no way they would have that complicated background like Rook and Kaito, right? I’d be annoyed if they just used Rook again. Or maybe it’s a time skip with Kaito’s kids or something. We’ll see, I guess.

Phi Brain – Kami no Puzzle Episode 22

As predicted, Jin’s condition is a result of his attempt to reach Phi Brain. Cubic shows Kaito the information that he and Jikukawa were able to access last week. Meanwhile, the principal tells Gammon that there are numerous Armbands of Orpheus, and that Pythagoras is trying to pit Rook and Kaito against each other to achieve Phi Brain.

When Jin saw the future like Kaito, he chose to abandon puzzles forever, only returning to help Kaito. Jin then starts to solve all of the Fools’ Puzzles until he inevitably faces off against Pythagoras. However, Cubic finds out that Pythagoras is actually dead, and that Rook has taken his place. Rook appears to confirm this and reveal that he is a Phi Brain. Kaito then realizes that the man from his vision of the future is actually himself.

Well, I was gonna predict that Pythagoras was actually dead, but I guess that’s been taken care of for me. Still, I wonder if his death has something to do with Rook’s behavior change. Like maybe Jin lost his mind in that battle and Pythagoras lost his body, with his mind being forced into Rook or something. Mere speculation, of course. Definitely some interesting background information this week. So many things finally make sense. Still, with the way they’re setting up the ending, I wonder how they’re planning the second season. Hopefully, they don’t screw up the first season to allow for a second season. I’m looking forward to a cool ending. Next week looks to be another face-off against Gammon. With only three episodes left, I can only assume he rejoins Kaito afterwards (or dies, but that’s pretty unlikely).

Phi Brain – Kami no Puzzle Episode 21

This week’s episode starts off with Cubic discovering that Kaito’s brain is starting to function faster than a human normally could, and begging him to stop solving puzzles. Kaito naturally refuses and leaves, running into a Giver on his way out. Cubic then tells Jikukawa that he has tried to hack the POG, but is unable to breach the last barrier and asks for Jikukawa’s help. By using more of his brain, Kaito is able to solve the puzzle in half the time, but he starts to lose it as his brain continues to block out information. Nonoha arrives, though, snapping him out of it.

Cubic mentions a possibility for Kaito to see the future this week, explaining the visions he’s been having. What’s going on with Rook’s eye? I guess he’s a Phi Brain like Kaito. And maybe Jin is too. Or maybe Jin’s brain was fried because he couldn’t handle it. Looks like we learn more about Jin next week. We’re getting pretty close to the end.

Phi Brain – Kami no Puzzle Episode 20

This week’s episode gets right into the action, starting with Kaito and Gammon in another face-off. Gammon tells Kaito his reasoning for joining the POG, to solve the Divine Puzzle himself. Kaito ends up almost losing after seeing a strange vision when he sees the winning move, but the match is stopped by Rook. Rook reveals to Bishop that the strange purple glow of the armband signals a subconscious activation, bringing Kaito closer to Phi Brain. Elena tries to turn Gammon back to the light, but it fails miserably. Kaito continues to have the vision of a desolate world with Jin telling him that the Divine Puzzle is the cause.

I have no idea why this show suddenly became a battle between Gammon and Kaito. I honestly saw no indications for it earlier. Anyway, part of me wants to say that the vision that Kaito was seeing is a trick of some sort, because it seems too easy for some vision to just give him the answers. I feel like visions are meant to be misinterpreted. Otherwise, they’re kind of boring. Not sure why the show suddenly feels different. It looks like next week will take a step back from the duel-style puzzles.

Phi Brain – Kami no Puzzle Episode 19

This week’s episode starts off with Nonoha finding Gammon’s sister, Sakanoue Miharu, with Kaito, as she is worried about her brother. Meanwhile, Gammon arrives at the POG HQ to become a Giver and ends up challenging the other Givers. He ends up changing the Givers’ puzzles before solving them with ease. Next up is Bishop, who gives him a racing bike sort of puzzle as a test.

Meanwhile, Elena tells Daimon and Nonoha that Gammon has gone to the POG, asking them to convince him to come back. Despite Bishop’s taunting, Gammon still defeats him. The episode ends with Gammon being accepted by Rook, and being told that he is able to solve the Divine Puzzle without the armband that Kaito has.

This puzzle's actually pretty easy to solve. Much easier than it looks.

Oh Elena. You’re so hopelessly tsundere for Gammon. Anyways, the show seems to be taking a more battle-oriented approach with these past few puzzles. I’m not sure if I really like that because the beauty of the puzzle is the battle between puzzle and solver. It’s almost like the giver becomes a second solver and two solvers battle it out with the puzzle as an intermediary.

But that’s besides the point. Gammon seems to be shaping up to be some sort of final hurdle for Kaito before he reaches Rook. Had a pretty crazy evil laugh. Something also seems to be up with Kaito’s armband after how he activated it against Gammon. I’m sure that will come up next week, which I assume is another battle between Gammon and Kaito.

Phi Brain – Kami no Puzzle Episode 18

Strangely enough, this week’s episode starts of with an introduction to Gammon’s sister, who points out that he’s really good at making puzzles as well as solving them. Back at school, everyone is avoiding Kaito other than Nonoha and Jikukawa takes on the role of the headmaster in his absence. Gammon meets with Nonoha and Kaito, asking Kaito to stay away from Nonoha to keep her safe.

When he refuses, Gammon challenges Kaito to solve one of his puzzles. Kaito activates his armband, but rather than ruthlessly killing Gammon by solving the puzzle, he stops himself and Gammon leaves. Gammon then resolves to become a POG Giver as the episode ends.

A nice episode. Gammon being a Giver came almost out of nowhere, but it was nice that they referenced the earlier episodes. The puzzle was definitely cool, but it was weird see that battle style of puzzle. Gammon sets himself up as an enemy and I almost wonder why. Maybe he has a plan or maybe Kaito will have to force him back. Something’s also got to happen to Nonoha soon…wonder what it will be.

Phi Brain – Kami no Puzzle Episode 17

So everyone returns to Japan to find that the principal has mysteriously disappeared. Kaito gets a message from the POG simply showing an image of the puzzle that killed his parents. He goes to the puzzle, and realizes that it was actually a Fools’ Puzzle. He is greeted by none other than the principal, who reveals that Kaito’s parents were actually POG Givers and not his real parents.

However, the principal decides to defy the POG and tell Kaito everything. He reveals that Kaito’s parents took on the Fools’ Puzzle in order to save Kaito, who was originally supposed to challenge it. Kaito refuses to believe him at first, but he shows him a video that proves that Kaito’s parents loved him. Kaito responds by activating the armband and solving the Fools’ Puzzle.

Interesting plot twist here. The show’s starting to reach the end, so I guess Kaito will soon mount an attack against the POG to rescue Jin and confront Rook. Rook once again drops his calm demeanor in this episode, somehow confused about the love that Kaito’s parents showed him. If we consider that “program” comment from that earlier episode, it’s looking more and more like he’s a puzzle-giving robot. Although, the whole “what is love” thing is kinda cliche, don’t you think? Next week looks like a lighter episode, with some sort of costume party.

Phi Brain – Kami no Puzzle Episode 16

So this week, everyone is about to head back to Japan, but Jikukawa stops them, saying the plane is trapped by the POG. They’re instead rerouted through Italy. However, this turns out to be the true trap, as Gyamon realizes when he confronts the Giver that impersonated Jikukawa.

Playing off Gyamon’s pride, Bishop gets Gyamon to take on the Exorcism Labyrinth, a forbidden puzzle. Meanwhile, the real Jikukawa challenges Rook to a chess game, with the condition that Rook will answer one of his questions if he wins. He ends up losing, though. Kaito shows up and uses Orpheus to solve the unsolvable puzzle.

Looks like Kaito forced the armband to activate this week and entered some weird state before Nonoha knocked him out of it. The chess game was a bit amusing…Jikukawa lost to such a simple opening trap. I’m not sure if that’s even possible.

It felt like this episode was meant to show the gap between Kaito and his friends widening even more. I find that pretty annoying that he’s becoming this sort of super-puzzle solver. It makes me wonder what the other characters are there for in the first place. Oh well, more to come.