Phi Brain: Puzzle of God

High school freshman Daimon Kaito is a genius when it comes to solving puzzles. One day he received a strange device along with an invitation from a person named Minotaur to solve a puzzle in a ruin. He was accompanied by friend Itou Nonoha who, although not as good with puzzles like Kaito, managed to help him in dangerous situations. At the center of the maze, Kaito found a bangle which helped him solve the problem within a short time. The bangle is known as Orpheus which glows whenever Kaito is forced to solve an impossible puzzle.

The group behind the life-threatening puzzles is known as POG. Kaito, now a Solver, teams up with fellow puzzle geniuses to solve POG's puzzles and find out the group's purpose in creating such problems. Unknown to Kaito, their high school Root Academy knows about these philosopher's puzzles and is connected to POG.

During his adventures, Kaito met new friends who were also good at solving puzzles. Sakanoue Gammon solved puzzles for money and is intent at competing with Kaito. Cubik Galois is an inventor and is good at mathematics, while Ana Gram is a talented painter.

There is more to the philosopher's puzzles however than just life-threatening situations. The organization seemed to have an unusual obsession on Kaito's potential as a Solver.

Daimon Kaito

Itou Nonoha and Kaito

Sakanoue Gammon and Kaito

Cubik Galois

Ana Gram

As a lover of puzzles, I expected Phi Brain would be about geniuses solving board and card games. Although the series showed some of those, most puzzles are environment puzzles similar to those levels you will find in platforming video games. Not that that is a bad thing. I just wish there were more scenes about strategy and technique. This 25-episode first installment however was about Kaito and his past, the introduction of the solvers and givers and the POG.

It was able to sustain its pace all throughout the series although it was more of an exploration about friendship and self-discovery instead of a story about competition. It wasn't just about toppling a mysterious organization.

I enjoyed most of it because it was light, fast-paced, and had elements of drama, suspense and some hint of romance. The suspense came from trying to discover what the POG's purposes are. There are also mysterious characters that sustained that excitement until the final episode. What surprised me are the number of fight scenes involved in solving puzzles, and perhaps that is why it never bored me.

The animation isn't its best feature and some character designs look funny.

If you like puzzles and you expect to see a lot of puzzles, you might be disappointed. Most of Kaito's challenges needed physical prowess to complete. If you'd like a change from the other action/adventure anime however, Phi Brain: Puzzle of God offers more than just a tournament-type series. Competing also involved strategy and genius.

Rating: 8.5 out of 10